Yang Kai slowly opened his eyes and stretched his numb body before looking down at his Little Senior Sister still wrapped in his arms. The two had maintained the same position all this time.
His Little Senior Sister’s mind was still immersed in her Knowledge Sea, digesting the Alchemy information Yang Kai had taught her.
Regarding the True Alchemic Way, Yang Kai had already told Xia Ning Chang everything he had managed to glean from the knowledge which was planted in his mind. If he wanted to teach her the rest, it would have to wait.
Staring fondly at the delicate veiled girl, Yang Kai leaned over and kissed her forehead gently before lightly placing her on her bed and standing up.
Opening the door as he rubbed his forehead, Yang Kai felt a burst of exhaustion.
Discussing the True Alchemic Way with Xia Ning Chang and lingering so long in her Knowledge Sea had consumed a massive amount of his Spiritual Energy.
Standing outside the door was a young, sweet looking maid who, upon seeing Yang Kai exit, rushed over with small steps while deftly holding a tray with a big steaming bowl on it.
“Young Master, you’ve finally come out.” The maidservant looked straight at him and said with a smile.
“Why are you here?” Yang Kai asked with a slightly furrowed brow.
“This is something Young Lady Qiu instructed this servant to do. She said that in order to restore your strength you’d need something hot to eat.”
Yang Kai couldn’t help but wonder why Qiu Yi Meng would suddenly act so considerately, hesitantly asking, “What is it?”
The girl’s face suddenly blushed faintly as she quietly whispered, “I don’t know exactly, Young Lady Qiu just said that it is good for one’s vitality and vigour…”
Yang Kai expression immediately became strained, Qiu Yi Meng doing this… What exactly did she want to say?
“Hehe, Young Master, please enjoy this slowly, I’ve reheated it for you several times.” The maid said, swiftly handing the tray over, which Yang Kai instinctively held, and before he could respond or say anything, the maid had already disappeared.
Looking at the vigour restoring soup in his hands, Yang Kai’s expression was complicated.
Suddenly, the door next door was flung open and a gloomy Meng Wu Ya came out and glared gloomily at Yang Kai with dissatisfaction.
Yang Kai grinned at him and drank the bowl of soup before casually greeting, “Treasurer Meng.”
Meng Wu Ya nodded gruffly before ushering him into his room.
After the two of them entered and sat down, Meng Wu Ya stared at Yang Kai for a while with questioning eyes, “Can you already use your Divine Sense? Or are you relying on some kind of artifact?”
The Divine Sense message Yang Kai had sent him prompted Treasurer Meng to notice some peculiarities, so this was naturally the first thing he asked about.
“It was indeed my own Divine Sense.” Yang Kai admitted frankly, he wanted to ask Meng Wu Ya for something related to this topic so he didn’t plan on hiding such basic information.
“How can that be?” Even someone as strong and experienced as Treasurer Meng couldn’t help looking shocked. Although he had speculated that Yang Kai may really have cultivated out his Divine Sense, when Yang Kai really admitted it, he still couldn’t believe it, “Little brat, can you tell me honestly what happened?”
“I don’t know exactly.” Yang Kai grinned sheepishly, “I encountered some opportunities and it somehow resulted in my being able to cultivate my Divine Sense.”
Meng Wu Ya couldn’t help narrowing his eyes at Yang Kai’s reluctance to reveal the details of his experience to him, but he didn’t press the issue. Everyone had their own secrets after all.
“However, your Divine Sense is a bit strange.”
“Strange how?” Yang Kai hurriedly asked.
“It’s too strong!” Meng Wu Ya said seriously, furrowing his brow as he continued, “It shouldn’t be so powerful. The intensity of your Divine Sense is already comparable to a Peak Immortal Ascension Boundary master, yet you’re still just a True Element Eighth Stage cultivator. If you were to break through to the Immortal Ascension Boundary, just how powerful will it become?”
“Regarding this, I wanted to consult you with Treasurer Meng about something,” Yang Kai also frowned, “Although I have use of my Divine Sense, I don’t have a Knowledge Sea.”
Hearing this, Meng Wu Ya couldn’t help but sneer, “Stupid brat, you still haven’t reached the Immortal Ascension Boundary, of course you don’t have a Knowledge Sea. Opening one’s Knowledge Sea is the defining symbol of the Immortal Ascension Boundary!”
“What about having a Divine Sense?”
Meng Wu Ya slowly shook his head, “No, breaking through to the Immortal Ascension Boundary isn’t necessarily a requirement for one to have use of their Divine Sense. According to this old master’s knowledge, there have been some rare cases like you and when they reached the Immortal Ascension Boundary, they naturally opened their Knowledge Seas.”
“There are others like me?” Yang Kai couldn’t hide his surprise. It was only because of the existence of the Soul Warming Lotus that he was able to coincidentally cultivate out his Divine Sense. What other method existed out there?
“En, though there aren’t many, this old master does know of at least one such a person.” Meng Wu Ya’s expression slowly became one of reminiscence, eventually shaking his head, “It was an incident from a long time ago, and it only lasted briefly. We cultivators start out primarily by condensing Yuan Qi in our dantian and meridians, but once we reach the Immortal Ascension Boundary, not only is it necessary to cultivate one’s True Qi, but it also becomes important to cultivate our Spiritual Energy and Divine Sense. Similar to True Qi, when one begins cultivating their Divine Sense they need a place to store it, and that place is one’s Knowledge Sea!”
“Without a Knowledge Sea to store it, even if one managed to cultivate out their Divine Sense, it would simply be like melting snow in the early spring, a brief candle in the wind, dissipating within a few days. That’s why this old master said that person’s situation was short-lived. However, your situation is very different. Your Divine Sense is extremely strong and stable, obviously you didn’t begin cultivating it a day or two ago.” Meng Wu Ya smiled and looked at Yang Kai deeply, “This old master doesn’t know what secrets you’re hiding, but I can say for sure that you’ve found some way to store your Divine Sense and not let it dissipate.”
Yang Kai nodded silently with more than a hint of admiration in his expression.
For a master at Meng Wu Ya’s level, it was indeed possible for him to deduce some truths of the matter just from what he had observed. He may not know about the existence of the Soul Warming Lotus, but his inference was absolutely not wrong.
Yang Kai indeed had a place to store his Divine Sense: the Five Coloured Soul Warming Lotus in his mind.
“Since you have use of your Divine Sense, can you use Soul Skills?” Meng Wu Ya stared at him with interest.
“Yes, but I can only use a single one.”
“One is enough. Soul Skills are like Martial Skills. Only the weak need many different methods to show off their power. Once you reach a certain height, there’s no need to stick to a particular Martial Skill or Soul Skill. One can only be considered strong when they can adapt to the situation and freely display their strength.” Meng Wu Ya’s tone was firm and decisive, giving people the impression that he had once stood at such a height. After a short pause, he chuckled and continued, “However, in your current situation, when you use your Soul Skill, do you feel that its power is lacking?”
“Precisely.” Yang Kai said solemnly. “This is also what I wanted to consult with you about!”
“Naturally it will seem somewhat weak. Your Divine Sense doesn’t reside in your Knowledge Sea but is stored somewhere else. When you try to use your Divine Sense in combat, it means that you must first mobilize it from that place and then active your Soul Skill, a process which results in a lot of waste. Fortunately, the solution is simple, all you need to do is open up your own Knowledge Sea and the problem will solve itself.”
Hearing this, Yang Kai let out a breath of relief. Although he had made a similar guess himself, but having someone confirm his theory was still a great comfort.
“Treasurer Meng, do you have a method for cultivating Spiritual Energy on hand?” Yang Kai asked with hopeful eyes. Right now, he cultivated his Divine Sense mainly by studying the True Alchemic Way, but without sufficient pills to supplement his Spiritual Energy, he still felt his progress was too slow.
If he had a set of Spiritual Energy cultivation techniques, the situation would be different, but such things were far too rare. Yang Kai knew that the Yang Family had a set, but that was not something he could get his hands on. Even the Yang Family Fourth Master wasn’t qualified to learn it.
On top of that, from what little he knew of it, this set of techniques didn’t have very strong effects.
If a cultivator wanted to supplement their Spiritual Energy, they almost always had to depend on rest or taking pills.
At this request, Meng Wu Ya scoffed, “It’s not like I don’t have such a technique, but cultivation isn’t something to be rushed, if you think there are any shortcuts then you’re sorely mista…”
“Please teach me!” Yang Kai smiled and interrupted his preaching.
Meng Wu Ya’s brow twitched as he helplessly stared at Yang Kai, eventually letting out a sigh, “Fine fine fine, even if this old master doesn’t teach you, knowing your personality, you’ll just go out and take even bigger risks.”
Saying so, Meng Wu Ya used a special method to transmit the technique to Yang Kai with his Divine Sense.
Receiving this information package, Yang Kai studied it thoroughly, his expression slowly becoming excited, “How much can this technique improve my recovery rate by?”
“Twenty percent.” Meng Wu Ya replied casually.
“So little…” Yang Kai was stunned, thinking that any technique Treasurer Meng passed him wouldn’t be too bad, but twenty percent was still a bit shabby.
Meng Wu Ya sneered, “Don’t be greedy, this Spiritual Energy cultivating technique is an ancient and priceless treasure. This old master knows that your Yang Family and all the other Eight Great Families have their own methods, but those pieces of trash are nothing compared to what this old master has just given you. Their techniques can only increase the restoration rate of one’s Spiritual Energy by ten percent!”
Yang Kai expression brightened upon hearing this. Apparently the amount of high-end information he had was too small, so he had underestimated the value of this technique.
If he remembered correctly, the Yang Family’s Spiritual Energy cultivation technique should be a Mysterious Grade Top-Rank Secret Art!
Mysterious Grade Top-Rank techniques already stood at the pinnacle of this world, yet it could still only provide a ten percent improvement. But if that were true, then this method which was twice as effective… just what grade was this technique?
Understanding all this, Yang Kai no longer dared despise this technique, turning his eyes towards Meng Wu Ya and staring curiously.
He found that the more he contacted Treasurer Meng, the more mysterious he became.
Above Mysterious Grade was Spirit Grade, then what was on top of that? Yang Kai was puzzled and wanted to ask, but after giving it some thought, he realized that he had yet to even reach the Immortal Ascension Boundary, knowing too much now would do him no good.
“If you want to study it, do it elsewhere, don’t stay in Ning Chang’s room for so long.” Meng Wu Ya ruthlessly spat.
“How long has it been?”
“Five days!”
Yang Kai was dumbstruck, when he was discussing the True Alchemic Way with his Little Senior Sister, time seemed to pass by so quickly, he didn’t even realize he had been with her for five whole days. No wonder Qiu Yi Meng had ordered the maids to provide him with something to supplement his vigour.
Staying in his Little Senior Sister’s room for five days was more than enough to make people misunderstand a lot.
However, over the past five days, something must have happened. If things had gone according as he had expected, at least one of his brothers should have been eliminated. Yang Kai leapt up and thanked Meng Wu Ya quickly before swiftly exiting his room and rushing towards the main hall.
Along the way, all the people in the house greeted Yang Kai with somewhat awkward smiles. Especially the four girls from Ten Thousand Flower Palace, each of them looked at Yang Kai with a certain unspoken criticism in their eyes.
Even Lan Chu Die smiled ambiguously towards him.
Yang Kai, however, maintained his appearance, too lazy to explain anything. In any case, the more he tried to explain the worse things would get.
“Young Lord Kai, these past few days you’ve worked hard, are you sure you don’t need to rest for a while?” Huo Xing Chen appeared from somewhere and said with a big fat grin on his face, “So, how was it?”
“What do you mean?” Yang Kai replied blankly.
“Heh heh, you don’t need to pretend with me.” Young Lord Huo said as he licked his lips, a loose smile appearing on his face, “A single man and woman sharing a room for five days straight. Don’t tell me nothing happened?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Yang Kai shook his head and pretended to be stupid.
“Forget it, I understand, but I have to say, this Young Lord really admires you now. Although I’ve encountered countless women, I’ve never gone at it for five days straight; it seems in such respects you’re better than me! One day, you must tell me your secret.” Huo Xing Chen said with full sincerity.
“Enough nonsense!” Yang Kai spat disdainfully.
“Oh, what are you talking about?” Qiu Yi Meng said as she walked over. After seeing Yang Kai, she couldn’t help letting out a bitter sigh, lightly chastising, “As one of the Young Lords who is participating in the Inheritance War, Yang Kai, I hope that you can pay attention to the overall situation. Gentle homes are the tombs of heroes, on this point you should be clearer than me.”
Yang Kai’s brow wrinkled as he shot back, “I naturally understand, no need to remind me.”
Qiu Yi Meng opened her mouth to continue but eventually swallowed the next sentence. She had already figured out Yang Kai’s temper and naturally would not blame him for refuting her here. This time, he had at least acknowledged her concerns. If she were to persist, this stinky man would likely get angry and become objectionable instead.
“Greetings Young Lord Kai!” From beside Qiu Yi Meng a delicate looking young man with handsome features suddenly called out. After offering such a polite greeting, he also stepped forward and cupped his fists formally, his performance quite modest and respectful.
“This is…” Yang Kai looked at him suspiciously, this young man who had just greeted didn’t seem familiar.
“This is Young Master Liu Fei Sheng, the Young City Lord of Tian Yuan City I mentioned to you previously.” Qiu Yi Meng explained.
Liu Fei Sheng smiled mildly and displayed a modest attitude as he said, “To be given an opportunity to serve Young Lord Kai, Tian Yuan City is extremely grateful.”
Yang Kai looked at him and nodded faintly, “Is there any relationship between you and the Central Capital’s Liu Family?”
“We don’t dare to claim so.” Liu Fei Sheng smiled wryly.
Qiu Yi Meng quickly followed up, “It’s correct to say that there isn’t much relationship between them, but they are still related. For hundreds of years the Eight Great Families have more or less interacted with innumerable external forces, and Young Lord Liu’s family should be one of the Liu Family’s branches; however, for some reason they were expelled by the Liu Family a few hundred years ago. If one was being particular, Liu Qing Yao should be his cousin.”
Liu Fei Sheng’s expression immediately became depressed as his posture slumped slightly, “My clan doesn’t dare claim kinship with the Liu Family. These past few hundred years we have been struggling hard with the ultimate goal of returning to the family. But even now, after my father had become a City Lord, we have yet to be accepted.”
Huo Xing Chen stroked his chin and nodded with a smile, “If you follow Young Lord Kai here, you’ll have a chance. If you can help him win this Inheritance War, I think the Liu Family would be willing to take you back.”
Hearing this, Liu Fei Sheng’s face couldn’t help showing a touch of excitement, cupping his fists as he said, “Then I’ll be taking advantage of Young Lord Huo’s auspicious words. My Tian Yuan City will definitely spare no effort in supporting Young Lord Kai!”
Yang Kai nodded slightly, not saying anything more on the subject, just turning to Qiu Yi Meng and asking, “Has my Eighth Brother been eliminated yet?”
Qiu Yi Meng looked back at him with admiration and giggled, “You already knew?”
“Naturally, if the people from Medicine King’s Valley hadn’t appeared, maybe my brother could continue struggling for a while longer, but the arrival of this group of Alchemists has definitely made my brothers feel a sense of crisis. At this time, if they don’t achieve some victories, I’m afraid that no one would dare support them openly.”
“En, it’s as you said, Yang Quan is out.”
“When did it happen?”
“The night before!”
Qiu Yi Meng proceeded to explain the details.
The emergence of more than thirty Alchemists from Medicine King’s Valley really had made the other Yang Family Young Lords panic. They urgently needed to score a victory in order to boost their reputations. On the other hand, they also wanted to curb the propaganda these Medicine King’s Valley people would bring to Yang Kai.
The night before, Yang Zhao, Yang Kang, Yang Shen, and Yang Ying all invariably pointed their attention to Yang Quan.
Yang Quan only had one Immortal Ascension Boundary Eighth Stage Blood Warrior protecting him; in addition, Yang Quan’s mother’s family, his only real ally, was just a second-class force.
In such an absolute inferior position, obviously he couldn’t endure.
After the fight, Yang Zhao obtained the flag while Yang Shen managed to capture Yang Quan. So now, two of the Yang Family Young Lords had been eliminated from the Inheritance War.
“The fight that night was quite interesting,” Qiu Yi Meng grinned, “It wasn’t so much about your brothers attacking Yang Quan as it was about them fighting each other. All of your Eighth Brother’s defenses were swept away in the first wave of attacks with the exception of the Blood Warrior who was protecting Yang Quan himself. Everyone else had basically lost any ability to resist, the situation could almost be described as a rout.”
“After that, your four brothers divided into two camps to attack one another and all of them suffered some losses. Yang Zhao and Yang Kang are blood related brothers while Yang Shen and Yang Ying are also blood related, needless to say they divided along family lines.” Pausing here, Qiu Yi Meng stared at Yang Kai meaningfully before continuing, “However, can you guess who benefited the most from this battle?”
Huo Xing Chen also had a sly grin on his face as he waited for Yang Kai’s reply, it seemed like he thought there was no way he could answer this to this question correctly.
To his disappointment though, Yang Kai simply sneered and casually replied, “My Second Brother harvested the flag while my Sixth Brother grabbed the person, but these gains can only be equal to the losses they suffered in the battle. What they really harvested was only the prestige brought about by gaining a victory. If you want to know who actually gained the most, besides me… who else could it be?”
The sly smiles on Qiu Yi Meng and Huo Xing Chen’s faces gradually converged as they stared at Yang Kai in shock and awe, obviously he had long ago been aware of what had transpired.
Liu Fei Sheng who was standing nearby was also shocked, suddenly feeling a bit of fear in his heart. Although he had already done his best to overestimate Yang Kai’s abilities, it seemed reality had still exceeded his expectations.
“Did you already know?” Qiu Yi Meng asked hesitantly, “How did you know?”
“You tell me.” Yang Kai smiled slightly.
Qiu Yi Meng suddenly understood, remembering back to a few days ago when Yang Kai had rejected her suggestion to attack Yang Quan. He had certainly said he had another reason for his decision other than not wanting to stand out. At the time, he didn’t want to say because it would make him sound too arrogant and simply told them that after a few days they would understand.
It turns out that even back then he had already predicted this outcome.
“If I didn’t know that you had stayed inside the house for five days, I would swear someone had told you this in advance.” Qiu Yi Meng took a deep breath and smiled bitterly, “You… you really make people exhausted. You’re right, the one with the biggest gains from this incident is still you. Although you didn’t get the flag, didn’t get the person, and even though you didn’t even participate in the battle, you still gained a Blood Warrior!”
“The Blood Warrior who was protecting Yang Quan came here to offer his services immediately after Yang Quan’s exit!” Qiu Yi Meng quickly said, “The strength of this Blood Warrior is not worse than Tu Feng and Tang Yu Xian.”
“Are they injured? Where is he now?” Yang Kai asked quickly.
The Blood Warriors were a group of incomparably loyal guardians. Yang Quan had already just been eliminated, so the Blood Warrior who was sworn to protect him couldn’t possibly be uninjured. Right now, he was probably incapable of fighting at all.
“He has severe injuries and is currently recuperating. There’s no way for him to display his full power within a month or two, but with your magical means of curing people that shouldn’t matter, right?” Qiu Yi Meng snorted, although she didn’t know just what kind of precious elixir Yang Kai had given Qu Gao Yi and Ying Jiu, it was still a fact that it had allowed them to fully recover in only one day.
Even after Qu Gao Yi was seriously injured on the first night of the Inheritance War, the next day he had once again emerged from his room as strong and lively as a dragon.
The only thing that confused her was even if Yang Kai had such miraculous recovery medicines, shouldn’t they be extremely precious? How could he seemingly use them so unscrupulously?
“Good, I’ll go see him now.” Yang Kai nodded gently.
“Can you tell me why?”
“Why what?”
“Why that Blood Warrior didn’t choose to serve your brothers but instead came straight to you? Why you judged ten days ago that after Yang Quan lost, that Blood Warrior would offer his services only to you? It’s impossible there’s no reason at all, so why?” Qiu Yi Meng asked one question after another; obviously she had many doubts in her heart.
The events that had transpired between Yang Kai and the Blood Warrior Hall had only spread amongst the leadership of the Yang Family and the various Young Lords. Outsiders, including Qiu Yi Meng, were certainly not aware of the situation.
How could she have known that because Yang Kai had taken the great risk of choosing to use the heavily wounded Qu Gao Yi and Ying Jiu, he had gained the respect of the entire Blood Warrior Hall?
Every member of the Blood Warrior Hall placed loyalty and respect above all else, so after the Young Lords they followed were eliminated, who else would they choose to serve other than Yang Kai?
“No comment,” Yang Kai grinned, “But I can tell you that from now on, all the Blood Warriors who are released from their charge will come to me.”
The confidence in his tone bordered on arrogance.
Qiu Yi Meng couldn’t help imagining the scene where after the defeated Young Lords left, one Blood Warrior after another gathered in Yang Kai House, bolstering her confidence even further.
This was something that had never happened before. None of the previous generations of Yang Family children had ever garnered such reverence from the Blood Warriors.
If things really developed like Yang Kai said, it would be akin to a miracle. In time to come, with so many Blood Warriors siding with him, how could Yang Kai possibly lose? Such a situation would be no different from being invincible; any remaining enemies would only be able to pray that Yang Kai wouldn’t attack them.
“I suddenly have some sympathy for your brothers, this isn’t even a fair fight anymore.” Qiu Yi Meng smiled wryly.
“The Inheritance War was never fair! If this was a fair competition, how could Yang Tie and Yang Quan be forced to exit so early?”
The Inheritance War was not just about personal strength, it was also a measure of a Young Lord’s contacts and heritage. During the war, some Young Lords would inevitably be able to gather less support, while others would be able to gather more.
Even when it came to the participation of the Yang Family Blood Warriors, there was no such concept as fairness.
The Inheritance War itself was governed by the law of the jungle!
“There’s one other thing you should know.” Qiu Yi Meng hesitated and frowned, some worry apparent between her brows. Clearly she was disgruntled about this topic.
“Go on.”
“It’s about those Alchemists from Medicine King’s Valley. Yang Zhao, along with several of your other brothers, have jointly protested to the Yang Family Elder Hall and requested that they cancel their right to participate, especially Qin Ze.”
“Naive!” Yang Kai’s expression remained indifferent; not concerned in the slightest.
Qiu Yi Meng grinned slightly, “Although I think that in terms of the intention of your Yang Family’s Inheritance War, your Elder Hall won’t risk offending Medicine King’s Valley to support Yang Zhao and your brothers, but we should discuss this matter. If you were a member of your family’s Elder Hall, would you accept your brother’s petition?”
“Impossible,” Yang Kai shook his head decisively, “The Inheritance War is a test of one’s connections. My being able to forge a good relationship with Medicine King’s Valley is something the Elder Hall would deeply desire, how could they interfere?”
“What you say makes sense, but given Yang Zhao’s personality, he shouldn’t have made such a fuss if he knew it would only be in vain, he definitely has other intentions. In any case, you should pay some attention to this matter.”
“Other intentions…” Yang Kai wrinkled his brow and pondered for a moment before nodding slightly.
“Good. Those are the only major events you missed these past few days. The only other issue is that Qin Ze and his people have been clamoring for Alchemy materials, so…”
“Is the Pill Room ready?”
“It has already been set up and all the required equipment for Alchemy has been placed inside, but those Alchemists from Medicine King’s Valley all have their own pill stoves so those tools probably won’t be used.”
Yang Kai nodded in approval, “Good, then I’ll deliver the materials to them myself, you can see to your own tasks.”
Qiu Yi Meng smiled before walking off. Liu Fei Sheng also cupped his fists before quickly following after Qiu Yi Meng.
“Young Lord Kai, that Tian Yuan City Young City Lord seems to have some intentions towards Qiu Yi Meng. Since coming here, he has done nothing but follow her around,” Huo Xing Chen grinned meaningfully. “Do you have any thoughts on this matter?”
“If any random Young Lord could conquer her, she wouldn’t be Qiu Yi Meng.” Yang Kai shook his head faintly, “Why do you mention this?”
“I don’t know why, but for some reason I don’t like that Liu Fei Sheng!” Huo Xing Chen spat disdainfully, “That little brat is more handsome than this Young Lord! There’s simply no justice in this world! Well, whatever. I’m going to go cultivate now so don’t let me bother you.”
Listening to these words, Yang Kai glanced at Huo Xing Chen’s receding back blankly, wondering when this dandy Young Lord had suddenly become so diligent.
Yang Kai thought that during his time here, Huo Xing Chen had probably begun to feel a sense of pressure. The people who had come to support him were all leaders of the younger generation of their respective forces, and all of their aptitudes were excellent. Huo Xing Chen, as the sole heir to one of the Eight Great Families, definitely wasn’t willing to appear worse than these others and it was precisely because of this reason that he had reigned in his previous debauchery.
Walking over to the Pill Room, Yang Kai went inside and took out all the Alchemy materials he had stored up so far.
When Qin Ze and the other Alchemists saw this pile of Alchemy materials, all of them smiled happily and rolled up their sleeves.
“Senior Brother Qin, I’ll have to entrust this hard work to you.”
“Nonsense,” Qin Ze smiled, “Being able to study the Alchemic Way from Master Aunt Xia, how could it possibly be hard?”
Xia Ning Chang was now a top level Alchemist comparable to Xiao Fu Sheng himself. Qin Ze and his fellow disciples almost never had the chance to speak with Xiao Fu Sheng much less watch him perform Alchemy. Now that they were given an opportunity to work with Xia Ning Chang, no matter how many pills they were asked to refine they would only be excited and anxious to do so.
“Little Senior Sister will need a day or two to of meditation to study some new knowledge she has just recently acquired. So for now, you should just familiarize yourselves with this place.” Yang Kai said with a slightly strange expression. The names they referred to each other by were all messed up; Qin Ze called Xia Ning Chang Master Aunt while Yang Kai called Qin Ze Senior Brother. The generational confusion was quite serious.
“Junior Brother Yang doesn’t need to concern himself with us, just go about your own business.” Qin Ze said carelessly, turning around and joining the rest of the Medicine King’s Valley Alchemists as they began examining the pile of Alchemy materials.
After that, no one paid any attention to Yang Kai.
With a helpless chuckle, Yang Kai simply turned around and left.
Just as Yang Kai predicted, Xia Ning Chang really exited her room two days later after she had completely digested the information he had taught her from the True Alchemic Way and was eager to put what she had learned into practice.
Inside the mansion, countless pairs of eyes monitored the movements from the Pill Room. In Yang Kai’s compound, besides the group from Medicine King’s Valley, there were a total of eleven forces gathered. These people had all come to support Yang Kai in the Inheritance War, so Yang Kai naturally had a responsibility and obligation to provide them with supplies and arms to enhance their strength in order to cope with the increasingly fierce battles to come.
Now that the Pill Room was up and running, auxiliary pills to help them cultivate would definitely become available; therefore, everyone, regardless of which force they belonged to, was looking forward to what kind of pills would come out in the first batch, what use they would have, and how many each of them could receive.
The atmosphere in Yang Kai’s house was calm, and all of War City was calm. After two Yang Family Young Lords were swiftly eliminated, the Inheritance War seemed to have entered a lull period.
Every Young Lord was actively recruiting more support and Alchemists and Artifact Refiners were constantly in short supply. There were also fewer and fewer materials circulating throughout the Great Han Dynasty and what was available was becoming more and more expensive, this situation had even spread to the Central Capital.
Pang Chi and Mu Nan Dou of the Bamboo Knot Gang had also gathered a lot of materials during this time and had managed to quietly smuggle them over to Yang Kai’s compound in the dark of night undetected.
However, such good luck would only occur once. The next time they entered War City, they would very likely be intercepted.
Yang Kai had also exchanged Yang Tie’s flag for a large amount of supplies from the main family and placed all of them into the Pill Room.
Even with things proceeding so smoothly though, Yang Kai was still anxious. Another group of people who he thought would be of great help to him had, until now, still not shown up, so he couldn’t help worrying that something had come up to either delay or stop them.
Finally, half a month later, the first batch of pills from the Pill Room was finished!
The various representatives from the different gathered forces assembled in the main hall, all of them looking forward to Yang Kai’s announcement.
With the exception of the Duan Mu Family, everyone else in the room was either a handsome young man or a beautiful young woman, creating a somewhat dazzling picture.
This was a stage for young people!
“Young Lord Kai, does my Huo Family have a share this time?” Huo Xing Chen asked with a chuckle, “If there isn’t enough, then you can let others use them first, my Huo Family people aren’t in a hurry to receive pills!”
“Are you sure you’re alright with that?” Qiu Yi Meng looked at Huo Xing Chen and smiled meaningfully.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Huo Xing Chen said casually. “Qiu Yi Meng, you shouldn’t look down on this Huo Xing Chen. My Huo Family is also one of the Eight Great Families, what pill can I not obtain? I just can’t get things as easily from my Father right now is all.”
“My Dong Family is willing to stand by this round if need be as well, everyone else has come from afar, you can give priority to them.” Dong Qing Han also said graciously. He and Huo Xing Chen both figured that with only half a month having passed since the Pill Room had begun operating, even if these Alchemists were from Medicine King’s Valley and the supply of materials was sufficient, there probably weren’t many finished pills, at least there certainly wouldn’t be enough for so many people.
The Dong Family was Yang Kai’s mother’s family. Yang Kai wouldn’t neglect them no matter what, so drinking this round of fresh soup didn’t matter so much.
As soon as Dong Qing Han spoke, a chorus of other humble declarations rang out. All the young leaders clamoured to say they were willing to give priority to others.
Such a harmonious atmosphere spontaneously appearing brought a warm smile to Qiu Yi Meng’s face.
After so many days getting along with each other, she had deeply understood that these young leaders gathered in Yang Kai’s House weren’t like typical Young Lords and Young Ladies from great forces. They all did their best to cooperate and get along with each other, and even if there was some occasional friction between their juniors, they would voluntarily step forward to mediate the situation; obviously, they wanted to minimize Yang Kai’s troubles.
These small details were enough to illustrate just how much weight Yang Kai held with these people! If they didn’t have heartfelt respect for Yang Kai, given all of their individual statuses, they would never have acted to modestly.
All of this was because Yang Kai was here.
“Everyone, settle down.” Qiu Yi Meng smiled and said, “Do you think that if there wasn’t enough for everyone, Yang Kai would ask all of you to gather? It is precisely because everyone has a share that we’ll be distributing pills today.”
When they heard this, everyone couldn’t help showing looks of wonder.
Xiang Tian Xiao nodded slightly, commenting, “Sure enough, Alchemists from Medicine King’s Valley are different, their Alchemy’s speed is extraordinary.”
Zuo Fang laughed loudly, “Even this Zuo is able to use the pills refined by Medicine King’s Valley’s disciples, this really is a great blessing bestowed by Brother Yang.”
The entire hall smiled and suddenly felt that it was a very wise choice to come support Yang Kai. No matter what else happened, as long as there was a steady supply of such pills from now on, all of their strengths would steadily improve.
Yang Kai grinned wryly but didn’t say anything.
This first batch of pills didn’t come from the hands of Medicine King’s Valley, but was entirely refined by Xia Ning Chang. The Medicine King’s Valley Alchemists were still studying the Alchemic Way from Xia Ning Chang and he estimated that it would still be a few days before they really started refining pills.
It wasn’t that their Alchemy aptitudes wasn’t good, it was just that the height Xia Ning Chang was too high. Even if they were learning directly from her, it would still take them a considerable amount of time and experience to comprehend her methods.
“Qiu Yi Meng, distribute the pills.” Yang Kai authoritatively said.
With a clap of her hands, Qiu Yi Meng summoned a group of people from her Autumn Rain Hall in. Each of these people was carrying a small tray with two bottles of pills on them.
“Two bottles per force. So many?” Huo Xing Chen stared at these bottles in surprise, he had thought that in such a short period of time, if each force could have a single bottle, it would already be good, but the result was actually twice as high as he expected.
However… with such a large number of pills, it probably meant that the grade of each one wasn’t high.
[Right, these should be Heaven Grade pills.] Young Lord Huo secretly speculated.
After everyone received their two bottles of pills, they smiled even more happily. Although they all thought these were Heaven Grade pills, they didn’t have any dissatisfaction.
Heaven Grade pills were by no means low quality, especially considering they needed to be supplied to so many people.
“These two bottles contain Consolidating Essence Pills used for cultivation,” Qiu Yi Meng smiled and added, “Mysterious Grade Low-Rank Consolidating Essence Pills!”
The lively sounds in the hall suddenly fell silent. Everyone still had a smile on their face, but everyone was now staring at Qiu Yi Meng and Yang Kai oddly, a trace of suspicion in their expressions, wondering if either they had heard wrong or Qiu Yi Meng had misspoken.
“Young Lady Qiu can actually make such a joke.” Huo Xing Chen suddenly laughed.
Everyone in the hall was surprised, thinking that even Qiu Yi Meng actually had such a side to her.
However, this joke wasn’t very funny, and no on aside from Huo Xing Chen laughed. All of them were afraid of embarrassing Qiu Yi Meng so they all decided to act modest.
Qiu Yi Meng stared out at the crowd indifferently, her beautiful pair of eyes casually sweeping over everyone’s faces, no making any attempt to refute the quiet chatter, only asking after a long silence, “Funny, right?”
Only a light, awkward cough sounded, everyone adjusting their expressions as they unconsciously straightened themselves up.
“Maybe you think I was joking, but what I said is true. These Consolidating Essence Pills are all Mysterious Grade Low-Rank. The pills are in your hands now, if you don’t believe me you can open the bottles and see for yourselves,” Qiu Yi Meng said succinctly.
“How could this be?” Huo Xing Chen obviously didn’t believe her, shaking his head as he continued, “The Consolidating Essence Pill is a Heaven Grade Top-Rank Pill. I’ve taken many before, so of that I’m certain. How could it suddenly become Mysterious Grade?”
Although Mysterious Grade Low-Rank and Heaven Grade Top-Rank were only separated by a single rank, the value of the two was far apart. Pills below Mysterious Grade were just ordinary pills, but any Mysterious Grade pill could already be called a treasure.
Every Mysterious Grade pill was not easy to obtain, not only was it difficult to collect the required materials, it would also take a lot of effort and time for even the best Alchemists to refine.
Since the Medicine King’s Valley group had arrived it had only been half a month, and all of these Alchemists had publicly made their Grade known.
If this group of Alchemists had refined this many Heaven Grade Top-Rank pills in such a short period of time it would be more than enough for everyone to admire.
However, Qiu Yi Meng just told them that these Consolidating Essence Pills were all Mysterious Grade, obviously everyone had a difficult time believing her. Forget about there not being enough Alchemists here to refine so many Mysterious Grade pills so quickly, it was impossible for Consolidating Essence Pills to be Mysterious Grade in the first place.
After saying so, Huo Xing Chen still opened one of his pill bottles and poured out a single grain. As he did so though, the scornful look on his face suddenly changed as he gazed at the pill in his palm.
The look spread across everyone’s face when they poured out their pills, cries of shock and surprise immediately bursting out.
“All of you have not low positions in your respective Sects, so you must have taken Consolidating Essence Pills before, Naturally, you can understand the quality of the pills in your hands right now.” Qiu Yi Meng smiled slightly, not saying any more.
Earlier this morning, when she saw this batch of Consolidating Essence Pills, her reaction was the same as Huo Xing Chen’s, thinking that Yang Kai was joking with her, but after verifying it with her own eyes, Qiu Yi Meng had no choice but to admit that these were indeed a batch of Mysterious Grade Low-Rank Consolidating Essence Pill!
“How is this possible?” Huo Xing Chen muttered in a dumbfounded voice. The mere existence of these Mysterious Grade Consolidating Essence Pills exceeded his realm of understanding.
Still in the midst of shock, the Huo Family’s Young Lord dumped out all the pills in this bottle and began checking them one by one, quickly discovering that this was indeed a full batch of Mysterious Grade pills.
“How could this be?” Huo Xing Chen muttered for the third time, a great sense of confusion washing over him as he began to question if he was still asleep and currently dreaming.
“Ah! Look! This pill has a pattern of lines above it like meridians!” Someone suddenly screamed, as if they had just discovered something extraordinary.
“Pill Veins!”
“Heavens! I also have a few pills with Pill Veins!”
“Me too! There are four of them! Hahaha… I’d only heard of rumors about Pills having Pill Veins; I never dreamed I would one day actually see one!”
On top of that, these Pill Veins had appeared on Mysterious Grade pills, and there wasn’t just one or two in the entire batch, between twenty and thirty percent of all the pills had Pill Veins.
Everyone was shocked, their faces still showing signs of disbelief but that did nothing to diminish their obvious excitement.
When an Alchemist refined a pill, if their skill was high enough, there was a chance that when the pill formed lines like human meridians would appear, these were Pill Veins.
Once a pill with Pill Veins appeared, its value would immediately double! Because of the existence of these Pill Veins, the effect of such a pill would be much stronger than an equivalent pill without such meridians, and no matter how long it was placed in storage, its potency would never fade. Even if a great amount of time passed, the Pill Veins would actively absorb World Energy in order to nourish and maintain the pill’s efficacy.
Above Pill Veins there was also the Pill Cloud! This was when a wispy cloud appeared atop a successfully refined pill and it was said that its effects were even stronger than Pill Veins.
However, all of this was the stuff of rumours and legends. Although the people gathered here didn’t have low status, even they could rarely witness pills with Pill Veins. It wasn’t that their respective Sects lacked money to purchase such pills, but that ordinary Alchemists rarely, if ever, managed to refine these things.
Even Alchemy obsessed Alchemists would only occasionally refine a pill with Pill Veins, and even then it was just a chance coincidence.
Also, the higher the grade of pill, the smaller the chance that Pill Veins would appear!
The appearance of Pill Veins was a symbol of a top level Alchemist, it was synonymous with the very best pills!
But now, at least twenty percent of the Mysterious Grade pills in everyone’s hands had Pill Veins! This ratio was nothing short of terrifying.
These Pill Vein pills were more astonishing than any treasure.
Everyone in the hall couldn’t help shouting and laughing joyfully.
The Tian Yuan City Young City Lord Liu Fei Sheng was even more excited. Holding the two bottles of Mysterious Grade pills in his hand, his face flushed and his breath became hot.
In his heart, he secretly thought to himself that coming here to support Young Lord Kai was the best decision he had ever made. Even before any big fights had erupted, each force here had been granted two bottles of Mysterious Grade pills. Over the course of the long campaign to come, what need was there to worry about not receiving such benefits?
Even the four girls from Ten Thousand Flower Palace were giggling happily at this moment, only Han Xiao Qi managed to contain herself slightly. Although she too was excited, she still maintained the proper poise of a Big Senior Sister, but this didn’t stop her from glancing towards Yang Kai and smiling gratefully.
As for Ye Han, her personality was lively to begin with. As she checked each individual pill, every time she came across one with Pill Veins she would call out loudly, leading her Senior Sisters to secretly scold her about showing proper etiquette.
“Senior Qin is too amazing. Medicine King’s Valley is simply on a different level!” After recovering slightly from his initial excitement, Chu Jing Shan of Soaring Feather Pavilion couldn’t help praising lavishly.
“Indeed, Senior Qin having such skill now, I’m afraid he can already stand shoulder to shoulder with Grandmaster Xiao!” Feng Qian Hen of Water Moon Hall added on.
Huo Xing Chen on the other hand had his brow furrowed, carefully grasping the bottle of Mysterious Grade Pills in his hand as he stared straight towards Yang Kai.
Different from those who came from first-class forces, Huo Xing Chen wasn’t as uninformed, the things that he had encountered and seen before were undoubtedly of a higher level than them. The Huo Family also had a Mysterious Grade Alchemist, more than one in fact, but according to what Huo Xing Chen knew, even those Alchemists couldn’t refine so many Mysterious Grade pills in such a short period of time. As for refining this many pills with Pill Veins, even if they were given another ten years they wouldn’t be able to accomplish such a feat!
Even if Qin Ze was the Young Valley Lord of Medicine King’s Valley, he was still only a recently promoted Mysterious Grade Low-Rank Alchemist, could he really be the source of these pills?
As Qiu Yi Meng’s gaze swept over the hall, her eyes met with Huo Xing Chen’s and the two young youths from super families shared a glance, each noticing the doubts in the other’s eyes.
This whole thing was extremely strange.
But in the end, having obtained these Mysterious Grade pills, naturally everyone was in a hurry to cultivate. With such a batch of pills available, improving their strength would only be a matter of time.
Everyone in the hall quickly offered some words of thanks before saying goodbye and returning to their own courtyard to enter retreat. Even Huo Xing Chen couldn’t wait to go back and try the effects of these pills.
After everyone else had left, Qiu Yi Meng looked at Yang Kai with a meaningful smile and asked, “So, would you like to tell me, who refined these pills?”
“Don’t bother asking, I won’t tell you.” Yang Kai faintly shook his head. This matter was related to his Little Senior Sister, Yang Kai obviously wouldn’t tell anyone.
Moreover, with the exception of the Medicine King’s Valley Alchemists and Yang Kai, everyone else was strictly forbidden from entering the Pill Room. Even Qiu Yi Meng didn’t dare enter this place lest she disturb the Alchemists inside, so she really wasn’t clear about the source of this batch of pills.
Rolling her eyes though, Qiu Yi Meng muttered, “Even if you don’t tell me, I know. These pills were refined by your Little Senior Sister weren’t they?”
The Qiu Family’s First Young Lady was extremely intelligent and observant. She had quickly judged that Qin Ze didn’t possess such great skill and in addition to Yang Kai and the Medicine King’s Valley disciples, only Xia Ning Chang had gone in and out of the Pill Room. Given this many clues, it was easy for her to infer some things.
“Don’t speak irresponsibly, be careful I don’t kill you to silence the witness.” Yang Kai glanced at her, his gaze filled with a meaning of warning.
Qiu Yi Meng’s beautiful face paled slightly, filling with a stunned expression. Just now, she had only made a wild guess, but given Yang Kai’s intense reaction, this batch of pill really seemed to have stemmed from his Little Senior Sister!
Not concerning herself with Yang Kai’s warning, Qiu Yi Meng’s look became dignified, realizing now that Xia Ning Chang was far more than just Yang Kai’s woman.
But with the exception of her veil which caused people to take notice of her, there didn’t seem to be anything especially noteworthy about this young woman. Although her strength was quite high for her age, at least Immortal Ascension Boundary First Stage, could she really have refined all of these pills herself?
Shaking her head as a wry smile appeared on her face, Qiu Yi Meng immediately dismissed this inconceivable notion.
By the time she came to her senses and looked around, Yang Kai had already disappeared.
“One day, one day I’ll dig up all your secrets!” Qiu Yi Meng muttered, secretly feeling some slight concern.
Yang Kai’s various mysteries had already made her pay special attention to him, and now even the woman around him seemed to hide some incredible secrets. Naturally, this piqued Qiu Yi Meng’s curiosity.
Meanwhile, Yang Kai strolled over to his Little Senior Sister’s room. Over this past half month, Xia Ning Chang had almost constantly been performing Alchemy and hadn’t had much rest, let alone had time to speak with him.
Opening the door and stepping inside, Yang Kai’s expression suddenly turned strange.
Inside there was not only Xia Ning Chang, but also Lan Chu Die. The two young women seemed to be chatting about something, gentle smiles upon their faces.
After noticing Yang Kai come in, two pairs of eyes immediately glanced over at him.
“Two Senior Sisters seem to be in a good mood. What are you talking about?” Yang Kai didn’t stand on ceremony and simply walked in.
Xia Ning Chang and Lan Chu Die exchanged a glance before grinning.
“Womanly affairs, there’s no need for you to know.” Lan Chu Die glanced at Yang Kai and said.
“There’s no outsiders here, let’s hear it.” Yang Kai replied with a laugh.
Hearing him say so, Lan Chu Die suddenly felt a little happy in her heart.
As Yang Kai spoke, he walked over to where Xia Ning Chang was sitting, gently picked her up and, ignoring the exclamation of his Little Senior Sister, sat her down on his lap before turning to Lan Chu Die and waiting for her to answer.
“Junior Brother…” Xia Ning Chang whimpered as she fidgeted uneasily, but wrapped strongly in Yang Kai’s arms, there was simply no way for her to flee. In a flash, her face had become bright red and her delicate eyelashes were fluttering violently, burying her head in her chest, not daring to meet anyone’s eyes.
“No need to be nervous, I just said, no one here is an outsider.” Yang Kai smiled, his face showing a roguish expression.
The delight on Lan Chu Die’s face quickly faded as she squeezed out an awkward smile, “It seems that I best no disturb you two any more than this.”
With that said, she immediately got up and left.
Xia Ning Chang also made another attempt to get up but Yang Kai gently tickled her, causing her to squirm slightly and give up any idea of escaping. Yang Kai had targeted her delicate waist which was a naturally sensitive place for her.
The reason he had acted so in front of Lan Chu Die was to let her leave. Time was precious, and he didn’t have much to spend with this Little Senior Sister of his, so how could he allow others to bother them?
After Lan Chu Die left, Yang Kai waved his hand and a soft wind gently shut the door.
Outside the room, Lan Chu Die’s smile was stiff and bitter. How could she not understand Yang Kai’s intention? It was because he made it so obvious that it had stung so much.
Both she and Xia Ning Chang were Yang Kai’s Senior Sisters! Both of them had had passed through the period of unfamiliar to familiar with him, but now, the difference in value between her and Xia Ning Chang in Yang Kai’s heart was as different as Heaven and Earth.
Along the road of life, often a single inadvertent choice could change ones destiny. Thinking so as she shook her head slightly, Lan Chu Die stared down at her somewhat thin clothing and suddenly felt that autumn had come and it was a bit cold.
Listening to the sounds outside the door and noticing that Lan Chu Die had left, Xia Ning Chang whispered as quietly as a mosquito, “Junior Brother, you can let go now…”
“Does it feel that uncomfortable?” Yang Kai looked into her eyes and said with a smile.
“Wu…” Xia Ning Chang gently applied, his cheeks hot.
“Do you like me?” Yang Kai’s grinned devilishly as he asked this mischievous question.
Xia Ning Chang didn’t dare to answer, holding her silence as her heart beat loudly.
“So you don’t like me,” Yang Kai sighed with a look of disappointment.
“No, no…” His Little Senior Sister suddenly panicked and waved her hands, her eyes spinning with anxiety.
Seeing her like this, Yang Kai couldn’t help but laugh.
Treasurer Meng next door tightly gripped his fists as he felt a raging fire flare up in his chest, barely able to stop himself from rushing over and beating Yang Kai so badly his own mother wouldn’t recognize him!
[Little brat! Little bastard! You dare bully this old master’s precious, innocent, adorable, treasured apprentice?! Shameless! Are you trying to enrage this old man?!]
“Junior Brother, are you teasing me?” Xia Ning Chang whimpered, her delicate cheeks visibly swelling with discontent under her veil.
Gazing at Xia Ning Chang, Yang Kai’s eyes grew soft. It seemed like all the exhaustion from this period of hard work had all been dispelled.
Xia Ning Chang was uncomfortable, but realizing she couldn’t get away, she instead turned her head and changed the subject, “Junior Brother, you don’t seem to like Senior Sister Lan.”
Yang Kai’s brow furrowed slightly and thought for a while before replying, “It’s not that I don’t like her, it’s just that I feel like I should avoid too much contact with her.”
“Why? From what I’ve seen, Senior Sister Lan seems to care quite a bit about you, even just how when she came to see me, she talked a lot about you.”
“It’s precisely because of that,” Yang Kai smiled slightly, “Let’s say, if I wasn’t a child of the Yang Family, or a former disciple of High Heaven Pavilion any longer, would that change your attitude towards me, Little Senior Sister?”
“No! No matter who you become, you’ll always be my Junior Brother.”
“I knew you’d say that, but not everyone is like you. Our Senior Sister Lan is like that, I’m afraid a large part of her caring about me right now is because of my identity. If, one day, I was no longer a Yang Family person, she may change her opinion of me again. Of course, these are just my personal opinions, but I still feel that I should try to contact her as little as possible. I can’t say that the way she does things is wrong, in fact it may even be the appropriate way for her to think, all I can say for sure is that Little Senior Sister is too good, there’s no comparison between you.”
Yang Kai shook his head and explained his thoughts to Xia Ning Chang who appeared slightly sceptical.
However, Yang Kai knew that in her heart she understood. Although Little Senior Sister was innocent and cute, she was not ignorant of worldly matters, she was simply too kind-hearted and didn’t like seeing the ugly side of others.
“Right, what about my pills?” Yang Kai asked.
“They’re on the bed, I’ll get them.” Xia Ning Chang leapt from Yang Kai’s lap and walked over to her bed, taking out a small bag and handing it over to Yang Kai.
Opening the bag, six bottles of pills appeared in Yang Kai’s eyes.
“There are three bottles used for cultivating True Qi, all of which are Yang Attribute, and three bottles used for restoring Spiritual Energy.” Xia Ning Chang said slightly regretfully, “Time was too tight, so I could only refine these for now.”
“This is more than enough,” Yang Kai said, extremely satisfied; after all, these pills are all Mysterious Grade Low-Rank.
Like the Consolidating Essence Pills from before, all of these should have been Heaven Grade Top-Rank pills but they had been upgraded by Xia Ning Chang to the Mysterious Grade Low Rank.
Myriad Drug Liquid wasn’t only useful for cleansing the body, but by adding a drop during the pill refinement process it could also enhance the quality of that pill. By using Myriad Drug Liquid in conjunction with the Spirit Arrays from the True Alchemic Way, accomplishing this seemingly impossible task had become a breeze for Xia Ning Chang.
If there was no help from the Myriad Drug Liquid and Spirit Arrays, given Xia Ning Chang’s current Alchemic ability, there would have been no way to refine so many Mysterious Grade pills in a short half a month. Yang Kai didn’t have so much Mysterious Grade material for her to play with.
“Don’t tire yourself out.” Yang Kai looked at her somewhat worriedly.
“I’m not tired at all. When I perform Alchemy, my strength also steadily improves, in fact, I feel as if I’m going to break through to the Immortal Ascension Boundary Second Stage soon so I hope I can refine even more pills. If I can grow up quickly, I can be of more help to Junior Brother and master sooner!” Xia Ning Chang said happily.
[To her, Alchemy is cultivation; the Sacred Spirit Medicine Body is really special!] Yang Kai secretly thought to himself.
Finishing his conversation with Xia Ning Chang, Yang Kai too began to cultivate.
As always, Yang Kai started by absorbing the three bottles of Yang Attribute pills first and converted them into Yang Liquid, then used the other three bottles’ recovery pills to supplement his Spiritual Energy as he studied the True Alchemic Way.
In addition, by using the Spiritual Energy cultivation technique taught to him by Treasurer Meng, Yang Kai noticed a marked improvement in the speed his Spiritual Energy recovered.
While Yang Kai cultivated, Xia Ning Chang stayed quietly by his side, either restoring her strength or napping on her bed.
Such a scene reminded Yang Kai of the time the two had spent together in his secluded cave under the Coiling Dragon Stream.
Two days later, Xia Ning Chang once again went to the Pill Room to perform Alchemy, leaving Yang Kai suddenly feeling a bit lonely.
As time passed, Yang Kai could clearly feel that his strength was improving step by step, and he was only a step away from breaking through to the True Element Boundary Ninth Stage.
With the Immortal Ascension Boundary within sight, Yang Kai couldn’t help feeling a little excited.
As long as he arrived at the Immortal Ascension Boundary, he wouldn’t need to care about the surveillance of the eight Above Immortal Ascension Boundary masters in War City.
In the quiet hours before dawn, Yang Kai was silently studying the mysteries of the True Alchemic Way when all of a sudden; he felt something slightly out of place. Opening his eyes rapidly, his brow furrowed as he used the full force of his Divine Sense to sweep the mansion.
At the same time, Yang Kai clearly felt that from the room next door, Meng Wu Ya also completely let loose his Divine Sense. Compared with his own, Meng Wu Ya’s Divine Sense was incredibly subtle, nearly undetectable, but its tyrannical strength was undeniable.
The two powerful Divine Senses simultaneously probed the entire mansion and quickly locked onto an anomaly.
“Courting death!” Yang Kai coldly snorted, condensing his Spiritual Energy and launching his Soul Skill towards the intruder.
In the darkness, a wisp of purple light burst out followed by a cry of surprise as a thin blurry figure suddenly appeared.
“Who goes there!” All of the strong masters in the mansion immediately noticed something amiss and Yang Kai’s mansion immediately became noisy.
The next moment, the sound of whistling wind rang out as countless people flew towards the disturbances’ source.
The thin and fuzzy figure was obviously stunned, apparently never having through they would be noticed.
Not daring to hesitate, the figure suddenly swayed and became engulfed in flowing lines of water. As this water curtain rippled open, the person’s body gradually blurred again.
Just as the figure was about to disappear completely, a ghostly figure flashed behind it and two daggers with shimmering cold light slashed open the surrounding several meters of space.
Ying Jiu!
With a great splashing noise, the figure exploded and scattered.
Ying Jiu’s eyes swept the area once before he quickly retreated into the shadows, fixing his gaze on the spot where the figure had just stood; however, there was no trace of anyone there, only a faint watery mist gently floating about.
A thousands meters away, a blurry figure was escaping at lightning like speed, causing Ying Jiu to furrow his brow slightly.
[Such speed…]
*Shua Shua Shua* A moment later, countless figures landed in the hallway and Yang Kai strode forward, glancing at a trace of blood on the ground then in the direction the invader had fled before letting out a cold grunt.
“What’s all the racket about?” The door to the Pill Room was suddenly opened and Qin Ze stepped out while muttering unpleasantly, but upon seeing so many people present along with Yang Kai, he quickly converged his expression and wrinkled his brow.
He could also see that the situation was unusual.
“Someone snuck in, did anything happen to any of the disciples from Medicine King’s Valley?” Yang Kai asked quickly.
“No.” Qin Ze shook his head.
Yang Kai released his Divine Sense again and carefully swept the area, confirming that there were no casualties amongst the Medicine King’s Valley group and that Xia Ning Chang was safe.
However… the Pill Room was the most heavily defended position in the entire compound, yet someone had still managed to invade all the way here. This alone was enough to alarm Yang Kai.
This was nothing less than a slap across his face!
“Quickly check if there are any losses inside the mansion!” Yang Kai ordered firmly, his expression akin to the gathering clouds before a great storm, causing all those present to feel their hearts clench.
The people who had gathered here departed as quickly as they had arrived; a short time later, they had all reported the situation to Qiu Yi Meng.
“There have been no losses.” Qiu Yi Meng said, her expression slightly unsightly. Although she was glad that there were no signs of damage and no one was injured, how a person managed to sneak into this heavily guarded area was worth investigating further.
Of course, a traitor wasn’t impossible, but it was unlikely. As of this moment, Yang Kai didn’t have any suspicions about the people inside his mansion.
However, this meant that a lone person had sneaked into the vicinity of the Pill Room solely relying on their own ability; such a thought made Qiu Yi Meng pale up.
By this point, Yang Kai had gathered a lot of strong people, a number of whom were Immortal Ascension Boundary Eighth Stage masters. The defense of the Pill Room was also the strictest in the entire compound, yet it was still almost invaded by this mysterious master, just how strong was this person?
But since he had successfully made it so far, why was he exposed all of a sudden? Qiu Yi Meng couldn’t understand what exactly had happened.
“Ying Jiu, did you see what he looked like?” Yang Kai asked, his brow thoroughly wrinkled.
From the shadows, Ying Jiu’s voice rang out, “I apologise, but your subordinate doesn’t even know if the intruder was a man or a woman, let alone their cultivation level.”
Hearing this, everyone couldn’t help gasping. In terms of concealment and assassination, Ying Jiu was an expert of the highest order, yet even he hadn’t managed to learn anything about the intruder. This person was really mysterious.
“However, if this subordinate isn’t wrong, this person’s real cultivation shouldn’t be very high; otherwise he wouldn’t have been caught by my Flickering Shadow Strike.” Ying Jiu commented.
Although the intruder managed to escape, he or she was still injured; the fresh blood on the ground was clear evidence of that.
Yang Kai sunk into contemplation for a moment before concluding, “Either he uses some kind of powerful artifact, or he cultivates some technique specializing in stealth! Interesting, who among my brothers managed to recruit such a master?”
This time, if he and Treasurer Meng hadn’t been on alert, this invader would likely have succeeded in their mission.
Sneaking into the vicinity of the Pill Room, his intentions were obvious. This person definitely wanted to act against the Alchemists from Medicine King’s Valley. If the Medicine King’s Valley people suffered any harm, it would be a huge problem in many ways for Yang Kai.
“Junior Brother Yang, since nothing happened, I’ll be heading back first.” Qin Ze said nonchalantly, his expression perfectly calm, totally unlike someone who had just survived a possibly life threatening situation.
“En.” Yang Kai nodded lightly.
After Qin Ze left, Yang Kai called out, “Xiao Shun!”
“Reporting!” An Immortal Ascension Boundary Eighth Stage master a full head shorter than an average man walked out of the crowd.
This was the Yang Family Blood Warrior who had come to offer his services to Yang Kai after his Eighth Brother Yang Quan was eliminated. When he had arrived he was seriously injured, but with the help of Yang Kai’s miraculous healing pills he had completely recovered over the past couple of days.
“From now on you will stand guard in front of the Pill Room!”
Xiao Shun nodded firmly, “Little Lord can rest assured that as long as I still draw breath, no one will get close to the Pill Room!”
Yang Kai gently nodded before turning his gaze in the direction that the mysterious master had fled, a fierce grin slowly forming on his face.
It seems that the presence of these Medicine King’s Valley Alchemists was still bothering his brothers quite a bit, or it would have been impossible for them to send such a powerful master to deal with them. However, whoever ordered this really had some guts, daring to attack this group of Alchemists.
As the sun slowly began rising in the east, the sky gradually brightened.
Following this unprecedented event, no matter who it was, they couldn’t feel at ease; Qiu Yi Meng immediately redeployed the entire mansion’s defenses, keeping everyone busy.
Yang Kai stood in place and stared at the blood stain on the ground while thinking about the scene where his Divine Sense had discovered the intruder, eventually shaking his head helplessly. He too hadn’t been able to determine what this person was up to or even if they were a man or a woman.
Whatever Secret Art or artifact this mysterious master was relying on was truly amazing.
Suddenly, a set of approaching footsteps brought Yang Kai out of his contemplation. Turning around he saw a cultivator from the Qiu Family’s Autumn Rain Hall rush over and cup his fists in front of him, saying, “Young Lord Kai, a Yang Family representative has come!”
“A Yang Family representative?” Yang Kai expression became pensive.
“En, he holds an order from the Yang Family Elder Hall and has been brought to the main hall. He asks that Young Lord Kai come immediately!”
“En, I understand.”
Dismissing the man and frowning for a moment, Yang Kai suddenly sighed, “Everyone should prepare, today there will be a big event.”
“Haha, finally some action!”
“En en, these past few days have been nothing but cultivation and more cultivation, it’s killing me.”
“Yang Kai, this time, no matter what you decide to do, you have to bring us along.”
A group of young men and women all rolled up their sleeves and eagerly clamoured to stir up trouble, like they feared the world not being chaotic.
“Don’t get too hasty, I don’t know the details yet. Anyways, all of you should go back and get yourselves ready to move out.” Yang Kai smiled wryly and turned to the direction of the main hall.
Qiu Yi Meng rushed to catch up and asked suspiciously, “How do you know there will be something today?”
Yang Kai chuckled as he replied, “If my guess is right, the family should want to speed up the progress of the Inheritance War. Since my two brothers were eliminated, the remaining six of us have been quietly minding our own business for almost a month now. Such a peaceful scene is not something the family would desire.”
“Do you think the Yang Family will order you to take the initiative?”
“The Elder Hall wouldn’t use such a blunt instrument; they must be planning something else.” Yang Kai frowned, he too was speculating about what the family would do; however, in the end all he could do was listening to the official announcement.
As the two chatted, they quickly arrived at the main hall.
Inside the hall, someone with his hands crossed behind his back stood waiting.
After a single glance, Yang Kai wore a stunned expression before hurriedly greeting this man, “Father?”
When the Yang Family Fourth Master turned around and saw his son striding in, he couldn’t help himself from smiling, nodding lightly.
Qiu Yi Meng also reacted quickly, performing a graceful bow and politely greeting, “Qiu Family’s Qiu Yi Meng, greets the Yang Family Fourth Master.”
Yang Ying Feng looked at Qiu Yi Meng for a moment before smiling back, “Young Lady Qiu is too polite, since you’ve chosen to support Kai’er, we’re all one family now.”
Pausing for a moment, “To be here with Kai’er, you must have suffered.”
“Uncle doesn’t need to treat me like an outsider. Helping Yang Kai was niece’s decision, she did not suffer at all.”
Yang Ying Feng let out an even happier laugh as he nodded and said, “Kai’er is young. If he offends you, I ask little niece to not take it to heart. If you ever feel like you have been wronged here, just tell uncle bluntly and I’ll teach him a lesson for you!”
“Thank you, Uncle!” Qiu Yi Meng smiled sweetly, “If there ever comes a time, little niece will depend on Uncle’s words.” As she said so, she smugly shot a glance towards Yang Kai, silently saying ‘If you dare to bully me, I’ll definitely complain’.
As Yang Kai listened to his old man and the young woman beside him rapidly go from polite strangers to intimate family members, his expression couldn’t help turning black, quickly steering the conversation back to the main point, “Father, what are you doing here?”
“Delivering the family’s command!” Yang Ying Feng’s expression immediately became serious as he handed over the Yang Family Elder Hall’s order, quickly explaining, “Two hours later, fifty kilometers outside War City at Po Jing Lake, a batch of artifacts will appear; whoever manages to seize them can keep them!”
Hearing this, Yang Kai’s eyes lit up while Qiu Yi Meng’s beautiful face also showed an excited expression.
The biggest factor that determined a cultivator’s strength was their own cultivation, but in addition to this there were other external forces they could rely on.
There were three kinds of external forces, one was pills, the second was artifacts, and the last was Secret Arts or Martial Skills which could raise their combat power.
When it came to pills, Yang Kai didn’t need to spare a second thought. With Xia Ning Chang and the group of Alchemists from Medicine King’s Valley supporting him, Yang Kai had an absolute superiority in this aspect.
Secret Arts and Martial Skill weren’t things that he could easily obtain, so Yang Kai was focused on acquiring artifacts right now!
A cultivator could dramatically increase their combat efficiency by using a powerful artifact.
Also, compared to the use of techniques, the rise in strength brought by artifacts was simpler and more direct.
As of right now, this was the soft underbelly of Yang Kai’s mansion. The artifacts used by the cultivators in his house were all brought from their own forces and everyone only had one or two pieces each. If he could acquire a large batch of artifacts, then the overall strength of his supporters would be upgraded significantly.
Glancing over at Qiu Yi Meng, the two of them were clear about each other’s intentions.
“I have delivered the Elder Hall’s command, whether you go or not is for you young people to decide!” Yang Ying Feng smiled.
“Why wouldn’t I go?!” Yang Kai said enthusiastically, suddenly thinking of something, “This batch of artifacts is from the family, right?”
“No, not just our Yang Family, but all of the Central Capital’s Eight Great Families donated some artifacts. However, most are still from the Yang Family. The other seven families only symbolically contributed.”
“How many pieces?”
“One thousand in total!” Yang Ying Feng said as he raised a single finger.
Both Yang Kai and Qiu Yi Meng were not inexperienced youngsters and could even be said to be amongst the top of the younger generation, but even they couldn’t help feeling some shortness of breath at this figure.
A thousand artifacts. Right now there were at most three hundred people gathered in the mansion, if all of these artifacts could be obtained, that would mean that every person here could receive three or four artifacts! Of course, such a calculation was definitely unrealistic.
“Eighty percent are Earth Grade artifact while the vast majority of the remaining twenty percent are Heaven Grade… but there are also a few Mysterious Grade artifacts!”
“All the more reason to go!” Yang Kai grinned.
The roles Mysterious Grade Artifacts could play were significant. If he didn’t grab them, they would only fall into others’ hands.
Being able to take out a thousand artifacts in one shot, the heritage of the Central Capital’s Eight Great Families was really extraordinary, although most of the artifacts weren’t too high grade, this number was still scary enough.
“Uncle, is there any other news available?” Qiu Yi Meng asked with a sweet smile, apparently hoping to gain more information to help plan ahead.
For example, how and where exactly would these artifacts appear? Having such information would be of great value and make taking the initiative easier.
“Don’t bother asking, the family felt relieved enough to allow my own father to deliver their command, obviously they only told him information they wanted disclosed.” Yang Kai waved his hand.
Yang Ying Feng glanced at his son and nodded, “En, the only things I know are innocuous pieces of intelligence, the others who have come as messengers are the same. The starting point of all you juniors is the same. How much can you harvest will be up to your own means.”
“I was just asking.” Qiu Yi Meng shook her head gently, paying particular attention to her behaviour in front of Yang Ying Feng for reasons even she didn’t quite understand.
“In that case, we should go prepare ourselves now.” Yang Kai grinned fiercely, his expression overflowed with confidence as a raging fire burned in his eyes.
“If Father has nothing to attend to, you might as well stay here for a few more days.” Yang Kai suddenly proposed to Yang Ying Feng.
However, the Yang Family Fourth Master shook his head wryly, “Your mother has said specifically that I must go back and report your situation to her.”
“En, take care then, Father.”
“En, I’m off!” Yang Ying Feng waved and set out.
Word that a thousand artifacts were about to appear spread throughout War City quickly, instantly setting off a wave of commotion.
The six Yang Family Young Lords all hastily made preparations and set out.
Whether it was wealthy lords or low life gang members, everyone who got the news rushed to Po Jing Lake, ready to watch the fun.
Inside his mansion, Yang Kai rubbed his forehead as he stared out at his group of noisy allies before him. With the exception of the five Immortal Ascension Boundary masters from the Duan Mu Family who kept their silence, everyone else vehemently expressed their desire to have their force join Yang Kai this time.
Even the five Immortal Ascension masters from the Duan Mu Family who didn’t speak had an unmistakable fighting intent in their eyes.
This charade had gone on for quite some time now and had devolved into a loud mess.
Qiu Yi Meng didn’t know what to do. Most of these people were personal friends of Yang Kai, so unlike with the allies of the other Young Lords, they couldn’t be treated as simple henchmen and casually ordered about.
“Whatever the case, this Young Lord is definitely going to go this time! Damn, how can I, Huo Xing Chen, miss such a big event?” The Huo Family Young Lord made a face that screamed ‘if you don’t take me, I’ll go myself’!
Qiu Yi Meng opened her mouth to also voice her desire to go, but seeing Yang Kai’s current struggle, as his second in command, she felt it best not to add on to this chaos, restraining herself as she waited for Yang Kai to speak.
Looking at these enthusiastic allies, Yang Kai couldn’t help smiling.
Contrary to what they were saying, them wanting to go was not because they were bored, or because they were tempted by the thousand artifacts, it was simply because they had all just received those extraordinary pills from Yang Kai and felt they hadn’t given anything back to him yet.
All of them had come here to support him, so now that an opportunity to finally contribute had arrived, who would be willing to give up?
“Draw lots.” Yang Kai finally said, letting them continue to argue would accomplish nothing so he might as well use the simplest method to decide.
The noise in the hall instantly calmed down as everyone turned a surprised expression towards Yang Kai, not having expected him to propose such a method.
However… there was nothing wrong with this idea either.
“Good! Who stays and who goes will be decided by destiny!” Han Xiao Qi smiled slightly and was the first to agreed.
“En, we’ll draw!” Dong Qing Han nodded.
“This Young Lord has no opinion!” Huo Xing Chen grinned meaningfully.
To show fairness, Yang Kai personally held the lots and soon, the results came out.
From his eleven supporters, the Huo Family, Duan Mu Family, Dong Family, Ten Thousand Flower Palace, Reflecting Moon Sect, and Tian Yuan City groups would follow Yang Kai while the rest would remained to guard the mansion in case something came up.
“Any objections?” Yang Kai looked around.
“Alright, I’ll watch the house this time.” Qiu Yi Meng giggled and smiled.
“Good! Let’s go!” Yang Kai expression became serious, swinging his hand as he lead the way, the six forces accompanying him rushing to keep up.
Of the six forces, besides the Huo Family which only brought two Immortal Ascension Boundary Fifth Stage masters, each had at least five Immortal Ascension cultivators. Of these masters, four had reached the Immortal Ascension Boundary Eighth Stage while the rest had an uneven distribution of strength but none of them were weak.
A total of nearly thirty Immortal Ascension Boundary masters and a large number of True Element Boundary cultivators; a spectacular line up.
At an inn a kilometer outside from Yang Kai’s mansion, at this moment, there was a party of a man and two women in the lobby. All three of these people were youths and two of them were even twins.
The pair of twins both wore light blue dresses and had refined, beautiful features, charming faces, slender waists, tall chests, and jade white skin. Simply by sitting there they frequently caused pedestrians and guests in the inn to stare.
Great beauties were rare, while beautiful twins were even rarer.
However, the expressions upon the beautiful faces of these two flowers weren’t good, one of them seemed helpless and depressed while the other appeared indifferent but with some faint dissatisfaction and resentment between her eyebrows.
As for the young man, he too didn’t seem too happy, smiling helplessly as he sighed over and over again, “Elder Sister, we have been here for more than a month now, do you still not want to go?”
The down sister also nodded, “En, Elder Sister, us staying in this inn won’t solve anything, since we’ve come, why don’t we just go see him?”
“Who do you want to look for?” The last person grumbled angrily, “We aren’t here looking for someone, we…”
“We just came out to play, I know, I know.” The man one again repeated the words he had heard too many times to count. “However, this War City is so chaotic right now. You two sisters living here will draw unwanted attention sooner or later. Haven’t you noticed that more and more people have been staring recently?”
“I won’t go!” The charming young woman firmly declared, “You can go by yourself, I’ll just hide in the room after you leave, problem solved.”
The young man shook his head and sighed again, “Wasn’t it just him hiding his true identity? Besides, it’s not like he was trying to deceive you, the Yang Family has its own rules that forbid him to announce himself, why are you so upset about it still?”
The young woman pursed her lips and pouted, unwilling to argue back.
Just as the young man and young woman were talking, a large number of people rushed out from Yang Kai’s mansion with Yang Kai himself at the head, all of them rushing towards the east.
Looking at the familiar figure fly past, the two beautiful twins’ eyes brightened slightly before suddenly dimming once more.
“Looks like there’s movement!” The young man commented; Yang Kai suddenly taking so many people out, obviously something big was happening. Turning to the two sisters in front of him, he quickly said, “I want to take a look, are you coming?”
“Elder Sister, I want to go!” One of them quickly said.
“I…”
“Do what you want, but don’t take too long to decide, let’s go!” The young man hurriedly said before rushing out.
The two sisters glanced at each other for a moment before not hesitating to catch up.
Just outside War City, another group of people quickly appeared beside Yang Kai’s. When the two sides noticed one another, the atmosphere suddenly became tense.
It was Yang Zhao’s forces! Although a month ago Yang Kai’s supporters had surpassed Yang Zhao’s, as time passed, Yang Zhao had gathered more and more power, so this time, the number of people he had brought out was no less than the number following Yang Kai and amongst them there were many strong masters.
The distance between the two groups was less than three hundred meters but neither side was able to outpace the other.
“Ninth Brother’s Movement Skill is impressive.” Yang Zhao suddenly chuckled, “No wonder Third Brother was taken away by you.”
“Second Brother praises me too much.” Yang Kai also smiled slightly.
“This time Second Brother won’t let off so easy.”
“Any time Second Brother wants to fight, Ninth Brother will be more than happy to accompany you, we can even play now if you’d like!”
Yang Zhao’s smiling face instantly went a little stiff. Facing Yang Kai’s aggressive attitude made him feel somewhat uncomfortable, but he quickly recovered his composure and shook his head, “Another time perhaps. There’ll be plenty of chances for us brothers to compete in the future!”
“True enough!” Yang Kai nodded, not provoking Yang Zhao any further.
As the two brothers spoke, the sound of something cutting through the air suddenly came from behind and a lone figure immediately passed the two groups and shot towards the distance like lightning.
Whether it was Yang Kai or Yang Zhao, neither of them could help staring at the back of this young man.
“Liu Qing Yao!” Huo Xing Chen exclaimed, gnashing his teeth, “That fellow is too arrogant!”
Although he had spoken angrily, there was some helplessness in his voice as well. After all, even Huo Xing Chen had to admit that Liu Qing Yao was far stronger than himself.
However, soaring directly over the heads of these two groups of people and flying away without a single word. His meaning couldn’t be clearer, he didn’t place anyone here in his eyes.
When he heard the exclamation of Huo Xing Chen, Yang Kai’s brow furrowed slightly.
He had only heard the name Liu Qing Yao but until today he had never seen him.
After the start of the Inheritance War, he also learned that Liu Qing Yao had been spectating from inside War City, never helping any of the Yang Family Young Lords or acting against them either.
Obviously he thought none of them deserved his services.
[So he’s Liu Qing Yao! Sure enough, he has enough capital to act arrogantly.]
Yang Zhao couldn’t help snorting, “Ninth Brother, this is my Yang Family’s stage, how can we let an outsider rob the limelight?”
Yang Kai grinned and nodded, “Agreed.”
The smiles on both brothers’ faces were practically identical; immediately, both of them suddenly increasing their speeds, shooting off like a pair of shooting stars.
The people in the two groups behind, no matter who they were, gasped in admiration.
Yang Zhao had broken through to the Immortal Ascension Boundary First Stage a few days ago, and although he had yet to consolidated his cultivation, he had truly crossed the Immortal Ascension watershed.
Being able to suddenly display this kind of speed at the Immortal Ascension First Stage, even faster than what Liu Qing Yao had displayed earlier, was naturally quite impressive.
What was even more amazing was Yang Kai, a trivial True Element Boundary Eighth Stage cultivator that was no slower than Yang Zhao. The Movement Skill he used was indeed profound and made it seem like he could ride the wind itself.
[The Yang Family is really a collection of monsters!] Everyone shook their heads and thought secretly.
Mid-flight, Yang Zhao was also amazed by Yang Kai. It was only by using a special technique that he was able to achieve his current speed, and it was consuming a large amongst of his True Qi to maintain it. In other words, he wouldn’t be able to maintain this speed for a long time. At most he would only be capable of continuing at this pace for an incense stick worth of time before needing to slow down and recover or else he would overdraw his True Qi and suffer some backlash.
On the other hand, his Ninth Brother didn’t seem to be the same; he neither used some special technique nor an artifact, his speed seemed to be completely his own, only requiring him to circulate his True Qi normally to achieve.
At that moment, Yang Zhao felt a sense of disbelief and unwillingness, increasing his speed once more.
However, before he could open any noticeable gap between them, Yang Kai had already caught up, his expression still as light and easy as before, “Second Brother, doing this is quite tiring.”
Seeing and hearing this, Yang Zhao could only smile wryly, “First, we catch up with Liu Qing Yao, then deal with the consequences.”
Yang Kai grinned and nodded, “The Yang Family’s rightful place, I’ll take back. If Second Brother can’t keep up, you should just take a break!”
As soon as these words were said, Yang Zhao suddenly felt a scorching wave of heat burst out beside him as he saw Yang Kai transform into a great fireball, releasing a brilliant radiance before shooting off towards the horizon, instantly closing the gap between him and Liu Qing Yao, the wind trailing behind him sharply cutting past Yang Zhao’s face.
Yang Zhao’s eyes narrowed, letting out a light shout, “As the Second Brother, how can I not answer?”
A halo of light quickly blossomed from Yang Zhao’s body and in a flash, his speed too was raised to the limit.
Seemingly noticing these two people catching up with him, Liu Qing Yao in front couldn’t help glancing back, but before he could focus his vision, a great fireball rushed past him, the heat waves billowing off of it causing his heart to palpitate slightly.
“Hm?” Liu Qing Yao revealed a look of surprise, involuntarily calling out, “Such pure True Qi!”
“Young Lord Liu, we’ll be going on ahead!” Yang Zhao also soared past Liu Qing Yao and let out a big laugh as he flew off into the distance.
Looking at the backs of the two, Liu Qing Yao’s brows wrinkled slightly, his expression slowly sinking as he slowly shook his head, “Using external forces isn’t a real display of skill!”
Even if he said this, his speed also suddenly rose; obviously he wasn’t willing to fall behind.
A distance of fifty kilometers wasn’t far, so after slightly less than an incense stick worth of time later the three youths arrived at Po Jing Lake.
Yang Kai landed on the eastern bank, Yang Zhao the west, while Liu Qing Yao set down right in the centre.
It wasn’t until now that Yang Kai had his first good look at the rumored Central Capital’s First Young Lord!
Wearing a blue robe that seemed neither expensive nor vulgar, he didn’t appear very old, about twenty-seven or so at most, his posture as straight as a sword. His build wasn’t particularly burly but the force which seemed to pulse from his body couldn’t be ignored. His expression was indifferent, seemingly not caring the slightest for worldly matters, but the light in his eyes revealed a kind of aloof domineering arrogance.
This kind of arrogance had nothing to do with pride or pretense but was instead part of his innate demeanor, an aura a man who had stood at the top of the world for many years would naturally possess. It was as if he stood above the clouds and overlooked the scurrying mortals beneath him.
[He’s no soft persimmon!] From only this brief contact, Yang Kai had clearly understood this point.
Although outwardly his cultivation was only Immortal Ascension Boundary Third Stage, Liu Qing Yao’s combat strength was certainly not only comparable to an ordinary Immortal Ascension Boundary Third Stage cultivator; however, his true power could only be known by fighting him.
Remember the heroic proclamation this person had released before, Yang Kai grinned slightly; this subtle movement attracted the attention of Liu Qing Yao, his cold yet simultaneously extremely piercing eyes suddenly glancing over at Yang Kai as a wave of Divine Sense unscrupulously swept over him.
Yang Kai’s brow couldn’t help wrinkling, his expression becoming a bit disgruntled.
Although his opponent’s action couldn’t possibly threaten him and could even be said to have no malice behind it, such a blatant use of his Divine Sense to spy on him was still a rather uncouth display.
Such a provocative action could easily lead to unnecessary disputes and battles, so most people refrained from doing this kind of thing; however, it was apparent that Liu Qing Yao did this because he didn’t think much of Yang Kai.
Sure enough, after thoroughly examining him with his Divine Sense, Liu Qing Yao no longer paid any attention to Yang Kai, just conspicuously standing there silently by himself.
No one knew why he had run over this time.
Along another shore of Po Jing Lake, a group of people had arrived in advance; naturally, it was Eldest Brother Yang Wei’s people. After seeing Yang Kai and Yang Zhao arrive, Yang Wei just nodded faintly to them before turning his gaze towards Liu Qing Yao, his eyes narrowing unconsciously as his True Qi fluctuated slightly.
Rumor had it that when Yang Wei returned to the Central Capital, he had fought a battle with Liu Qing Yao, but no one knew the final result of that battle.
Now that the two sides had met again, it was only to be expected that some sparks would fly.
“Immortal Ascension Boundary Second Stage, the Eldest Young Lord’s cultivation speed is quite fast!” Surprisingly, Liu Qing Yao actually took the initiative to say hello to Yang Wei.
“My thanks for Young Lord Liu’s assistance; that battle helped me understand a lot.” Yang Wei replied indifferently.
Liu Qing Yao nodded lightly and said, “If you still wish to comprehend more, this Liu is always willing to oblige!”
The expression on Yang Kai and Yang Zhao’s faces suddenly became weird, exchanging a glance with each other across the lake, both of them seeing the deep meaning in the other’s eyes.
These two men had only said a few words, but the meaning in the words was quite intriguing.
It seems like the rumors were true that Yang Wei had lost his battle with Liu Qing Yao, and it was even likely that he was defeated quite miserably! Otherwise, why would Liu Qing Yao speak such haughty words?
Liu Qing Yao’s arrogance didn’t make Yang Wei angry, his expression not changing in the slightest, only nodding lightly, “I will definitely go, I hope at that time Young Lord Liu won’t be too surprised!”
Liu Qing Yao slowly shook his head, “It’s impossible for me to be surprised, because you’re not my opponent!”
As soon as this sentence came out, the allies behind Yang Wei suddenly felt some indignation, all of them turning angry stares towards Liu Qing Yao.
Disparaging Yang Wei in front of them was no different from shaming them directly.
Yet Yang Wei still showed no signs of anger, simply raising his hand to stop the chattering of the crowd behind him, solemnly saying, “My not being your opponent now doesn’t mean I won’t be in the future. And even if, in the future, I am not your opponent, that doesn’t mean no one from my Yang Family will be your opponent. Young Lord Liu, I am not the strongest of the Yang Family’s younger generation, but I know you are the strongest of the Liu Family’s. The limit of your Liu Family is you, but the limit of my Yang Family is still unknown.”
Liu Qing Yao expression finally changed, showing a look of interest, “Amongst the Yang Family’s younger generation, is there really someone stronger than you?”
After a pause, he turned his eyes to Yang Zhao, “The Second Young Lord perhaps?”
“Haha…” Yang Zhao couldn’t help laughing lightly, “Young Lord Liu surely jests, compared with Eldest Brother, Second Brother doesn’t measure up. Whoever you’re looking for, don’t look at me.”
Liu Qing Yao chuckled, “If it is not the Second Young Lord, then who else? Only you and the Second Young Lord from your Yang Family’s direct descendants are slightly worthy of attention, the others…”
Slowly shaking his head as he spoke, he casually glanced over at Yang Kai and immediately sneered.
Watching all this, Yang Wei, who was always aloof and indifferent, suddenly burst into laughter, “Young Lord Liu, since you can’t see it yourself, it means you’re already not his opponent.”
Liu Qing Yao’s expression sank as he stared at Yang Wei across the distance. He didn’t understand why this Yang Family Eldest Young Lord was so certain, because no matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t see any of the Yang Family direct descendants being able to match himself.
However, if there truly was such a person, and even he couldn’t see any clues, it meant that this individual was indeed a scary person!
[If he really can deceive my eyes, he has already won!], Liu Qing Yao thought.
“Eldest Young Lord, I hope what you said is true.” Liu Qing Yao succinctly said.
“You’ll see soon enough!” Yang Wei nodded gently.
Yang Kai who had been sitting on the sidelines had not interrupted once. However, he always felt that Yang Wei’s eyes had been aiming at him, intentionally or unintentionally.
[What did Big Brother notice?] Yang Kai thought to himself suspiciously.
After a short while, Huo Xing Chen and a large number of people arrived and landed behind Yang Kai. Similarly, Yang Zhao’s people gathered around him.
When these people arrived, Yang Zhao finally relaxed and quietly put down his guard. Just now, he was obviously worried that Yang Wei would act against him.
Although he had a Blood Warrior guarding him at all times, it was still dangerous to come here all alone.
Soon after, more and more people gathered on the banks of Po Jing Lake. Yang Kang, Yang Shen and Yang Ying also arrived.
After such a long period of recruitment, how much support the six brothers had gathered could be distinguished at a glance.
The first three to arrive had brought roughly the same number of people, so even if there were some slight differences in strength, it wasn’t obvious; however, the later three’s situation was undoubtedly worse. Even though these three Young Lords had one of the Eight Great Families as an ally, it was still difficult for them to gather much support with just their personal connections.
When they noticed this gap in strength, the faces of Yang Kang and the others suddenly became ugly.
Yang Kai, who everyone initially thought would be eliminated on the first night, was now far ahead of them.
If this were to continue, their situations would only get worse and worse.
All three of them secretly thought to themselves that they must redouble their efforts to recruit supporters after this event. At the very least, they couldn’t lag behind Yang Kai.
Not only did the six Yang Family Young Lords gather at Po Jing Lake, but the cultivators who were spectating the events in War City also came to watch the show, forming a big circle around Po Jing Lake.
However, these people had enough common sense to stay far away from the lakeside, only moving close enough to get a good view.
No one would take their own life lightly. With so many powerful masters gathered together, once they accidentally got caught up in the fray they wouldn’t even know how they died.
The pair of twin flowers who were previously sitting in the inn lobby had also joined this outer circle, their position not far from where Yang Kai’s group had set down.
After not seeing him for a few months, he seemed a lot stronger than before, and perhaps because of his change of status, he now gave off a dignified and imposing aura as well.
One of the two stared towards him as a strange light flickered across her eyes, her enchanting face softening as she reminisced about past events, her change in mood indirectly affecting her sister, causing even her heartbeat to speed up slightly.
Gritting her teeth, the older sister took a deep breath and calmed the rising heat within her chest, smiling helplessly as she shook her head.
This was an unavoidable side effect of the Secret Art the sisters cultivated. Their two minds and hearts gradually became interconnected, so when her little sister felt strongly about something, she too would be affected.
From time to time, she would also think about this young man’s figure before immediately feeling embarrassed to say anything to her sister, leaving her somewhat depressed and uncomfortable.
And now, after having arrived in War City long ago, she couldn’t work up the courage to see him, so she kept hiding in an inn nearby his compound, often looking out the window and wondering if he would appear. Yet, for such a long time, he did not show up.
Finally, today, she had seen him at last. If she were to miss this opportunity, who knows when the next would come by?
Thinking about how she just couldn’t be honest with her words or even herself, the young woman couldn’t help feeling bitter, wishing she could be a little more like her younger sister whose every thought was written on her face, never needing or trying to hide what she was thinking.
“Hey, aren’t we going to help him?” The young man from before asked with a chuckle.
“Us, help him? What role can the three of us play with so many masters around?”
“Haa, this is why women are harder to deal with than enemies! I shouldn’t have come here with you!” The man said in exasperation. If he had known that such a big event was going to happen, he would have brought everyone in the inn. With only the three of them as True Element Boundary cultivators, they really couldn’t make much of a contribution.
As time slowly passed, everyone anxiously waited for the emergence of the batch of artifacts, many of them trying to guess how these thousand artifacts the Yang Family had invested would appear here.
Yang Kai used his powerful Divine Sense to sweep the surroundings, carefully monitoring the crowds for any signs of movement.
As he examined the spectators, he was surprised to find there were many masters hiding their presences! Perceiving this, Yang Kai secretly speculated that these masters weren’t here to watch the excitement, but had actually been deployed by the Eight Great Families to monitor the situation here.
Yang Kai also noticed that at the bottom of Po Jing Lake there were some subtle energy fluctuations. This anomaly was so small that even Yang Kai barely noticed it, not to mention other people.
It seemed like this batch of artifacts had long ago been placed at the bottom of the lake and would only appear at the appointed time.
Having noticed this, Yang Kai grinned slightly but didn’t make any movements, content with this slight advantage for the time being.
The appointed time soon arrived and everyone gathered around Po Jing Lake couldn’t help secretly circulating their True Qi, getting ready to move at a moment’s notice. The six groups not only monitored the surroundings for signs of the artifacts appearing, but also kept track of their opponents’ movements.
While grabbing these artifacts, there would definitely be fighting; after all, the Yang Family was using this method to stimulate the progress of Inheritance War.
Unlike Yang Kai who already had a relatively clear idea about the situation, the other five Yang Family Young Lords were all still guessing, carefully paying attention to Po Jing Lake while from time to time also observing the nearby shoreline and surrounding wilderness, quietly issuing orders to their allies.
The atmosphere grew tense.
Suddenly, a ray of light burst from the centre of Po Jing Lake and an intense energy fluctuation suddenly erupted. Soon, beneath the clear lake surface, a group of bright lines appeared and formed a mysterious Spirit Array which covered the entire lake bottom.
The aura between Heaven and Earth suddenly stagnated.
“It’s time!” Numerous exclamations came out of the surrounding crowds as everyone stretched their necks towards Po Jing Lake.
*Xiu xiu xiu…*
One after another, radiant streaks emerged from the bottom of Po Jing Lake and shot into the sky. Inside each of these glowing lights was an artifact. The different colours, shapes, and sizes drew in everyone’s eyesight, causing flames of greed to well up within them.
In an instant, nearly a hundred rays of light had flown high up into the air while countless droplets of water which had been splashed up poured down like a rain.
Everyone stared hard at these hundred rays like starving wolves eyeing fresh meat.
After ascending about a hundred meters into the air, the various glowing lights slowly stopped. Suddenly, a burst of sound rang out and these artifacts shot off in all directions like a great meteor shower!
“Young Lord Kai!” Huo Xing Chen turned to look at Yang Kai, anxiously urging.
Yang Kai nodded lightly.
The next moment, nearly fifty percent of the people in the six camps flew out and moved towards the nearest artifacts, many of letting out bursts of joyous laughter as they grabbed hold of one of them.
The leading figures of the younger generation didn’t move, and most of the Immortal Ascension masters also remained still. Only ordinary disciples below the Immortal Ascension Boundary Third Stage set out.
This was not just the case with Yang Kai’s group, but with all the others as well.
Everyone knew that this first batch of artifacts would certainly not have very high grades so many didn’t think it worthwhile to disrupt their focus in order to seize them.
Also, because this first batch of artifacts had fallen into the surrounding area, it was almost equivalent to them being delivered right to them, there was no chance that their opponents could steal them away so naturally there was no reason to rush out to snatch them.
However, those who had only come to watch the fun had their eyes become extremely hot, swallowing hard as they stared at these glowing rays of light.
Since they had only come to spectate, most of these people had relatively low strength, so when they suddenly saw so many artifacts appear all at once, they were inevitable excited.
The six Young Lords had brought a total of nearly 800 people here, so even if only half moved, with only one hundred artifacts there were bound to be some who came up empty handed.
None of the artifacts made it past Po Jing Lake’s shore, all of them were intercepted by cultivators halfway.
After capturing these artifacts completely, the cultivators returned to their respective camps, each of them grinning happily.
This first batch of artifacts was divided almost evenly between the six groups and no real battles had been fought, so the amount harvested by each of the Young Lords was basically the same.
“All of them are Earth Grade Low-Rank.” Huo Xing Chen took a look at the artifacts that had been recovered and couldn’t help scoffing disdainfully as he muttered, “The Eight Great Families are really stingy.”
Hearing these words, Han Xiao Qi’s indifferent expression twitched as she commented, “Young Lord Huo, you come from a super family so you don’t understand the hardships of us lower born cultivators. These artifacts may not be anything for you, but to us they can improve our strength greatly.”
Huo Xing Chen grinned back at her meaningfully, “What you said is reasonable, beautiful young lady, but even though I am a Huo Family member, right now, all of us are allies, so we should be able to discuss such things freely. How about after this event we find some time to chat privately?”
Han Xiao Qi suddenly didn’t know what to do, only praying that Yang Kai could say a few words to make Huo Xing Chen stop harassing her.
However, at this moment Yang Kai’s brow was furrowed as he seemed to be concentrating quite hard, his eyes fixed on the mysterious Spirit Array under Po Jing Lake.
These glowing patterns hadn’t lost any of their brilliance and were still brightly illuminating Po Jing Lake. Right after Huo Xing Chen spoke, once again, nearly a hundred rays of light shot out from the water’s surface.
Huo Xing Chen glanced over at Yang Kai but only saw him still focusing on the Spirit Array, quickly letting out a sigh before shouting, “Snatch!”
The group of people who had just reaped a full harvest once again flew away.
“Be careful!” Yang Kai suddenly roared.
Everyone was still immersed in the joy of grabbing artifacts so some of them didn’t quite understand why he had shouted out a warning, but after noticing the trajectories of these artifacts, all of them quickly became alert.
The second batch of artifacts wasn’t the same as the previous one. This time the glowing artifacts didn’t fly out towards the surrounding area, but instead all densely grouped together in the center of Po Jing Lake.
Everyone’s True Qi madly burst out and the light of Martial Skills and artifacts blossomed as the six parties rushed headlong into each other.
Instantly, a great battle broke out!
From the six different camps, almost 400 people had gone out, ninety percent of them were True Element Boundary cultivators but there were still a number of low-level Immortal Ascension Boundary masters as well.
So many people rushing towards the center of Po Jing Lake made the scene suddenly chaotic.
Someone would grab an artifact only to be stared at by four or five enemies in the next moment, and before they knew what was happening, they would be killed, their broken body falling from the sky, their fresh blood staining the clear lake below.
The crowds watching repeatedly let out loud exclamations and shouts.
This kind of melee was precisely what they had come here to see.
In less than ten breaths of time, more than twenty people had been killed, and the number of casualties was still growing.
Almost all of the forces had been affected, causing all the young leaders from these various families and Sects to have ugly expressions, gripping their fists tightly, anxious to help.
However, before the Yang Family’s Young Lords issued orders, even if they were filled with indignation, all they could do was stand still and wait.
Everyone knew that this was just the appetizer! If they were to fall into disarray now, the next time they would be at a big disadvantage.
Gradually, the hundred artifacts from the second round had been distributed while those who were holding them had all become tempting targets. As they flew back, their respective allies guarded them as they cut open a path of retreat, sending a few corpses to the lake below as they went.
A number of intelligent people had done their best to throw the artifacts they managed to snatch towards their own camp before turning around and trying to rob artifacts from their opponents.
As the melee subsided, the people from the six groups gradually dispersed and separated from each other, heading back to their respective camps.
Everyone obtained some gains, but also suffered some losses!
The once crystal clear water of Po Jing Lake was now dyed red and nearly fifty bodies floated atop its surface!
“Your Yang Family’s methods are really brutal!” Dong Qing Han drew a sharp breath as he stared at the tragedy in front of him, slowly shaking his head.
It had been nearly a month without any battles and War City had settled into a peaceful calm, but with just a single order from the Yang Family Elder Hall, the calm had been shattered and all six of the Young Lords had attacked each other.
“Men die for wealth just as birds die for food!” Huo Xing Chen sneered, “The Yang Family has long ago seen through this.”
“It’s so tragic.” Chen Xue Shu whispered quietly. Since he had come to War City, this was the first time he had participated in any kind of battle. Nearly fifty people had died in only half a cup of tea’s time, his Reflecting Moon Sect has also suffered some losses so he wasn’t feeling great at the moment.
“It’s too simple!” Yang Kai narrowed his eyes as he suddenly said.
“Too simple?” Liu Fei Sheng looked at him with horror while everyone else also felt suspicious.
Yang Kai didn’t respond to this chatter but instead turned to look in the direction of Yang Wei and Yang Zhao, quickly discovering that his two oldest brothers were also frowning as they contemplated something. Noticing Yang Kai glancing at them, both Yang Wei and Yang Zhao glanced back.
With this brief silent communication, Yang Kai understood that they too had doubts in their hearts.
If this was all there was to this snatching artifacts event, then it really was too simple. It was impossible for the Yang Family to have planned only this. Right now, the Elder Hall hoped that everyone would fight, and the more people who died the better. But if so, how could all one thousand artifacts appear like this?
If things were to continue exactly as they were, as long as the six Young Lords reached some kind of consensus, it would be possible to divide these artifacts peacefully.
Of course, such an agreement wasn’t very likely.
But right now, Yang Kai, Yang Wei, and Yang Zhao had all realized this point, so no matter who it was, they were considering what would happen next.
The Inheritance War was also a battle of wits, it wasn’t enough to simply be brave and courageous.
Because of the deaths of their allies, the atmosphere in each of the six camps was smouldering, everyone staring at their opponents with cold eyes as they waited anxiously for the next confrontation where they’d have a chance to settle this grudge.
“The grades in this batch are slightly higher, but they’re still not very good.” Huo Xing Chen checked the artifacts that had been brought back and shook his head once more.
In the eyes of this Huo Family Young Lord, except for those at the Heaven Grade and Mysterious Grade, any other artifacts were no different from rubbish. Even if they were Heaven Grade, they had to at least be Mid-Rank before he would pay them any mind.
“For the next batch, we won’t participate!” Yang Kai suddenly said.
“What?” Huo Xing Chen gawked, “Won’t participate?”
Yang Kai turned his head and glowered at him, “Don’t speak so loud, they all might hear you.”
Huo Xing Chen couldn’t help lowering his head slightly as he quietly asked, “Why aren’t we participating? If we don’t snatch these, they’ll just fall into everyone else’s hands.”
Not only was Huo Xing Chen confused, the four girls from Ten Thousand Flower Palace were also suspicious. In the confrontation just now, one of their Ten Thousand Flower Palace disciples had died, so all of them were eager to seek retribution, so when Yang Kai suddenly said that they wouldn’t participate in the next round, all of them had difficulty understanding why.
“I want to observe the situation,” Yang Kai slowly shook his head, “If my guess is right, the next batch of artifacts should be Earth Grade Top-Rank at best, so even if we don’t grab them, our losses won’t be big, but if we do participate, I’m afraid there’ll be some unforeseen variables.”
Listening to his explanation, although everyone still had some doubts, none of them objected again.
A moment later, the Spirit Array at the bottom of the lake lit up again, causing the now blood red water to take on an eerie glow.
Having experienced this twice now, everyone knew that the third batch of artifacts was about to appear. Facing this upcoming battle, the spectating crowd all also wore expectant expressions, jostling about for good positions to watch the show from.
Having received his orders, Yang Kai’s group, although staring at the bottom of the lake with some enthusiasm, didn’t make any motions.
Yang Kang and the others on the other hand gripped their fists and prepared to set out.
*Xiu xiu xiu…*
In a burst of light, a new batch of artifacts appeared.
“Go, kill anyone who dares block your path!” Yang Kang loudly shouted, the people around him quickly flying forward.
At the same time, Yang Shen and Yang Ying also issued the same order, their expression ruthless as though they were facing off against their most hated enemies.
However, when these three parties rushed out, everyone was surprised to find that there were two groups who didn’t move.
One of them was Yang Kai’s, the other was Yang Wei’s!
The eldest and youngest brothers seemed as if they were satisfied with their gains just now and had no plan to continue fighting.
“What are they doing? Why aren’t either of them acting?” The onlookers whispered amongst themselves. This six party melee was too interesting, but with two less participants, it just didn’t seem as lively.
“They can’t be scared, right? How could such cowards even think of fighting in the Inheritance War?”
“Come on, what are you doing you stupid pigs? Fight and die!”
“Fuck! Such a good opportunity, how can they not grasp it? If only I belonged to a stronger Sect and was allowed to join one of these Young Lords, I could have grabbed these artifacts here today!”
….
Ignoring these boos and shouts from the crowd, Yang Kai glanced over at Yang Wei and saw a rare smile on his face, as if he was saying he had also seen through this situation.
“Come back!” The next moment, Yang Zhao’s brow furrowed as he called out to his allies.
The cultivators who were excited and ready to show their skills were already halfway to the lake’s centre and were preparing to snatch some artifacts, so when they heard Yang Zhao’s sudden recall order, how could they not be confused?
Some acted quickly and immediately returned to Yang Zhao’s side while some were reluctant to give up this chance, greed flashing across their eyes as they reaching out towards the nearest artifacts in front of them.
In the next instant, a terrible reaction occurred. The moment these cultivators grasped the floating artifacts, from the centre of Po Jing Lake a great distortion suddenly formed and a burst of energy shot forth.
*Boom…!*
Flames ignited, lightning flashed, ice crackled, Sword Qi sliced through the air and waves of blinding light erupted all around. In the sky above Po Jing Lake’s centre, a myriad of deadly attacks spread outwards, indiscriminately striking the group of cultivators at point blank range.
Everyone was stunned.
The spectators who had just been shouting and cursing out Yang Kai and Yang Wei for not participating fell silent.
The group of cultivators who had gone forward to snatch these artifacts had only been on guard against their opposing forces, so when they suddenly came under attack from an unexpected source, they had been caught completely off guard, many of them calling out in shock and surprise.
Most of these people were True Element Boundary cultivators, and none of them had anticipated such a situation.
In truth, this array of attacks was quite messy, and each strike wasn’t very strong, but what made the people cough and vomit blood was the sheer number of them.
Pile enough sand and you can build a tower, collect enough drops of water and you can form a river. Under this massive barrage, how could these True Element Boundary cultivators endure?
In the blink of an eye, the cultivators gathered in the central most position were swept away, broken limbs and hunks of flesh scattered about as fresh blood sprinkled down like rain.
A void nearly twenty meters in diameter had suddenly appeared, almost like everything in that range had been swallowed up by an invisible black hole.
Slightly further away, the cultivators who survived this onslaught rushed to escape, no longer dare to remain, glancing back occasionally at the miserable scene behind them, their faces filled with horror, silently thanking the Heavens for blessing them with good luck.
The entire scene fell quiet and only the sounds of body parts dropping into the lake disturbed the silence.
“Really sinister!” Yang Kai muttered under his cold breath.
These sudden bursts of energy didn’t come from the various cultivators involved, but from the hundred artifacts themselves.
This third batch of artifacts obviously had the True Qi of strong masters sealed within them and were set to unleash an attack when a cultivator tried to seize one; this had completely caught everyone off guard.
This whole setup was a trap! The Yang Family had intended this to happen when they lured everyone here to snatch these artifacts!
The first two waves were meant to reduce the various cultivators’ vigilance, while the third batch hid a killing blow…
“If our people had also rushed over just now…” Su Xiao Yu’s face paled slightly. It wasn’t like she hadn’t witnessed death before. When she went for life experience in that Isolated World’s she had personally killed people, not to mention the scene a little while ago where fifty cultivators had died in battle trying to snatch artifacts.
But seeing several dozen people suddenly cut to pieces in a terrible explosion was still considered a horror scene to her.
“Young Lord Kai, I deeply admire you from the bottom of my soul!” Huo Xing Chen’s shouted as his cheeks twitched slightly. When Yang Kai had ordered them not to participate in this round of artifact snatching, Huo Xing Chen felt he was being too paranoid, but now, it was obvious to him that Yang Kai wasn’t acting cautious, but was already aware.
If they had rushed forward without thinking like last time, they would certainly have suffered a lot!
Realizing this, how could Huo Xing Chen not admire him? Not only the Huo Family’s Young Lord, all of Yang Kai’s allies stared towards him with respectful and awe filled looks.
“Eldest Young Lord, how did you know…” Across the lake, Meng Shan Yi’s expression also changed greatly as he whispered to Yang Wei.
However, Yang Wei simply shook his head, “I didn’t, but so long as Ninth Brother doesn’t move, we won’t either, everyone just needs to follow his lead.”
“You mean, when you saw Yang Kai just now…”
“En.” Yang Wei nodded, “Thankfully Ninth Brother acted cautiously. If it wasn’t for him…”
Meng Shan Yi took a deep breath and no longer dared underestimate Yang Kai. Turning to look at the other Yang Family Young Lords, Yang Zhao’s expression was a mix of fear and relief. Just now, he had fortunately issued a command to fall back in time, so he only lost three cultivators to this trap. As for Yang Kang and the others, their faces were incomparably pale and ugly.
Yang Kang, Yang Shen, and Yang Ying had suffered heavy losses this time. When the third batch of artifacts emerged, each of them had ordered their allies forward as quickly as possible, so the central dead zone was almost completely occupied by their people.
Each of them had lost more than a dozen people, and many others had suffered varying degrees of injuries, including many low-level Immortal Ascension masters.
What’s more, they now appeared even more incompetent compared with Yang Kai and Yang Wei! This made them feel a little angry.
The floating artifacts in the sky seemed to have expended all their stored power in that one burst so at this moment they appeared somewhat dull. When the surrounding cultivators had all retreated back to the lake’s shore, these artifacts also slowly fell back towards the lake.
However, after suffering such a big loss, no one dared to approach these artifacts right away.
“You can grab them now!” Yang Kai squinted and said a faint voice.
“What are you waiting for?” Huo Xing Chen immediately roared.
From Yang Kai’s camp, almost everyone shot forward, leaving behind the various young leaders and a few Immortal Ascension masters.
At the same time, Yang Wei also issued an order, seemingly determined to act as Yang Kai did.
The cultivators from the other camps around Po Jing Lake didn’t miss the movements of these two groups, but given their recent experience, and in the absence of an order to do so, none of them dared act rashly.
Yang Kang and the others struggled for a while but eventually didn’t send their allies out again.
Before these artifacts could fall into the lake, the cultivators from the two groups had all rushed up and wantonly began harvesting them, not suffering any sudden or unexpected attacks.
Unexpectedly, the two sides reaped many gains and returned triumphantly to their own camps without the slightest harm.
Watching this scene play out, Yang Kang and the others’ guts wrenched with remorse. Yang Zhao’s expression was also quite ugly. If he hadn’t hesitated just now, he too would have been able to eat a piece of this pie.
“Young Lord Kai! We obtained fifty four artifacts!” Huo Xing Chen counted the number and excitedly reported, “What’s more, they’re all Earth Grade Top-Rank!”
Yang Kai nodded lightly, his eyes glancing over at Yang Wei before saying, “Eldest Brother’s men over there, don’t clash with them in the future!”
“Understood!” The crowd nodded.
Yang Kai noticed that just now when they had been snatching artifacts, several of his people had attacked Yang Wei’s allies, but those people had only defended themselves and not fought back, it seems they had received some kind of instructions from Yang Wei.
It was for this reason that his people had managed to snatch a few more pieces than his brother’s.
This seemed to be his Eldest Brother’s way of silently forming an alliance with him, otherwise he wouldn’t have given such an order.
“Young Lord Kai, what do we do next? Do we still sit back and watch?” The Huo Family Young Lord asked with a smile.
Yang Kai shook his head. “They’re not fools. After suffering a loss this time, they won’t make the same mistake again. For the next batch we will go forward to snatch things as well, the only difference is now you’ll have to be wary of attacks from enemies and also these artifacts. Maintaining your own safety is top priority, use whatever Martial Skills and artifacts you have to defend yourselves, don’t die too fast!”
Hearing Yang Kai’s instructions, everyone nodded.
The reason why the batch of artifacts had been able to kill so many people just now was because everyone was vigilant against their opponents and didn’t expect to suddenly suffer attacks from these seemingly idle weapons, so they had taken far more hits than they normally would have. Even some Immortal Ascension Boundary masters had suffered as a result.
This was only the third batch of artifacts and there was nearly a hundred corpses in Po Jing Lake already. After all one thousand artifacts had appeared, just how many people would have died?
Thinking of this, whether it was the spectating crowd or the involved cultivators, all of them felt a slight chill.
The Yang Family and the other seven families had really set up a nasty event this time.
“Young Lord Kai, what should we do about these artifacts right now? There’s quite a lot of them.” Huo Xing Chen asked with an aloof snort, but anyone who saw him now would notice he was smirking.
“Have the Duan Mu Family’s five seniors look after them.” Yang Kai thought for a moment before saying.
The number of artifacts that they snatched from now on would only increase. These artifacts varied in shape and size, some were large while others were small. Some of the smallest were the size of rings and earrings while the largest were the size of swords and axes. For those larger objects, everyone holding onto what they had snatched was obviously not a good solution so someone had to be assigned to look after them.
Because of this, a group of masters would be required to stay behind to guard them, and Yang Kai figured his brothers would also act similarly.
Five Immortal Ascension Boundary masters were tasked with guarding these artifacts. Only this level and amount of force could deter enemies from having other thoughts.
But in this way, the number of masters who could be used was also reduced by five.
However, the incident which occurred when the third batch of artifacts appeared had already disrupted the balance of the six camps. If Yang Kang and the others didn’t throw everything they had into dealing with the situation in front of them, they would only fall into a passive state and gain less and less.
Yang Kai furrowed his brow as he pondered about how to capitalize on his current advantage.
The fourth batch of artifacts appeared soon after.
Nothing remarkable happened, the Spirit Array glowed and then artifacts surfaced from the bottom of the lake, but this time, no one acted rashly, although many people still charged in, this time they were significantly more cautious.
Everyone was on guard not only against enemies trying to rob them, but also against the artifacts themselves; after all, any carelessness might lead to their untimely death.
When the cultivators from the six camps reached the center of the lake, all of them suddenly stopped, no one wanted to serve as someone else’s pathfinder, so everyone waited for others to take the lead, contemplating how the artifact’s stored attack could be stimulated and making plans to handle these scenarios.
The scene suddenly became a stalemate, the artifacts suspended mid-air while the cultivators surrounded them, everyone glancing around vigilantly at each other.
Seeing this, Yang Kai frowned; although he also expected such a situation to appear, he too had no good way to deal with it.
Now, whoever came up first would definitely suffer, but they also couldn’t remain in this deadlocked. The fifth batch of artifacts would probably appear soon. If they couldn’t eat this batch, when the fifth one showed up, the situation would only get worse.
Finally, Yang Kang sneered, “Is everyone here so really so timid? Whoever is willing to step forward is who will have an opportunity! I don’t believe it’s impossible to seize these things!”
Just as his voice rang out, within the dense field of artifacts, a weak Spiritual Energy fluctuation emerged.
A Soul Skill! The sudden emergence of this Soul Skill broke the stalemate in an instant.
As an invisible force burst open, it pushed all of the gently floating artifacts into the surrounding crowd.
The energy contained within the artifacts all erupted one after another as a wave of attacks suddenly struck around, causing everyone to hastily dodge or defend themselves.
Yang Kai immediately turned his eyes towards Liu Qing Yao, his brow wrinkling further.
The Soul Skill just now had been his doing. No one knew why Liu Qing Yao was here. He hadn’t offered services to any of the Yang Family Young Lords, nor had he stirred up any trouble until now. Usually, he just stayed in War City, but this time he had quietly run over to Po Jing Lake, his intentions impossible to guess.
But now he had taken the initiative to break this stalemate.
Fortunately, this time everyone was prepared for it. From the moment these artifacts had appeared, everyone had been vigilant against the traps. Fortunately, the grades of these artifacts weren’t too high, so even fully charged with True Qi the power they could display wasn’t too big and the lethality of these attacks was quite low.
Such scattered and disorganized attacks were easy enough for these cultivators to handle as long as they worked together.
Once they had blocked this barrage of strikes, the cultivators once again found themselves in a chaotic competition. After receiving Yang Kai’s orders, his allies didn’t seek trouble with Yang Wei’s group while the reverse was also true. It was as if the two groups had come to a mutual non-aggression agreement.
After the stalemate was broken, the fourth batch of artifacts was carved up.
But before anyone had time to breath, the fifth batch appeared.
What was surprising though was that this batch of artifacts didn’t appear from the bottom of the lake, but instead descended from the sky.
Floating in the air, numerous glowing golden spheres condensed before quickly transforming into a hundred rays of light that shot out in all directions.
The cultivators who had just been grabbing artifacts hadn’t even had time to return to their respective camps when this fifth batch suddenly appeared.
These golden streaks flew about randomly, some of them even spreading as far as the crowd of spectators, causing quite a big disturbance.
The battlefield suddenly expanded because of the unexpected emergence of the fifth batch of artifacts; the chaotic battlefield was no longer limited to Po Jing Lake but had grown to encompass a big part of the surrounding wilderness as well.
With no other choice, even those who had stayed in the six camps had to join in and competed for these newly appeared artifacts.
For a time, the scene descended into pandemonium and everyone, whether they were here to compete or merely spectate, became involved.
Now that things had developed to this point, even the crowd of spectators found themselves becoming riled up, rushing into battle for a chance to grab one of these artifacts.
The Six Yang Family Young Lords constantly issued new instructions to their respective allies, carefully observing both their opponents’ actions and those of the outsiders who chose to involve themselves, adjusting their strategies on the fly.
A point that everyone found particularly interesting was that Yang Wei’s actions were no different from Yang Kai’s, seemingly taking his approach to this situation as a model for his own. Whenever Yang Kai dispatched reinforcements, he too would deploy more manpower. When Yang Kai had his troops pull back, he also had his allies fall back, even when it came to guarding the artifacts his team had already seized, he also used five Immortal Ascension Boundary masters.
Obviously, Yang Kai had noticed this but he didn’t say anything. What his big brother wanted to do was his freedom.
Amongst all the artifacts, one which was shaped like a bell suddenly let out a burst of magical sound that caused those nearby to tremble violently, their True Qi to fluctuate wildly and their blood to flow backwards. After the sound dissipated, those who were nearby who had withstood it dived towards this artifact, stirring up a great melee.
When this artifact had suddenly appeared here, the nearby crowd had boiled over with excitement, all of them using the full strength to try to seize it.
Soon, the artifact had disappeared and no one knew who had taken it away in the chaos.
A burst of curses and complaints erupted from those who hadn’t managed to snatch this artifact. It had been such a rare opportunity. So many artifacts had appeared here, but only one had landed here and now it was gone, who wouldn’t be regretful?
However, when everyone in this area was glancing around, wondering who had obtained the artifact, a pitiful cry rang out and a middle-aged man who seemed to be around forty years old fell to the ground, a great gash on his chest spilling blood and guts as the light in his eyes quickly faded.
Everyone was shocked.
From the middle-aged man’s sleeve, the bell-shaped artifact that had just disappeared emerged and, seemingly attracted by an invisible force, quickly flew out, accelerating towards the centre of Po Jing Lake, returning to the chaotic battlefield.
Everyone was horrified, quickly dismissing any thoughts they had about snatching these treasures.
They knew that this middle-aged man didn’t die for no reason; in trying to seize this artifact for himself, he had brought a fatal disaster upon himself.
Amongst the crowd, there must be masters staring at the movements of these flying artifacts; once an uninvolved bystander couldn’t resist their greed, they would immediately be killed!
Understanding this, the cultivators who had just tried to snatch this artifact couldn’t help showing a happy smile. Fortunately, they hadn’t been the one to obtain that bell-shaped artifact, otherwise the person who was lying dead on the ground wouldn’t be this middle-aged man, but themselves!
The uncompromising and overbearing nature of the Central Capital’s Yang Family was thoroughly illustrated to everyone here.
After numerous fishers amongst the spectators died, the crowd of onlookers no longer dared have any ideas about these artifacts. Once they were moved by their greed, they would find themselves dead.
The battlefield grew more chaotic; after the first few rounds, the time between when batches of artifacts appeared only became shorter.
Often, before a batch had been divided, the next batch had emerged, and everywhere an object appeared people would rush to snatch it.
More and more people died. No matter which camp it was, the losses weren’t small.
Those who remained beside the six Yang Family Young Lords also decreased as time passed; first, half the Immortal Ascension Boundary masters were sent out, then the younger generation leaders such as Huo Xing Chen entered the fray as well.
Each of these young rising stars would be accompanied by a number of strong Immortal Ascension masters, otherwise there would be no way for them to survive in such a turbulent battlefield.
Eventually, beside the six Young Lords, there was only their dedicated Blood Warrior guardian and the Immortal Ascension Boundary masters tasked with guarding their obtained artifacts.
When the seventh batch of artifacts appeared, the battle above Po Jing Lake became even more intense, because there were Heaven Grade artifacts among them.
In the eighth batch, most of the artifacts were Heaven Grade.
The ninth batch, all Heaven Grade…
Everyone who was snatching artifacts had their eyes dyed red. Everyone around them was an enemy. They wantonly unleashed their own True Qi and Spiritual Energy without any scruples. They used any method at their disposal in order to seize these powerful artifacts and bring them back to their camp.
Those who sat on the sidelines and watched the development of the situation all cheered loudly or held their breaths in anticipation.
Cultivators came out, grabbed an artifact, and then fought to bring it back, placing it under the care of the Immortal Ascension Boundary masters in their respective bases. Everyone’s consumption was huge. Fortunately, Xia Ning Chang and the Medicine King’s Valley Alchemists had refined a batch of pills that could quickly supplement True Qi, so in terms of endurance, Yang Kai’s people performed better than anyone else.
All of them had already taken some pills during the course of this battle.
Thus, despite their physical exhaustion, they could still spend their True Qi without any scruples.
Suddenly, a Spiritual Energy pulse blossomed in mid-air, containing an icy cold feeling.
Yang Kai’s eyes immediately lit up.
Soul type artifact! And it was an offensive artifact at that! But most importantly, this Soul type artifact’s characteristics matched Yang Kai’s Spiritual Energy very well!
If he could obtain this Soul type artifact, the power of his Soul Skill would be improved.
Although Yang Kai really wanted to step forward to seize this artifact personally, he somehow managed to press down this impulse, instead calling out to Dong Qing Han who was nearby where the artifact appeared.
Dong Qing Han was accompanied by the Wind and Cloud Dual Guards as usual, so even though he didn’t understand, his protectors did.
The moment the Spiritual Energy pulse broke out, the Wind and Cloud guards also realized the preciousness of this Soul type artifact.
Seeing the look in Yang Kai’s eyes, Dong Qing Han immediately left his original opponent and turned towards the newly appeared artifact, the Wind and Cloud guards following close behind.
Just as he arrived at the location of the artifact, before he had a chance to snatch it, a person appeared before him, smiling deviously as he stared down at Dong Qing Han, “Hey fatty, you’re an ally of Yang Kai, right?”
A blue vein throbbed on Dong Qing Han’s forehead when he heard this, his expression darkening greatly.
When Huo Xing Chen called him a fat brother, he did so in a natural and friendly manner, but the person in front of him obviously didn’t have this meaning.
Dong Qing Han stared at this newcomer with piercing cold eyes, obviously he had been enraged.
Dong Qing Han stared at the young man in front of him and coldly snorted, dodging sideways to try to circumvent him. He knew it wasn’t the time to get bogged down in pointless conflicts, what was important right now was to seize that artifact.
However, the other party obviously had no intention of letting him go, matching his steps in order to block his path again.
Seeing this, Dong Qing Han sneered, his expression still indifference but his aura gradually becoming dangerous.
“Since you’re one of Yang Kai’s allies, you shouldn’t even think of passing me!” The young man firmly declared, his attitude incredibly rampant and arrogant!
“I was wondering who it was, so it is Young Master Lu,” Dong Qing Han spat disdainfully. This youth was no stranger as he had met him before when Lu Song brought materials and troops to join Yang Kai.
But this youth’s vision was far too poor, easily being tricked by Qiu Yi Meng into angering Yang Kai, subsequently leading to him being driven out and then beaten to a pulp by Huo Xing Chen.
After that incident, Lu Song piled all his grievances and hatred onto Yang Kai, so once his wounds had convalesced he immediately sought out Yang Kang and joined his forces in order to seek revenge on Yang Kai.
Among all the Young Lords who were participating in the Inheritance War, three of them held deep hatred towards Yang Kai. One was Xiang Chu of the Xiang Family, one was Nan Sheng of the Nan Family, and the other was Lu Song.
These three all wanted Yang Kai to die without burial for various reasons, so during this battle for artifacts, the three of them had brought their respective forces and specially targeted those who belonged to Yang Kai’s camp.
Lu Song sneer back, “Young Lord Dong, I don’t have any grudge against you, but you choosing to support Yang Kai makes me unhappy. When this Young Master is unhappy, you won’t be happy either, I advise you to abandon Yang Kai now so you don’t end up dying miserably.”
“Try it if you can!” Dong Qing Han knew that Lu Song only wanted to delay him here so he was too lazy to talk any nonsense with him. After he finished speaking, his slightly chubby body flickered and shot off through the sky like a bolt of lightning.
The Wind and Cloud Dual Guards followed quickly, flanking him to his left and right.
Lu Song’s expression sank as he angrily shouted, “Want to leave? In your dreams! Stop them!”
The two Immortal Ascension Boundary Seventh Stage masters accompanying Lu Song instantly moved to intercept the Wind and Cloud Dual Guards.
At the same time, countless black lights emerged from Lu Song’s arms and his expression became ferocious.
These black lights gave off an eerie aura and seemed to contain a kind of frigid energy as they swiftly gathered in Lu Song’s hands.
Quickly, two washbasin sized spheres of dark energy appeared atop Lu Song’s palms and pulsed with murderous intent.
Pushing his palms forward, the two masses of energy soared through the air and circled towards Dong Qing Han, attempted to trap him.
Although Lu Song was an arrogant fool, he was still the Young Lord of a first-class family. After so many years of cultivation in such a good environment, obviously he had some decent means.
With Lu Song’s True Element Boundary Seventh Stage cultivation in conjunction with this powerful artifact based attack, he had more than enough capital to thoroughly suppress an opponent at the same cultivation realm as him.
Once someone was caught in this trap, it would be like they fell into a mire, slowing them down significantly.
Dong Qing Han revised his opinion of Lu Song upon seeing this strike. With both of them using high grade artifacts, and given the small difference in their cultivation realms, if they were to really fight, Dong Qing Han would have to spend quite a bit of time to beat Lu Song.
Unfortunately, right now, time was the one thing Dong Qing Han didn’t have enough of.
Tracing the movements of the two energy balls flying towards him, Dong Qing Han took a deep breath and with a great shout, his somewhat fat body quickly shrank, suddenly transforming him from a fatty to a well-built handsome youth. With a booming thunder-like crash, a great crescent blade of wind suddenly appeared and intercepted the two dark energy balls.
The intense collision led to an explosion of energy which completely dissipated both attacks.
Lu Song’s expression changing to one of shock as he momentarily froze, allowing Dong Qing Han to open up a fair distance between them, his now thin body wrapped in a layer of wind which greatly boosted his speed.
No one knew Dong Qing Han cultivated a wind attribute Secret Art. The first impression most had of this fatty was that he didn’t seem nimble, but right now Dong Qing Han’s movements had become sharp and exquisite, like a soaring hawk racing through the forest canopy.
By the time Lu Song recovered, it was already too late for him to catch up.
However, while Dong Qing Han was delayed by Lu Song’s mysterious artifact, another cultivator had managed to seize the target artifact. Fortunately, this person was only an ordinary True Element Eighth Stage cultivator and he was easily knocked back after a single exchange between him and Dong Qing Han.
Realizing that although the two of them had the equal cultivations, he was not this newcomer’s opponent at all, the man immediately lost heart and awkward threw away the Soul type artifact.
Whether intentionally or unintentionally, the direction he had thrown the artifact happened to be towards the crowd of spectators.
Seeing this, Lu Song laughed and turned back to the artifact.
Dong Qing Han glanced at the culprit angrily for a moment before not wasting anymore time on him, quickly darting towards the direction the artifact had flown.
Wrapped in a faint glowing radiance, the artifact flew through the air and gradually fell towards a group of spectators. With the previous experience, how could this group of bored onlookers dare get involved again? The group quickly scattered in all directions, none of them willing to even touch this artifact.
Only one man and two women remained where they stood.
The twenty seven or so year old youth and the pair of beautiful twin sisters stared blankly at the artifact flying towards them, all of them smiling wryly in their hearts.
According to its current trajectory, if it wasn’t intercepted by someone else, this artifact would fall almost precisely on top of these three people’s heads, like it had been guiding to them by some invisible force.
As these three youths watched, some hesitance appeared in their eyes, but eventually they didn’t move like everyone else.
Soon, the artifact came to a stop right above one of the sister’s heads, this enchanting flower casually reaching out and grabbing it.
“You’re way too reckless!” The young man muttered, his face paling slightly. Everyone who had tried to snatch one of these artifacts so far had been silently killed a moment later, even catching one temporarily was a big risk.
Those who were here to watch the excitement also showed a trace of pity on their faces, these two sisters were young, beautiful, and enchanting, if they were suddenly killed for no reason it would be quite tragic.
This bold action was also seen by Lu Song and Dong Qing Han. Lu Song, who first arrived, let out an arrogant laugh of victory as he extended his hand, “Girl, hand it over, or you’ll die!”
Although Dong Qing Han’s expression was cold, his heart was filled with anxiety, but there was nothing he could do. From the perspective of these spectators, it didn’t matter if the one in front of them was from the Dong Family or Lu Family, in order to avoid being killed, they would naturally choose to deliver any artifact they caught to the first person who asked.
If this artifact was really picked up by Lu Song, it would be quite hard to get back.
Sure enough, the young woman looked up at Lu Song and flashed a fascinating smile as she nodded, “Okay.”
The charming smile coupled with her enchanting voice stimulated Lu Song greatly, so even in this chaotic and dangerous situation, he couldn’t help feeling his pulse quicken slightly.
Just as he was experiencing this gaff, the young woman casually tossed the artifact in her hands; however, upon leaving her fingers it shot out as fast as a meteor, crossing over Lu Song’s head and flying over to Dong Qing Han.
Dong Qing Han was already on edge, alert to any possible danger lurking around him, so when the artifact suddenly flew at him he instinctively reached out and grabbed it. Startled, he stared at his hand then at the young woman a short distance away, his brow furrowing slightly.
It was as if… he had seen this beautiful young woman somewhere before.
Standing there with his still outstretched hand, Lu Song felt thoroughly embarrassed, and his expression quickly became gloomy, glaring at the young woman as he angrily roared, “You court death!”
The True Qi in his body stirred as he threw a punch filled with murderous intent towards the young woman, his face devoid of any mercy.
On the other hand, the young woman maintained her perfect smile as she lightly waved her hand.
In an instant, the space in front of the young woman warped and an impenetrable barrier formed that not only blocked Lu Song’s killing strike but even reflected it back at him, sending him tumbling awkwardly through the air.
Gasps resounded all around and even Dong Qing Han was dumbfounded.
No one had thought that this enchanting young woman who appeared as delicate as a flower was actually hiding such immense strength.
So young, yet able to force the Young Lord of a first-class family back with a single casual blow, such ability wasn’t something an ordinary person could possess.
“Hmph!” The young woman’s smiling face quickly changed to one of disgust and disdain as she snorted contemptuously. She turned around and disappeared into the crowd in the next instant with her twin and young man hurriedly chasing after her.
A short distance away, Lu Song was still in shock, unable to even utter any words of response. When he confronted Dong Qing Han, even if he was at a disadvantage, he wasn’t powerless to resist like just now; that young woman was obviously not an average person! She was clearly much stronger than both him or Dong Qing Han.
His head filled with complex thoughts, Lu Song’s face gradually turned crimson as his True Qi fluctuated unstably.
Against another first-class family Young Lord his skills had proved inferior, and now even a random nameless spectator had easily bested him, naturally he felt he had lost a great deal of face.
After finally composing himself, his first thought was to order his henchmen to seize that young woman so he could torture her to relieve the hate in his heart but he quickly discovered that she and her companions had already disappeared, causing him to feel helpless and depressed.
“Lu Song, this artifact, this Young Master will graciously accept!” Dong Qing Han raised the Soul type artifact in his hand and loudly declared with a smug look on his face.
The Wind and Cloud Dual Guards also broke off their fight with the two Lu Family masters and immediately returned to Dong Qing Han’s side.
“Just you wait!” Lu Song angrily spat.
Staring back at him, Dong Qing Han’s expression became serious as he earnestly said, “Young Lord Lu, I advise you to leave War City and the Central Capital, or else you will die sooner or later, those who have offended my cousin have never had good ends!”
“We’ll see who dies first, him or me!” Lu Song shot back , not appreciating this advice at all.
Dong Qing Han shook his head slowly, no longer concerning himself with Lu Song and flying back to Yang Kai’s camp.
The confrontation here was only a small event in comparison to the entire battlefield, and the shocking performance of the mysterious young woman was only witnessed by a small group of people who quickly forgot about her as they continued watching the chaotic scene in front of them.
Only Dong Qing Han, on his way back, continued to furrow his brow, unable to recall just where he had seen those beautiful twin sisters, their faces were familiar to him but the impression they gave him just now didn’t match with anyone he had met before which confused him greatly.
What he cared more about though, was the strength of the young woman who had just taken action, there was no doubt she was even stronger than he was!
The ninth batch of Artifacts finally for released and the whole lake was decorated with sparse sprinkles of Heaven Grade artifacts. Blinded by greed and a fervent lust of power, every battle got even more frenzied. As their excitement rose, so did the bloodshed.
Everyone knew that there was only a limited number of treasure for them, so once one managed to get his hands on a piece of treasure, he would be targeted by innumerable people around him. This placed the holder’s life in a precarious situation whereby holding onto his life was difficult enough; let alone the artifact in his hands.
Even so, the cultivators still attempted to take on the risk. This led to the artifacts swapping hands at breakneck pace.
Everyone’s entire focus had been attracted by this batch of Heaven Grade artifacts except for the six Yang Family Young Lords!
Since the battle for these artifacts had begun, none of them had ever moved, only deploying their allies one by one until now only their respective Blood Warrior was left beside them.
The six of them were constantly on alert, secretly observing the movements of their opponents. Yang Kai, Yang Wei, and Yang Zhao didn’t appear anxious while Yang Kang, Yang Shen, and Yang Ying couldn’t help showing some slight agitation. When a cultivator from their camp lost an artifact they would wear bitter expressions, and when they successfully snatched one they would show happy smiles, especially when the grade of the artifact was good.
However, no matter who it was, all of them were quietly waiting for the emergence of the Mysterious Grade artifacts, which they knew would soon appear.
Suddenly, a few thousand meters up, a few faint flashes of light like twinkling stars emerged and an extraordinary fluctuation of energy spread from them.
Everyone felt these energy fluctuations and couldn’t help but look up.
What they saw was these points of light getting brighter and brighter as they approached the lake surface at an incredible speed, like brilliant falling stars with five coloured tails trailing behind them.
The six brothers expressions all brightened as flames lit in their hearts .
The Mysterious Grade artifacts had finally appeared!
What’s more, there were a full eight of them!
This was the grand finale of this snatching battle, the most precious eight artifacts!
Mysterious Grade was the highest grade in this world, whether it was an artifact or pill! Refining Mysterious Grade pills was extremely difficult and refining Mysterious Grade artifacts was even harder, so almost every single Mysterious Grade artifact was equivalent to a first-class forces’ foundational inheritance.
In one shot producing eight Mysterious Grade artifacts, only the Central Capital’s Eight Great Families had such a heritage.
Soon, the eight Mysterious Grade artifacts that appeared in the sky had fallen to a height of a thousand meters and were still picking up speed.
Whether it was the crowd of spectators or the battling cultivators, all of them felt as if a mountain like pressure was descending upon them, this aura was like the precursor to the world’s imminent destruction, causing everyone to shudder in fear.
“Run!” Someone exclaimed as they darted away.
Since the emergence of the third batch of artifacts, every artifact had a single strike sealed within it. If a cultivator wanted to seize it, they first had to endure this attack.
These eight Mysterious Grade artifacts were obviously the same. An attack from a Mysterious Grade artifact was difficult for even an Immortal Ascension Boundary Seventh or Eighth Stage master to endure, so what chance would these casual spectators stand?
As soon as this cry rang out, the crowd suddenly transformed into a pack of stray dogs fleeing in panic, each of them activating their own movement skills to get as far away from Po Jing Lake as possible.
Not only did these spectators escape, even the cultivators who had been snatching artifact until now also hurriedly withdrew in order to avoid a head on collision.
The six Yang Family Young Lords didn’t move, all of them staring fixedly at the eight falling stars, the light in their eyes glowing brighter with every breath.
Eight hundred meters, seven hundred…
At this distance, the outline of these eight artifacts could be seen clearly; they were all different shapes and sizes. If one didn’t spend a great deal of time to thoroughly research it, they wouldn’t know what these artifacts really did.
Yang Kai had already released his powerful Divine Sense and inspected the eight artifacts as best he could, most interested in one that appeared to be a mirror.
This mirror revealed a mysterious frigid energy fluctuation, indicating it was probably an artifact with a cold attribute. Although what Yang Kai cultivated was the True Yang Secret Art, he still felt that this mirror may be more powerful than the other artifacts.
Five hundred meters…
As if they had discussed it beforehand, all the Yang Family Young Lords who until now hadn’t moved at all suddenly flew up in to the sky, rushing to intercept these eight artifacts.
Mid-flight, the six brothers silently met each other’s eyes and confirmed each other’s goals. Obviously they didn’t want to have any disputes at the outset.
There was a total of eight artifacts so each of them could grab at least one of them, as for the remaining two pieces, they would belong to whoever could snatch them.
Fortunately for Yang Kai, none of his brothers seemed to have eyes on his goal. With the roles of these Mysterious Grade artifacts still unclear, everyone naturally had the intention to first grab one while avoiding unnecessary fights.
The distance between the six brothers and the eight artifacts quickly shrunk.
Everyone’s True Qi circulated fiercely and the six Blood Warriors who followed the six brothers also gathered their strength.
In a flash, twelve people and eight artifacts collided.
The speed of the six Blood Warriors was a bit faster, rushing ahead of their Young Lords and pushing their True Qi to defend themselves as they each reached out towards their respective target artifacts.
A full powered attack from a Mysterious Grade artifact was not something any of the Young Lords could resist, so the Blood Warriors had to resist these strikes first before they could attempt to seize them
Accompanied by a burst of light so bright that observers couldn’t open their eyes, a fierce wave of energy instantly burst out.
Six muffled snorts rang out at the same time, and from inside the brilliant light, a mysterious pattern seemed to appear.
*Shua shua*, the remaining two unattended artifacts fell to the side, attracting six hot glances, but none of them rushed to seize them, even Yang Kai didn’t dare touch the restriction placed on these Mysterious Grade artifacts.
However, under the gazes of these six people, a lone figure suddenly shot towards one of the two drifting artifacts from below. This person seemed to have flown in right after the six brothers took action.
After seeing the face of this person, Yang Kang couldn’t help but curse, “Bastard, Liu Qing Yao!”
The newcomer was none other than the Central Capital’s First Young Lord. Like the Yang Family Young Lords, he hadn’t taken any action before now, but when the Mysterious Grade artifacts appeared, he finally moved, obviously he had come here with the same goal as the Yang Family brothers.
“Courting death!” Yang Shen coldly snorted, how could the Mysterious Grade artifact’s attack be so easy to bear? Liu Qing Yao was only an Immortal Ascension Boundary Third Stage, once he touched the restriction around this artifact, even if he didn’t die he would be seriously injured.
But Liu Qing Yao didn’t seem to panic at all, his True Qi suddenly bursting out, causing the robe he was wearing to shine vibrantly. On his robe, images of a great river and a round crescent moon appeared, there was even a fish swimming in the water giving it an almost lifelike appearance. The river surged upwards in great billowing blue waves, forming into a raging torrent which quickly shrouded Liu Qing Yao’s figure.
As this happened, the crescent moon shot out a thousand rays of light towards the Mysterious Grade artifact while the seemingly ordinary fish leapt from the water and transformed into a great and imposing dragon which opened its mouth bit towards the artifact as well.
“Water Moon Blue Wave Armour!” Yang Zhao exclaimed, apparently recognizing this treasure.
Yang Kai’s brow wrinkled. Although he had never heard of this Water Moon Blue Wave Armour, Liu Qing Yao daring to snatch this Mysterious Grade artifact alone was obviously because of it.
This was a rare treasure, capable of both offence and defence; it looked like a Mysterious Grade artifact itself!
Liu Qing Yao was the First Young Lord of the Central Capital. He was also the Liu Family’s inheritor; him having a Mysterious Grade artifact of his own was plausible.
When the dragon and moonlight hit the Mysterious Grade artifact’s barrier, the seal was immediately stimulated and countless golden lights shone out, quickly overwhelming the thousand moon beams.
The dragon struggled for a while longer but eventually lost to the golden lights, bursting into mist and disappearing.
Liu Qing Yao took this opportunity to grab the artifact before the countless golden lights reached him, causing the water curtain surrounding his body to tremble fiercely.
Yang Kang and others secretly stole glances at the situation, praying with all their hearts that Liu Qing Yao would either be repelled or killed.
However, to their disappointment, when the golden lights faded completely, Liu Qing Yao remained. The Central Capital’s First Young Lord stood there, his expression indifferent as he firmly grasped the artifact in his hand.
Just when everyone thought he had succeeded, Liu Qing Yao’s expression changed sharply as his eyes bulged.
From the artifact, suddenly a burst of blue energy like a ribbon shot out and attempted to entangled Liu Qing Yao, immediately wrapping him up in a few layers. This blue energy was extremely strange, even his Water Moon Blue Wave Armour was unable to impede its progress.
“Resist!” Liu Qing Yao angrily roared, the water curtain around his body fiercely swelling, finally slowing the speed at which the blue energy was engulfing him.
The six Yang Family Young Lords saw this unexpected development and were all stunned; however, in the next moment Yang Wei’s expression changed, turning to his nearby Blood Warrior and shouting, “Get back!”
Unfortunately, his warning came too late, Liu Qing Yao had relied on his own artifacts to block the attack of and seize this artifact, how could the six Blood Warriors not have done the same?
Although they didn’t have their own Mysterious Grade artifacts, but they had superb cultivation and strength.
The six Blood Warriors had already grasped the artifacts their respective Young Lords had sought, and by the time Yang Wei shouted out, blue ribbons of energy had already emerged and shot towards the six Blood Warriors, attempting to bind them in place.
As soon as they saw these blue energy ribbons, the six Blood Warriors’ expressions changed greatly. Obviously, they knew the details of these blue ribbons. Without a moment’s hesitation, all six of these masters flew back at their fastest speed, but the blue energy ribbons pursued relentlessly, and quickly overtook them.
No one managed to escape, all of them wound up captured.
Unlike ordinary ropes, these blue energy ribbons immediately disappear into their bodies after they had fully engulfed the six Blood Warriors and didn’t affect their freedom of movement.
Across the distance between them, the six Blood Warriors all looked at each other and with depressed expressions.
“This damn thing!” Tu Feng sighed.
The others also gnashed their teeth as they cursed, “Too sinister!”
Ying Jiu didn’t say a word as he rushed over to Yang Kai’s side and handed over the mirror like artifact before he rapidly flew back to the lakeshore.
Yang Kai stared at his back and frowned. Although he did appear to be wounded, the current Ying Jiu gave him a very different feeling from usual, almost like a tiger that had all its teeth pulled out.
Not only Ying Jiu, but the other Blood Warriors too handed over their seized artifacts before immediately departing.
“What just happened?” Yang Kang muttered, holding a ring like artifact in his hand, completely confused.
“Big Brother, if it’s convenient, would you be so kind as to enlighten your brothers?” Yang Zhao smiled and looked towards Yang Wei.
Just now Yang Wei had apparently seen some clues, so he had immediately tried to warn the Blood Warriors to withdraw. Unfortunately, he was not in time.
Yang Wei surely understood what this mysterious blue ribbon was.
Hearing Yang Zhao’s request, Yang Wei’s face remained indifferent, obviously not planning to reply, but when he turned and saw Liu Qing Yao who was still entangled by the blue ribbon and unable to move, he frowned slightly before nodding.
Even if he revealed this piece of information, it would do him no harm. What’s more, even if he did not speak, so long as these his brothers went back and asked the Blood Warrior, they would understand.
Although Liu Qing Yao relied on the power of the Water Moon Blue Wave Armour to block the blue energy ribbon from binding his body, it obviously was unable to completely resolve it either, so when he saw Yang Wei nod, he too couldn’t help glancing towards him and listening carefully.
“My Yang Family has four Grand Elders, all of whom are Above Immortal Ascension Boundary masters. With the addition of the Patriarch, that makes a total of five.” Yang Wei began calmly, “The other seven families also have roughly the same number, but these Above Immortal Ascension Boundary masters are all old people who almost never fight anymore. Even in the recent war with the Ash-Grey Cloud Evil Land, only one or two were dispatched. Among these Grand Elders, one of them is particularly well known for his binding techniques: The one who originated from the Blood Warrior Hall!”
“Huang Jiu Zhou?” Yang Zhao was shocked.
Of the four Yang Family Grand Elders, only one was from the Blood Warrior Hall! When he was young, he was also just a Yang Family Blood Warrior, but over many years he made great contributions to the Yang Family and was able to break through to the Above Immortal Ascension Boundary, reaching the peak of this world’s martial dao and was bestowed the rank of Grand Elder.
Every member of the Yang Family knew his name as he was the strongest living member of the Blood Warrior Hall. He was held up as an example to all, proof that if one cultivated diligently enough he could one day reach the same height as Huang Jiu Zhou.
“En,” Yang Wei nodded and pointed his finger at Liu Qing Yao. “These things stem from his hand! The Qi Binding Seal locks its target’s True Qi inside their own meridians, making it impossible to use!”
“These things were traps placed on them…” Yang Zhao nodded before suddenly realizing something, “Then our Blood Warriors…”
“Their True Qi is also sealed right now. Although they’ll be able to break the Qi Binding Seal on their own with their strength, without two or three months it will be impossible!” Yang Wei whispered.
All the Yang Family Young Lords suddenly wore ugly expressions.
Originally, they each had only two Blood Warriors at their disposal. One was responsible for guarding them, the other for guarding the flag. However, now each of them had lost one of these powerful guardians to Huang Jiu Zhou’s sinister methods. In the future, whether it was attacking or defending, the power available to each of them would decrease sharply.
Considering all this, everyone turned to look at Yang Kai, and could not help but envying him.
Only Yang Kai had managed to gather three Blood Warriors, so he could afford this loss.
Huang Jiu Zhou planting these Qi Binding Seals in the eight Mysterious Grade artifacts was obviously the Yang Family’s arrangement, another means to accelerate the progress of the Inheritance War. With six fewer Blood Warriors available to stabilize the situation, the battles would surely become more dangerous and consequential.
“Serves you right!” Yang Kang looked at Liu Qing Yao who was still struggling with the Qi Binding Seal and gloated. “Young Lord Liu, even my Yang Family Blood Warriors couldn’t escape these Qi Binding Seals, I think you should just accept your fate. Obediently hand over the artifact in your hand and we brother’s won’t hold this affront against you.”
Liu Qing Yao’s expression remained cold and indifferent, snorting dismissively before ignoring Yang Kang’s banters.
Seeing this, Yang Kang became a little annoyed, coldly saying, “Liu Qing Yao, even if you refuse to accept reality you have no choice. This artifact snatching battle was my Yang Family’s arrangement. What rright do you have to interfere?”
“It’s a Mysterious Grade artifact. Of course I want one for myself!” Liu Qing Yao finally responded, his tone neither cold nor hot, not a trace of panic despite being trapped.
There were not many Mysterious Grade artifacts in this world, and the Yang Family suddenly coming up with so many at once would clearly be too big a loss. In all likelihood, these eight artifacts were donated by all Eight Great Families, one from each family, so why else would the numbers be so coincidental?
Liu Qing Yao being tempted by these Mysterious Grade artifacts was understandable, as was his decision to participate in order to snatch one.
This explained why he came here this time, but no one had expected that the final eight artifacts not only had a fierce attack sealed within them, but also had Huang Jiu Zhou’s Qi Binding Seal hidden inside as well. This two layered trap had actually simultaneously ensnared six Blood Warriors.
“Since you’ve admitted so, then don’t blame us brothers for acting in kind.” Yang Kang sneered glancing around at the other Young Lords, “Who would like try grabbing Young Lord’s Liu’s artifact first?”
The sealed attacks and Qi Binding Seals in that artifact had already been triggered, anyone could take it away at will now. As for the remaining artifact, it had already fallen into Po Jing Lake.
Yang Kang’s proposal made Yang Shen and Yang Ying very excited, suddenly showing an eagerness to try.
If he was at his peak, none of them would dare have any ideas about fighting Liu Qing Yao, but now all his strength was being used to resist the Qi Binding Seal, how could he have any spare energy to fight others?
Yang Wei didn’t say anything and Yang Zhao simply stood there smiling, no one able to figure out what he was thinking.
Yang Kang couldn’t work up the courage to ask either of them so he eventually turned his attention to Yang Kai, “Ninth Brother, say something.”
Yang Kai shrugged his shoulders in response, “You help yourself.”
“Ninth Brother!” Yang Kang’s expression suddenly became grim, “Although we are all opponents, right now you should give Fifth Brother some face, the thing he snatched originally should be ours.”
Yang Kai simply shook his head and firmly declared, “If I want something, I’ll grab it myself.”
“Fine!” Yang Kang sneered, no longer haggling over things, turning to stare at Liu Qing Yao, “Young Lord Liu, don’t struggle. It’s pointless to resist.”
Liu Qing Yao sneered back, his expression becoming cold as his True Qi suddenly surged. At the same time, the Water Moon Blue Wave Armour on his body also began flickering and the patterns of rivers, fish, and crescent moons gradually became illusory.
Yang Kang and the others expression rapidly changed as they yelled out, “Liu Qing Yao, are you crazy!? That’s a Mysterious Grade artifact!”
Liu Qing Yao didn’t respond, instead pushing his True Qi even harder.
*Pa…* The river pattern on the Water Moon Blue Wave Armour suddenly burst, and with the disappearance of the river, the Qi Binding Seal cracked slightly.
*Pa…*
The crescent moon disappeared next, further fragmenting the Qi Binding Seal.
*Pa…*
With the final fish pattern disappearing, the blue Qi Binding Seal also shattered like a broken mirror and burst open.
The Water Moon Blue Wave Armour worn by Liu Qing Yao simultaneously disintegrated and scattered into the winds.
The surrounding glow gradually dimmed as this rare and precious Mysterious Grade artifact finally died.
Like a tiger which had just escaped from its cage, Liu Qing Yao let out a long breath before gazing sharply at everyone around him, “A trivial Qi Binding Seal wants to restrain me, Liu Qing Yao? You Yang Family people look down on me far too much!”
Yang Kang and the others trembled fiercely, staring blankly at the Central Capital’s First Young Lord, shaking their heads slowly as they grinned wryly.
Having witnessed this display, Yang Kai’s eyes also narrowed, secretly admiring Liu Qing Yao. This unyielding young man clearly demonstrated he would rather break than bend.
On the other hand, the six Blood Warriors failed to resist the Qi Binding Seal not because they were weak, but because they didn’t have a heritage like Liu Qing Yao’s.
Liu Qing Yao was only able to break free of the shackles of the Qi Binding Seal by sacrificing his own Water Moon Blue Wave Armour; the price could only be described as enormous.
Moreover, not every artifact was capable of pulling this off, this was clearly one of the Water Moon Blue Wave Armour’s last resort abilities.
“Do you want to fight alone or together? This Liu will accept any challenge!” Liu Qing Yao declared as he overlooked the six brothers proudly.
Yang Kang’s face couldn’t help twitching.
Just now he had been eager to start something with Liu Qing Yao, but now that the situation had taken a sharp turn, he didn’t dare to step forward. If he were to be defeated by Liu Qing Yao here, he would lose all face.
Yang Shen and Yang Ying’s expression were also ugly, unconsciously glancing over towards Yang Wei, counting on him to say something.
Now that Liu Qing Yao had uttered this challenge, if none of the brothers said anything, not only would they lose face, the Yang Family would as well. Once word of such an incident spread, the rest of the world would start thinking that the Yang Family was just a soft persimmon!
“The artifact is right here!” Liu Qing Yao lifted the artifact he had just snatched up high and sneered, “If any of you can withstand three of my moves, this Liu will willingly hand it over!”
Being repeatedly provoked so made the Yang Family’s Young Lords all look sullen.
Even Yang Zhao, the best among them at hiding his thoughts, couldn’t help showing signs of anger.
This bloody battle was their stage, an internal struggle for supremacy, but now this Liu Qing Yao had decided to butt in and casually disdain them, how could they not be angered?
However, out of all of them, the strongest Yang Wei was still just an Immortal Ascension Boundary Second Stage and he had already fought Liu Qing Yao once so he had an understanding of the depths of his strength. If he didn’t dare to step forward to meet Liu Qing Yao’s challenge, what chance would anyone else have?
Everyone felt completely embarrassed!
Especially considering the fact that the Yang Family was widely recognized as the head of the Central Capital’s Eight Great Families.
Yang Wei’s brow furrowed, knowing that maintaining this stalemate was not a solution. Liu Qing Yao had spoken loudly, if none of them fought him now, it would only cause the crowds spectating down below to underestimate the Yang Family.
Just as he was about to agree, taking on a personal embarrassment to preserve the Yang Family’s reputation, Yang Kai grinned and took a step forward, casually asking, “Whoever can withstand three of your moves was it?”
Liu Qing Yao immediately frowned, not having thought that the first to answer his challenge would be Yang Kai, but he still nodded once and replied, “Correct!”
“Block three of your attacks and the artifact is mine?”
“En.”
“Good! Said it and meant it! Let me try!” Yang Kai nodded lightly, no signs of tension on his face at all.
As soon as he spoke these words, Yang Wei hurriedly objected, “Ninth Brother, don’t be impulsive.”
“There’s no problem.” Yang Kai waved his hand and said, “Big Brother, just stand back and watch, I’ll prove that our Yang Family people can’t be bullied so easily.”
Yang Wei looked sluggish.
Yang Zhao and the others were also stunned, not understanding where their youngest brother had picked up such courage. Although they all knew from the past few battles that Yang Kai’s own combat power wasn’t weak, but this time his opponents was also not ordinary.
This was the Central Capital’s younger generation’s well known first expert!
Everyone couldn’t help thinking Yang Kai was simply acting rashly out of anger.
With his True Element Boundary Eighth Stage cultivation, facing off against an Immortal Ascension Boundary Third Stage master, he basically had no hope of winning.
No one knew what Yang Kai had to back him up. The Mysterious Grade Artifact had just fallen to his hands, and had not been refined yet. Therefore, it was of no use.
Not only were the Yang Family brothers amazed, but even the cultivators below who had come to spectate also showed shocked expressions. All of them now, concentrating on the sky, holding their breaths as they waited silently.
The actions of the Yang Family’s Young Lords had been the focus of everyone attention just now, so the entire scene that had just played out was obviously witnessed by all of them.
Floating midair, Yang Wei felt a little worried. He too didn’t know where his Ninth Brother’s confidence came from. He had long ago thought that that Yang Kai was mysterious and powerful, but after all, that was just his speculations. Before the snatching battle had begun when he had a verbal conflict with Liu Qing Yao, it was indeed Yang Kai he was thinking of, but he had not openly declared so at the time.
If Yang Kai were to mature, he would definitely be qualified to compete with Liu Qing Yao, but now… it was still too early.
After Yang Kang and others stared blankly for a while, they all shook their heads and stepped back, preparing to watch the good show. Although they were brothers with Yang Kai, right now they were also opponents. When he was defeated here by Liu Qing Yao, it would no doubt be a stain on his reputation.
Yang Kai’s radiance had been far too strong for far too long, and now they finally had a chance to see him knocked down a few notches.
“Is this kid crazy?” There were some ridiculing and disdainful voices whispering amongst the spectating crowd, “Daring to fight with the Central Capital’s First Young Lord, these Yang Family direct descendants really are too arrogant!”
“What do you know? In this situation, whether they fight or not, the Yang Family will lose face. Them sending out the youngest isn’t a bad plan. Even if he loses, the Yang Family will also be able to say ‘it’s not that our Yang Family isn’t as good as the Liu Family, it’s just that everyone is too young’.”
There were plenty of self-proclaimed smart and savvy people who expressed this idea, gaining the support of many people who nodded in agreement.
However, there were still some people who chose to quietly watch Yang Kai, wondering if he would show them some kind of earth-shattering means.
These people thought that Yang Kai didn’t seem like an arrogant and boastful youth. Since he dared accept the Central Capital’s First Young Lord’s challenge, he either had mental problems, or his real ability far exceeded everyone’s expectations.
At that moment, everyone’s eyes converged on these two people, as for the cultivators from the six different camps fighting over Heaven Grade artifacts; no one seemed to care anymore.
In full view to the public, Yang Kai showed no signs of nervousness, just standing mid-air like a statue, staring back at Liu Qing Yao lightly, nodding casually as he called out, “Young Lord Liu, whenever you’re ready!”
Liu Qing Yao couldn’t help but frown, a touch of resentment creeping into his indifferent expression as he snorted, “I too want to see how you can block three of my moves!”
Just as his voice fell, a terrifying Spiritual Energy broke out.
This Spiritual Energy was filled with ruinous intent, coalescing in an instant and then piercing through the sky like a lance which could rip apart anyone’s mental defences.
When this Spiritual Energy broke out, it was as if Liu Qing Yao was a sleeping dragon which had just awaken, bringing destruction with him.
The Soul type artifacts on all of the Yang Family Young Lords flashed brilliantly as invisible forces appeared around them, blocking the residual waves of Liu Qing Yao’s Divine Sense attack.
Everyone’s face changed, even Yang Wei’s usually indifferent expression became dignified. The last time he had fought against Liu Qing Yao, although he had ultimately lost, it hadn’t been a miserable defeat, but now it was apparent to him that Liu Qing Yao at the time had held back.
No wonder he dared to arrogantly declare no one could resist three of his moves! Even if he had promoted to the Immortal Ascension Boundary Second Stage now, Yang Wei still felt it would be difficult for him to withstand three moves.
This guy was different from the Yang Family Young Lords who didn’t wear any Mysterious Grade artifacts. With these high-grade artifacts to act as amplifiers, Liu Qing Yao could display much more strength than his Immortal Ascension Boundary Third Stage cultivation would suggest!
*Weng weng weng…*
A strange sound echoed through the sky, like a howling voice that penetrated deep into one’s ears, causing one to feel like they had suddenly sunk into a violent destructive vortex. It seemed that even the Heavens couldn’t withstand the impact of such a Divine Sense attack and would soon collapse.
“Such strong Spiritual Energy!” In the crowd, those with higher cultivations unconsciously exclaiming.
As for those with lower strength, under the violent energy fluctuations, their faces contorted painfully.
Many suddenly felt that even gasping for breath became difficult, as if there was a mountain weighing down on their heads, involuntarily stimulating the idea of bending their knees in worship.
“Ninth Brother, be careful!” Yang Wei called out as he hurriedly withdrew, avoiding the center of the Spiritual Energy’s impact. Yang Zhao and the others also quickly retreated a hundred paces before finally stopping.
“Impressive!” At the centre of the vortex of Spiritual Energy, Yang Kai’s eyes brightened and couldn’t help praising.
Liu Qing Yao’s Divine Sense attack, even if it was achieved with the assistance of a Mysterious Grade artifact, indicated that his foundation was quite solid, at least more so than he had anticipated.
Yang Kai estimated that Liu Qing Yao’s Divine Sense strength wasn’t inferior to an average Immortal Ascension Boundary Fifth or Sixth Stage master.
Liu Qing Yao’s eyes sharply gawked at Yang Kai. Since he was planning on using a potent Divine Sense attack for his first strike, he obviously did not wish for Yang Kai to last all three moves.
He too had believed that Yang Kai had stepped forward because he was the youngest, so even if he lost it wouldn’t be too shameful. Therefore, he wanted to thoroughly defeat him in a single blow.
But soon, Liu Qing Yao’s eyes flashed.
Having taken his Divine Sense attack head on, his opponent hadn’t suffered at all. Even Yang Wei had to avoid the aftermath of his strike by a hundred meters, yet this Yang Kai who stood in the centre of his Spiritual Energy explosion acted as if he had been hit by a nothing more than a light spring breeze. Forget about showing any discomfort, all that could be seen on his face was strong fighting intent.
After a short time, the horrible Spiritual Energy dissipated and Yang Kai still stood, completely unphased.
He hadn’t taken any damage from this Divine Sense attack!
“Heavens! How can this be? How can he be safe? Am I seeing things?”
“Impossible, absolutely impossible.”
“An Immortal Ascension cultivator has an absolute advantage over those at the True Element Boundary. Is the youngest Young Lord of the Yang Family wearing some kind of very high-grade Soul type defensive artifact?”
Everyone among the crowd of spectators who witnessed this confrontation clamoured, many of them refusing to believe their own eyes. Just now, when Liu Qing Yao’s horrible Spiritual Energy erupted, all of them had thought that when the dust had settled, Yang Kai would definitely be seriously injured and suffer a steep price for his arrogance, but now, the result was far too different from their expectations.
Even if he wore some kind of Soul type artifact, was there really any kind of defence that didn’t leak? Also, none of them had even seen the movement of a Soul type artifact on Yang Kai, almost as if he had endured this blow on his own.
“Two moves left!” Yang Kai called out, grinning slightly at Liu Qing Yao.
“How did you…” Liu Qing Yao’s brow furrowed, his face filled with suspicion. As the one who had initiated this attack, he was even more surprised than everyone else. Quickly steadying his expression, his look finally became serious, gently nodding, “Seems you really have some capital. I have underestimated you!”
As soon he spoke these words, he took a step forward. With this step, Liu Qing Yao’s aura changed again. From Yang Kai’s perspective, this Central Capital First Young Lord suddenly seemed many times bigger, but upon staring at him fixedly, Liu Qing Yao was still Liu Qing Yao, nothing had changed.
Staring at him for a moment, Yang Kai soon understood that his opponent’s Martial Skill has caused this illusion in his own mind and quickly steadied his thoughts.
After Liu Qing Yao tread another step, Yang Kai found that even if he concentrated fully, he couldn’t completely stop his thoughts from fluctuating, causing the young man in front of him to once again appear as a giant, even if the affect only lasted a moment.
Third step……
When this step was trod, a buckling sound seemed to emerged from the depths of the void.
It was as if a huge drum was being beat, causing a resonance within the hearts of all who heard it.
“The Liu Family’s Nine Resonant Steps!” Yang Wei’s face changed slightly, muttering under his breath.
The energy between Heaven and Earth had become turbulent and Liu Qing Yao seemed to have transformed into a bottomless pit, madly swallowing the surrounding World Energy.
The fourth step……
*Dong!*
The slightly weaker cultivators who had just experienced a violent throbbing in their hearts suddenly felt like their Blood Force and True Qi pulsed strongly, even showing some signs of instability.
The fifth step……
A series of coughs and splashes sounded one after another as everyone whose cultivation was below True Element Fifth Stage, without exception, spat blood.
Even from so far away, Liu Qing Yao’s actions had still precipitated such a strong reaction, the Central Capital younger generation’s first person truly deserved his name!
Sixth step, seventh step…
With each step Liu Qing Yao trod, a strong and powerful throbbing sound resounded, causing the world itself to shudder, almost as if the Heavens and Earth could not bear the weight of his steps.
As the number of steps increased, Liu Qing Yao’s figure quickly become bigger and bigger in everyone’s eyes. At this moment, the Central Capital’s First Young Lord had become a behemoth, his head reaching the clouds, his feet shaking the ground, no matter who it was, from their perspective they could only gaze up at him.
Eighth step, ninth step…
In the eyes of the crowd, Liu Qing Yao’s one step which would be enough to flatten half of War City was about to trample onto Yang Kai’s head. Even though this step seemed oddly slow, it also gave an unavoidable feeling, as if no matter how they tried none could escape being crushed into dust by it.
With this thought flashing across their minds, many people felt as if they were in mortal danger, their faces turning pale as they trembled in fear.
The Liu Family’s Nine Resonant Steps, a Mysterious Grade Mid-Rank Martial Skill, one of the Liu Family’s core inheritances.
Trod nine steps and shatter the Heavens!
The youngest Yang Family Young Lord finally just as the giant foot was about to step down on him.
His right fist clenched, and then suddenly, in the middle of the day, a starry sky illusion emerged. The myriad stars on this night sky were dazzling and mesmerizing and as his fist punched forward, all of them flashed brilliantly.
Star Mark! Yang Kai had not used this move for a long time, it was not that he didn’t want to use it but rather that he never had an appropriate opportunity to.
All the energy contained in the Star Chart Space on the back of his hand broke out at this moment and the giant foot was met by this starry sky head on.
The momentum of Yang Kai’s attack was astonishing, releasing a terrifying light that seemingly bathed the entire world in its radiance.
*Hong…*
The two fierce attacks collided together and set off a massive explosion of energy, perfectly offsetting each other.
The starlight quickly dimmed, but the giant Liu Qing Yao was also shaken, the gargantuan foot that seemed capable of trampling the Heavens and Earth being forced back.
The Liu Family’s Nine Resonant Steps was actually blocked in a frontal contest!
And the one who accomplished this unprecedented feat was only a True Element Boundary Eighth Stage cultivator!
Everyone was shocked, staring dumbfounded at the scene in front of them, their thoughts completely chaotic, unable to accept what had just transpired.
The violent energy fluctuations continued for a while before gradually subsiding.
When the dazzling starlight disappeared, Yang Kai let out a loud cough, falling back several dozen meters before stabilizing his stance.
In a frontal confrontation with Liu Qing Yao’s Mysterious Grade Mid-Rank Martial Skill, even his Star Mark had been slightly overwhelmed. What’s more, the gap in cultivation between the two of them wasn’t small, and even included the watershed of the Immortal Ascension Boundary.
While Yang Kai had been forced back, Liu Qing Yao’s body also swayed slightly, the huge figure in everyone’s eyes rapidly shrinking, like he had been stabbed by a sword and suddenly deflated.
The terrifying pressure in the air also dispersed, giving everyone feeling akin to seeing a bright moon after the storm clouds passed.
Looking at it now, the two young men were still staring each other down, as if they hadn’t just engaged in an epic exchange of blows.
All of the other Yang Family direct descendants were dumbfounded.
None of them had imagined that Yang Kai was strong to this extent!
All of them knew that his personal strength wasn’t weak, but even if they thought highly of his potential, he was still the youngest amongst them, and now they discovered that one on one, none of them was his opponent!
The question each of them was asking right now though was how he, a True Element Boundary Eighth Stage, could be evenly matched with Liu Qing Yao, an Immortal Ascension Boundary Third Stage?
Yang Zhao and the others all looked a little unsightly. Although personal strength wasn’t that important in the Inheritance War, as cultivators, each of them sought the peak of martial arts, hoping to one day step into the Above Immortal Ascension Boundary, gaining the respect of thousands of people.
This ambition had nothing to do with the Inheritance War or even the position of family heir.
Only Yang Wei shook his head and smiled. In his heart, he was secretly relieved.
“One move left!” Yang Kai shouted after letting out a long breath, staring at Liu Qing Yao as he chuckled lightly.
The latter stared back with a dignified expression, not daring to underestimate Yang Kai again, but after a long silence he unexpectedly shook his head and declared, “No need. Right now you’re still not my opponent! But I will admit that you have the qualifications to challenge me.”
Saying so, he casually tossed something from his hand to Yang Kai, obviously the Mysterious Grade artifact he had just snatched, staring at this youngest Yang Family Young Lord sharply as he said, “I’ll be waiting for you. When you break through to the Immortal Ascension Boundary, let us fight once more!”
Yang Kai was slightly surprised as he reached out and caught the artifact, his eyes flashing for a moment but eventually just deciding not to say anything more.
For the two moves just now, Liu Qing Yao didn’t use his full strength. This was a fact which Yang Kai understood very well.
But what Liu Qing Yao didn’t know was that he had not used his all either! Yang Kai had only stepped forward because he wanted to obtain this Mysterious Grade artifact. If not for this temptation, he wouldn’t have bothered even speaking to Liu Qing Yao.
But now it seemed that this young man, although somewhat overbearing and arrogant, wasn’t a wicked person.
With the artifact in his hands now, naturally he felt not need to continue this contest.
Seeing Liu Qing Yao toss this artifact he had sacrificed his Water Moon Blue Wave Armour to obtain over to Yang Kai without hesitation, all of the Yang Family Young Lords’ eyes couldn’t help turning slightly red as their breathing sped up.
In the blink of an eye, their Ninth Brother had taken the lead and obtained two Mysterious Grade artifacts!
Turning to look at Yang Wei, Liu Qing Yao nodded lightly, “Eldest Young Lord, I now understand what your Yang Family’s limits are. Your Ninth Brother indeed has more potential than you, but I, Liu Qing Yao, have also not reached my limit yet! We will settle this score later, and decide once and for all who the leader of our generation will be. I look forward to it!”
Saying so, he decisively turned around and left.
The look on the five brother’s faces was a bit complicated. When they turned to stare at Yang Kai, a thick jealousy flashed across their eyes. It seemed like it would be necessary for them to revise their evaluation of their youngest brother again.
As for Yang Kai, his expression remained indifferent, waiting for Liu Qing Yao to leave before immediately flying down towards the lake.
“Shit, there’s still one more!” Yang Kang also regained his wits and quickly chased after Yang Kai. Of the eight Mysterious Grade artifacts, each of the brothers had secured one, Liu Qing Yao snatched one, and the last one had fallen into Po Jing Lake, but after witnessing the might of the sealed attack and Qi Binding Seal implanted on these Mysterious Grade artifacts, no one dared to rush into the lake to find it, so until now, it had been left unattended.
Hearing Yang Kang’s curses, all of the other brothers also came to their senses and flew down as well, lest they allow one of their rivals to take advantage of the situation.
However, no matter who it was, no one dared move too close to Yang Kai.
Now that all of their Blood Warriors had their True Qi sealed, it was equivalent to them having no one guarding them. With Yang Kai’s performance just now, he would be more than capable of capitalizing on this opportunity.
If they were to lose in the Inheritance War for this reason, it would be too pitiful.
Yang Kai also noticed how everyone was acting vigilant towards him but he had no interest in engaging in such a pointless exercise. With so many of their allies nearby, none of his brothers would be easy to capture.
After a short period of time, with no idea how to proceed, the six brothers gave up and returned to their own camps.
The Heaven Grade artifacts from the ninth batch were still being carved up but more than half of them now had owners. Only a small number of them were still up for grabs and were constantly changing hands, the scene now actually more intense than ever before.
The cultivator from the six camps had all suffered multiple casualties.
Huo Xing Chen had fallen back already. Fortunately, his Huo Family hadn’t lost too many people. Although both of his Immortal Ascension Boundary Fifth Stage guards were injured, their wounds weren’t too serious. Only two or three of his True Element Boundary cultivators had died.
“Young Lord Kai!” Huo Xing Chen called out with a sullen look, “Would you like me and my forces go clean up the Xiang and Nan Families?”
Yang Kai turned his head and glanced at him, not quite sure why he would ask such a question.
“Those bastards Xiang Chu and Nan Sheng and their lackeys have been doing nothing but targeting our people. Fuck, they didn’t even place this Young Master in their eyes. Yang Kai, just give the word and I’ll let my old man bring some people to clean up their two families tomorrow!”
However, Yang Kai just snorted back “Can’t afford to take on some losses? Then don’t participate in the Inheritance War!”
Huo Xing Chen spat dismissively and shot back, “Who says my Huo Family can’t afford to lose? It’s just their actions are far too shameless. I know the rules of the Inheritance War forbid private retaliation against forces which are involved, but this Young Lord is the famous rogue Huo Xing Chen, why should I care about such trivial rules.”
Yang Kai slowly shook his head, “Don’t bother, they’ll pay the price sooner or later.”
Yang Kai had also noticed this situation, he understood just how deep the resent Xiang Chu and Nan Sheng held towards him. So, specifically targeting him was to be expected. However, he also knew that he couldn’t seek revenge in private for this. If he did, it would undoubtedly have a profoundly negative effect. In the future, what forces would dare come participate in the Inheritance War if such acts of revenge became common?
“Fine, fine. You have the final say.” Huo Xing Chen didn’t object any further, “But Young Lord Kai, remember, it’s not just the Xiang and Nan Families but also that idiot Lu Song. When the day comes for them to pay, make sure you bring this Young Lord along, I want to make sure they suffer!”
“That day will definitely come.” Yang Kai snickered.
“Also, that little brat Qiu Zi Ruo is going too far as well. Although he’s not acting as obviously as those three, he’s still actively seeking out conflict with us. I guess he wants to defeat you in order to stabilize his position as the Qiu Family heir.”
Letting out a sigh, he continued, “Having a big sister like Qiu Yi Meng, his life must not be easy. Well, considering we’re all Central Capital people, we can at least let him keep his dog life after this is all over.”
Huo Xing Chen spoke these words as if victory was already assured.
“Enough about that. What’s the situation with that artifact now?” Yang Kai’s eyes turned towards Po Jing Lake and said.
“It’s still down there,” Huo Xing Chen swept his eyes around and said, “Everyone is staring at it but no one dares to go down and retrieve it.”
Yang Kai nodded, with the sealed attack and the Qi Binding Seal still intact, everyone was reluctant to act. Whoever went down first would definitely end up suffering while making life easier for everyone else, no one would do such a thankless act.
In order to resist the sealed attacked from the artifact, one had to be at least an Immortal Ascension Boundary Eighth Stage master to come out unscathed, but even if they successfully blocked this attack it wouldn’t help, the Qi Binding Seal had even managed to ensnare the famous Blood Warriors, general Immortal Ascension Boundary Eighth Stage masters definitely couldn’t escape.
In other words, if one of the Young Lords wanted to resist the artifact’s sealed attack and the subsequent Qi Binding Seal, they had to at least sacrifice an Immortal Ascension Boundary Eighth Stage master.
No one was willing to make such a sacrifice.
Yang Kai’s brows furrowed, also thinking that things had become a little difficult.
Not only him, the other five Young Lords were also caught between their greed and reason.
Yang Kai had already snatched two Mysterious Grade artifacts. In the future, whether he was attacking or defending, he would no doubt occupy a certain advantage, so with one more still available, naturally everyone was eyeing it.
Just as everyone was feeling helpless, from below Po Jing Lake’s surface a violent energy fluctuation broke out.
Whether it was the Yang Family’s direct descendants, their allies, or the spectators who had gathered nearby, all of them quickly glanced back and forth at each other in confusion.
This energy fluctuation was obviously a result of the seal on the Mysterious Grade artifact being touched.
[Had someone sneaked to the bottom of the lake? Which camp were they from?]
Glancing around the surroundings, Yang Kai couldn’t help furrowing his brow because he discovered that all five of his brothers had the same expression as him, wondering who it was that was acting.
Before there was enough time to think things through, a powerful Spiritual Energy immediately erupted from the bottom of the lake.
*Hong…*
A loud bang resounded and the entire Po Jing Lake underwent earth-shaking changes. The blood-stained water was driven by this intense Spiritual Energy and like a dragon entering the sea, shot into the sky several dozen meters creating a great spectacle.
Yang Kai’s eyes calmly scanned this water fountain as well as the lake below.
Soon, he caught a glimpse of the gloomy light radiating from the Mysterious Grade artifact which had fallen into the lake.
At the same time the artifact appeared though, a blue energy ribbon emerged from it.
The Qi Binding Seal!
This Qi Binding Seal directly began entangling the air and after it formed a few layers, a vague figure floating above the water of the lake appeared and was bound in place, seemingly unable to move.
“It’s him!” Ying Jiu, who had always remained silent, couldn’t help but exclaim.
Yang Kai didn’t hesitate for an instant, leaping up and rushing towards the centre of Po Jing Lake, the corners of his mouth flashing a sharp smile as he pushed his True Qi its limit.
*Shua,* the Asura Sword appeared in Yang Kai’s hand and a massive number of Sword Qi blades appeared like feathers around him, quickly condensing into a single sword wave before shooting out.
He also recognized this vague figure.
It was none other than the mysterious master who had attempted to sneak into the Pill Room that morning!
He hadn’t expected this man’s courage to be so big, even sneaking into this place. Yang Kai figured he had dove into the lake when he was fighting with Liu Qing Yao just now.
With the Blood Warriors all having their True Qi sealed, they obviously couldn’t detect his existence, only Yang Kai could sense him, but he was too weak to worry about, so this mysterious master decided to seize this opportunity.
However, the owner of the artifact had yet to be determined!
[Since you’ve decided to show up in front of everyone here, I’d like to see how you escape!] Yang Kai sneered.
But just as he was thinking so, the blurred figure bound by the Qi Binding Seal unexpectedly burst into mist, just like it had earlier this morning.
Yang Kai stopped in place, his eyes narrowing sharply, spreading his Divine Sense all around to search for the Mysterious Grade artifact.
A moment later, the long sword in his hand swung down, unleashing a sword wave that warped the air around it.
From the direction he had slashed, a fuzzy figure appeared again, grabbing the last Mysterious Grade artifact before transforming into a streak of light.
The speed at which it fled was still outrageous, leaving Yang Kai no chance to make a second attack.
Everything had started so quickly and ended just as fast. By the time the mysterious master had snatched the artifact and disappeared, the other five members of the Yang Family were still hesitating to rush forward.
Atop Po Jing Lake, the red water once again settled and the mysterious master had vanished.
Yang Kai stood mid-air, carrying the Asura Sword in his hand, his expression a little bitter.
For the second time in a single day he had let this person slip away right before his eyes, completely incapable of stopping them!
[Such a strange and mysterious man!]
Suddenly, Yang Kai noticed something, reaching out and grabbing it as it fell through the air but after seeing what it was clearly, he was visibly shocked.
Shoving this object into his sleeve pocket he immediately turned around and return to his camp.
No one knew what it was he caught in the sky above the lake, but everyone saw his reaction and couldn’t help feeling curious!
The six Yang Family Young Lords all glanced back and forth at each other. They tried to glean some clues from their opponents, but everyone’s eyes only contained suspicion and confusion, each of them unable to figure out which of their brothers had recruited such a mysterious master…
—
The artifact snatching battle was about to come to an end. The eight Mysterious Grade artifacts had been carved up leaving only a small amount of Heaven Grade artifacts to be fought over.
After a half a cup of tea’s time, everything had subsided and the cultivators all returned to their respective camps.
As like in the beginning, six groups stood at the edge of Po Jing Lake, but now, the total number of people had decreased by a quarter, even a large number of Immortal Ascension Boundary masters had fallen!
Among the six brothers, Yang Kang, Yang Shen, and Yang Ying had suffered the biggest losses. When the third batch of artifacts appeared, the three of them had fallen into a trap and as time passed, their disadvantage gradually grew. Fortunately, the fighting had only lasted a short time, otherwise the forces that accompanied them here may have been completely wiped out.
Every cultivator present was now thoroughly fired up, each of them glaring around at their opponents with hate filled eyes. This was actually a normal situation. While the Inheritance War was happening, private retaliation between forces was forbidden, but once it ended, the forces which had developed deep grudges were destined to have life and death contests.
Therefore, even if the artifact snatching battle had ended, the scene was no less tense than while it was happening.
Yang Kai had also lost some troops, but the harvest he reaped was even bigger! Compared to others, the number of artifacts in his camp was undoubtedly more.
In particular, Yang Kai had won two Mysterious Grade artifacts, which were more valuable than any number of lower grade artifacts.
Yang Wei waved his hand and nodded to everyone around the lake. Following this act, he led his people and his captured artifacts away. As though following his lead, his younger brothers, Yang Zhao and Yang Kang immediately followed suit to leave. Soon, even the reluctant Yang Shen and Yang Ying left the scene as well.
After such a big fight, no one was in the mood to keep stirring up trouble.
“Ying Jiu, what’s your situation?” Yang Kai glanced over at Ying Jiu who was sitting cross-legged on the ground nearby after he had been hit with the Qi Binding Seal.
Ying Jiu slowly shook his head, “I can’t mobilize more than a small amount of my True Qi and my meridians have all been sealed. It will take me at least two months to break through.”
Being hit by an Above Immortal Ascension Boundary’s sealing technique, even if the Blood Warriors were strong they wouldn’t be able to undo it easily.
Yang Kai’s brow wrinkled slightly, Ying Jiu having his True Qi sealed was a big loss for him; the mere idea of his existence hiding in the shadows was a big deterrent to any opponent.
Now that this deterrence didn’t exist, he could only rely on Qu Gao Yi and Xiao Shun. Although they were also very powerful, Ying Jiu was more adept in terms of concealment and assassination.
[I can only wait to see if Meng Wu Ya can lift it. If Treasurer Meng can’t help, then Ying Jiu can only remain idle for two months.]
“Let’s return.” Yang Kai said lightly.
“This is for you!” Dong Qing Han walked up and handed Yang Kai a palm sized sword shaped artifact, it was the Soul type artifact that Yang Kai had seen before.
“You’ve got it.” Yang Kai smiled, happily accepting. The moment he touched it, an icy chill seemed to affect his Divine Sense. This was indeed an artifact that fit well with his Spiritual Energy, it would play a great role for him.
“Your cousin went forth personally, how could I not have obtained it?” Dong Qing Han thumped his chest proudly, “That Lu Song wanted to block this young master but, hah, he overestimated his own skill far too much.”
After a pause though, he sheepishly said, “But regarding my obtaining this artifact successfully, I have to thank that young woman.”
“Young woman?” Yang Kai asked offhandedly as he fiddled with the little sword in his hand.
“En.” Dong Qing Han said as he revealed a thoughtful look, “I feel like I had met her somewhere before, but I can’t remember where. She was the one who threw this thing at me.”
“Which camp was she from?” Yang Kai suddenly felt confused.
“She was among the spectators.”
“A beauty?” When Huo Xing Chen heard the word ‘woman’ he quickly asked this question with a wretched grin.
“Not only beautiful, but also enchanting!” Dong Qing Han wore an expression that screamed ‘I know what you’re thinking’ as he smiled back. “On top of that, she seemed to have had a twin. There was another person next to her who had the looked exactly like her. She was also extremely strong, Lu Song is a True Element Seventh Stage cultivator and is the Young Lord of a first-class family but she easily sent him tumbling with a single move.”
“Twins?” Yang Kai’s voice suddenly rose a lot, “What kind of twins?”
Upon hearing the word ‘twins’, Yang Kai suddenly thought about the pair of charming flowers he was familiar with. In fact, he had thought that the people from Blood Battle Gang and Storm Hall would have shown up at his mansion some time ago, but until now he hadn’t seen them. This made Yang Kai doubt whether these two beautiful sisters were holding a grudge against him; after all, when they had parted at Tai Fang Mountain, Hu Jiao Er’s mood had been quite sullen.
Dong Qing Han was stunned by his cousin’s strong reaction and at a loss for how to describe the young woman he had met. Instead, just pointing his hand in a certain direction and saying, “They were watching the fun from over there, as for where they are now I have no clue.”
At the end of the artifact snatching battle, the crowds that had come to watch the show had also naturally dispersed, a large number of them heading back to War City.
Yang Kai immediately glanced in the direction he pointed but didn’t find any trace of the person he was looking for, quickly releasing his Divine Sense all around to scan the surrounding twenty kilometer radius.
Just after deploying his Divine Sense, Yang Kai found two distinct auras.
These two were different from everyone else around them.
Even if two people appeared similar, they would still have their own unique characteristics.
But the auras of these two people were exactly the same, almost as if they had been carved from the very same mold. Moreover, under the investigation of Yang Kai, the two people not only had the same life aura, even their two True Qis had seemingly merged with each other, forming a kind of mysterious circulation which mutually supported and strengthen one another.
[Found them!]
Yang Kai couldn’t help smiling as he shot off in their direction.
“What are you doing!?” Huo Xing Chen was shocked. This entire place was an unsafe region, so he couldn’t help quickly shouting, “Follow him!”
As one of the Yang Family Young Lords who was participating in the Inheritance War, at any time, under no circumstances should Yang Kai be acting alone, or he would most likely be targeted by powerful enemy masters.
The response of everyone was also quite rapid, quickly collecting the artifacts they had snatched in the previous battle before catching up with Yang Kai’s pace.
Among the crowd of people rupturing to War City, one man and two women walked side by side.
The young man’s face was quite dissatisfied; thinking about the war he had just seen, he couldn’t help feeling his blood boiling slightly, longing to have participated in it.
The two young women didn’t say a word as they casually strode forward.
The appearance of two delicate flowers caused all the cultivators next to them to frequently steal glances but the two women remained indifferent, seemingly quite used to it, not showing any signs of anger or happiness at this attention.
Seeing them act so submissively immediately aroused some bold and impulsive thoughts among their onlookers, some of them thinking that if they were to go up and chat with them they might be able to reap some unexpected benefits.
“Jiao Er, Mei Er, there are a few people staring at us. Would you like me to send packing?” The young man suddenly asked softly.
Hu Jiao Er’s beautiful eyes flashed a bit of disgust and helplessness before shaking her head gently, “No, let’s just get back to War City.”
Yang Kai was still just behind them. If they were to get caught up in a conflict here, they would definitely be seen by him.
It seemed that when they heard the conversation between the two people, the ones in the crowd eager to try their luck noticed that Hu Jiao Er wasn’t willing to cause any trouble here.
If she was worried about provoking others here, obviously she didn’t have a strong background! Moreover, the three of them didn’t seem very old so their strengths shouldn’t be too high, making them even easier to deal with.
Considering all this, from the surrounding crowd of people, a young man with a mature and reliable appeared walked up to the two sisters with a big smile on his face, but before he could speak to them, a shadow suddenly fell from above and blocked his path.
This person not only blocked him, but also blocked the Hu Sisters and Fang Ziji.
The trio almost instinctively circulated their True Qi, preparing to hit back at this unknown assailant.
But when they saw this newcomer’s face, Hu Jiao Er suddenly wore a flustered expression while a happy smile blossomed on Hu Mei Er’s face.
Seeing this enchanting, feminine smile, the young man couldn’t help feeling a little upset, plucking up his courage and rudely asking, “Who are you?”
Hearing this voice, Yang Kai turned his head and glanced at the young man.
“N… nin.. Ninth Young Master…” The youth’s face immediately went white as he spoke incoherently.
“You want something?” Yang Kai wrinkled his brow and said.
“This lowly one doesn’t dare… please carry on Ninth Young Master!” The terrified young man somehow managed to blurt out before quickly fleeing with his companions.
Just now, the battle between Yang Kai and Liu Qing Yao was also seen by him. Not only was his personal strength phenomenal, he had a great many powerful masters at his command as well. How could a small third-class Sect disciple like him have the courage to stick around?
Fearing for his life, the young man’s only thought right now was escaping.
“Brother Yang!” After the man scurried away, Fang Zi Ji smiled lightly and cupped his fists.
“Brother Fang, long time no see.”
When they had parted ways back at Tai Fang Mountain, Fang Zi Ji had said that he would come to participate in the Inheritance War, so him being here now wasn’t a surprise to Yang Kai. During the incident at Tai Fang Mountain, whether it was the members of Storm Hall or Blood Battle Gang, they had all stood unwaveringly on his side which almost lead them into a conflict with the Xiang and Nan Families, so Yang Kai had quite a favourable opinion of this young man.
“I’ll leave you three to catch up. Heh heh.” After exchanging greetings, Fang Zi Ji quickly retreated a distance and met up with Huo Xing Chen and the others who had just arrived.
“Hm, Senior Brother Fang?” Lan Chu Die’s beautiful eyes lit up slightly. Although the two were from different Sects, they had both come from the same region, meeting again after so long she naturally felt a little nostalgic.
“You are… a Junior Sister from High Heaven Pavilion?” Fang Zi Ji didn’t quite recognize Lan Chu Die as she had not been a famous figure back then.
Lan Chu Die nodded with a smile.
Dong Qing Han frowned, examining Fang Zi Ji for a while before suddenly saying, “I remember! I always thought those two girls seemed familiar, they’re Blood Battle Gang’s two flowers!”
The last time Dong Qing Han went to the High Heaven Pavilion, he had also paid attention to the situation of Storm Hall and Blood Battle Gang. The charming two flowers and Fang Zi Ji were leading figures in their respective Sects.
However, he hadn’t had any significant contact with the trio, so it took him a while to recognize them.
This also explained why she had thrown the artifact to him.
The crowd behind Huo Xing Chen were also very interested in this group of three, but seeing Hu Jiao Er’s complicated expression, none of them rushed up to disturb them. Instead taking turns greeting Fang Zi Ji, they were secretly listening in on the nearby conversation.
“Why did you hide from me though you’ve already arrived here?” Yang Kai asked Hu Jiao Er.
“Who is hiding from you?” Hu Jiao Er snorted, her face blushing bright red.
“You really weren’t hiding from me?” Yang Kai’s mouth curled into a smile as he stepped forward with an accusatory look.
“Of course not…” Hu Jiao Er muttered, her beautiful eyes fluttering about. “We only arrived here today.”
Yang Kai glanced back at Hu Mei Er, only to see her smiling wryly as she silently exposed her Elder Sister’s white lie.
“Good. Since that’s the case, then you should come back to the house with me.” Yang Kai casually said, not planning on teasing her any more.
Hu Jiao Er snorted back at him though and said, “We just came to War City to play, not to participate in the Inheritance War with you. I’m not going.”
“Mei Er, how about you?” Yang Kai smiled and asks.
“I’ll go!” Hu Mei Er nodded repeatedly.
“Mei Er!” Hu Jiao Er shouted, letting out an exasperated sigh a moment later. Apparently, she hadn’t expected her little sister’s position to be so firm. Yang Kai just asked casually yet she had readily agreed.
Hu Mei Er spit out the tongue cheekily and smiled.
“We’re just a second-class Sect, we won’t be of much help to you. So, do you really still want us to come?” Hu Jiao Er whispered softly, feeling a little embarrassed.
Yang Kai suddenly realized that this was what she really was hesitating over.
The forces which were currently gathered in his mansion, with the exception of Chen Xue Shu and Su Xiao Yu’s Reflecting Moon Sect which was a second-class Sect, the rest were all first-class. Therefore, Yang Kai presumed that when Hu Jiao Er learned about this, she felt inferior and had thus hid from him.
“Jiao Er, in the future you and Mei Er will be people who stand at the very peak of this world. You don’t need to care about your second-class Sect origins,” Yang Kai said to her seriously. When they had last met, the two sisters only had True Element Boundary Fifth Stage cultivations but now they had both reached the True Element Boundary Eighth Stage. Additionally, the Twin Qi Shared Spirit Divine Art they cultivated was extraordinary, given enough time both of them would no doubt break through to the Above Immortal Ascension Boundary.
It could be said that in the future, this world’s summit would have a place for the two of them!
“Do you really think so?” Hu Jiao Er looked a little bit stunned, her enchanting face slowly filling with a brilliant radiance as she stared at Yang Kai with delight, not seeming to have imagined that his evaluation of their two sister was so high.
Yang Kai nodded without hesitation.
“This… seems like they’re falling.” Huo Xing Chen whispered as he stealthily observed.
“Nope, they’ve already fallen.” Fang Zi Ji grinned meaningfully.
“Hahaha, good, I approve!” The Huo Family Young Lord said as he opened his signature folding fan.
“Hmm, well, I’ll think about it. I’ll come see you with Mei Er in a few days after I make a decision.” Hu Jiao Er hid her happiness in her heart and said softly, gently pursing her thin red lips, creating a seductive air around her.
Yang Kai suddenly stepped right up to her.
“Wh.. what?” Hu Jiao Er looked confused, leaning away slightly as Yang Kai brought his face closer to hers.
Yang Kai snickered lightly before whispering into her ear, “If you keep escaping, I’ll tell everyone your secret!”
“What secret?” Hu Jiao Er blushed from her neck to the top of her head as Yang Kai’s hot breath blew past her ear, feeling incredibly nervous, like a thousand ants were crawling all over her delicate skin.
“How one side is bigger and one side is small of course!” After whispering so, Yang Kai straightened up and sneered, he eyes intentionally or unintentionally glancing down towards Hu Jiao Er’s perfectly rounded bottom.
Under this unscrupulous gaze, Hu Jiao Er sudden felt like she had been stripped naked, her blood icing over as her face turned red with anger and shame, “Cut the crap!”
Saying so, she unconsciously lifted her hips, emphasizing her lower half’s capital.
“Why ask me something you already know? Anyways, you check for yourself, Mei Er and I will go on ahead.” Finished with what he wanted to say, Yang Kai grabbed Hu Mei Er’s hand and heading back towards War City.
“Yang Kai, why must you act like a shameless rogue!?” Hu Jiao Er stomped her foot in anger for a while.
“Shameless rogue?” Huo Xing Chen straightened himself up and said with indignation, “Girl, what did Yang Kai do to you?”
“None of your damn business!” Hu Jiao Er angrily spat, stomping a few more times before hurriedly chased after Yang Kai, grabbing hold of his free arm and shouting miserably, “I’m not finished with you! You’re going to tell me clearly today!”
“Her attitude is a bit rough, but it seems like she’ll act meek in front of Young Lord Kai.” Huo Xing Chen thought about it and secretly counted the beautiful women who had been charmed by Yang Kai, immediately admiring him for his talent in the field.
The Hu Sisters and Fang Zi Ji weren’t the only ones who had come from Blood Battle Gang and Storm Hall, both Sects had sent more than twenty people each. Although they couldn’t be compared with the other forces in terms of overall strength, it was still an extremely generous amount of manpower.
Previously, as a result of the two factions being implicated because of High Heaven Pavilion, all of the masters from both Sects were forcefully conscripted into the war with the Ash-Grey Cloud Evil Land, so the losses they had suffered were even heavier than other forces.
So among the people who came here from Blood Battle Gang and Storm Hall, there were only four Immortal Ascension Boundary masters, and their cultivation realms weren’t very high.
It was because she had concerns over this that Hu Jiao Er hadn’t been very eager to seek out Yang Kai. Since he was here to participate in the Inheritance War, what he needed most were strong masters, something they were greatly lacking, the strongest amongst them only having reached the Immortal Ascension Boundary Fourth Stage.
Guan Chi Le, the Blood Battle Gang Immortal Ascension Boundary Third Stage Elder who had been with them at Tai Fang Mountain was also among them.
Yang Kai, Hu Jiao Er and Hu Mei Er stuck together the whole way back to War City and then went to the inn the sisters had been staying at to pick up these people.
About the current situation of the two factions, Yang Kai was clearer than anyone, so naturally he didn’t have any complaints and was instead incredibly grateful they had sent anyone at all.
These people also showed great caution when they saw Yang Kai’s allies. Obviously, because of their recent situation, they had become somewhat timid, constantly tip toeing around like they were on thin ice for fear they might annoy someone and cause trouble for their Sects.
Upon returning to the mansion, Qiu Yi Meng led a large group of people who had stayed behind to greet them with a smile.
As the second in charge in the mansion, the Qiu Family’s First Young Lady was naturally happy to welcome the Blood Battle Gang and Storm Hall cultivators. She even happily and intimately chatted with the Hu Sisters, intentionally or unconsciously casting a glance or two over at Yang Kai as she did.
It was obvious to her that these twin sisters’ attitude towards Yang Kai was somewhat unusual. Grinding her teeth in frustration as she silently cursed Yang Kai in her heart. [How can you leave for only a few hours to return back with two rare beauties in tow?]
After such a big battle, there were many things to process.
The living arrangements for the people from Blood Battle Gang and Storm Hall were handled by Qiu Yi Meng while the other forces which had just participated in the battle busied themselves calculating their gains and losses.
Soon, the results came out.
This time, in the artifact snatching battle, thirty six of Yang Kai’s allies had fallen, four of which were Immortal Ascension Boundary masters, the others were all True Element cultivators. Fortunately, the arrival of the Blood Battle Gang and Storm Hall people made up for this loss.
No one complained. Ever since they decided to participate in the Inheritance War, everyone had been mentally prepared for this possibility.
As for the thousand artifacts that had appeared at Po Jing Lake, Yang Kai’s people had managed to seize two hundred and four of them.
Yang Kai quickly pushed the tedious task of disseminating these artifacts onto Qiu Yi Meng.
Two hundred and four may seem like a lot, but in fact, artifacts were still in short supply. However, Yang Kai believed that with Qiu Yi Meng’s ability she should be able to work out a fair and optimal distribution so that none of his allied forces had any complaints.
When he finally returned to his room, Yang Kai saw Xia Ning Chang fast asleep on the table.
Little Senior Sister had been performing Alchemy almost nonstop for a while now. Although the Alchemists from Medicine King’s Valley were already familiar with Xia Ning Chang’s Alchemic methods and could lighten her burden somewhat, she was still consuming a huge amount of physical and mental strength to keep up with the mansion’s demand.
Opening the door had awakened her, and after seeing Yang Kai returning unharmed, Xia Ning Chang couldn’t help breathing a sigh of relief.
When Yang Kai came over and gently picked her up, his Little Senior Sister no longer panicked like she did the first time, seemingly having gotten used to this kind of intimate contact.
Gently placing her on the bed and pulling up the sheets, Yang Kai sat down next to his Little Senior Sister and waited for her to fall asleep once again.
Smiling lightly, Yang Kai gently brushed Xia Ning Chang’s hair back; looking at her innocent veil covered face with his heart relaxed.
Even until now, he had still not seen the unveiled portrait of his Little Senior Sister. The most he ever saw was back in the Nine Yin Mountain Valley when she had kissed him after opening half her veil.
Regarding the appearance of his Little Senior Sister, Yang Kai not being curious was naturally impossible.
However, he was convinced that when she felt the time was right, this Little Senior Sister of his would definitely show him.
For now… this thin layer of mystery was one of Xia Ning Chang’s most attractive points.
After a moment of hesitation, Yang Kai gave up any idea of sneaking a glimpse of what lay beyond her veil and quietly stepped went out, turning his eyes to the bright moon handing in the night sky.
“Ying Jiu!” Yang Kai suddenly called out.
From the darkness, a thin figure emerged; it seemed that even if he lost the ability to use his True Qi, concealing himself had already become Ying Jiu’s instinct.
“Come with me.”
Ying Jiu nodded slightly and said nothing.
Coming up to the next room over, Yang Kai gently knocked on the door, Meng Wu Ya responding soon after, “Come in.”
Yang Kai pushed open the door and walked inside.
Treasurer Meng sat cross-legged on his bed, circulating some type of profound Secret Art.
When Ying Jiu looked at this old man, his face which was always tranquil like an ancient well twitched slightly. Ever since Meng Wu Ya’s arrival at Yang Kai’s mansion, Ying Jiu had paid special attention to this person.
Not only Ying Jiu, but Qu Gao Yi and Xiao Shun were also curious about him.
Meng Wu Ya’s strange aura and strength made the three Blood Warriors unconsciously feel tremendous pressure whenever they were around him. They really couldn’t imagine what force in this world could produce such a master.
This sense of intimidation wasn’t something a Peak Immortal Ascension Boundary master could make them feel. Only the supreme experts at the Above Immortal Ascension Boundary should be able to accomplish this!
The three Blood Warriors hadn’t said anything openly, but each of them was secretly speculating about what Meng Wu Ya’s origins were; however, they were no closer to the truth now than when they had first met him.
Seeing Yang Kai bring him here, Ying Jiu had an inkling as to why, but as usual he didn’t show anything on his face.
The Qi Binding Seal he had been hit with was something the Yang Family’s Grand Elder Huang Jiu Zhou had set up personally. Even if Meng Wu Ya was an extraordinary master, it was still likely that nothing could be done about it.
After all, Huang Jiu Zhou was a true Above Immortal Ascension Boundary master while Meng Wu Ya was just a Peak Immortal Ascension cultivator; there was still a significant gap between them.
“Treasurer Meng.” Yang Kai greeted lightly, Meng Wu Ya nodding in turn before turning his eyes to Ying Jiu with a suspicious look, letting out a tired sigh soon after.
“A seal?” Meng Wu Ya grinned as he stared at Ying Jiu.
Ying Jiu remained stoic in response.
“Treasurer Meng, do you have any way to lift the seal placed on him?” Yang Kai sat down casually and poured himself a glass of water to moisten his throat.
“Let me have a look.” Meng Wu Ya didn’t affirm or deny anything, beckoning to Ying Jiu, “Come here!”
Ying Jiu glanced at Yang Kai and upon receiving a nod, he stepped towards Meng Wu Ya.
Seeing him look somewhat unhappy, Meng Wu Ya couldn’t help chuckling, “Relax kid. I know you have some ability, but right now you’re no better than a cripple. What use is there in you being wary of this old master?”
As he spoke, he reached out and held Ying Jiu’s wrist.
The room fell silent for a while. Yang Kai put the cup in his hand to his lips but barely drank as he waited nervously; he wasn’t sure Meng Wu Ya would be able to help.
Ying Jiu’s expression was also light, seemingly not having much expectation of Meng Wu Ya.
“Heh heh,” Meng Wu Ya scoffed twice a few breaths later, “Not bad. The one who created this has some attainments in sealing techniques.”
Ying Jiu quickly shot back, “Naturally, this is my Yang Family Grand Elder Huang Jiu Zhou’s skill!”
“I don’t care what Zhou he is.” Meng Wu Ya spat disdainfully, “This old master has never heard of him.”
Ying Jiu wanted to say a few words in response to this slight but Yang Kai reached out and stopped him promptly.
Ying Jiu, who was always silent, suddenly arguing so combatively was apparently because he extremely admired Huang Jiu Zhou and refused to accept others looking down on him.
After all, Huang Jiu Zhou was the only Blood Warrior in several generations who had been promoted to the position of Grand Elder. All the Blood Warriors took him as their role model and goal to surpass.
Meng Wu Ya had indeed praised Huang Jiu Zhou’s standard of sealing technique, but in Ying Jiu’s opinion, it sounded more like this old guy simply disdained them. What qualifications does a mere Peak Immortal Ascension have to comment on an Above Immortal Ascension Boundary master?
“Treasurer Meng, can you help?” Yang Kai leaned forward and asked anxiously.
“En.” Meng Wu Ya replied casually.
Ying Jiu’s eyes narrowed, staring towards Meng Wu Ya with a half shocked, half suspicious expression, seemingly not having expected such a response.
Yang Kai secretly felt relieved. Although he didn’t know what kind of magical means Meng Wu Ya had, Treasurer Meng had always given him a profound and mysterious impression. Yang Kai had met a fair number of Above Immortal Ascension Boundary masters such as Lu Si, Yang Ying Hao, as well as several of the Yang Family’s Grand Elders.
But none of them gave him anything close to the pressure he felt from Meng Wu Ya.
Somehow, on a near subconscious level, Yang Kai always felt that Old Man Meng was somewhat unfathomable, perhaps even more terrifying than an Above Immortal Ascension Boundary master.
Receiving this answer, Yang Kai’s heart calmed down immediately. Since Treasurer Meng said he could help, it meant that there was no need to ask any further.
“Can you really break this?” Ying Jiu asked, still somewhat unable to believe what he was hearing, even thinking Meng Wu Ya was just talking irresponsibly.
In response, Meng Wu Ya simply glanced at him and nodded.
“How long?” Ying Jiu asked again.
It wasn’t like he couldn’t lift the Qi Binding Seal himself, but it would take him at least two months of concentrated effort to do so.
If Meng Wu Ya’s method took just as long, it would be better for him to simply handle the matter himself.
Ying Jiu didn’t like the arrogant attitude of this old guy who didn’t put Huang Jiu Zhou in his eyes so he naturally didn’t want to ask him for help if it wasn’t necessary.
In response, Meng Wu Ya raised two fingers.
Yang Kai raised his brow and smiled lightly, “Is that two months or twenty days?”
Having said that, Yang Kai was hoping very much for it to be the latter. In his opinion, it was reasonable for Meng Wu Ya to use twenty days to relieve the Qi Binding Seal.
Ying Jiu also looked suspiciously at Meng Wu Ya, curious about how he would answer.
“Two days!” Meng Wu Ya said offhandedly.
Yang Kai and Ying Jiu both froze, a dumbstruck look appearing on their faces.
Yang Kai suddenly discovered that he had still been underestimating Meng Wu Ya’s ability; Treasurer Meng was definitely not as simple as he had thought.
“Senior…” Ying Jiu took a deep breath, his expression somewhat awkward, “It’s not that this Ying Jiu is doubting you but isn’t that a bit…”
“Arrogant?” Meng Wu Ya snorted unhappily, “If this seal was planted on this old master, I could break it with a snap of my fingers, but since it’s been placed on you, it’ll take two days. Actually, this old master has done quite a bit of research into the field of sealing techniques, this little trick is nothing much.”
Little trick…
Yang Kai quickly noted that Ying Jiu’s always stoic face was twitching slightly and couldn’t help feeling the urge to laugh, but he firmly suppressed such desires in his heart. He lightly coughed and followed up, “Treasurer Meng, are you absolutely sure…”
“If you brats don’t even want to try, this old master has no extra time to speak nonsense with you. The door is just there.” Meng Wu Ya snorted and narrowed his eyes at Ying Jiu, “With your skills, it’ll take you two months or so to break this seal. Well, work hard.”
Ying Jiu brow twitched once more.
After carefully examining the Qi Binding Seal placed on him, two months was Ying Jiu’s estimate of how long it would take to break it, yet Meng Wu Ya had been able to determine this with a mere glance. This master’s eyesight was very sharp.
Furrowing his brow, Ying Jiu solemnly cupped his fists and said, “Junior Ying Jiu requests Senior’s assistance. Earlier on, Junior acted impolitely and hopes Seniors will not take offence.”
In any case, it was just two trivial days, after those two days passed everything would be clear.
Ying Jiu was also quite curious if this Meng Wu Ya was really as powerful as he claimed to be.
“Treasurer Meng, I’ll leave this to you…” Yang Kai looked at Meng Wu Ya and grinned.
Old Man Meng waved his hand impatiently in response, “Fine, just go, he’ll see you in two days.”
Yang Kai nodded with satisfaction,. He reminded Ying Jiu to cooperate and then turned to leave.
When he returned to the room next door, Xia Ning Chang had already disappeared, probably having returned to the Pill Room.
Sitting cross-legged on the bed, Yang Kai took something from his sleeve.
It was a long strand of hair!
Today at Po Jing Lake when he struck the mysterious master who grabbed the eighth Mysterious Grade artifact this had been left behind.
But who would have thought that this mysterious master who could appear and disappear like a ghost was actually a woman!
Thinking about it, in one day he had confronted this person twice but Yang Kai still hadn’t even seen her face, making him feel a little depressed.
This woman’s speed was simply too fast and her concealment methods were extremely profound. In front of everyone at Po Jing Lake, she managed to snatch the eighth Mysterious Grade artifact before anyone even noticed her. Yang Kai really didn’t know how she did it, especially knowing she had to withstand the sealed attack in the artifact as well as Huang Jiu Zhou’s Qi Binding Seal.
Liu Qing Yao only managed to escape the Qi Binding Seal by sacrificing a Mysterious Grade artifact, but what about this woman?
What made Yang Kai even more concerned was who this woman was working for. Yang Wei, Yang Zhao, Yang Kang, Yang Shen, and Yang Ying’s expression were all filled with suspicion and confusion, seemingly ignorant of this woman’s identity, but he couldn’t rule out the possibility that one of them was just acting.
After thinking about it for a long time yet still not discovering any clues, Yang Kai could only set this matter aside for now.
In front of him right now were three artifacts; these were Yang Kai’s biggest gains today.
Although his allies had managed to snatch over two hundred artifacts, all of those together didn’t add up to the value of these three before him.
The first one was a palm sized sword that gave off a cold aura; it was the Heaven Grade Soul type artifact.
After examining it carefully, Yang Kai couldn’t have been happier to discover that this Soul type artifact was actually Heaven Grade Top-Rank!
Soul type artifacts were inherently more expensive and harder to refine than other artifacts.
This Heaven Grade Top-Rank Soul type artifact was worth no less than an ordinary Mysterious Grade artifact.
However, it would be difficult for Yang Kai to refine this Soul type artifact, especially since he had yet to open his Knowledge Sea. After fiddling with it for a while, Yang Kai put it down and began examining the other two.
One of the two artifacts was the mirror he had first obtained. This mirror also gave off a cold air, but this aura was different from the one the Soul type artifact radiated. The cold aura from the small sword was a piercing one that affected one’s Soul while this mirror gave off a profound frigidness that seemed to want to encase the world in ice.
Filling the mirror with his True Qi, the surface of flashed and Yang Kai suddenly witnessed a bizarre scene.
Through the mirror, he saw a magnificent snow-capped mountain. Around this mountain were innumerable fluttering snowflakes that seemed to swirl through the sky on the cold whistling wind, creating a pure white paradise as far as the eye could.
*Ka-cha…*
The temperature of the whole mansion suddenly dropped and a wave of cold quickly spread out, causing Yang Kai to instinctively use his True Yang Yuan Qi to resist.
[Mysterious Grade Mid-Rank artifact!]
When Yang Kai realized this fact, he couldn’t help showing a look of shock!
He didn’t know anything about the other seven Mysterious Grade artifacts, but he was certain that out of all of them only one or two of them would be Mid-Rank. The mirror he had snatched first turned out to be a Mysterious Grade Mid-Rank!
A Mysterious Grade Mid-Rank artifact was worth at least ten Mysterious Grade Low-Rank artifacts!
This time he had really won big!
Yang Kai took a moment to calm himself before withdrawing his True Qi. Without the constant stream of True Qi, the mirror quickly lost its radiance and the endless snowy mountain scene was once again hidden from sight.
Before he completely refined it, Yang Kai wouldn’t know what effects this mirror possessed.
Putting the mirror down, Yang Kai looked at the last artifact.
This was the one that Liu Qing Yao threw to him.
A bone shield!
This bone shield wasn’t large, only about the size of a plate, and Yang Kai couldn’t identify what Monster Beast’s bones it was made from. The shape was irregular, both sides were a polished white ivory colour, the edges had numerous bumps and ridges, some sharp, some rounded, while the face had a beast head design carved onto it with a large open mouth.
This beast face had a mouth full of fangs and gave off an aggressive, murderous aura, as if it were staring menacingly at you.
As he observed this face, Yang Kai felt a bloody aura wash over him, surprising him somewhat.
The grade of this bone shield wasn’t as high as the small mirror. Only Mysterious Grade Low-Rank, but because it was a defense type artifact, its true value wasn’t much worse.
There were many types of artifacts and in general, ones used for defence were rarer that offensive types, making them more valuable.
Each of these three had something which set them apart from ordinary artifacts, if he could refine all of them; Yang Kai estimated that his overall strength would be greatly improved.
So far, he only had three artifacts that could be used.
The Asura Sword, Thousand Blossoming Blood Begonia , and Devil Sealing Chain.
The first two were Heaven Grade artifacts and after using them for so long, Yang Kai was also sure they were Top-Rank. After all, these things were the treasured Hallowed Artifacts of Endless Sea Island – a first class Sects. Therefore, their grades obviously wouldn’t be bad.
First-class Sects would always have at least one Mysterious Grade artifact, but the fact that the Asura Sword and Thousand Blossoming Blood Begonia were still considered Hallowed Artifacts must be because these two artifacts had some special significance.
As for the Devil Sealing Chain, Yang Kai wasn’t sure what grade it was. Since he had used it to seal the Devil General’s Soul Clone in the Evil Spirit Cavern, the Devil Sealing Chain had lost its function and he was still restoring it slowly with his True Qi.
Now that he had acquired three new, high-quality artifacts, Yang Kai was naturally anxious to refine them.
After careful consideration, Yang Kai put down the Soul type artifact and the ice mirror and picked up the bone shield, circulating his True Qi.
As his rich and pure True Yang Yuan Qi poured into the bone shield, the speed at which Yang Kai refined it was quite fast.
Time passed by, and Yang Kai had been in retreat in his room since returning from the artifact snatching battle. His Little Senior Sister would come back once a day but she never bothered him, just peacefully sleeping on her bed beside him.
Inside the mansion, the sadness that was originally caused by the loss of so many allies gradually faded. The people from Blood Battle Gang and Storm Hall also quickly became familiar with the rest of Yang Kai’s supporters and the Hu Sisters settled in nicely with the other young leaders of the various forces.
The only thing that made them feel depressed was that they hadn’t even seen Yang Kai’s shadows these past few days.
Not to mention them, even Qiu Yi Meng, the second in command in the mansion, hadn’t had a chance to see Yang Kai.
However, all of them knew that Yang Kai was refining the new artifacts, so they didn’t disturb him.
Two days later, Qu Gao Yi, who sat in the hall guarding the flag, opened his eyes and looked up upon feeling a light breeze brush past him.
The first thing he saw upon opening his eyes was Ying Jiu staring at him.
“Aren’t you supposed to be following the Little Lord? Why did you come here?” Qu Gao Yi asked suspiciously.
Yang Kai’s security had always been Ying Jiu’s responsibility; he basically never separated from him.
“Little Lord is currently in retreat, and his safety… there’s certainly no problem.” Ying Jiu thought about the old man in the room next to Yang Kai and didn’t have the slightest worry at all.
“Even if that’s the case, you shouldn’t slack off.” Qu Gao Yi began to reprimand.
“Don’t say this.” Ying Jiu sighed lightly, quickly continuing, “Old Qu, I’ve met a powerful master.”
“How strong?” Qu Gao Yi was stunned. Blood Warriors were all very powerful, not only did they receive dedicated training from childhood from the Yang Family, they also possessed the Mad Tyrant Blood Skill which could greatly enhance their combat strength temporarily, so Blood Warriors were a group that always had eyes atop their heads.
“Very strong.” Ying Jiu was as concise as ever.
“How strong is that?” Qu Gao Yi rolled his eyes, the two were brothers in arms so when they spoke alone they were obviously more casual; however, since Ying Jiu evaluated this person so highly, his strength was no doubt extraordinary.
Qu Gao Yi couldn’t help being interested, wondering just what Ying Jiu had encountered in the end.
“I estimate that if you or I were to really fight him, within three moves we’d be defeated!” Ying Jiu said with a serious expression.
Qu Gao Yi’s jaw dropped, he had never heard the usually reticent Ying Jiu give such a high evaluation to anyone before, asking hesitantly after a short silence, “What if we use our Mad Tyrant Blood Skill?”
“Still not worthy to be his opponent, ten moves at most!”
“Above Immortal Ascension Boundary?”
“Immortal Ascension Peak!”
“Bullshit!” Qu Gao Yi sprayed Ying Jiu’s face with spit.
Ying Jiu wiped his face indifferently and reaffirmed, “It’s true.”
Qu Gao Yi’s expression was doubtful as he looked Ying Jiu up and down, obviously not believing what he was saying.
Peak Immortal Ascension masters were a rarity, and he had met quite a few of them. After all, even first-class forces would have Peak Immortal Ascension Boundary cultivators, but after activating the Mad Tyrant Blood Skill, whether it was him or Ying Jiu, they had both defeated such masters.
A cultivator, no matter how strong they were, would always have limits, how could there suddenly be someone who could defeat them in ten moves even after they activated their Mad Tyrant Blood Skill?
The Blood Warrior Hall’s Hall Master Feng Sheng didn’t have such skill and Feng Sheng was strongest Peak Immortal Ascension Boundary that Qu Gao Yi had ever encountered in his life. There was no stronger Immortal Ascension Boundary cultivator in the world than Feng Sheng.
“Look at me now.” Ying Jiu raised his arms and gestured to himself.
“Look at what…” Qu Gao Yi frowned before suddenly calling out in shock, “Your True Qi…”
He had finally noticed that something was not quite right.
“I broke the Qi Binding Seal with that master’s help!”
“How can that be?” Qu Gao Yi was shocked.
It had only been two days! Two days yet the Qi Binding Seal had already been broken! What magic was this? However, Ying Jiu’s True Qi really was flowing through his meridians again without the slightest sign of imprisonment, even if Qu Gao Yi couldn’t believe it he had to believe it.
“Who?” Qu Gao Yi finally asked about the main point.
Ying Jiu glanced around before motioning him over and whispering in his ear.
“That old…” Qu Gao Yi also knew that Meng Wu Ya was very strong, but he never dreamed he was powerful to this extent.
“Right, him. I’m still confused about it myself.” Ying Jiu kept shaking his head, still somewhat unable to believe that just two days ago he had asked Meng Wu Ya to give it a try without any expectations but today he had already succeeded.
In retrospect, that old man had just poked him a few times seemingly at random, taught him a set of strange breathing techniques, and then after two days of slight effort the Qi Binding Seal collapsed.
It was so unbelievable that Ying Jiu thought he was dreaming.
Only then did he realize that two days ago when Meng Wu Ya said he had done some research into sealing techniques he was being modest. This wasn’t on the level of ‘some research’, he clearly had unfathomably deep achievements in this field!
“Old Qu, I’ve noticed that there are many mysterious people in this house.” Ying Jiu said solemnly.
“I also noticed this point.” Qu Gao Yi deeply nodded.
Needless to say, Meng Wu Ya, who could immediately crack Huang Jiu Zhou’s Qi Binding Seal was already astonishing.
The pair of twin sisters who had just arrived was also unusual, obviously they were both only True Element Boundary Eighth Stage cultivators, but whether it was Ying Jiu or Qu Gao Yi, they felt that both of them weren’t inferior to Immortal Ascension Boundary cultivators. The pair estimated that even Immortal Ascension Third or Fourth stage masters weren’t their opponents.
And then there was Yang Kai’s Little Senior Sister! This veiled young woman would come and go to the Pill Room each day, and then the Pill Room would spit out a variety of extraordinarily high level pills, many of which even had Pill Veins.
Mysterious Grade pills had almost become common items in Yang Kai’s mansion.
On top of that, the strength of this veiled woman was also amazing. When she had first arrived, she had just broke through to Immortal Ascension Boundary First Stage cultivator, but just a few days later she broke through once more to the Immortal Ascension Second Stage. Now her cultivation had been completely consolidated and there were even signs she was preparing to break through again to the Third Stage.
Neither of them had ever seen her enter retreat to cultivate, so how was her strength increasing so rapidly?
Moreover, after taking those pills, the Young Lords and Young Ladies inside the mansion also experienced transformations; the men became more and more handsome while the women became more and more beautiful. Furthermore, in terms of cultivation, it was almost as if they had been reborn. Although none of them had reached the same terrifying level as the veiled woman, the speed at which all of their cultivations increased was abnormal.
Of course, the title of most mysterious undoubtedly belonged to the Little Lord!
The injuries of both Qu Gao Yi and Ying Jiu had already healed, but not only that, even the dark wounds left behind from decades ago had also disappeared. Even Xiao Shun, who had just joined them, said he had made a similarly miraculous recovery. On top of that, all of them noticed that their cultivation was much smoother and faster than before.
All of this was definitely the credit of the strange Earth Grade pills the Little Lord had given them; clearly they had some hidden mystery to them.
Moreover, the Little Lord’s own methods were just as magical. Since the inception of the Inheritance War he had made many amazing moves which even Qu Gao Yi and Ying Jiu highly admired.
It was said that great talents were one in a generation, so how come this generation had so many monsters appearing one after another? On top of that they all seemed to be gathering around Yang Kai.
“Old Qu, speaking of which, I’m going to break through to the Immortal Ascension Boundary Ninth Stage soon.” Ying Jiu’s mouth curled upwards slightly.
“Heh heh, me too.” Qu Gao Yi was not willing to show weakness.
“Was our cultivation so fast before?” Ying Jiu looked straight at him and asked.
“No.” Qu Gao Yi frowned and whispered, “What are you trying to say?”
“I just thought that, so many amazing and mysterious people voluntarily gathering around the Little Lord is too abnormal, but what if, instead, they became amazing because of the Little Lord?” Ying Jiu said with great meaning.
A look of shock spread across Qu Gao Yi’s face.
When Ying Jiu mentioned this, he suddenly realized.
It really didn’t make sense for all these geniuses and masters to gather at the Little Lord’s side, and when these Young Lords and Young Ladies first arrived they didn’t seem too out of the ordinary besides their aptitudes being slightly better than average people, something to be expected from disciples of first-class forces. However, as time passed, each of their aptitudes and talents seemed to steadily be increasing.
During this short time, the number of people who broke through their bottlenecks and promoted was quite shocking.
But if all of this stemmed from Yang Kai’s hand, how did he do it? Even the Yang Family’s Dragon Transformation Pond didn’t have such a remarkable effect.
A thousand kilometers away from War City, on the second floor of a city restaurant, the guests were plentiful and business was booming. More than a dozen tables were filled with cultivators drinking wine and dining on food.
At one of the tables near the window, a middle-aged man with thin-eyes and a skinny build sat with an indifferent expression.
In front of him were many large and small jugs as well as several dozen pitchers of wine, but even as this middle-aged people downed so many drinks, his face wasn’t the slightest bit red.
He just sat there in his seat, staring out at the pedestrians on the street below with his cold eyes.
Every time he saw a cultivator with a little bit of strength, a malicious light would flash across his eyes, almost like a hungry beast that had come across fresh meat and was just waiting to pounce.
On his face, his expression would change from struggling, hesitation, and reluctance for a while before it gradually subsided with a long sigh, followed by him grabbing one of the jugs of alcohol in front of him and draining it bitterly.
“This old master is starving.” The middle-aged man muttered bitterly as his beady eyes swept over the guests on the second floor, his throat undulating in a rather pronounced fashion as the expression on his face constantly showed signs of struggle, cursing his foul luck in his heart.
“If this was still the Ash-Grey Cloud Evil Land I could just do whatever I wanted.” The middle-aged man sighed again.
The store’s waiter brought over new pitchers of wine and swept away the empties before hurriedly retreating. Whenever he was near this middle-aged person who was nothing but bone and skin, the waiter couldn’t help feeling like his life was in imminent danger, almost as if this middle-aged man would suddenly transform into a devil and swallow him whole.
As the middle-aged man was wallowing in his unhappiness, an interesting conversation was happening next to him.
It was about the artifact snatching battle which had taken place a few days ago, the few people who were chatting spoke as if they had seen it with their own eyes as they described vivid scenes from the great battle.
“Don’t you know yet? The Central Capital’s First Young Lord isn’t the Liu Family’s Liu Qing Yao anymore.”
“You mean someone beat Liu Qing Yao?” Everyone was shocked.
“It wasn’t a defeat, but the youngest Young Lord of the Yang Family who only was a True Element Boundary Eighth Stage cultivation took two moves head on against Liu Qing Yao who is a Immortal Ascension Boundary Third Stage master. With such a big gap in strength, the two of them still fought on equal footing!”
“Just wait until that Little Lord grows to the same height as Liu Qing Yao, he’ll surely defeat him. “
“Did that really happen?”
“Naturally! This news is absolutely true, I saw it with my own eyes! The Little Lord is amazing. So young yet possessing such unfathomable strength, on top of that, he’s made allies of more than a dozen first-class forces. I have no doubt that in this Inheritance War he’ll be the ultimate victor.”
“Are you sure? Wasn’t it said that the youngest Young Lord had no connections at all?”
“Don’t you understand what it means to play the pig to eat a tiger? First lure your enemies with weakness, and then shock them with your true strength. At that point, who could possibly resist against him?”
“If I remember correctly, the youngest Young Lord was called Yang Kai, right?”
“Right right, Young Lord Kai…”
As soon as he heard the name Yang Kai, the middle-aged man who was drinking froze, turning his head to look at the man who was just speaking, seemingly very interested in what he was saying all of a sudden.
The people at the next table over made no attempt to lower their voices so everyone on the second floor was easily able to hear what they were saying, causing one of these listeners to snort contemptuously, “What do you know? Clearly that brat Yang Kai only managed to survive two moves because Young Lord Liu wasn’t using his full strength. I was also there and saw everything; didn’t you hear what Young Lord Liu said at the end?”
With a chuckle, the man paused for dramatic effect before boldly declaring, “Young Lord Liu said, ‘Yang Kai, you’re not my opponent. When you grow up, let’s fight once more!’ That was what the First Young Lord of the Central Capital should act like. Yang Kai only blocked two of his casual moves, what’s so great about that?”
The cultivator that spoke earlier was a bit dissatisfied and argued back, “That was just Liu Qing Yao acting arrogantly, if they exchanged a third move, he definitely wouldn’t have been the winner. Yang Kai is the Central Capital’s new First Young Lord!”
“BULLSHIT!”
The quarrel between the two soon spread throughout the restraint. All the cultivators in the Great Han Dynasty were now paying close attention to the Inheritance War; each of them naturally had their own ideas about the trends and developments that occurred.
A moment later, the cultivators on the second floor were divided into two camps and were noisily arguing.
Only the middle-aged man who sat by the window remained silent as the argument raged, but the light that flickered in his eyes was gradually becoming more and more dangerous as time passed.
The crowd quarreled for quite a while but obviously nothing was resolved.
The cultivator who started this whole debate was now thoroughly worked up and turned to the silent middle-aged man and asked, “Hey you, who do you think is the Central Capital’s First Young Lord?”
“You’re asking this old master?” The middle-aged man grinned and asked.
“Yes, you should say something too. Even if you’ve been silent the whole time, you obviously have your own opinion. Let all of us hear it! But… you know… at your age, claiming to be an old master, hahahaha!”
Everyone else also laughed a bit, wondering why this middle-aged person was pretending to be some wise old man.
The second floor suddenly calmed down as everyone’s eyes fixed on the middle-aged man, waiting for him to add his opinion.
The middle-aged man nodded lightly and drained the cup in his hand before firmly declaring, “If you really want this old master to say, the Central Capital’s First Young Lord can be no one else but Young Lord Yang Kai! Not only is he the Central Capital’s First Young Lord, but in the future, he will also be this world’s First Powerhouse, jie jie jie jie!”
Everyone was stunned, even the group of people who were impressed with Yang Kai’s recent display felt that this middle-aged man was exaggerating a bit too much and shook their heads .
Saying Yang Kai was the first person in the Central Capital’s younger generation wasn’t beyond debate, but to say he would be this world’s First Powerhouse was going too far.
There was no end to the martial path, even until now, none of the top masters at the Above Immortal Ascension Boundary had ever claimed to be invincible.
“This crazy old man…” The cultivator who first supported Liu Qing Yao said disdainful. “What kind of nonsense is he spewing, what shit does Yang Kai count for? Actually saying he’ll be the world’s first in the future…”
But before he had finished his sentence, he suddenly froze, almost as if his throat was caught by an invisible force rendering him unable to speak.
Everyone turned to look at him and couldn’t help paling.
They saw the face of this cultivator become dark in the blink of an eye, as if he had been poisoned, and his eyes became red as blood began flowing out of his seven orifices.
The next moment, a visible energy flew out from the top of this person’s head and erratically circled the room as the middle-aged man’s eyes gleamed.
The middle-aged man then opened his mouth and directly swallowed this energy form into his belly.
Surprisingly, the middle-aged man who was nothing more than skin and bones, after swallowing this energy, suddenly inflated slightly. Although he was still thin, it was not as wretched as before.
With a loud thump, the dark faced cultivator fell to the floor, dead.
A chill gripped everyone’s heart, making all the cultivators on the second floor feel like they had been plunged into an icehouse.
No one knew how this man died, but from the scene just now, everyone was clear that the culprit was this horrifying middle-aged man.
Terror, fear, panic, and utter mayhem suddenly broke out and quickly shrouded the entire restaurant.
The middle-aged man lowered his head and a wicked, grating laughter slowly leaked from his throat. When this laughter reached the surrounding cultivators, their Blood Force roiled, as if the blood in their veins was boiling.
“Jie jie jie jie…”
The maniacal laughter rapidly grew louder and more insane.
“This old master is starving, and since you’ve offered yourselves up, this old master won’t be polite! Afterwards, if Young Master pursues this matter, this old master also has an excuse!” The middle-aged man muttered as he remained in his chair.
*Pa pa pa…*
A grand bouquet of red flowers suddenly blossomed on the second floor as the bodies of various cultivators burst into blood fogs. Five viscera, six organs scattered all over the floor and the walls were painted bright red. The same energy blob that emerged from the first victim emerged from each dead body and was swiftly swallowed by the middle-aged.
The thin body of the middle-aged man inflated once again, gradually becoming somewhat sturdy and handsome, the only thing that remained unchanged was his cold and piercing eyes.
In a flash, the second floor of the restaurant had become a scene straight out of hell and more than twenty cultivators had died!
The surviving members shivered in fear but none of them could muster enough courage to run away; much less rebel. All of them staring at the middle-aged man in pure terror.
“Still not enough!” The middle-aged man patted his belly, his face showing a clear look of not being full as he glanced around at the dozens of people who were still alive.
When his eyes swept over the crowd, everyone immediately knelt down on the ground and vigorously kowtowed, begging for mercy.
The middle-aged man hesitated for a while, and then for some unknown reason, he didn’t finish them off, his body dissolving into a black mist and disappearing from everyone’s sight.
After he left, the cultivators who survived looked at each other with astonished expression, none of them understanding why this man had let them go.
Judging from the cruel and merciless methods he had just demonstrated, he obviously wouldn’t bat an eye at killing a few dozen more people, but he didn’t do so.
As the survivors began examining each other, all of them were surprised to find that the people who had been spared seemed to be the ones who had just supported Yang Kai, while those who opposed Yang Kai were all dead.
Being able to escape this tribulation, all of them thanked the Heavens for their luck.
After coming to grips with the fact that they were still alive, everyone began noticing the blood and guts which they were all but bathed in and couldn’t help throwing up the food they had just ate.
These cultivators weren’t inexperienced people who had never seen bloodshed before, but none of them had ever witnessed such a horrible scene!
Everyone who had died had basically become scattered chunks of meat…
Outside the restaurant, a black mist suddenly appeared and the middle-aged man’s form gradually condensed. Staring in the direction of War City a thousand kilometers away, he grinned and whispered under his breath, “After such a long time, I wonder if Young Master will be surprised by this old master’s new look!”
Saying so, his expression suddenly sank as he muttered, “I hope Young Master won’t blame me for being late. If I’d only known, I wouldn’t have stopped over in the Ash-Grey Cloud Evil Land for so long…”
Thinking of his Young Master, the look on the middle-aged man’s face became a bit complicated.
In fact, the relationship between himself and his Young Master wasn’t so harmonious. When they had first met, he had tried to use his Soul to seize his body, but he had wound up restrained by him and had to allow his Soul to be branded, basically turning him into servant.
Then came the period of slavery, but during that time, the middle-aged man behaved very docile and loyal. However, he had always been looking for a way to escape this Young Master of his and restore his freedom.
However, as time passed, the middle-aged man gradually discovered the huge potential hidden inside this Young Master of his, and although his memory hadn’t been fully restored, his insight was still sharp.
The Young Master was very much unlike an ordinary cultivator and had a variety of mystery about him. Even accompanying him day and night, the middle-aged man couldn’t see through these mysteries, instead becoming more and more confused, which gradually let him reconsider as he secretly began looking forward to the growth of his Young Master.
Then, after finding the Devil Lord’s body beneath the Coiling Dragon Stream, the Young Master had actually allowed his Soul to possess it.
To be honest, at that time, the middle-aged man was a little worried that his Young Master would be suspicious of his motives and prevent him from seizing this new body, which would probably lead to him holding a grudge and once again trying to find a way to escape.
Fortunately, the Young Master allowed it.
This made him have a sense of gratitude!
Thinking back about it, while the Young Master seemed like he was being generous with him, seizing this Devil Lord’s body was also a big boost to him. After all, with his Soul brand, if he ever acted against him, it would only take a single thought to kill him.
Making up his mind, the middle-aged man’s expression became firm and no longer hesitated.
However… him showing up all on his own was a bit inappropriate. If the Young Master asked what he had been up to, it wasn’t like he could say he was just lingering in the Ash-Grey Cloud Evil Land and had forgotten about the promise he carved on the stone cliff wall, right?
Wrinkling his brow and thinking for a moment, the middle-aged man quickly spread out his vast Divine Sense.
He had only intended to see if there was something or someone nearby he could use as a convenient excuses, but when he swept the area with his Divine Sense, the middle-aged man Soul trembled lightly, seemingly sensing a familiar Soul fluctuation somewhere in the distance.
“Hm?” The look on the middle-aged man’s face couldn’t help becoming a bit curious as he stared towards the fluctuation’s source. Soon remembering something, his expression warped into a wicked smile as his figure flickered and he shot off in the same direction.
A hundred kilometers away, a group of people were fleeing.
There weren’t many people in this group, nor were there few, about thirty in total, but the one who lead them was only an Immortal Ascension Boundary Fourth Stage master, while most of the rest were just True Element Boundary cultivators.
Around them, a lot of figures were pursed them, slowly forming an encirclement but showing no signs of immediately attacking, as if they were just observing for now.
These surrounding cultivators also didn’t appear to be a united group but instead were divided into several teams, each of them wary of all the others.
“These people are really annoying; they’ve been chasing us for ten days now!” In the crowd, a pretty girl complained bitterly.
“This is troublesome,” A man next to her said with a wry smile, “If things continue on like this, we won’t make it to War City.”
“Senior Brother, what do we do?” the girl asked anxiously.
“Let’s just take one step at a time.” The man obviously had no good ideas so he simply followed behind his Elders in front of him.
As they walked, another young woman with a cold look came up beside them. This young woman had a slender, graceful waist, and shapely figure, a rare beauty, but what was strange was that her delicate hands were wrapped up in cloth, making it impossible to see what they looked like.
Not only her, but many of people in this group had their hands covered up, it seemed like these people had some secret related to their hands they didn’t want revealed.
“Senior Brother Tao, if we can’t escape, we should just separate.” The woman’s eyes flashed a cold light, these days being chased like this had pushed her patience to the limit, “The goal of these people is our Ghost King Valley. If we separate from them, they shouldn’t find trouble with your Treasure Instrument Sect.”
However, Tao Yang shook his head and said, “Junior Sister Leng, your thoughts are too simplistic. Do you really think that these people are after your Ghost King Valley’s disciples?”
“Although that’s not the whole reason, a big part of it is certainly our responsible.” Leng Shan said awkwardly; she was no fool and naturally knew that the although these people had continued to pursue them, even threatening them from time to time. The biggest reason they hadn’t simply attacked was that they were afraid of offending Treasure Instrument Sect.
Ghost King Valley was just an excuse to justify their current actions.
[Looks like this time I’ve made a mistake!]
A few months ago, the news of the Inheritance War reached the Ash-Grey Cloud Evil Land and the people from Ghost King Valley had naturally gotten wind of it as well.
Like Chen Xue Shu, when Leng Shan heard Yang Kai’s name, she was also a bit suspicious, not certain if this Yang Family youngest Young Lord was the one she was familiar with.
Later, after many inquiries, she confirmed his identity.
Leng Shan’s status in Ghost King Valley wasn’t low, so she had gone to ask Elder Gui Li to allow her to lead some of the Sect’s people to participate in the Inheritance War.
Gui Li immediately refused.
Ghost King Valley was a Sect from the Ash-Grey Cloud Evil Land. Disciples running out from its borders would certainly not have good ends. As for going to the Central Capital to participate in the Yang Family’s Inheritance War, how could he possible permit it?
Not only did he refuse, he also confined Leng Shan and ordered that before she reached the Immortal Ascension Boundary she was not to be released.
Sometime later, her Senior Brothers Chen Yi and Cheng Ying secretly released her and the three of them gathered a group of fellow disciples who had received Yang Kai’s help in the Evil Cavern before secretly sneaking out of Ghost King Valley and traveling to the Central Capital.
All of them owed Yang Kai their lives and wanted to repay him somehow. After all, back in the Evil Cavern, if it wasn’t for Yang Kai, they would have already died a thousand times over.
Unfortunately, the Ghost King Valley group’s characteristics were too obvious.
Their hands were pale and bloodless just like a ghost’s, so once they were seen, everyone would know they were from an Evil Sect, causing them to be hunted down and killed mercilessly.
Therefore, the Ghost King Valley disciples all wrapped their hands in white cloth so, although they looked a big weird, they could effectively hide their background.
But with the exception of Leng Shan’s brief experience in the Isolated World, none of these young disciples had ever left the Ash-Grey Cloud Evil Land, so once they left and entered the Great Han Dynasty, they had all but become headless flies.
Finally, after wracking their brains over it, Chen Yi decided to go to Treasure Instrument Sect to find Tao Yang and take advantage of Treasure Instrument Sect’s name to go to the Central Capital.
In his opinion, Tao Yang and the others from Treasure Instrument Sect would definitely move to assist Yang Kai.
Tao Yang has long ago received a letter from Yang Kai’s messenger, but he hadn’t been able to convince the Sect Elders so he could only rely on his fellow disciples if he wanted to go support Yang Kai.
When the Ghost King Valley group arrived at Treasure Instrument Sect, Tao Yang was in a bad mood, so when he saw Leng Shan, Chen Yi and the others he was overjoyed and quickly arranged for them to quietly hide inside Treasure Instrument Sect.
Over the next while, Leng Shan and Tao Yang used both soft and hard forms of persuasion to finally convince the Elders of Treasure Instrument Sect to take a stand in the Inheritance War.
After that, they immediately set off.
But after leaving Treasure Instrument Sect, they almost immediately found themselves being tracked by several people.
Every day, Treasure Instrument Sect was very lively; similar to Medicine King’s Valley, cultivators flowed like an endless river into the Sect to request Artifact Refining, but this group of people was different, they only followed them, never once coming up and speaking with them directly.
After a day of this situation, one of the Immortal Ascension Boundary masters from Treasure Instrument Sect finally couldn’t stand it anymore and bluntly asked what their purpose was, soon learning that these people were actually sent by the various Yang Family Young Lords to lobby them into joining their respective camps.
A group of Alchemists from Medicine King’s Valley had already declared their support for Yang Kai, so a group of Artifact Refiners from Treasure Instrument Sect was seen as the highest available prize.
Whether it was Yang Zhao, Yang Kang, Yang Shen, Yang Ying, or even Yang Wei, each of them had sent their own group of lobbyists.
But how could Tao Yang and the others accept such an invitation?
After being refused though, these groups of people didn’t lose heart and while keeping an eye on each other, lacking any further instructions, they simply began following Tao Yang’s group.
After a few days of this, an opportunity finally presented itself.
A disciple from Ghost King Valley accidentally exposed his identity which caused the surrounding groups to pounce.
“Master Wu, as long as you hand over the Ghost King Valley disciples, I swear to you we will not embarrass your noble Sect; after all, Artifact Refining is a rare skill and we would certainly not want any misfortune to befall all of you!” From the outside crowd, an Immortal Ascension Boundary Sixth Stage expert said with a smile.
These words instantly gained the support of the other surrounding groups everyone nodding their head in agreement to express their attitude. They were implicitly suggesting that as long as Treasure Instrument Sect handed over the Ghost King Valley disciples, they wouldn’t expose the fact that they had been colluding with an Evil Sect.
Wu Yan, who was the Treasure Instrument Sect group’s leader, just snorted and refused to respond.
How could he not see through the intentions of this group of people? It was because he understood all this that he disdained to even reply.
“Tao Yang! Get over here!” Wu Yan’s stomach was full of grievances but he had nowhere to vent, so he could only angrily roar at this junior of his.
Tao Yang’s neck shrank and immediately rushed to the front, respectfully asking, “Uncle Wu, what are your orders?”
Wu Yan wore a smile that wasn’t a smile and quipped, “Little brat, your courage has really grown fat huh? Daring to shelter these Ghost King Valley disciples, what explanation do you plan on offering your dear Uncle?”
Wu Yan also only knew their true identity after the Ghost King Valley disciple exposed his hands a few days ago.
If he had known earlier, how could he and the other Elders of Treasure Instrument Sect so casually let Leng Shan and the others stay in the Sect?
Tao Yang didn’t bother trying to deny at all, instead just laughing as he said, “Uncle Wu, they are my sworn friends. When I, Junior Sister Zhao Rong, and my two Junior Brothers traveled to the Evil Cavern last time we received much care from them, otherwise I’m afraid all of us would have already departed for the next life.”
Wu Yan blinked, “Didn’t you say it was Yang Kai who took care of you all back then? How did it suddenly become a group of Ghost King Valley disciples? Which story is the truth?”
“We received care from all of them, all of them!” Tao Yang said with a somewhat sketchy expression, “In any case Uncle Wu, our Treasure Instrument Sect is just like Medicine King’s Valley. We open our doors only to do business, as for if a client is a virtuous paragon or an evil demon, what difference does that make to us?”
“Hmph! Anyways, this situation is your fault, so you find a way to solve it for this old master, or else, when we get back, I’ll personally drive you out of the Sect!”
“Don’t say that Uncle Wu, haven’t I been trying to find a way out of this mess?” Tao Yang suddenly looked depressed.
“You better think of a way.”
Facing this harsh new reality, Tao Yang had no way out.
This group of people from Ghost King Valley were all juniors, so none of them were Immortal Ascension cultivators; as for Treasure Instrument Sect, there were several who had reached the Immortal Ascension Boundary, and the artifacts they carried were incredibly varied and powerful, but due to their profession, their overall combat strength was quite low, and they were definitely not the opponents of these onlookers.
If they could secretly get a message to Yang Kai, informing him of their dilemma, Tao Yang firmly believed that he would definitely bring a large number of people to support them and reaching War City would become easy.
However, in this situation, there was no chance of one of them slipping away.
“Senior Brother Tao, I’m sorry, it’s our fault you were reprimanded.” Leng Shan said with a guilty expression. She and Chen Yi felt incompetent, they had only been thinking about seeking Tao Yang’s help. After the Evil Cavern incident, Tao Yang and his fellow disciples had stayed in Ghost King Valley for a while, so everyone was familiar with one another, making them temporarily forget that they were technically supposed to be enemies.
“Don’t worry about it. Uncle Wu was just venting his anger, he won’t really drive me out of the Sect.” Tao Yang smiled and waved his hand casually.
Treasure Instrument Sect’s population was incredibly sparse, with only a total of around a hundred people in total. The disciples recruited each generation had all undergone a rigorous selection process even more stringent than Medicine King’s Valley’s.
As a result, every disciple of Treasure Instrument Sect had unparalleled talent and achievements in Artifact Refining, and Tao Yang was one of the top figures in his generation.
Treasure Instrument Sect was counting on him to carry on its legacy, how could Wu Yan really be willing to drive him out of the Sect?
As he said so though, Tao Yang’s expression became gloomy. The five groups of people had moved to their front, back, left and right, making it seem like they were providing a high-quality escort, but in reality, they had them trapped.
[Fight? Impossible. Talk? They’re not willing to listen.]
Moreover, as time passed, the closer they came to War City, the thinner the patience of these five groups became, the looks in their eyes gradually becoming dangerous.
The status of Treasure Instrument Sect wasn’t as lofty as that of Medicine King’s Valley, when people from Medicine King’s Valley went out, no one dared to offend them.
Although Treasure Instrument Sect had a fair bit of reputation, some people still didn’t place them in their eyes.
These years, Treasure Instrument Sect’s leadership had lost count of how many great forces had secretly been trying to annex them, whether through negotiation, bargaining, tricks, schemes, or flat out intimidation.
Fortunately, Treasure Instrument Sect had many connections so each time disaster struck, they had somehow resolved it.
However, this situation wasn’t sustainable in the long run, they would need to attach themselves to some force in order to survive sooner or later.
It was also for this reason that Treasure Instrument Sect’s Elders agreed to Tao Yang’s request to participate in the Inheritance War, as long as he could negotiate some favourable terms with Yang Kai, it wouldn’t be impossible to resolve this issue once and for all.
The group flew forward again for half an hour and was now 800 kilometers from War City.
At this distance, the five batches of people sent by the Yang Family Young Lords were obviously at their limit, all of them quietly exchanging glances as they prepared to strike.
The Treasure Instrument Sect and Ghost King Valley group were aware of this and raised their guard even further.
Sure enough, from the left most group, the Immortal Ascension Boundary master who spoke before coldly shouted, “Master Wu, it seems that your noble Sect really insists on sheltering these evildoers! Since Master Wu is not willing to hand them over, then we have no choice but to act. If in the process we cause offence, I hope Master Wu will be magnanimous!”
When Wu Yan heard this, his expression twisted in anger, “What do you want to do?”
The man chuckled and said, “Good and evil cannot coexist, I simply want to punish these devils! Master Wu, I suggest you and your Sect Brothers and Sisters not interfere so as not to suffer any accidental injuries”
Wu Yan sneered, “You won’t say that all these juniors behind this Wu are devil spawn? No matter if they fight back or not you’ll grab all of them, won’t you?”
“How could I?” The man slowly shook his head, “At the very least, I know well your first disciple Tao Yang, as for everyone else, whether they are minions of evil or not, after we interrogate them, we will understand!”
Having heard these words, everyone understood that this man was going to use the excuse of suppressing the Ghost King Valley disciples to capture those from Treasure Instrument Sect, so long as they didn’t kill anyone and simply imprisoned all of them, they could easily bring these valuable Artifact Refiners back to their respective Young Lords.
What’s more, if a fight really broke out, would Tao Yang and the others really stand by and do nothing? Once they inevitably started fighting back, these people would have the perfect excuse to justify their actions.
All the different actions that they could take will all lead to the same, inevitable conclusion.
Wu Ya’s expression sank as he muttered under his breath, “It seems that my Treasure Instrument Sect can’t avoid this tribulation, wait for the fight to start then find a way to escape, if you can’t escape, don’t resist. They won’t kill. Tao Yang, you go to War City, find Yang Kai. Let him step forward to resolve this!”
“Disciple won’t fail!” Tao Yang firmly declared.
“Also, tell him, if there is a single casualty from our Treasure Instrument Sect, don’t expect this old master to refine him a single piece of junk for the rest of his life!” Wu Yan reiterated.
“Master Wu, have you made up your mind?” The man mocked before shouting, “If so, then pardon my offence!”
As his voice rang out, the five batches of people almost simultaneously leapt forward, their goal obviously the Treasure Instrument Sect disciples in the crowd.
Treasure Instrument Sect had dispatched more than twenty of its members this time so the number of targets wasn’t small. At the very least, each of the Yang Family’s Young Lords back in War City could harvest a few.
Treasure Instrument Sect and Ghost King Valley were immediately overwhelmed by this sudden rush and were about to follow Wu Yan’s instructions to escape when a figure suddenly appeared above everyone’s heads.
This person was quite strange; no one had even noticed how he appeared. It was almost as if he had been there the whole time and had just now revealed himself.
When this figure appeared, a horrifying Spiritual Energy descended upon the crowd.
Everyone in the five groups who were attacking suddenly stumbled, each of them showing aghast expressions as they quickly circulated their True Qi to resist this pressure, all of them trembling as they fearfully looked towards this newcomer.
On the other hand, the Treasure Instrument Sect and the Ghost King Valley people all felt confused.
Especially Leng Shan, when this person appeared, she felt a faint fluctuation in her mind, but before she had a chance to carefully investigate, the fluctuations disappeared.
As she stared at this floating middle-aged man, Leng Shan couldn’t help frowning in suspicion.
The opposite party also glanced at her casually, revealed a friendly smile, and then immediately turned his eyes away.
In the next instant, a cold, brutal, and bloodthirsty aura filled the middle-aged man’s eyes as he laughed wickedly, “So many bullying the few, interesting!”
His attitude was casual, neither friendly nor hostile, as if he was a great masters who had only coincidentally passed by here and had come to watch the show.
No one dared to respond, under this horrible and sinister Spiritual Energy, any slight loss of focus could lead to disastrous consequences.
The scene suddenly stagnated, and the expressions of the people in the five groups were extremely ugly as they were fixed in place. All of them looked at the middle-aged man with fear and terror, gradually leaking beans of cold sweat from their foreheads.
“Are you all mutes?” The middle-aged man’s expression dimmed as he loudly shouted.
This shout was like a crack of thunder, causing everyone’s ears to ring and bleed, all of them stumbling back a few steps before they regained their balance, turning even more fearful looks forward towards this man.
All of them knew, if none of them spoke and broke this deadlock, this situation simply wouldn’t end.
After realizing this, the most powerful figures among the five groups glanced at each other before the same man who had been speaking before stepped forward nervously and respectfully asked, “May I ask Senior’s great name? This humble one is Lei Zhou of Tranquil Light Sect …”
But before he could finish introducing himself, he was cut off by the middle-aged man, his brows wrinkling somewhat in annoyance, “Tranquil Light Sect? Never heard of it!”
The Tranquil Light Sect was also a first-class force, so being so blatantly disdained made Lei Zhou unhappy, but in front of this malevolent man he didn’t dare show any anger, laughing awkwardly as he tried to continue, “We are here to support the Central Capital Yang Family’s Second Young Lord.”
Lei Zhou understood that this middle-aged man’s strength was unfathomable and had a wild and arrogant demeanour. He was definitely someone with eyes higher than the top of his head. But even if the Tranquil Light Sect didn’t enter his eyes, could the Central Capital Yang Family also be the same?
By purposely bringing up the Second Young Lord’s name he was hoping to make this man take a step back.
“Second Young Lord?” Sure enough, the middle-aged man couldn’t help but reveal a look of interest when he heard these three words, “Who is the Yang Family’s Second Young Lord?”
“Yang Zhao!” The man smiled and replied, his expression also relaxing, thinking that his words had played some role.
“What about you?” The middle-aged man turned his head and looked at the other groups.
Everyone quickly rushed to report the name of the Young Lord they supported and to which Sect they belonged.
Unexpectedly, the middle-aged man’s casually grinning expression gradually grew dark after hearing these various names and titles, soon becoming cold and menacing, like the black clouds of an approaching storm.
Bad! Everyone who saw this couldn’t help trembling, their backs now covered in cold sweat.
“You people, seems none of you are supporting Yang Kai?” The middle-aged man’s lips curled into a sneer, a sharp glint flashing across his eyes.
“Senior, we are on our way to support Yang Kai.” Tao Yang bravely stepped forward and cupped his fists, noticing some subtle information in these last words.
“Hm?” The middle-aged man looked over at him, his sullen expression brightening all of a sudden as he laughed and said, “Good good good, you have a little vision, very good, just support Yang Kai well and you won’t regret it!”
“Many thanks for Senior’s auspicious words!” Tao Yang replied happily.
Wu Yan quickly shot Tao Yang a disgruntled glare; his First disciple’s performance just now was nothing short of coveting life while fearing death, seeking favour from this middle-aged man so blatantly.
This made Treasure Instrument Sect loss face!
“En, since you’re on your way to support Yang Kai, this old master can’t sit back and do nothing!” The middle-aged man nodded gently and waved his hand, “Your safety is something that this old master will take responsibility of!”
Hearing this, whether it was the Ghost King Valley disciples or the Treasure Instrument Sect people, everyone was filled with joy, none of them had dreamed that such a powerful master would jump out of nowhere to protect them at this critical juncture, each of them cupping their fists in thanks.
On the contrary, the five groups of people all look grim, not daring to act out; after experiencing this person’s Spiritual Energy pressure, they naturally knew he was not someone they could provoke.
Lei Zhou somehow managed to cup his fists and squeeze out a smile, “Since Senior has come forward, this one will step back. Farewell!”
Finished what he had to say, he literally stepped backwards, afraid to turn his back to this middle-aged man.
The people in the five groups had only managed to take a few steps back before a wicked laughter filled their ears, causing all of them to feel unnerved.
“Did this old master say you could go?” The eyes of the middle-aged man flashed a dangerous and cold light, his tone noticeably lowering as a gloomy aura spread out from him, sending chills down everyone’s back.
All those who were trying to retreat immediately halted, their expressions turning extremely ugly.
“What instructions does Senior have?” Lei Zhou frowned and asked, secretly circulating his True Qi as he did so.
“This old master is in a good mood today and is too lazy to slaughter,” The middle-aged man smiled slyly, his expression light and carefree. “But all of you have eyes but fail to see, such blind fools shouldn’t be left alive. Since you’ve chosen to support the wrong person, this old master can’t just sit by and ignore you.”
Hearing the meaning of his words, the faces of everyone in the five groups grew even uglier, one of the Immortal Ascension Boundary masters coldly snorting, “How I chose to act is none of your business. Although Senior may be strong, but facing so many of us I don’t believe you’ll feel much better. Must Senior insist on acting ruthlessly?”
As this man spoke, the five groups gradually gathered together, all of them staring at the middle-aged man with dignified looks, displaying a unified front.
Against such a master, they were forced to do so. Their only hope was that this middle-aged man would see this and back down.
However, the middle-aged man didn’t show any signs of hesitation, instead only looking more and more excited, “Good good! Finally enough targets to slaughter!”
As he spoke, he licked his lips and slowly lifted his hand, “Heaven Sealing Blood Sea!”
Behind the middle-aged man’s back, a crimson light flashed and a bright red wave of blood spread out in all directions.
Before anyone could react, the entire region had been enveloped in this blood sea.
All everyone could see was a scarlet world, the Heavens and Earth had all transformed into waves of thick red blood which churned and rippled around them, blood bubbles constantly rising from beneath their feet, the smell of iron thick and nauseating.
From all around, wails and moans rang out.
It was like they had been dropped into a demonic purgatory!
“What is this?” The five batches of people suddenly panicked, none of them had ever seen such a strange Martial Skill. All the middle-aged man had done was wave his hand and the entire world had changed. Instinctively, everyone pushed their True Qi and tried to escape, using their movement skills and artifacts to their full potential as they tried to escape this blood red world.
However, the blood pooled beneath them seemed to exert a huge suction on them, locking them in place, unable to escape.
The ground had become like quicksand, the more one tried to struggle, the faster they were pulled under.
“Jie jie jie jie…” The middle-aged man once again smirked and let out a burst of demonic laughter, seemingly enjoying the desperate and helpless expressions of those struggling to escape from this blood sea, his eyes flashing with a strange, excited light.
The people from Ghost King Valley and Treasure Instrument Sect was also stunned, all of them glancing around this bloody sea as they trembled in fear.
Everyone knew that this middle-aged man who had suddenly appeared was very powerful, but no one imagined he would be strong to this extent.
A single move had left these five powerful groups of cultivators to fall into desperation, and from his appearance, it seemed like he hadn’t even gone all out but was instead just casually taking action.
Ghost King Valley itself was an Evil Sect. The Martial Skills and Secret Arts it practiced also had sinister attributes, but when Leng Shan and her fellow disciples compared their Sect’s techniques with the scene in front of them, filled with blood and ghastly wailing, they all felt their soul’s tremble in fright.
The Treasure Instrument Sect’s Artifact Refiners were even worse off, all of them pale with fright. Only Wu Yan, who barely managed to keep his composure though his heart was pounding, turned his eyes and looked at the middle-aged man unconsciously.
It was obvious to him that this middle-aged man wasn’t someone they should associate themselves with.
After only ten breaths of time, the cultivators trapped in the blood sea had all undergone massive changes. These people, no matter how strong or weak, how high or low their cultivations, all had ferocious looks in their bloodshot eyes, the prior looks of fear and panic had disappeared from their faces and was replaced by infinite madness and killing intent.
It seemed like this blood sea’s hidden brutality and malice that had affected their hearts.
“Kill!” Someone screamed as they summoned their artifact and used a Martial Skill on the companion beside him, decapitating him instantly.
“Kill! Kill! Kill! KILL!”
The five groups of people seemed like they had all transformed into slaughtering demons, unable to even recognize their parents anymore, screaming wildly as they fought with anyone and everyone around them.
One by one, bodies fell, and the blood that flowed from these fresh corpses dyed the blood sea even redder.
The smell of blood was overwhelming.
Meanwhile, the middle-aged man seemed to be admiring a great drama, his expression filled with joy and happiness.
Severed limbs, mountains of corpses, rivers of blood.
Treasure Instrument Sect and Ghost King Valley’s several female disciples all couldn’t help covering their mouths and rushing to the side to vomit.
None of them had ever even imagined such a bloody and terrifying scene; it had obviously far exceeded their psychological limit.
The middle-aged man noticed this change and glanced over, but after snickering once he turned his eyes away and stopped paying attention.
After about half a cup of tea’s time, the five groups of people trapped in the Heaven Sealing Blood Sea had all died with the exception of the Lei Zhou, the first Immortal Ascension Boundary master to speak earlier.
From the beginning, he was the strongest of those who were present. Although he was only an Immortal Ascension Boundary Sixth Stage, whether it was his personal cultivation or Martial Skills, they far surpassed his allies.
However, even though he had survived, he was no longer the same person he once was.
His entire body was covered in blood and his eyes were completely bloodshot, like a beast that had been trapped in a cage for thousands of years. Hot breath left his mouth and nose as his face expression only showed infinite murderous intent, staring left and right for new prey as he stood alone in the sea of blood.
His sentience had been annihilated; right now he was nothing more than a walking corpse driven by his killing instincts.
“Good! Since you survived, this old master won’t kill you!” The middle-aged man smiled and waved his hands in a strange pattern, quickly condensing a mysterious glowing seal that show out and landed on Lei Zhou’s body.
When this seal hit him, Lei Zhou suddenly seemed to transform into a whirlpool that madly swallowed all of the blood around him.
This bizarre scene shocked the Ghost King Valley and Treasure Instrument Sect cultivators again.
Along with this infusion of blood, this Immortal Ascension Boundary master gradually changed, swelling up to more than twice his previous size as his face distorted greatly, even his head ballooned up like a giant bag.
For a while, the blood poured into his body, and soon no semblance of his original appearance remained. He couldn’t even be described as human anymore.
This Immortal Ascension Boundary master had transformed drastically into a blood red creature, its hideous face containing a pair eyes that radiated a savage light.
Wu Yan was absolutely stunned by the mysterious methods of this middle-aged man. Examining this new monster he also quickly discovered that although it was formed from a strong Immortal Ascension Boundary Sixth Stage master, its current True Qi fluctuations had grown significantly while its aura was more manic and brutal.
“Huo…” Lifting its head to the sky the newly transformed creature let out a roar which shook the air, the clouds gathered over its head scattered as a red light from its forehead shot up to the Heavens.
“It’s a little useful. Don’t worry, this old master will feed you plenty of fresh blood!” The middle-aged man mumbled to himself before waving his hand again, the once Immortal Ascension Boundary master instantly transforming into a bloody light and disappearing into his palm.
Everyone left stared dumbfounded.
The methods this middle-aged man pulled out one after another were all so foreign to them and exceeded their comprehension; it was as if they didn’t belong to this world at all.
After witnessing the brutal cruelty of this person, the people from Ghost King Valley and Treasure Instrument Sect suddenly felt anxious, as if they had escaped the wolf’s den only to fall into the tiger’s.
He had just killed five strong groups of people like crushing a bunch of ants, if he wanted to kill them, would he even need to blink?
Unexpectedly, after he received this bloody light, he actually landed on the ground nearby and smiled towards them, “En, the mixed fishes are cleaned up, let’s go.”
No one dared to move, everyone just stood there nervously, trying to avoid eye contact.
“Hm?” The middle-aged people also noticed that the atmosphere was somewhat wrong before laughing out loud, “Afraid I’ll kill you?”
Wu Yan couldn’t help coughing lightly, fixing his expression as best he could as he hurriedly said, “Nonsense, we owe Senior a life-saving grace, this one wouldn’t dare suspect Senior’s intentions.”
“Rest assured, since you’re here to support Yang Kai, I won’t harm you, after all, I’m also on my way to support Yang Kai, hahaha!” The middle-aged man’s expression mellowed quite a bit, causing everyone to relax slightly, but in the next instant his expression became fierce again as he let out a malicious sneer, “But if you’re here to help one of the other Yang Family Young Lords, I won’t show any mercy.”
The relaxed atmosphere immediately tensed up again.
Wu Yan even more hastily replied, “No no, all of us are going to support Young Lord Kai.”
However, in his heart he was suspicious, just how did the Yang Family’s youngest Young Lord know this kind of person? Wasn’t the man in front of them some kind of legendary Demon Lord?
Amongst the crowd, Leng Shan hesitated for a long time but finally worked up the courage to face the middle-aged man and said, “Senior, many thanks for rescuing us, dare I ask how we should address Senior?”
Wu Yan’s ears also twitched, quieting even his breathing as he listened.
“Old master is called… en, old master is surnamed De!”
“So it is Senior De,” Leng Shan didn’t dare to dig any deeper on this subject but couldn’t help asking, “Senior De, have we met somewhere before?”
Chen Yi and Cheng Ying couldn’t help feeling shocked, and quickly and quietly signaling Leng Shan to stop.
This middle-aged man was definitely not a good person and his methods were extremely fierce. On top of that he was more than a hundred times crueler and brutal than even their Ghost King Valley. If this Junior Sister of theirs upset him in any way, none of them would escape punishment.
But to their great surprise, the middle-aged man who claimed to be surnamed De actually smiled slightly and nodded, “Yes, we’ve met.”
This answer only confused Leng Shan even more though, wrinkling her brow as a look of incomprehension spread across her pretty face, “If we’ve met before, why do I not have a single impression of Senior De? I can only feel that Senior is somehow familiar.”
Leng Shan was a rising star of Ghost King Valley and although she wouldn’t claim her memory was infallible, those she had met she was still clear about.
This was especially so for this Senior. For someone so powerful, how could she possibly forgot about his existence?
However, Leng Shan simply couldn’t remember seeing him anywhere.
And this sense of familiarity wasn’t something like a memory, but more like a feeling.
If she had to describe it… the Senior in front of her right now gave her the same feeling as that Tian Lang Dynasty bitch Zi Mo!
Both she and Zi Mo had their Soul’s branded by Yang Kai, causing them to have an inexplicable intimacy, but why would this Senior also give her such a feeling?
This Senior De was powerful so he couldn’t have suffered the same Soul branding that Yang Kai had used on her, right? Leng Shan shook her head and immediately rejected this possibility.
Seeing her confusion, Senior De actually grinned towards her meaningfully and quipped, “Long ago this old master met you but at the time you have not met this old master.”
Leng Shan was now even more confused, but she knew it wouldn’t be prudent to ask any more.
“Come on, let’s talk while we walk. This place is only 800 kilometers from War City. If we leave now, we should arrive before dark!” Senior De waved his hand and took the lead.
The Ghost King Valley and Treasure Instrument Sect people all glanced at each other somewhat hesitantly.
Wu Yan was even more awkward but after a short silence he bit his lip and nodded, “Follow him.”
This person was too powerful, and no matter what reason he had for helping them, the simple truth was if he really wanted to kill him, all of them would be dead in an instant.
It was a blessing not a curse, and if it was a curse it couldn’t be avoided. Right now, all they could do was obediently follow this Senior De. The truth of the matter would reveal itself when they reached War City.
Soon, a group of thirty people followed behind the terrifying Senior De.
From a short distance ahead, the middle-aged man suddenly turned around and beckoned to Leng Shan, “Little girl, come over!”
Leng Shan nodded and stepped forward, Chen Yi hurriedly whispering, “Senior Sister, be careful!”
“En.” Leng Shan replied, seemingly not worried, calmly walking over to the middle middle-aged man’s side and respectfully asking, “What is Senior’s command?”
“Heh heh,” The middle-aged man turned to look at her and grinned, “Relax.”
Leng Shan still doesn’t know what he was planning to do when suddenly she saw his hand grab towards her. In that instant, she instinctively wanted to resist, but before her True Qi could even condense, the middle-aged man took back his hand.
Hearing a series of howls and screams, Leng Shan’s eyes shrank, her expression changing greatly.
She found that the Ghost King Seal in her body had actually been caught by the middle-aged man and though it struggled fiercely, it had no ability to resist let alone escape.
The Ghost King Seal was a Martial Skill that Ghost King Valley was known for and all of its members cultivated it.
This spiritual body was something that was born from tormented souls and Ghost King Valley disciples would refine it with a special method inside their own bodies, raising it with their Spiritual Essence so it grew in strength along with its owner.
When they fought against a tough opponent, it could be used to launch and unexpected attack.
It could be said that when one fought a Ghost King Valley disciple, they were really fighting against two opponents.
However, Leng Shan and this group of disciples were still quite young and their Ghost King Seals hadn’t reached full maturity so the power it could display was still quite limited.
No one should be able to forcefully take out a Ghost King Valley disciple’s Ghost King Seal, but this surnamed De had done so with ease.
In fact, Leng Shan didn’t even notice until it was all over.
Just as she was preparing to ask his intentions, Leng Shan saw the middle-aged man spit out a black mist that immediately squirmed into her Ghost King Seal.
The Ghost King Seal, which had been struggling violently up to now, seemed to have received a great boost from this black mist and quickly became docile, not only was it no longer struggling, it even seemed to show some signs of intimacy, it’s distorted facial features expression becoming happy and joyful.
Leng Shan couldn’t help feeling startled, swallowing down the words she was about to speak.
“Here you go!” The middle-aged man smiled and released the Ghost King Seal which was quickly taken back by Leng Shan into her body.
“Junior Sister!” Chen Yi had witnessed the entire scene just now and was immediately filled with anger and indignation, rushing over to Leng Shan’s side as he glared at the middle-aged man.
“Your courage isn’t small!” The middle-aged man sneered.
Leng Shan hastily held him back though, “I’m fine, Senior Brother, you’re misunderstanding. This Senior has just helped me a lot!”
As she spoke, the excitement in her voice continued to rise.
“What do you mean?” Chen Yi asked curiously.
“My Ghost King Seal has fallen asleep,” Leng Shan explained.
“What?” Chen Yi’s eyes bulged out.
The Ghost King Seal would grow along with its host and just like a snake shedding its skin, every time it fell asleep, once it awoke its strength would noticeably increase.
Leng Shan’s Ghost King Seal had already undergone this process a total of three times, but the next evolution was supposed to occur when she broke through to the Immortal Ascension Boundary, by which its strength wouldn’t be any worse than an average Immortal Ascension Boundary master.
But now, this process which should have occurred at least a year or two later had suddenly occurred ahead of time.
Leng Shan even felt that after this evolution, her Ghost King Seal would undergo earth-shaking changes.
All of this was because of Senior De’s black mist.
“Many thanks Senior De!” Leng Shan thanked him wholeheartedly.
“No need to be polite, consider it a reward for coming to help Yang Kai. Nurture your spirit well. When it wakes up, it will have achieved sentience and will become your most loyal partner,” Senior De said in a scholarly manner.
“Achieved sentience…” The eight Ghost King Valley disciples jaws all dropped, unable to believe what they had just heard.
A Ghost King Seal achieving sentience wasn’t just a fantasy, in the Ghost King Valley’s records, this had really happened to one of the Sect’s Senior Elders hundreds of years ago when he had broken through to the Above Immortal Ascension Boundary.
The current Ghost King Valley Sect Master Gui Li hadn’t even achieved this step.
Everyone realized just how valuable this gift was!
Leng Shan’s eyes flashed with excitement, biting her thin lip, not knowing what to say, after a while softly whispering, “What is Senior De’s relationship with Yang Kai?”
“He’s my little… *ahem*, my Young Master!” The middle-aged man lightly coughed, almost blurting out something he shouldn’t have.
“So, you’re a Yang Family person?” Leng Shan tilted her beautiful head slightly.
“En, well, in a sense.” The middle-aged man answered ambiguously.
“Senior, Senior…” Chen Yi grinned and walked over, fidgeting nervously as he wrung his hands, “You see, like Junior Sister Leng, we’re all also going to help Yang Kai, so…”
The middle-aged man glanced at him and sneered, “Do you think it’s so simple to let that spirit evolve? Every time I do so it damages this old master’s strength!”
Chen Yi expression went black and blushed with embarrassment, though he was still quite reluctant to give up so he didn’t withdraw.
If he were to cultivate himself, even if he did so day and night without rest, the chances of his Ghost King Seal gaining sentience and becoming a legendary existence was basically zero. With such a great opportunity in front of him, if he didn’t at least try to grasp it, he would definitely regret it for a lifetime.
However, thinking about asking for such a big favour really made Chen Yi feel awkward.
But to his surprise, the middle-aged man suddenly grinned and continued, “Well, today this old master is in quite a good mood, so I’ll help you little brats!”
Chen Yi was so excited he nearly jumped up and cheered, quickly thanking Senior De before turning around and hurriedly waving his fellow Sect Brothers and Sisters over, “Everyone come here, come quick!”
The rest of the Ghost King Valley disciples all rushed over as well, their smiles reaching from ear to ear as they lavished this middle-aged man with praise, flattery and thanks.
Senior De was true to his words and swiftly took the Ghost King Seals out of their bodies and fed them a breath of black mist.
A short time later, the processing was complete.
The eight Ghost King Valley disciples all glanced around at each other and saw the vibrant excitement and expectation in their eyes. Just now when they had heard what this middle-aged man had said they half doubted half believed him, but when their Ghost King Seals were returned, each of them became keenly aware that this evolution would surely result in a qualitative leap, filling them with hope for the future.
This time, they had really benefited big, and they had yet to even reach War City to meet up with Yang Kai! To think they had already met this incredible master who delivered them such a big gift! Once they arrived at War City, if they could build a good relationship with this Senior De, perhaps he would grant them some more of his wisdom.
As they watched the Ghost King Valley disciples obtain such a great opportunity, the Treasure Instrument Sect people’s eyes gleamed.
Tao Yang even courageously rushed up and smiled widely, “Senior, Senior, we are also going to help Yang Kai, so could you perhaps… hehe…”
“What do you want?” The middle-aged man didn’t get angry, just turning a smile to him.
Tao Yang’s expression brightened as he asked, “Is there a way for Senior to improve the purity of our True Qi? It would be best if it could be improved by a grade or two!”
In order to be an Artifact Refiners or an Alchemist one needed to have very high purity and density of True Qi in their body. Tao Yang wasn’t a Ghost King Valley disciple so he couldn’t expect a similar benefit so he made this request instead.
Listening to his request, the middle-aged man sneered, “This old master can’t help you with that, such things all depend on one’s own hard work.”
“So there’s no way…” Tao Yang couldn’t help feeling a little disappointed.
“But… I heard those people before say you were all from Treasure Instrument Sect, right?”
“Correct.”
“Then if it’s about Artifact Refining, this old master can perhaps give you a pointer or two, heh, that is if you’re open to hearing them.”
Hearing this, Wu Yan couldn’t help secretly sneering in disdain.
Although this middle-aged man was extremely powerful and possessed many strange methods, but when it came to Artifact Refining, no one in this world could match those from Treasure Instrument Sect, even if they were Above Immortal Ascension Boundary masters.
So obviously he wouldn’t take this middle-aged man’s words seriously, thinking he was just trying to show off.
“Is Senior also familiar with Artifact Refining?” Tao Yang’s face brightened again.
Senior De gently nodded, “This old master knows a little, nothing profound but it should be enough to expand your horizons.”
This time, even Tao Yang’s face became slightly awkward, not knowing what to do next.
There was still someone who dared to show off their knowledge of Artifact Refining in front of Treasure Instrument Sect. Apparently, this world was filled with all kinds of people.
However, having witnessed the opposite party’s brutal methods, if he let him lose face, who knew if he would get angry or possibly even kill him? Clearly understanding this point, all Tao Yang could do was scratch his head humbly and ask for Senior De’s advice while doing his best not to show any disrespect no matter what he said.