It seemed that because Yang Kai asked too many questions she couldn’t answer, Guan’er no longer wanted to play with him and returned to the stone room instead, disappearing after she dropped him off.
Recalling what had just happened the moment he had seen the statue of Great Demon God, Yang Kai shook his head in confusion.
He didn’t know if that voice was real or simply an illusion but even if he wanted to get to the bottom of it he had no way to do so, so he could only ignore it for now.
Two days later, Yang Kai, who was meditating, noticed a subtle energy fluctuation nearby and quickly opened his eyes, discovering Li Rong and the cold Han Fei standing together in front of him.
Yang Kai’s brow wrinkled, he didn’t understand why Han Fei had also appeared and asked, “What’s happening?”
In response, Li Rong shook her head lightly, “We don’t have what we need, but since you need it, you can take it for yourself.”
“Take it myself?” Yang Kai was slightly puzzled.
“Good, that’s why I had you wait for two days, Han Fei will escort you there.”
Han Fei’s territory was on the other side of Demon God Citadel, Li Rong had apparently sent a letter to let her telling her to come here which had caused the two day delay.
Yang Kai glanced at the icy woman and gently nodded, deciding to not ask anything.
“If you’re ready, then let’s go,” Han Fei didn’t speak any nonsense as she coldly glanced at Yang Kai.
“I have nothing to prepare.”
“Good,” Han Fei said, turned around, and walked out.
“Be careful out there,” Li Rong reminded.
Yang Kai gently waved his hand before following Han Fei outside.
As soon as Yang Kai exited his stone room, he saw Han Fei’s tender body transform into a stream of light and disappear, but he just stood there and watched.
Li Rong looked at him curiously, a trace of suspicion appearing on her pretty face.
After waiting for a while, Yang Kai still didn’t move, and Han Fei couldn’t help flying back, frowning at him with displeasure, “What are you doing? Why don’t you keep up?”
“I already said I don’t have much True Qi left and can’t afford to squander it; flying to wherever we’re going will be a big waste of True Qi, right?” Yang Kai said helplessly.
“What are you trying to say?” Han Fei frowned.
“You’ll have to carry me there,” Yang Kai said in a serious tone. Upon hearing this, Han Fei felt even more annoyed, “Hmph, you dare tell me to carry you?”
“I’m not trying to take advantage of you, nor am I trying to disdain your identity, this is simply the most appropriate choice,” Yang Kai replied sternly.
Li Rong knit her brows for a moment before nodding to Han Fei.
Han Fei grit her teeth but said nothing, flicked her hand, and wrapped Yang Kai in a wave of energy, lifting him up and once again shooting off into the sky.
Han Fei had a cold temperament and preferred silence to conversation, Yang Kai also understood that such a woman would not try to act friendly with strangers so he naturally didn’t take the initiative to speak, simply closing his eyes and allowing her to carry him to their destination.
However, just because she wasn’t speaking to him, Yang Kai was keenly aware that Han Fei seemed interested in him as she would stealthily use her Divine Sense to scan his body, repeatedly trying to uncover his secrets; of course, she never succeeded.
This Mysterious Small World was very different from the outside world. Here, there was no sun or moon, night or day, the sky was a chaotic mix of light and shadow and the land was vast and barren with few traces of grass or wildlife.
Only occasionally were there a few Monster Beasts.
Speeding along all the way, the pair remained silent, but after some time, the air temperature gradually began rise. Sensing this change, Yang Kai couldn’t help feeling excited!
This kind of hot aura was exactly the kind of energy he needed.
As time passed, the concentration of Yang Yuan Qi in the air became higher and higher and it became obvious that a huge source of it was up ahead.
Yang Kai couldn’t help looking forward to this.
After two days of travel, Yang Kai finally saw it, on the distant horizon, the sky was dyed a dazzling golden red..
At this point, the air was flooded with Yang Yuan Qi and it was concentrated enough that when Yang Kai ran his True Yang Secret Art, his reserves of True Yang Yuan Qi were quickly being restored.
On the other hand, Han Fei had to circulate her Demonic Qi slightly in order to resist this Yang Qi.
Yang Yuan Qi had always been the nemesis of Demonic Qi, even the powerful Ancient Demon Clan cultivators couldn’t ignore its suppression, but powerful masters like Han Fei seemed to be able to ignore this ordinary Yang Attribute attacks.
After flying a while long, the density of Yang Yuan Qi became even greater and Han Fei finally stopped. Hovering mid-air along with Yang Kai, the pair shifted their gazes downwards.
Below, there was a winding mountain range with a particularly large one that had a great crater that was akin to the giant beast’s mouth. This crater was massive and Yang Kai could clearly see tumbling red hot magma bubbling within it.
The Yang Yuan Qi here was incredibly rich and could even melt rocks into magma.
From time to time, this boiling hot magma would well up and flood down the mountainside.
Moreover, the Yang Origin Seal in Yang Kai’s chest was violently throbbing, seemingly overjoyed with the massive concentration of Yang Yuan Qi down below.
The Yang Origin Seal, which only responded to in the presence of Yang Yuan Qi, had never pulsed so strongly before, so Yang Kai was fairly certain that there was an incredibly powerful source of Yang Attribute energy hidden beneath this volcano.
“This is our destination,” Han Fei finally spoke, “The rich Yang Attribute energy here should meet your needs. As far as I know, there is a large deposit of Yang Crystal Ore beneath the magma. If you have the ability, feel free to collect as much as you want, our Ancient Demon Clan have no need for such things.”
Yang Kai nodded lightly to express understanding.
“I’ll bring you down first and find a suitable place for you to cultivate,” Han Fei said, wrapped Yang Kai in her energy and rushing down.
Even facing this boiling magma that seemed capable of melting anything, the icy woman didn’t show the slightest fear, a terrifying force that shocked Yang Kai erupting from her seemingly tender body, pushing the magma aside, opening a channel for the pair.
Like it was pierce by a sharp sword, wherever Han Fei passed, the magma would split and give way.
There was no danger at all, and as soon as the pair passed through, the magma would converge again. Yang Kai glanced back but couldn’t see anything but an ocean of molten rock.
Yang Kai suddenly had a deeper understanding of just how immense this woman’s strength was.
Saints were all considered top masters in this world but Yang Kai didn’t know what order this woman was.
After descending an unknown distance, Han Fei eventually seemed like she had some difficulties coping. The Yang Yuan Qi here was too rich and even she could not ignore it.
Small beads of sweat began appearing on her delicate brow and an intoxicating fragrance began wafting towards the tip of Yang Kai’s nose, causing him to feel awkward.
Seemingly aware of the change in Yang Kai’s demeanor, Han Fei stared at him coldly and stopped moving forward, asking, “Is it alright here?”
“Yes,” Yang Kai quickly nodded.
“Then you stay here and cultivate,” Han Fei said, waving her hand, splitting apart the nearby magma, and opening a cave in the side of the volcano. This cave was just big enough to allow Yang Kai to sit cross-legged inside.
After setting up a few energy barriers to isolate this place, Han Fei tossed Yang Kai into the cave and coldly said, “Human, don’t play tricks, absorb the Yang Qi you need here quietly. I’ll come pick you up one month from now.”
“En!”
Han Fei glanced at him once more before turning around and vanishing into the magma.
After she left, Yang Kai took a deep breath and explored his surroundings.
This cave was safe and sturdy; after all, it had been carved out by a Saint Realm master, the flowing magma outside had no way of seeping in. Although Yang Kai wasn’t afraid of this magma it would be troublesome if he was caught inside it and became lost.
Settling down, Yang Kai began circulating his True Yang Secret Art.
As soon as he began cultivating, it felt like all of the pores on his skin opened wide and began drinking in the vast amounts of Yang Yuan Qi in the surrounding, madly pulling it into his body.
Yang Kai’s face lit up, he had never experienced such a rich amount of Yang Attribute energy before and felt incredibly comfortable.
*Dida…*
A light dripping sound rang out from within Yang Kai’s body and after only thirty breaths of time; a new drop of Yang Liquid was formed.
Now, Yang Kai’s cultivation realm was not the same as it once was, whether it was the purity or density of his True Qi, they were several times greater than when he had first begun cultivating the True Yang Secret Art.
This also meant that if he wanted to form a drop of Yang Liquid, he had to absorb dozens of times more Yang Yuan Qi than before.
Even so, it only took him thirty breaths of time to form one here.
This kind of speed was faster than Yang Kai had ever imagined.
The environment here was incredibly well suited to his cultivation.
*Dida…*
*Dida…*
The dripping sound continued constantly as Yang Kai cultivated single-mindedly, soon forgetting everything around him, even the passage of time.
Below the volcano, inside the rolling magma, Yang Kai entered an ethereal state and cultivated silently.
……………………………………
Great Commander Chu Jian’s territory, one of the four leaders of the Ancient Demon Clan, lay thousands of kilometers east of Demon God Citadel.
At this moment, Chu Jian was sitting in his castle’s hall, listening to one of his confidant’s reports. After a moment, Chu Jian’s eyes flashed and a hint of excitement appeared on his face, “You mean, that outsider left Demon God Citadel?”
“Yes Sir, he was taken away by Great Commander Han Fei,” The man replied quickly.
“Do you know where they went?”
“The seemed to be headed in the direction of the volcano.”
“The volcano…” Chu Jian frowned. Naturally he knew where this volcano was as it was one of the Ancient Demon Clan’s forbidden lands, even the four Great Commanders weren’t willing to go there if it wasn’t absolutely necessary.
It was not that there was anything there that could threaten their lives, but that they instinctively wanted to avoid the rich Yang Qi the permeated the area.
“Why would they go to the volcano?” Chu Jian brow wrinkled, unable to understand what was happening.
If not for some special purpose, it was impossible for Han Fei to bring that human there.
“Sir, this is a rare opportunity, should we…” The man hesitantly asked.
Chu Jian’s eyes narrowed and a trace of coldness flashed across their depths, sneering as he said, “Naturally I know this is a rare opportunity. Come, let us go invite this outsider to visit my territory for a few days!”
Chu Jian had kept tabs on the various rumours surrounding Yang Kai and knew that his progress in Alchemy was quite impressive.
Chu Jian had always been looking for a way to suppress Li Rong. If this time, he could bring this human boy back to his territory, train him to refine Saint Grade pills, and free their clan from their imprisonment here, winning his clansmens’ support would become easy. At that time, Li Rong would have no choice but to abdicate her position to him.
Moreover, Chu Jian knew that the amount of herbs Li Rong had left was not much, while on the other hand he had many in store. If that human brat wanted to continue improving his Alchemy skills, only he could provide the necessary herbs.
As if he could already picture his glorious ascension, Chu Jian’s eyes filled with anticipation and excitement, so he quickly began deploying his subordinates.
Time hurried by and, in the blink of an eye, a whole month had passed.
Yang Kai knew this was a rare opportunity, so for the entire month, he had spared no effort circulating his True Yang Secret Art, madly absorbing the surrounding Yang Attribute energy.
After one month, there was finally a feeling of saturation in his dantian.
There were now countless drops of Yang Liquid stored in his dantian. When he arrived here, Yang Kai was quite concerned about how much Yang Liquid he could collect, but now, he had already lost track of how much he had.
He was brimming with strength.
With so much Yang Liquid, Yang Kai figured he could spend it freely for several years without worrying about it.
As Yang Kai wantonly consumed the surrounding Yang Yuan Qi, the nearby magma was also affected a bit and was no longer as hot as it first was, even showing some signs of solidification.
In the surrounding kilometer radius, the concentration of ambient Yang Yuan Qi had been greatly reduced.
Now that he was sated, Yang Kai wanted to dive down further and explore the volcano’s depths to see if there were other opportunities to be had, but with the deadline he had agreed upon with Han Fei approaching, he could only sit and wait.
He was not willing to provoke this icy woman and give her an excuse to question him.
Time passed by as he waited, but Han Fei never appeared.
Gritting his teeth, Yang Kai finally made up his mind and exited his cave and dove into the magma.
After wrapping himself in a protective layer of True Qi, although the temperature of the magma was still stifling, it didn’t cause any harm to Yang Kai.
There seems to be no bottom to this place and the further Yang Kai descended, the richer the surrounding energy became. The environment here was perfectly suited to him and his cultivation, but for the Ancient Demon Clan, it was nothing short of a forbidden hell.
Of course, Yang Kai had no intention of trying to escape; sealed in this Mysterious Small World, he knew that there was nowhere he could hide unless he wanted to spend the rest of his life in this volcano for the rest of his life.
He just wanted to see what kind of mysteries this place hid.
After diving for about an hour, there was no end in sight, and the surrounding temperature and pressure were reaching a level that even he couldn’t stand.
Cursing silently to himself, Yang Kai eventually just shook his head in annoyance.
Although he really wanted to fully explore this place, it seemed if he continued to press forward, he would be putting his life at risk, and with no guarantee of any benefits, there was no way he would act so rashly.
Thinking about it for a moment, Yang Kai reluctantly gave up, turned around, and headed back up.
After another hour, he finally returned to his former position.
Waiting there for him, with an even colder than normal expression on her face, was Han Fei; apparently she had thought Yang Kai had run away and was grinding her teeth in anger.
After seeing Yang Kai re-appear, she quickly yelled, “Where have you been?”
“Exploring down below,” Yang Kai shrugged his shoulders.
“Down below?” Han Fei’s slender brow wrinkled slightly, “You can still dive further?”
Even she couldn’t dive much further into this volcano, their current position was basically her limit, so this human boy still being able to descend was somewhat surprising to her.
“I cultivate a Yang Attribute Secret Art, I’m like a duck in water here,” Yang Kai chuckled.
However, this explanation didn’t quite satisfy Han Fei, because even if he cultivated a profound Yang Attribute Secret Art, if he didn’t have enough personal skill, there was no way he could freely explore this place with his weak cultivation.
But such things didn’t concern her so she just brushed it aside and asked, “Did you get what you wanted?”
Yang Kai nodded lightly.
“Then let’s get going, Senior Li should be waiting anxiously,” Han Fei said, not waiting for Yang Kai to answer before wrapping him in her True Qi and flying upwards.
Soon, the two flew out of the volcano’s caldera.
But at that moment, Yang Kai suddenly grabbed Han Fei’s arm and whispered, “Wait!”
Han Fei tender body went stiff as she turned an icy glare towards Yang Kai, “What is it?”
She seemed to be unaccustomed to being touched, especially by men, so this small movement had caused her to react quite fiercely.
“See for yourself!” Yang Kai’s face became serious and he replied faintly.
Han Fei’s eyes narrowed slightly as she released her Divine Sense, her pretty face soon became gloomy.
Even Yang Kai was able to detect the anomalies around the volcano, so how could Han Fei not notice? It was simply that, at first, she hadn’t been vigilant of her surroundings.
“It seems we’re in a bit of trouble,” Yang Kai sneered as his pair of sharp eyes stared at the surrounding sky.
“Don’t say anything, I’ll handle this!” Han Fei snorted, her beautiful eyes suddenly fixing on a certain position as she coldly shouted, “Chu Jian, come out!”
A hearty laugh rang out as Chu Jian stepped out from his hiding place and boldly showed himself, his eyes staring towards Han Fei with a look of ridicule and a glimmer of lust, sneering as he said, “Commander Han Fei, what a coincidence meeting you here.”
Saying so, his eyes narrowed as his sullen gaze shifted towards Yang Kai for a moment before once again focusing on Han Fei, apparently not placing Yang Kai in his eyes at all.
“Chu Jian, what are you doing here?” Han Fei’s voice was ice cold as she glared back at him.
The area surrounding this volcano was a forbidden zone to the Ancient Demon Clan, no one would come here unless absolutely necessary so obviously she didn’t believe Chu Jian appearing here was just coincidence.
Also, when Chu Jian spoke, a number of figures appeared one after another, each of them a powerful master from Chu Jian’s territory, all of them wearing grim smirks as they surrounded the volcano.
The other party was well prepared; obviously they had received news about them being here and had set up this ambush.
“Oh nothing much, I just wanted to ask Commander Han Fei to do me a favour and allow this human brat to accompany me to my territory for a while!” Chu Jian replied slyly.
“You have guts, I’ll give you that!” Han Fei’s cold stare began mixing with traces of anger, “This human is a guest of Senior Li and is also the hope of our Ancient Demon Clan. Do you plan on stifling our clan’s best chance at obtaining freedom? Chu Jian, you best stop trying to stir up trouble like this, even if Senior Li has shown you great benevolence doesn’t mean she will allow you to act without any restraint!”
“Senior Li?” Chu Jian coldly snorted, “I will replace her one day, and become the real master of Demon God Citadel! My Ancient Demon Clan is a bold and warlike clan, even if we are currently trapped in this forsaken place, we should not forget that. All these years of peace have dulled our fangs and Senior Li’s ‘benevolence’ has only worsened the situation. She is not suitable to be the Lord of Demon God Citadel. Only I, Chu Jian, am worthy of such a role!”
Upon hearing these impassioned words, Chu Jian’s henchmen’s auras all suddenly became dangerous. It was as he said, even if they had been detained here for countless years, the masters gathered under Chu Jian still maintained their militant hearts.
“You’re insane,” Han Fei said as she shook her head disappointedly, “Although we knew you had wild ambitions and were conspiring against us, never had we thought that you were so far gone. Chu Jian, if you don’t cease this madness, only death awaits you!”
“Death?” Chu Jian burst into laughter, “I wonder if I’ll be the one to die, or if you will?”
When she noticed Chu Jian’s murderous intent, Han Fei couldn’t help feeling a chill shoot up her spine, realizing that he had already made his resolve. Chu Jian was apparently committed to usurping Demon God Citadel, and his first would be to eliminate any dissidents, so she and Hua Mo had become his primary targets.
After countless years being trapped in this Mysterious Small World, Han Fei had actually forgotten how the plots and intrigue the Human Race was so fond of worked.
“Han Fei, I can give you a chance!” Chu Jian stretched out his hand and pointed towards her arrogantly, “Submit to me and I will make you my wife, and together we can rule Demon God Citadel. Then as long as this human brat can refine the necessary Saint Grade pill, we can escape from this infernal prison. Compared to blindly following Senior Li, joining me has far greater advantages to you!”
In response, Han Fei just stared back at Chu Jian with a sarcastic grin filled with disgust, “You want me to marry you? Are you out of your mind? I’d rather marry this human than marry you!”
“Hey, why are you trying to pull me into this?” Yang Kai grumbled unhappily.
He didn’t care about the internal struggles of Demon God Citadel, who won or who lost was of no consequence to him, but now he had suddenly become the focus of this battle, Yang Kai was unable to stay out of it.
No matter who wins or loses, his existence had become a key component as the winning side would definitely need him.
“You shut up, there’s no place for you to speak here!” Han Fei’s pretty face showed a slightly flustered look as she glanced over at Yang Kai, her cold expression quickly returning to normal.
Chu Jian shook his head in disappointment and sighed, “You’ve made a grave mistake. Senior Li is too kind-hearted, so I need to take charge of Demon God Citadel! If we leave this world and finally escape to the outside, with her weak personality, what foothold will my Ancient Demon Clan possibly be able to establish? If she had at least fought with me, I may not have been so disappointed, but look, even though she knows I’m plotting against her, Senior Li has never once even condemned me. That woman… should never have been born in my Ancient Demon Clan!”
“Don’t use Senior Li’s benevolence as an excuse for your arrogance!” Han Fei shouted, “If Demon God Citadel were to be ruled by you, it would be my clan’s greatest misfortune!”
“You disappoint me,” Chu Jian kept shaking his head. “Han Fei, I’ll ask you one last time: Join me in my great crusade and forge a bright new future for our clan! Refuse me again and I will show you no mercy. Beautiful women are easy to come by, what I care about is only your Saint Realm strength!”
“Keep dreaming!” Han Fei’s aura burst erupted as she tightly wrapped Yang Kai in her True qi and rushed out, trying to smash through Chu Jian’s encirclement.
As long as she could break through this blockade, Han Fei was confident she could make it back to Demon God Citadel with Yang Kai.
However, since Chu Jian had long been preparing this move, he naturally wouldn’t give her this opportunity.
The moment Han Fei moved, he also took action.
Before she could figure out how he had moved, Chu Jian had blocked Han Fei’s path and sent out a powerful palm strike filled with vicious intent, like a roaring beast baring its fangs, ready to take a bite out of Han Fei and Yang Kai.
Han Fei expression changed dramatically as she pulled Yang Kai back, shielding him while she sent out a palm of her own.
*Hong Hong Hong…*
A violent blast resounded and a brilliant glow spread around as Chu Jian and Han Fei’s strikes met mid-air.
“So many years have passed since we last fought, it seems Commander Han Fei’s strength has grown quite nicely,” Chu Jian said calmly, letting out a chuckle before his body flickered and several mirror images of himself were created; each one carrying the same tyrannical aura as the original.
In the next moment, these countless figures all waved their fists and sent a terrifying blow towards Han Fei’s delicate body.
Facing such an attack, Han Fei’s expression became tensed, immediately gathering all of her strength and concentrating it on the weak point of Chu Jian’s strike.
Yang Kai, who was being guarded by her, couldn’t help feeling like he was suffocating, as if he couldn’t even muster the will the resist.
Although he didn’t know what Order Saint Chu Jian was, Yang Kai fully realized just how massive the gap in their strengths was; even though he was not the one being targeted, the residual momentum from this attack alone was enough to fully suppress him.
As this rain of fists fell, Han Fei brought Yang Kai with her as she dodged, every step she took containing a kind of mysterious sentiment. Amidst this onslaught, the two were like a small boat floating within a hurricane, at risk of capsizing at any moment.
“Han Fei, you’re not my opponent. Surrender without a fight and I’ll grant you a quick death!” Chu Jian continued attacking while trying to disrupt Han Fei’s concentration by taunting her.
Both of them were Saint Realm masters, so even though there was some gap in their strengths, it would take a great deal of effort for Chu Jian to defeat Han Fei. On top of that, he had to carefully control his power so as not to accidentally kill Yang Kai, giving him an extra layer of shackles.
Han Fei remained silent, her teeth clenched tight as her delicate body swayed back and forth through the storm.
When the barrage finally ended, Han Fei’s unexpectedly didn’t have a single scratch on her, even her clothes weren’t ruffled. Seeing this, Chu Jian was infuriated and his eyes became red. He felt like he had lost a lot of face in front of his subordinates so he no longer planned on holding back, calling out in annoyance, “You brought this upon yourself, Demon God Transformation!”
Shouting angrily, his face quickly filling with complex black Demon Crests and his strength and Blood Force significantly increased.
Han Fei also didn’t dare hold back, quickly using her Demon God Transformation as well, a set of red Demon Crests decorating her face. In an instant, the world around her seemed to flood with a vague floral fragrance.
A storm of petals condensed from her Demonic Qi suddenly appeared and shot towards Chu Jian.
But Chu Jian didn’t evade at all, simply smashing his fist forward and shattering these petals into dust.
“Second Order Saint?” Han Fei exclaimed, “So you were hiding your real cultivation all along!”
Chu Jian let out an arrogant laugh, “It’s not too late to know the truth before you die!”
With a great shout, Chu Jian condensed a black spear completely out of Demonic Qi and threw it with unstoppable momentum towards Han Fei’s lower abdomen, running her through. Han Fei coughed out a mouthful of blood and her momentum quickly dropped, her beautiful ice cold face suddenly becoming pale as she fell towards the mouth of the volcano.
Suddenly unleashing his full strength, Chu Jian’s single blow had caused heavy losses to Han Fei.
The gap in strength between the two Great Commanders was too large. It was obvious that Chu Jian’s courage to rebel was not him simply acting recklessly.
“Escape…” As Han Fei fell, she whispered into Yang Kai’s ear and used the last of her strength to throw him out.
Under imposing auras of two Saints, Yang Kai found it difficult to even control his own body, so although he heard Han Fei urge him to go, he was simply not capable of following through.
Chu Jian wouldn’t kill him because like Li Rong, he needed something from him, but it was obvious from the first glance that Chu Jian was the type of person to burn bridges after crossing them, working with him would be much less safe than working with Li Rong.
Yang Kai understood all this but his body simply couldn’t muster any strength and was only able to fly out with Han Fei’s assistance.
“Take him!” Chu Jian didn’t spare Han Fei another glance and immediately ordered his henchmen to seize Yang Kai.
The one closest to Yang Kai, a Peak Immortal Ascension Boundary cultivator, jumped in front of Yang Kai and stretched out his arm towards the latter’s neck, a cold sneer appearing on his face, “Human, from now on, you serve Sir Chu Jian!”
Yang Kai’s expression was sullen as he gasped for breath, his bones creaking under the pressure.
Under this crushing pressure, Yang Kai’s Unyielding Golden Skeleton seemed to have some unusual reactions.
The greater the pressure, the stronger the Unyielding Golden Skeleton resisted.
Yang Kai suddenly recalled that he was able to obtain the Unyielding Golden Skeleton in the past precisely because he did not give in to despair.
After that, through countless desperate battles, he had slowly realized the mysteries of the Unyielding Golden Skeleton.
At that moment, in Yang Kai’s mind, it was as if an explosion suddenly went off and his mouth slowly curled into a provocative grin as he let out a ferocious roar, “Unyielding Will!”
The shackles formed by the immense surrounding pressure that had weighed down his body shattered in an instant and Yang Kai regained his freedom.
The pressure and momentum of Chu Jian, a Second Order Saint, had not disappeared and was still as weighty as a mountain, but Yang Kai no longer seemed to be affected by it any more.
“I will submit to no one!” Yang Kai roared at the Demon Race cultivator in front of him as a drop of Yang Liquid appeared in the palm of his hand and instantly transformed into a sharp blade.
*Pu…*
The Yang Liquid blade pierced the chest of this Demon Race cultivator who stared back at Yang Kai wide eyes, obviously not comprehending what had just happened.
*Cilala…*
The incredibly pure True Yang Yuan Qi violently reacted with the Demonic Qi in this man’s body and began burning it away.
A pitiful scream rang out as the True Yang Yuan Qi which had invaded his body caused an excruciating pain, completely suppressing his Demonic Qi to the point where he could not gather any strength at all, resulting in him plunging towards the volcano in the next instant.
“How is this possible?” Chu Jian was also stunned, not having imagined that even under the pressure he was emitting this human brat was still able to fight back!
When he saw that one of his subordinates had inexplicably suffered heavy losses he couldn’t help feeling angered, “Damn you!”
His momentum bursting out, Chu Jian opened his hand and grabbed towards Yang Kai.
Yang Kai’s hair all stood up; killing that Peak Immortal Ascension Boundary cultivator wasn’t surprising because his enemy hadn’t been on guard against him at all, but facing the direct attack of a Saint Realm master, he instinctively felt a huge sense of crisis.
As the hand approached, Yang Kai quickly released more than a dozen drops of Yang Liquid from his fingertip and condensed them into a radiant golden spear that he shot out towards Chu Jian’s palm.
*Pu pu pu…*……
Chu Jian’s offensive was blocked for a moment. Such a large amount of pure True Yang Yuan Qi was something even he couldn’t ignore. The Demonic Qi protecting his palm was quickly purified and his skin even received some minor burns.
A drop of Yang Liquid was the crystallization of all the True Qi in Yang Kai’s meridians, so a dozen drops of Yang Liquid was equal to a dozen times Yang Kai’s full strength. Yang Kai using more than a dozen Yang Liquid drops all at once was equivalent to him using a strike more than a dozen times more powerful than his cultivation base would suggest he could, obviously this was a very frightening attack.
After sending out this Yang Liquid spear, Yang Kai didn’t stick around to see the result, ignoring Chu Jian’s fury as he turned around and rushed downward.
Before Han Fei hit the magma below, Yang Kai managed to catch up and grab her, hold her under his arm, and wrap her in his True Qi before diving into the volcano’s caldera.
*Putong…*
The two figures instantly disappeared into the orange molten rock
“Follow them!” Chu Jian was enraged and quickly ordered his men to pursue them.
Chu Jian’s subordinates all exchanged a reluctant glance before gritting their teeth and diving down as well. Even though all of them were normally brutal and fearless, this environment which heavily restrained their strength still gave them pause.
Beneath the magma, Yang Kai was like a fish in water, easily descending at a rapid pace while protecting the injured Han Fei.
Being held tightly by Yang Kai, Han Fei’s expression was quite complicated, a mix of shame and misery flashing across her eyes.
Never had she dreamed that in this situation this human would be the one saving her.
If not for Yang Kai suddenly breaking free of Chu Jian’s suppression and unleashing that oddly formidable strike, it was likely she would have fallen here today. Chu Jian really planned on killing her. In order to unify Demon God Citadel, he had to remove all dissidents; he would never have shown her any mercy.
But this boy… how did he do it?
Under such immense pressure, he had actually regained his freedom of movement, the very idea was ridiculous. In fact, the moment she had thrown him out, even Han Fei had not expected this result.
Staring at Yang Kai at close range, Han Fei could see that although his expression was incredibly serious, there were no signs of fear. If anything, deep within his eyes, there even seemed to be a trace of excitement.
Even now, he seemed to be enjoying this thrilling life or death crisis.
[Freak!] Han Fei thought to herself before her expression darkened once again, calling out in alarm, “Hurry up, Chu Jian’s still pursing!”
From above them, Han Fei could clearly feel Chu Jian’s cruel and angry aura approaching.
If this human boy managed to escape from his hands, Han Fei reckoned Chu Jian would go insane with rage.
“I know,” Yang Kai nodded faintly and asked, “Is your limit at the position where you left me to cultivate?”
“Almost, I could probably dive only a bit further,” Han Fei replied weakly.
“What do you think Chu Jian’s limit is?”
“Even though he’s now a Second Order Saint, he can probably dive at most another 1,000 meters! After all, the Yang Qi here is too rich and restrains my Ancient Demon Clan too severely.”
“Then he can’t catch us, haha,” Yang Kai grinned confidently.
Han Fei’s beautiful pupils lit up, suddenly remembering that this boy seemed to have been exploring the depths of the volcano before she had come to pick him up. Although she didn’t know just how deep he could dive, listening to his tone and seeing his currently relaxed performance, he should be able to descend quite a distance.
Suddenly, she had a sense of anticipation.
Hesitating for a moment, he finally decided to ask, “Can you withstand it?”
“I don’t know, but I have to try. Either way it’s better than being caught by him.”
“Actually… he won’t kill you. If you are caught by him, there won’t be any danger to your life, why do you want to take such a big risk?”
“Because I believe in Li Rong more. If my guess is right, if I was to be caught by Chu Jian, he would kill me after he’s done using me.”
“Seems you still have some self-awareness!” Han Fei nodded lightly.
“Don’t you and Hua Mo also have that idea?” Yang Kai suddenly smiled at her coldly.
Han Fei’s heart jumped as she stared back at Yang Kai with amazement.
“Sure enough!” Yang Kai let out a sigh, his expression quite gloomy.
“We truly had such thoughts, but we hadn’t made a decision yet. Because our Ancient Demon Clan doesn’t need to owe a mere human a favour!” Han Fei replied in a cold voice, even in this situation, she did not have any intention of backing down, freely admitting everything.
“You having such thoughts is enough of a reason for me to kill you now to avoid future troubles,” Yang Kai sneered.
“Feel free!” Han Fei turned her gaze away.
“Don’t worry, I won’t kill you, even if you are injured, killing you now would still be somewhat difficult.”
“You really have some self-awareness!” Han Fei snorted.
“However, after today’s events, I think you’ll reconsider whether you want to repaying kindness with enmity. If you still dare to have such thoughts though, I won’t show any mercy. I’m letting you live not because I’m being naive but simply because right now I am the one under the eaves.”
Han Fei spat disdainfully and no longer answered back. She found that when she spoke with this human, she could never occupy the initiative and was instead seen through by him, like he could read all of her thoughts and ideas.
Being chased by the Second Order Saint Chu Jian, Yang Kai didn’t panic at all; instead, he even began bargaining with Han Fei in a clear-cut manner, trying to use the favour of saving her life to diminish the hostility she had towards him.
Beneath the magma, Chu Jian took the lead, a powerful and chilling force pulsing from his strong body pushing aside the molten rock. Although the speed at which he dove was extremely fast, Yang Kai and Han Fei were still beyond the range of his sight, so he could only use his Divine Sense to determine their location.
“Human, you can’t escape. Surrender without a fight and I’ll spare you! Refuse, and when I catch you, I’ll peel the flesh from your bones!” Chu Jian roared while chasing after the pair.
Yang Kai ignored these threats and continued diving. The moment he stopped, everything really would be over.
No matter what, he couldn’t allow himself to fall into Chu Jian’s hands.
Soon, he and Han Fei reached the depth where he had been in secluded cultivation for the past month.
Upon arriving here, Han Fei’s condition rapidly began deteriorating. Although she was still wrapped in Yang Kai’s True Qi, her Demonic Qi was still fluctuating somewhat erratically, instinctively rejecting the surrounding Yang Qi, her pretty face going even more pale as a hint of panic flashed across her eyes.
Han Fei had already said that this was basically the maximum depths she could reach. If she were to continue down again, her Demonic Qi would be completely suppressed.
That is to say, upon reaching this depth, her life was basically completely in Yang Kai’s hands. If Yang Kai wanted to kill her, all he had to do was discard her here, and even if Chu Jian bypassed her, in her heavily wounded state, the surrounding Yang Qi would be enough to eventually kill her.
How could she not feel nervous?
Yang Kai glanced over at her and flashed a grin before increasing the output of his True Qi, wrapping her up even tighter, silently indicating that he would not abandon her.
Perceiving this, Han Fei couldn’t help breathing a sigh of relief, her cold eyes glancing back at him, her mood somewhat complicated.
“Human, you’ve successfully angered me. I’ve decided, when I get my hands on you, I’ll make your life so painful you’ll beg for death!” Chu Jian’s angrily shouted from above. By now he knew that Yang Kai would never compromise, and was unable to hold back his rage. He no longer cared about anything else, all he wanted to do right now was capture Yang Kai and torture him to sooth the hatred in his heart.
As he shouted, Chu Jian’s speed increased again, fully displaying his determination to capture them.
Yang Kai’s face changed slightly, and he too began to dive quicker, but his cultivation was nowhere near as high as Chu Jian’s, so although this environment was incredibly favourable to him, the distance between the two sides was slowly being shortened.
Also, seemingly in response to Chu Jian and the other masters wantonly releasing their Demonic Qi, the magma within the depths of the volcano began churning rapidly, hindering the speed at which Yang Kai could penetrate it.
Twenty meters, thirty meters, fifty meters…
As the depth increased, the surrounding Yang Qi and the burning heat became more and more intense. This kind of heat even made Yang Kai sweat while Han Fei, who was nestled under his arm, was now dripping wet, beads of sweat pouring down her face, along her slender neck, and soaking her rich chest.
“Are you at your limit?” Han Fei asked, naturally she could see how much Yang Kai was struggling now.
However, Yang Kai remained silent.
“Such misfortune, having to die together with a human like you!” Han Fei sighed helplessly, a look of regret filling her face.
“You shut up!” Yang Kai shouted angrily, he hadn’t expected that even now this woman was still discriminating against him.
At Demon God Citadel, he felt that many of the Ancient Demon Clan looked down on him. Only Guan’er was easy-going around him, but at the beginning she too despised him.
It seemed like in the eyes of the Ancient Demon Clan, the Human Race was nothing but a third-class existence, only their Ancient Demon Clan bloodline was noble and worthy of respect. Everyone stared at him with clear contempt.
These kinds of gazes made Yang Kai feel very uncomfortable.
Han Fei’s attitude was even more obvious. From the very first time she laid eyes on him and even until now, she had always maintained a superior attitude and spoke down to him.
Yang Kai couldn’t understand what she was so proud of.
As he spoke, with a great burst of sound, a pair of wings suddenly unfolded behind Yang Kai.
When these wings unfolded, Yang Kai’s speed once again increased dramatically, and under his control, the pair of large, gorgeous wings curled into a protective shield that wrapped around Yang Kai and Han Fei.
The outside heat eased greatly when this was done.
“Heavenly Dao Law?” Han Fei shuddered as she stared blankly at the Flaming Yang Wings.
From this pair of fiery wings, she felt an esoteric and incomprehensible strength and mystery.
Such a profound manifestation of the Heavenly Laws was not something Yang Kai could cultivate, but must have been something he obtained through some special opportunity.
“You actually…” Han Fei couldn’t help but covering her mouth as she gazed at this sight in shock, nearly losing her ability to speak.
“Seems at least your vision’s not bad,” Yang Kai snorted, “Correct, this is indeed a Heavenly Dao Law.”
“Your good fortune really is enviable,” Han Fei said faintly, extending her hand gently to touch his wings, but before she could even make contact, her fingers were repulsed.
The rich Yang Qi contained in Yang Kai’s wings was completely incompatible with her Demonic Qi. Although she wasn’t injured by this small clash, a good portion of the Demonic Qi protecting her hand was purified.
Retracting her hand, Han Fei bit her lip but suddenly sensing something, she smiled happily and said, “Chu Jian’s speed has dropped.”
“He should be reaching his limit,” Yang Kai laughed.
“But as long as he continues guarding this place, we can’t get escape and will sooner or later be caught by him,” Han Fei said helplessly.
“Do you think that Senior Li won’t notice this?” Yang Kai sneered, “You’ve been together with Senior Li for so many years yet it seems you really don’t know much about her. While it’s true she is kind and benevolent, that doesn’t mean she’s ignorant. It’s impossible for Li Rong to not know about Chu Jian suddenly mobilizing so many people, and even if she didn’t receive word about his actions immediately, at most it will be a few days before she comes to rescue us. We just need to lay low for a while.”
Han Fei’s pretty face suddenly blushed bright red as she kept silent.
As one of the four Great Commanders, usually such a simple truth would have been obvious to her, but after all the sudden and unexpected events of today, her thoughts had become somewhat scattered.
“Human, you’ll regret this!” Chu Jian’s unwilling roars arrived from above, “Han Fei, if you don’t want to die, bring that human brat to me and I swear I’ll spare your life!”
Neither of them responded to him because both Yang Kai and Han Fei had noticed that he had stopped chasing them.
Even with his Second Order Saint Realm cultivation, Chu Jian was completely restrained by this environment and could no longer pursue them.
As if she had suddenly found hope amidst despair, Han Fei’s complexion became more radiant.
“Let me down,” She suddenly called out, now that there was a moment to catch her breath, she finally turned her attention to the embarrassing position she was currently being held in.
“But your injuries…” Yang Kai shot her a hesitant look.
“Don’t compare my Ancient Demon Clan’s physiques to your fragile human body…”
Before she could finish, Yang Kai let go of her. Seemingly noticing the displeasure in Yang Kai’s mood, Han Fei didn’t continue talking about it but instead followed behind Yang Kai under the dual protection of his True Qi and Flaming Yang Wings.
The roars of Chu Jian continued to resound up above causing the magma to become more and more unstable while Yang Kai and Han Fei nervously examined their surroundings with their Divine Senses, trying to find some kind of refuge.
Suddenly, Han Fei smiled happily and pointed in a certain direction, “Over there!”
Yang Kai glanced in the direction she pointed and after sweeping the area with his Divine Sense couldn’t help smiling and swimming forward.
A moment later, the magma that had been wrapped around them this whole time suddenly disappeared, and the two broke into a natural cave.
This cave was somewhat dark, but the ambient heat was at least less unbearable than within the magma.
Surprisingly, in the depths of this volcano, a place like this actually existed; this discovery caused Yang Kai to feel delighted.
Sitting on the ground, panting heavily, whether it was Yang Kai or Han Fei, suddenly surviving such a deadly crisis made them feel a sense of joy and relief.
Gradually adapting to the surrounding darkness, Yang Kai looked around and found that to his left, hot magma still slowly flowed past, while to his right, there seemed to be a deep, bottomless tunnel.
“Let’s move further in, if the magma was the suddenly rush inside…” Yang Kai didn’t feel at ease. The magma here was being kept out by some kind of natural barrier, but if this barrier were to suddenly disappear, the entire tunnel would quickly become flooded.
Han Fei thought for a moment but didn’t have any reason to refuse, quietly standing up and following behind Yang Kai.
In the pitch-black darkness which made it hard for him to even see his own fingers, Yang Kai fumbled his way forward while Han Fei didn’t dare to move too far from him; after all, the Yang Qi in this place was still too rich and she needed to rely on his True Qi to safely resist it.
A dripping sound echoed through the cave as blood flowed from Han Fei’s wound and splashed onto the ground, hissing as it hit the blisteringly hot rocks.
Yang Kai did not express too much concern. Judging from Han Fei’s earlier condition and the strong physical resilience of the Ancient Demon Clan, even such a heavy blow wasn’t enough to kill her.
After walking for who knows how long, through many confusing twists and turns, Yang Kai and Han Fei arrived at a large cavern with a particularly high World Energy concentration.
This caver was extremely spacious and so high that it was impossible to see the ceiling with only the weak ambient light. Although Yang Kai couldn’t see what kind of environment this was, but after releasing his Divine Sense he at least knew there was nothing else living here.
This alone gave him some peace of mind.
He knew that in such a special environment, there was a high likelihood that some strange and powerful creatures would exist. If they were to encounter such a beast right now, neither he nor Han Fei would be able to resist.
“Let’s rest here for now,” Yang Kai calmly suggested.
Han Fei nodded lightly, following Yang Kai to one of the cavern’s walls and sitting down cross-legged.
When she sat, she made sure to leave space for Yang Kai to sit down beside her.
Perceiving her intentions, Yang Kai couldn’t help chuckling.
This woman clearly couldn’t separate from the protective range of his True Qi, but she simply couldn’t bring herself to apologize for her earlier words either, so she had to express herself with these kinds of actions.
[So hypocritical.] Yang Kai thought to himself.
No other news for now I guess.
After fighting a great battle and then fleeing from Chu Jian for so long, although the two still had an abundance of True Qi, their physical and mental strength had been greatly drained.
Soon after sitting down, both of them entered into a kind of meditative state.
The spiritual and physical strength rapidly recovering.
After two hours, a bright light flashed across Yang Kai’s eyes as he slowly opened them; he had recovered to his peak state.
Han Fei was still sitting beside him and, although she had yet to wake up, her aura was a lot steadier now.
Her tender body now gently pressed against him, Yang Kai felt an indescribable softness and smelled a wondrous fragrance that seemed to naturally waft from this icy woman, rousing his spirits in many different ways.
A short while later, Han Fei gradually woke up, and upon noticing her current embarrassing state, took the initiative to open a small distance between her and Yang Kai before coldly asking, “What should we do now?”
“Explore the surrounding environment first,” Yang Kai said, standing up, pushing his True Qi slightly to emit a soft glow all around his body.
Han Fei couldn’t help but frown. She didn’t like the hot aura radiating from Yang Kai but there was no helping that, it was simply an instinctual reaction of her Demonic Qi towards his Yang Qi.
“I have some light crystals on me,” Han Fei said, pulling out two glowing stones from somewhere. Yang Kai smiled slightly accepted one before leading Han Fei around to explore the cavern.
Just as Yang Kai had suspected, this place was indeed a grand and expansive cavern.
More than three hundred meters tall and able to fit more than a dozen palaces inside it, this place also contained an astonishingly rich World Energy, not Yang Yuan Qi, but pure World Energy that any cultivator could absorb.
The two explored the cave for a while but found nothing until they came across a path that led deeper into the ground.
“Do you want to go in and explore or wait here for Li Rong to come to save us?” Yang Kai held up the light crystal and asked Han Fei.
A hint of curiosity flashed across Han Fei’s pair of beautiful eyes and after only a brief moment of hesitation, she replied, “Even if Senior Li receives word of this, she won’t necessarily know we’re down here. This is a rare chance, we might as well go in and see.”
“Alright,” Yang Kai smiled.
This place was a famous forbidden zone to the Ancient Demon Clan. Even the four Great Commanders would not be able to access this region easily. In fact, without Yang Kai’s asylum this time, on her own, Han Fei would not have been able to arrive at this cave safely and would have already been melted by the surrounding magma.
She was naturally very curious about what kind of secrets this place held.
Even though the Ancient Demon Clan had lived here for countless years, this was a completely unexplored area, so Han Fei’s inborn curiosity eventually won out.
Descending through the dark tunnel, the pair noticed that the surrounding rock walls were unusually sturdy.
After walking for what seemed like forever though, the two still had nothing to show for their efforts.
Han Fei, who was following behind Yang Kai, was now having some difficulty breathing steadily.
Her lower abdomen had been pierced through, and although this injury was not a threat to her life, it still greatly affected her strength and mobility.
“Let’s rest here for a while,” Yang Kai proposed.
Han Fei nodded indifferent, knowing that he was being considerate.
Upon sitting down, Yang Kai took out a healing pill and handed it to Han Fei, the latter simply glancing at him for a moment before calmly accepting it.
“You don’t have healing pills on you?” Yang Kai asked, frowning.
“We can’t practice Alchemy, how could we have healing pills?” Han Fei replied faintly.
“Why didn’t you say anything earlier…” Yang Kai was speechless. This woman was so proud that she had chosen to use only her natural healing abilities to deal with such a grave injury rather than asking him for a pill.
On the other hand, Yang Kai had thought that Han Fei, as one of the four Great Commanders, would at least have some common healing pills on her.
“Well excuse me,” Han Fei snorted, thinking about something for a moment before suddenly taking out a flask and handing it to Yang Kai, “Want some water?”
Yang Kai was surprised and almost unconsciously accepted the flask from her hand and drank a few mouthfuls.
Han Fei asked again, “Want something to eat?”
This time, she handed over a few pieces of fruit before Yang Kai could even answer. These fruits contained quite a lot of energy and were obviously high-quality items.
This woman… was she doing this in order to express her thanks? Yang Kai looked at her slightly awkward expression and suddenly understood what was going through her head.
Yang Kai secretly shook his head and accepted the fruits, eating them without any hesitation.
“You seem to have brought a lot of things with you,” Yang Kai looked at her up and down, wondering where she was keeping all these things.
Yang Kai knew that Universe Bags were artifacts that could be used to store items and since coming to Tong Xuan Realm, he had seen a number of people with them.
The several team captains from Bold Independent Union and the Charm Monster that he had killed were examples.
However, Han Fei didn’t seem to have one on her, so Yang Kai was very confused about what she was using to keep her possessions.
“En, I usually collect various things and store them in my Void Ring for when I need them later,” Han Fei explained casually, taking out another piece of fruit and eating it.
“Void Ring?” Yang Kai’s eyes lit up, his eyes instantly fixing on a small ring on Han Fei’s right index finger.
This ring was dark in colour, and at first glance was obviously something quite old.
“A higher-end storage artifact compared to Universe Bags, you probably haven’t seen them in the outside world before only some extremely old forces with rich heritages have such thing,” Han Fei faintly explained.
Staring at the Void Ring on her finger, a flash went off in Yang Kai’s mind suddenly as he asked, “Is this thing made of Soulstone?”
“You know about Soulstone?” This time Han Fei was the one who was surprised.
Yang Kai nodded gently, why wouldn’t he know about it? His Wordless Black Book was a gigantic piece of Soulstone.
“En, this Void Ring is forged from a small piece of Soulstone. It’s said that Sir Great Demon God obtained a large piece of Soulstone in the past. No one knows what he did with it, but after he was done there were apparently some scraps left over which, with a number of auxiliary materials, were forged into a few Void Rings by a famous Artifact Refiner. These four rings are currently kept by us, the Great Commanders.”
Listening to her, Yang Kai thought about it for a moment and indeed recalled seeing such rings on Li Rong and Hua Mo’s hands.
It turns out these rings were storage artifacts that were superior to Universe Bags!
“Good, enough about that. This time I really owe you a big favour, so I won’t advocate killing you after our agreement is completed anymore, but I can’t guarantee that Hua Mo will agree as well. However, you can rest assured that with Senior Li’s asylum, Hua Mo won’t easily take action against you,” Han Fei suddenly said.
Yang Kai nodded slightly, knowing that her saying this was her way of indicating her stance.
“I don’t understand why Senior Li is so optimistic about you and is so attention towards you.”
“I don’t understand either!” Yang Kai shrugged his shoulders, “If you have a chance, please help me ask Li Rong what all this is about.”
After half an hour, the pair resumed their exploration. It seemed that Han Fei’s state was much better than before because of the healing pill.
As they descended further into the tunnel, Yang Kai realized that the surrounding World Energy was becoming even denser, as if it was gathering together somewhere below them.
Recalling his experience beneath the Central Capital, Yang Kai couldn’t help feeling shocked and ventured a bold guess, “There couldn’t be an Earth Vein below us, could there?”
Hearing this, Han Fei thought about it for a while before nodding solemnly, “It’s possible.”
Suddenly excited about such a fortunate prospect, the two couldn’t help greatly increasing their forward pace.
After a mild sprint, Yang Kai suddenly came to a dead end with no obvious way to proceed.
But on the rock wall in front of him, there were some shimmering lights.
“What are these?” Yang Kai muttered suspiciously, stepping forward to investigate.
Han Fei also hurried walked over after seeing the situation in front of them, unable to hold back her curiosity.
At the same time, the two reached out and gently pushed their True Qi to break the rock wall in front of them. Yang Kai quickly sifted through the debris and soon found a fist sized gem that gave off a pure and flawless aura.
Feeling the energy contained within this gem and carefully examining it, Yang Kai quickly shouted, “Han Fei, Han Fei, look at this, isn’t this Crystal Stone?”
Han Fei’s expression became a bit sour, not having expected this little human brat to suddenly start calling her name, but her attention was quickly attracted to the gem in his hand and no longer cared about Yang Kai’s rudeness. After examining the gem herself for a moment, she nodded, “It really is Crystal Stone”
“This is Crystal Stone?” Yang Kai was stunned, “Such a big piece?”
Yang Kai had seen Crystal Stones before, but whether it was the ones he had received from Bold Independent Union’s Yun Xuan or the ones given to him by Li Rong, they all had a very regular shape and size, roughly equivalent to his thumb, so he was surprised to find a fist sized chunk of Crystal Stone at the bottom of this volcano.
“Could this place be a Crystal Stone mineral lode?” Han Fei’s expression became excited as she leapt forward and sifted through the rock wall debris. A moment later, she too found a chunk of Crystal Stone amidst the gravel, but even though it was smaller than the one Yang Kai was holding, it was still several times larger than a common Crystal Stone.
“This really is a Crystal Stone mineral lode!” Han Fei declared confidently.
“Didn’t you say that it was a Yang Crystal Ore mineral lode beneath this volcano?” Yang Kai was also shocked.
“I just read so in the records of our ancient book, it might have been a mistake,” Han Fei explained, “But Crystal Stones are much more valuable than Yang Crystal, especially for our Ancient Demon Clan…”
Yang Crystal Ore was basically useless to her and her clansmen, only Yang Kai would want them, but Crystal Stones were different, Crystal Stones were extremely valuable to all cultivators.
After being trapped in this Mysterious Small World for countless years, almost all the Crystal Stones in Demon God Citadel had been consumed, many of her clansmen had never even seen Crystal Stone before.
This was also the reason why Pan Lang was so stunned when he learned that Yang Kai had obtained fifty or so Crystal Stones.
Crystal Stones were rare treasures inside this Mysterious Small World.
“About these…” Han Fei’s pair of beautiful eyes flashed a radiant light as she began to ask.
Yang Kai grinned meaningfully, “Whoever picks it, keeps it.”
“Don’t be so shameless. This place belongs to my Ancient Demon Clan, obviously the things here should be belong to my clan!” Han Fei shouted in annoyance.
“You’re the one who’s being unreasonable,” Yang Kai expression remained unchanged as he shook his head, “Although this place is a Crystal Stone mineral lode and contains who knows how many Crystal Stones, if it weren’t for me, could you even move about here freely? If I stopped sheltering you and tossed you away, I wonder how many Crystal Stones you’d be able to mine.”
“You…you… shameless!” Han Fei became indignant. Right now she was being protected by Yang Kai’s True Qi, and without him she would have trouble even moving about freely, never mind trying to mine these Crystal Stone.
“Then this is where we part ways, I’m leaving. You can stay here and keep these Crystal Stones company. Once you die, I’ll just come back and collect them myself,” Yang Kai said, turning around, preparing to leave.
Seeing Yang Kai really intending to leave, Han Fei hastily grabbed his sleeve, bit her thin lips and stared at him sorrowfully, her face filled with a look of grievances, as if she had suffered from a terrible injustice, evoking a deep sense of pity.
It was basically impossible for a woman as cold as Han Fei to show such an expression unless she found herself in a truly helpless situation.
But now was exactly such a time.
If Yang Kai were to leave, she had no choice but to follow him, but to have such a massive mineral lode in front of her eyes yet be unable to touch it, the suffering in Han Fei’s heart could easily be imagined.
Her clansmen very much needed these Crystal Stones.
“What do you want to say?” Yang Kai turned his head to look at her, remaining calm and indifferent.
“We’ll do things your way, whoever picks it, keeps it,” Han Fei clenched her teeth as flames of anger nearly shot out from her eyes.
“Then let’s get to work,” Yang Kai smiled happily, rubbing his hands gleefully.
Han Fei said nothing, turned around and began bombarding the rock wall that contained Crystal Stones, sending massive chunks of gravel flying all over the place. Soon, she found some Crystal Stones within this debris and with a happy smile forced them into her Void Ring.
Looking at her as if she was impatient to seize every last Crystal Stone in this mineral lode, Yang Kai couldn’t help laughing before he too walked over and began mining.
Crystal Stones were generally found amidst other minerals, so if a Crystal Stone mineral lode contained a ten percent concentration of Crystal Stone, it was already considered quite a high-grade deposit.
But the Crystal Stone mineral lode beneath this volcano was actually of even richer than that, with the total concentration of Crystal Stone here reaching as high as thirty percent.
Motivated by Yang Kai’s proposal of ‘whoever picks it, keeps it’, Han Fei was full of enthusiasm and no longer paid any attention to her injuries, violently bombarded the rock wall and sifting through the debris to find Crystal Stones, not even checking their size or shape before throwing them into her ring, as if she was afraid Yang Kai would rob them from her.
On the other hand, Yang Kai’s movements were rather relaxed, calmly accompanying Han Fei as she worked, leaving most of the Crystal Stones to her and only picking up a few here and there.
While she was busy mining, Han Fei quietly glanced over at Yang Kai and couldn’t help feeling a bit smug, thinking about how silly this little human bastard was to try to compete with her even knowing the giant difference between their cultivations.
Although she felt so in her heart, she took care not to reveal her inner thoughts on her face so as to avoid him becoming angry and storming off again.
As time passed, the amount of Crystal Stones Han Fei gathered quickly grew to several times the amount Yang Kai collected. By now, she no longer worried about splitting these Crystal Stones with Yang Kai; after all, him trying to snatch things from here was really a bit unrealistic.
As the two tunnelled deeper and deeper, the concentration of Crystal Stones became higher and the stones themselves also became bigger.
Yang Kai even found a head sized piece of Crystal Stone which surprised even Han Fei.
She had never even heard of such a large piece of Crystal Stone.
The two of them, dazzled by the astounding wealth no in front of them, had completely forgotten their current predicament.
However, one thing that Han Fei felt was strange was not despite his harvest being many times smaller than her own, this human brat still had a leisurely look on his face, as if he wasn’t the slightest bit anxious.
Did he know he wasn’t able to grab as many Crystal Stones as her and was simple satisfied with the small part he was able to gather?
Han Fei secretly guessed.
This was actually not an unreasonable assumption; there were so many Crystal Stones here and while Han Fei was collecting them for her entire clan, Yang Kai was simply gathering them for himself, so even if he had a few times less than her, for his own use it would be more than enough.
After a long period of mining, even with her astounding strength, Han Fei finally began to feel a bit fatigued.
In this hostile environment, while having to keep one eye on Yang Kai in case he tried to pull some kind of malicious stunt, Han Fei’s mental and physical consumption were several times greater than his.
Suddenly, Han Fei’s actions stopped and a bitter look appeared on her face. She held a big piece of Crystal Stone she had just picked up and stood there staring at it, not moving.
“What happened?” Yang Kai asked with a playful smile.
“I’m a bit tired, just taking a break!” Han Fei said, taking the initiative to retreat a short distance and sitting down cross-legged, careful to not leave the range of Yang Kai’s True Qi protection, before quietly taking some unwanted items from her Void Ring and throwing them away.
A moment later, she began mining again.
But after less than an hour, Han Fei stopped again, a helpless look spreading across her pretty face as she shook her head.
“Your Void Ring’s full?” Yang Kai saw this and immediately pointed out the problem.
Han Fei glanced over at him faintly and asked, “Do you have any Universe Bags? Lend me a few.”
Yang Kai shrugged his shoulders and indicated he didn’t have any.
“What are you using to store all those Crystal Stones then?” Han Fei swept her eyes up and down Yang Kai but she didn’t see any trace of a Universe Bag or Void Ring on him. The Crystal Stones he had gathered so far seemed to have simply disappeared. She had no idea where he was hiding them.
“That’s a secret, no comment.”
“Hmph, trying to act mysterious,” Han Fei snorted, her Void Ring was a high-end storage artifact, its internal space as large as a small room.
She didn’t believe that a youth like Yang Kai could possible possess a higher grade storage artifact than her Void Ring.
After thinking about it for a moment, Han Fei gritted her teeth and softly called out to Yang Kai, “I don’t know why, but I suddenly feel a little cold.”
“Are your injuries that serious?” Yang Kai asked in fright, he didn’t want Han Fei to die here. This woman was one of this Mysterious Small world’s four leaders. If she were to die here, he didn’t know how he would be able to explain to Li Rong. Such an event would inevitably turn the entire Ancient Demon Clan against him.
Before he found a way to leave this Mysterious Small World, Yang Kai didn’t want to make enemies of the Ancient Demon Clan.
“I don’t know,” saying so, Han Fei actually began to shiver slightly.
Yang Kai’s brow furrowed greatly and he immediately stopped his mining work, taking off his shirt and tossing it to Han Fei.
Han Fei’s expression became a bit complicated as she quietly whispered, “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Yang Kai smiled lightly, but in the next moment, his smile stiffened on his face.
Because Han Fei, who a moment ago was shivering and had appeared quite feeble, suddenly straightened herself up, tied his shirt into a simple package, and began stuffing Crystal Stones into it.
Yang Kai’s face went pitch black as he realized that this woman’s whole act just now was actually just for this.
“Are you really so greedy?” Yang Kai said disdainfully.
“What do you understand? My clansmen have all been desperate for Crystal Stones for many years now, naturally I have to collect as many as possible. Every single Crystal Stone I gather will have a great impact on my clans development,” Han Fei shot back without the slightest bit of guilt, never once stopping her hands as she shoved Crystal Stone’s into her new sac.
“Would you like me to take my pants off too? You’d be able to make another sac with them,” Yang Kai sneered.
“Yes please,” Han Fei nodded indifferently, a completely serious look upon her face.
Yang Kai trembled with anger and pointed his finger at her, “I’ll remember this, you deceitful woman! I’ll never believe a word you say in the future, don’t you have any sense of moral integrity?”
At this moment, he suddenly felt quite distorted, emotionally speaking.
“What’s moral integrity?” Han Fei looked at him suspiciously.
Although she understood honour and loyalty, as a member of the Demon Race, the concept of moral integrity really was foreign to her…
Yang Kai huffed a few times before taking a deep breath and turning away, focusing whole-heartedly on mining Crystal Stones.
Han Fei was also feeling somewhat helpless. Her Void Ring had been filled, and even she conned Yang Kai out of his shirt by pretending to have the chills, she had run out of places to store Crystal Stones, so she could only stand back and watch Yang Kai continue harvesting this wealth, her eyes going somewhat bloodshot in the process.
One day passed, two days, three days…
To her great surprise, Han Fei discovered that this human boy showed no signs of stopping, the Crystal Stones he extracted all seemed to simply vanishing into thin air.
Over these past few days, Han Fei roughly estimated that the number of Crystal Stones Yang Kai had extracted was twice as much as she had.
It was no wonder he was so calm at first and showed no intention of competing with her; apparently he had already anticipated she would run out of storage capacity.
But what about him? What kind of storage artifact was he using that had such a large amount of space? Han Fei had been quietly observing Yang Kai these past three days trying to unravel this mystery but had yet to learn anything.
What made her even more shocked was that in the days that followed, Yang Kai continued to reap huge gains. He seemed to have some kind of bottomless pit that no matter how many Crystal Stones were thrown into it, it would never be full.
“I’ll help you gather these Crystal Stones and when we leave her, you give me half of them. Deal?” Han Fei finally couldn’t sit still and reluctantly proposed.
In response, Yang Kai shot her a cold look before completely ignoring her.
“Forty percent then!” Han Fei grit her teeth and took a step back, “Thirty percent? If I help you, your progress will be much faster; you have nothing to lose by cooperating with me!”
“How about twenty percent? Fine, ten percent… teen percent is the lowest I’ll go!”
“Don’t talk to me; I won’t believe anything you say!” Yang Kai blew two hot streams of air from his nose at her.
“You stingy little bastard, what do you want so many Crystal Stones for anyways? The amount you’ve gathered is already enough for you to use freely for several dozen years!”
“Even if I don’t use them to cultivate I can use them for other things,” Yang Kai counted his fingers and said, “Buying herbs, buying artifacts, buying Martial Skills, buy Secret Arts, and buying women!”
Han Fei clenched her fist and ground her teeth as she yelled, “Shameless!”
“You’re in no position to talk!” Yang Kai sneered, “You’re only safe right now because I’m protecting you! Don’t talk to me anymore, or I’ll abandon you here.”
Han Fei had never felt so bitter in her entire life, but didn’t dare say anything more.
In fact, with her Saint Realm cultivation, it would be a simple task for her to suppress Yang Kai here and force him to obey her, but just like he had said, Han Fei had her own pride and really couldn’t bring herself to repaying the kindness of saving her life with such enmity. It was because Han Fei knew how to calculate gratitude and grudge that even though he found her somewhat annoying, Yang Kai’s overall impression of her wasn’t actually that bad.
“Hm?” Yang Kai suddenly paused in surprise, picking up an unusual Crystal Stone from the rubble in front of him. This Crystal Stone wasn’t very big, at least not compared to the ones he had previously collected, only about the size of his fingernail, but Yang Kai was keenly aware that the energy contained within it was many times purer and denser than any he had come across before. So much so that only a Crystal Stone the size of a washbasin would be equivalent.
Staring at it for a moment, Yang Kai’s expression slowly became solemn.
“Saint Crystal?” Han Fei also called out in alarm, her hands covering her mouth in shock as she stared at the Crystal Stone in Yang Kai’s hand.
“Saint Crystal?” Yang Kai’s brow also rose, “You mean the legendary higher grade version of Crystal Stone?”
During his time in Bold Independent Union, Yang Kai learned a lot about the mysteries of Crystal Stone so naturally, he had heard of Saint Crystal.
A piece of Saint Crystal contained more than a hundred times the energy of an equivalent sized Crystal Stone.
And that was just a comparison of pure energy.
In terms of true value, a single piece of Saint Crystal was simply incomparable to a hundred pies of Crystal Stone, because Crystal Stones could be found everywhere, but Saint Crystals rarely appeared.
Anything that was rare, was precious!
“There’s actually Saint Crystal here?” Han Fei couldn’t sit still any longer. It was torture watching Yang Kai mine Crystal Stone because she had nowhere to store more herself, but now he had actually obtained a piece of Saint Crystal!
This kind of rare treasure could provide tremendous assistance to Saint Realm masters in their cultivation. By absorbing the energy inside a piece of Saint Crystal, she could quickly improve her strength.
Yang Kai obtaining this kind of treasure caused Han Fei’s jealousy to soar.
Whether she had the ability to store more or not no longer mattered to Han Fei as she rushed forward and began violently striking the wall again.
Yang Kai also refused to fall behind, drastically increasing his mining efforts, no longer showing the calm and relaxed demeanor he had before.
Chunks of rock flew everywhere along with big and small pieces of Crystal Stones. Han Fei exerted the full strength of her Divine Sense to observe this storm of debris but whether it was ordinary rock or Crystal Stone, she completely ignored it and let it fall to the ground.
Yang Kai pushed his True Qi furiously while carefully controlling it with his Divine Sense to collect all the Crystal Stones that Han Fei ignored, stuffing them into his Black Book space.
*Ding-dong…*
A clear sound rang out and Han Fei’s eyes locked onto a target, her hand shooting out faster than Yang Kai could see, stanching up a different looking gem. Grasping it in the palm of her hand, Han Fei smiled brilliantly.
She had also obtained a piece of Saint Crystal.
But in the next moment, she grit her teeth again because Yang Kai also harvested another piece and was casually showing it off to her.
“Just you wait!” Han Fei muttered under her breath, increasing the pace of her attacks again.
For a time, Yang Kai and Han Fei acted like they were possessed, going all out to attack the rock walls and harvest Crystal Stones and Saint Crystals.
The number of Saint Crystals was still quite small, only one or two occasionally popping up, but as time passed, Yang Kai managed to collect more than a dozen pieces while Han Fei gained a few times more. Her cultivation was significantly greater than his so obviously the pace of her mining was faster and taking advantage of her stronger Divine Sense, she would often discover the loose Saint Crystals first.
However, she had no way to store the ordinary Crystal Stones that came loose as she was mining so they ended up being taken for free by Yang Kai.
As such, in terms of gains, the two were basically equal.
*Hong…*
A loud rumbling soundly rang out, and the wall in front of the pair suddenly collapsed, revealing a great chasm, but from the dark chasm a terrifying pulse of energy could be felt.
It seemed that because the two people had broke open this passage, the energy flowing within the mine had become unstable.
*Kacha…*
A burst of cracking sound came from all directions.
Yang Kai and Han Fei’s faces both went stiff at exactly the same moment, stopping all their movements as they stood in place silently, not even daring to breathe.
*Kachacha…*
The cracking sounds around them grew louder and louder as the entire cave began to tremble violently while piece of stone began to fall from the ceiling.
Yang Kai’s brow twitched, his expression sinking as he whispered, “This… might be bad…”
“I think… we should probably leave…” Han Fei gently nodded.
“Mmhmm… Run!” Yang Kai shouted out panic, throwing all other thoughts to the back of his mind as he shot off like lightning towards the cave’s exit.
Han Fei also didn’t hesitate and followed close behind.
The earth trembled and the surrounding World Energy churned violently, chunks of rock and clouds of dust constantly falling all around the pair as the cracks in the wall spread rapidly.
Yang Kai did his best to observe the surrounding environment as he rushed forward.
He knew that they were currently in the bowels of an active, unstable volcano. Now it seems that his and Han Fei’s reckless activities over the past few days had disrupted some kind of delicate balance here and the chain reaction they had started would likely cause the volcano to thoroughly erupt.
When that happened, this cave beneath the volcano would no longer be safe.
Facing this life or death crisis, the pair held nothing back, using their fastest speed to escape, reaching the huge cavern where they had first stopped over in the blink of an eye before shooting up the tunnel they had entered through and arriving in front of the flowing magma chamber.
“Come here!” Yang Kai snorted and grabbed hold of Han Fei’s waist, spreading his Flaming Yang Wings and wrapping both of them up before diving straight into the magma, rushing upwards towards the surface.
Driven by the fierce momentum of the volcanic eruption, the speed at which the two ascended was several times faster compared to when they had dove down.
*Hong Hong Hong…*
The deafening explosions around them and the massive flow of destructive energy caused both Yang Kai and Han Fei’s faces to become extremely dignified.
At the same time, above the mouth of the volcano, a number of figures floated midair, each of them a powerful master that gave off a formidable aura.
These people were divided into two groups, facing each other, n dangerous air lingering between them.
On one side was the radical, militant Demon Race group headed by Chu Jian, while on the other were the moderate clansmen led by Li Rong and Hua Mo.
As Yang Kai had expected, Li Rong had been paying attention to Chu Jian’s movements and when she learned about him suddenly leaving his territory with so many masters in tow, Li Rong immediately realized what he was planning to do.
Quickly summoning Hua Mo, Li Rong led her subordinates from Demon God Citadel and rushed to the rescue, but she was still a step late.
When she and Hua Mo arrived here, Yang Kai and Han Fei had already been forced into the depths of the volcano by Chu Jian and it was uncertain whether they were alive or dead.
Li Rong, who had always shown great tolerance and benevolence, was right now, for the first time, feeling a great urge to kill Chu Jian!
But before confirming the whereabouts and status of Yang Kai and Han Fei, Li Rong endured and ordered Chu Jian and his people to help her search for them.
These days, the masters of the Ancient Demon Clan had repeatedly dove into the volcano to search for traces of Yang Kai and Han Fei. Li Rong even went down personally but in the end still found nothing.
By now, most of the Ancient Demon Race were convinced that the human boy and Great Commander Han Fei had lost their lives inside the volcano.
Chu Jian’s expression remained unchanged. Not only did he not show the slightest hint of guilt, there was even a flash of excitement in the depths of his eyes as she stared at Li Rong from a distance, wondering what she would do next.
Now that things had gotten to this point, Chu Jian no longer bothered putting up a front. In recent years, he had been testing Li Rong’s bottom line while gathering his strength, by now he had a fair understanding of Li Rong’s capabilities.
If a fight really broke out here, Chu Jian wasn’t the least bit afraid, even somewhat eager to try.
After so many years of imprisonment, most of the Ancient Demon Clan’s fangs had been dulled. Now was the time to awaken the true nature of their clansmen and baptise them in fresh blood.
“Senior Li…” Hua Mo’s face was ugly as he let out a sigh and said, “Great Commander Han Fei has probably already fallen.”
Li Rong’s eyes were shut tight as she continued releasing her tyrannical Divine Sense, ignoring the burning pain the surrounding Yang Yuan Qi brought to her as she desperately searched the volcano, but unfortunately her efforts remained fruitless.
When she heard Hua Mo, Li Rong suddenly opened her eyes, the temperate expression on her beautiful face suddenly becoming gloomy as she ground her teeth, her tender body trembling as she glared angrily and coldly shouted, “Chu Jian, do you have any idea what you’ve done?”
Chu Jian sneered and nodded, “I naturally know what I’ve done, there’s no need Senior Li to remind me.”
Li Rong’s expression became even colder as she slowly shook her head, calling out a low voice, “You have no idea. If that human boy turns out to be safe, I can still spare your life, but if anything has happened to him, I’ll bury you here along with him!”
As Li Rong shouted, a surging momentum pulsed from her body, causing Chu Jian’s expression to finally change as he quickly retreated a few steps and swung his arm forward to block these invisible ripples, his sleeve disintegrating upon contact and scattering into the wind.
Chu Jian’s eyes couldn’t help widening slightly, only no realizing that this woman who always acted tolerant and benevolent unexpectedly had strength that far surpassed his own!
However, he too was now a Second Order Saint, so he quickly stabilized himself and a cruel expression slowly spread across his face as he shot back, “Senior Li, instead of caring whether Han Fei is dead or alive, your first concern is about that human brat, why is that?”
Beside Li Rong, Hua Mo also couldn’t help frowning, a look of suspicion appearing on his face.
Li Rong’s words really drew everyone’s attention. She didn’t mention anything about Han Fei but was apparently only concerned about Yang Kai, causing even Hua Mo to wonder why.
“You don’t need to know why!” Li Rong showed no intention of explaining herself, simply taking a deep breath as she stared up into the chaotic sky, her eyes blurring slightly as she solemnly declared, “All you need to know is that I can tolerate any mistakes you have make, I can even tolerate you quarreling with me and seeking to usurp me! But I will never allow you to get away with killing that human boy… If he dies, you die!”
Chu Jian breath caught in his throat, Li Rong speaking such forceful words meant she was by no means issuing an idle threat… It seemed like he had really inadvertently violated some kind of taboo!
Chu Jian secretly shook his head, wondering if Li Rong had gone crazy. In front of so many of their clansmen, she had actually said this, wasn’t she afraid her reputation would be permanently damaged?
Even Hua Mo showed a look of confusion at the moment, let alone their other clansmen.
“I’ll give you three days, after three days, if he’s alive, I want to see him in person, if he’s dead, I want to see his corpse. If you can’t achieve even this, I’ll kill you myself!” Li Rong glared towards Chu Jian and issued her ultimatum.
Chu Jian didn’t show any signs of panic, but instead a look of anticipation, licking his lips as his fighting intent began to rise.
He had no intention of obeying Li Rong’s command, things had already progressed to this point so a fight was now inevitable.
But before he could do or say anything, a fierce rumbling sound came from the volcano below and the surrounding World Energy suddenly became turbulent as a dangerous aura began welling up.
Everyone’s face changed as they all looked down and saw the magma inside the volcano’s caldera begin to surge upwards.
*Xiu…*
A burst of magma violently shot a thousand meters into the air before spreading out raining down on the surrounding area.
*Xiu xiu xiu…*
Soon, more streams of magma burst from the volcano like arrows, each pillar of molten rock carrying with it an incredibly destructive force.
“Senior Li, fall back!” Hua Mo went pale and quickly shouted out, hurriedly pushing his strength as he tried to escape from the volcano’s fury.
The volcano that had been silent for so many years suddenly erupted, red hot magma spewing thousands of meters into the air from its gigantic mouth. In the sky above, a thick plume of ash began to spread out as flashes of lightning shot back and forth within it.
All the members of the Ancient Demon Clan scrambled to avoid the magma. Some of them who responded too late had been hit by the lightning and exploded into a cloud of blood, not even leaving behind any bones, a truly miserable death.
The surviving Ancient Demon Clan members all wore blank stares, their eyes filled with fear as they all pushed their strength and fled as fast as they could.
*Kacha…*
The magma and the lightning flew about randomly and the entire region above the volcano became a land of death.
The power of Heaven and Earth were unmatched!
The three Great Commanders, Li Rong, Hua Mo and Chu Jian, all wore extremely dignified expressions, none of them daring to stop as they brought their subordinates and fled from the danger zone. They didn’t understand what was happening here, but when confronted by the forces of nature, even they dared not act reckless.
Amidst the clouds of ash, thunder boomed and lightning streaked while down below, magma continued to spew out from the volcano’s mouth.
Such Heavenly wrath stunned the Ancient Demon masters and caused many of them to shudder.
Inside this Mysterious Small World, there were very few dangers capable of harming them, much less killing them, but today they had witnessed one.
A moment later, Chu Jian, and Li Rong and Hua Mo’s groups arrived a few dozen kilometers away from the volcano’s mouth, a relatively safe position, both sides staring back in awe of the sea of fire and lightning still erupting from the volcano’s mouth.
Li Rong face was ashen. She had still had a glimmer of hope that Yang Kai and Han Fei had somehow survived, but now this hope had been thoroughly extinguished.
Facing such a calamity, Li Rong felt that it was impossible for Yang Kai and Han Fei to have survived.
At that moment, from the center of the volcano’s mouth, two figures suddenly leapt out.
Submerged amongst the magma and lightning, no one managed to discover the existence of these two figures as everyone’s attention had been attracted by the vast Heavenly wrath.
The moment they left the volcano’s mouth, Yang Kai and Han Fei also wore shocked expressions.
Neither of them had expected that as soon as they escaped from the sea of magma, they would find themselves surrounded by this apocalyptic scene, the rampaging power that carried with it a scent of death caused both of them to tremble involuntarily in fear.
“Keep moving!” Han Fei shouted. Now that they had left the volcano, she no longer needed Yang Kai’s protection, instead pushing her own Demonic Qi and wrapping him up, flying out in a random direction.
Yang Kai didn’t resist, quickly summoning out his Bone Shield and pouring his True Qi into it. The Bone Shield’s mouth opened in response and created a barrier around the pair, helping block a number of deadly attacks for them.
*Hong Hong Hong…*
Great bolts of lightning crashed against the barrier and were quickly absorbed by the Bone Shield, but after only five such strikes, Yang Kai found that this defensive artifact which had been further upgraded to Mysterious Grade Top-Rank, began to show signs of collapsing.
Fortunately, Han Fei’s speed and agility were both outstanding and she managed to bring Yang Kai through the field of magma and lightning while avoiding the most dangerous regions.
A moment later, the two were finally escaped from the core of the calamity.
“There’s someone in front!” Yang Kai’s eyes narrowed as he called out, his face paling in the next instant, “It’s Chu Jian!”
“Damn!” Han Fei’s expression also became solemn, she had not anticipated that Chu Jian would still be waiting here for them.
She and Yang Kai had stayed in the depths of the volcano for half a month now; Chu Jian being so patient was completely beyond her expectations.
“We need to run,” Yang Kai’s face became gloomy as he whispered into Han Fei’s ear.
Han Fei nodded in agreement.
Just as the two discovered Chu Jian, the other side also noticed them. After seeing Yang Kai and Han Fei’s figures, Chu Jian couldn’t help grinning ferociously, “You’re still alive. Hahaha, the Heavens themselves are helping me!”
Saying so, he cast a glance towards the far side of the volcano but couldn’t see Li Rong and Hua Mo’s situation.
Chu Jian’s nerves immediately relaxed. Since he couldn’t see their situation, then they too wouldn’t be able to see his, which meant he had a chance to capture Yang Kai and Han Fei before Li Rong could react.
As long as he managed to hold these two, Chu Jian would have a strong bargaining chip to use against Li Rong!
Li Rong seemed to care a great deal about this human brat, even more so than Han Fei. Chu Jian was quite eager to understand why!
Coming face to face with their enemy after just escaping the magma and lightning, Yang Kai and Han Fei immediately turned in a different direction and fled, trying to escape from Chu Jian’s vision.
In response, Chu Jin just sneered and without hesitation directly displayed his Demon God Transformation.
Like pitch black snakes, complicated Demon Crests spread across Chu Jian’s face, giving him an even more menacing appearance. His Second Order Saint strength rapidly increased as his Blood Force and Demonic Qi surged.
His figure flickering, Chu Jian shot out and arriving in front of Han Fei and Yang Kai in an instant, mockingly calling out, “Seems your luck is quite good, but it’s just run out! Han Fei, hand him over.”
Saying so, he stretched his hand out to grab Han Fei.
Han Fei coldly snorted and gently threw Yang Kai out, quickly using her Demon God Transformation as well to block Chu Jian’s offensive.
Although their strength differed by a Minor Realm, if Han Fei went all out she could still delay Chu Jian for a short time.
Last time, Chu Jian had only managed to land a heavy blow and disable her because he had suddenly exposed his hidden strength and caught Han Fei by surprise.
Yang Kai understood Han Fei’s intentions and rode the strength of her toss to escape the immediate battlefield, but in the next moment he found himself surrounded by a dozen Ancient Demon Clan masters.
These people were all Chu Jian’s subordinates, the weakest of which were still Peak Immortal Ascension Boundary cultivators while three of them were Transcendent Realm masters.
Yang Kai stood mid-air, frowning at the enemies around him, his heart heavy. He felt tremendous pressure from these people.
“Human, surrender. Sir Chu Jian has something he needs you to do!” A powerful Third Order Transcendent looked down at Yang Kai coldly.
“And if I refuse?” Yang Kai’s eyes narrowed, a stubborn light flashing across them.
“Then we will convince you through pain,” The brawny sneered, stepping towards Yang Kai and reaching out to grab him.
As this big hand came towards him, multiple phantom images of it appeared in Yang Kai’s eyes, making it impossible for him to see which one was real, bringing him a great sense of crisis.
Tightly gripping the Bone Shield in his hands, Yang Kai placed it in front of himself and furiously injected his True Qi, sending out the several terrifying bolts of lightning it had just swallowed.
*Xiu…*
A burst of lightning shot from the mouth of the Bone Shield and easily shattered the palm images approaching Yang Kai before smashing towards the man behind them.
The brawny Third Order Transcendent hastily retreated a few steps and pushed all of his strength into his hand in an attempt to resist this unexpected counterattack.
With a loud bang, two streams of energy collided with one another before disappearing.
Now in for a penny, in for a pound, Yang Kai gathered all of his Spiritual Energy into the small sword Soul type artifact in his Knowledge Sea, transforming it into a fiery red ray of light that shot towards the man’s forehead.
“Such a loathsome aura!” Realizing that Yang Kai’s Divine Sense attack carried with it a strong Flame Attribute, the Ancient Demon Clan master’s expression became ugly as he too pushed his Spiritual Energy to block this attack head on.
This invisible confrontation was over in a flash, resulting in Yang Kai coughing up a mouthful of blood, his face draining of all colour, and his body doubling over.
Although Yang Kai’s Soul and Spiritual Energy was comparable in strength to an ordinary Transcendent, it was still weaker than a Third Order Transcendent powerhouse’s. If it wasn’t for Yang Kai’s Spiritual Energy having special attribute, this confrontation would have resulting in serious injuries to his Knowledge Sea, possibly even leading to its collapse.
However, the brawny master suffered a small loss in this exchange.
He had looked down too much on Yang Kai’s Conflagrated Knowledge Sea and after the collision, he couldn’t help holding his head tightly and roaring in pain.
A Conflagrated Knowledge Sea, cultivated to the extreme, was capable of burning away all creation, and although Yang Kai had only just began cultivating his Conflagrated Knowledge Sea a year prior to now, after swallowing the dozen Conflagrated Knowledge Seas Demon God Citadel had in storage, the strength of his Divine Sense attack could not be so easily ignored.
“Seize him! I want to crush every bone in his body, one by one!” The Third Order Transcendent angrily shouted, ordering his fellow clansmen to attack.
Yang Kai waved both his hands and instantly sent out several dozen drops of Yang Liquid, shaping them into sharp spears with his Divine Sense and sending them flying in all directions towards the surrounding Demon Race cultivators.
*Xiu xiu xiu…*
The Yang Liquid spears shot out light streaks of lightning.
Too late to dodge, the Ancient Demon cultivators all hastily attempted to block these spears but the pure Yang Yuan Qi harshly restrained their Demonic Qi and some of them were inevitably hit.
The strong physiques the Ancient Demon Clan cultivators were so proud of were pierced by Yang Kai’s Yang Liquid spears as easily as paper.
A sizzling sound burst out as the Demonic Qi and Yang Qi violently collided and tried to destroy one another and in an instant, three of the Ancient Demon Clan masters had taken serious damage.
If these injuries had been caused by some other kind of attack, they would have been able to basically ignore them and with the help of their bodies’ strong vitality restore themselves within a few days.
But the blazing hot Yang Qi contained in these Yang Liquid spears was the ultimate nemesis to their Demonic Qi and the wounds created by them could not be sealed unless they first dissolved the rampaging Yang Yuan Qi that had penetrated into their bodies.
Fresh blood spurting out like fountains from every wound that was created.
The remaining Ancient Demon cultivators became even more fierce and brutal with their attack, not paying any attention to whether their companions were dead or alive. All of them closed in on Yang Kai and sent a barrage punches and kicks towards him.
Yang Kai only had time to condense a two layer Yang Liquid shield to block this offensive.
The two layer Yang Liquid shield collapsed in an instant under the combined attacks of two Transcendents and eight Peak Immortal Ascension Boundary masters while Yang Kai himself only persisted for a single breathe after that.
Blood spraying from his mouth, Yang Kai’s body flew out like a kite, tumbling through the air dozens of meters before finally coming to a stop.
“We need him alive!” The Third Order Transcendent who had suffered a small wound to his Soul cried out, quickly turning to pursue Yang Kai.
At the same time, on the other side of the volcano, Li Rong and Hua Mo finally noticed something was wrong.
“Senior Li, someone seems to be fighting over there!” Hua Mo said with a puzzled look on his face, not quite certain what was happening.
“This aura…” Li Rong knit her brow as, with great difficulty, she extended her Divine Sense through the swirling magma and lighting in order to probe what was happening on the other side of the volcano. Soon recognizing a familiar energy fluctuation, her pretty face lit up, “It’s Han Fei!”
“Commander Han Fei didn’t die!” Hua Mo also cheered up.
“If she’s alright then that human boy is definitely fine as well!” Saying so, Li Rong’s tender body transformed into a streak of light as she shot off towards the opposite side of the volcano.
Since seeing the Solitary Golden Eye in Yang Kai’s Knowledge Sea that day and having been struck by its divine golden light, Li Rong had her suspicions.
She found, at the time, that the Solitary Golden Eye gave off an aura that was very similar to what was described in the ancient books left by her clan’s ancestors.
So after leaving Yang Kai’s stone room that day, Li Rong immediately consulted with those ancient books and discovered that just as she thought, records of the Solitary Golden Eye’s appearance and abilities existed.
Upon learning this, Li Rong sent the Third Order Transcendent Duan Ya to guard Yang Kai, and even this time, she had specifically requested Han Fei to personally escort him to the volcano to ensure his safety.
Before she was able to uncover the truth of this matter, she didn’t want to see any harm come to this human boy. As to the speculations she had, she didn’t dare to inform anyone, even Han Fei or Hua Mo who were also Great Commanders of her Ancient Demon Clan.
Because she wasn’t certain, she needed time to observe Yang Kai and verify that her guess is correct.
However, Chu Jian’s sudden interference had nearly shattered her hopes, deeply angering her.
But now sensing that Han Fei and Yang Kai were alive, Li Rong was overjoyed and immediately flew towards the other side of the volcano, taking advantage of her outstanding cultivation to break through the most dangerous region right above the volcano’s mouth just so she could arrive a moment sooner to assist them.
Hua Mo followed close behind her, a touch of fear and anxiety appearing on his face.
He clearly noticed now that normally calm and steady Senior Li would lose self-control when it came to that human boy, even not caring about her own safety.
On the other side of the volcano, Yang Kai fell from the sky and hit the ground, bouncing and rolling a few times before finally coming to a stop. Quickly leaping to his feet, he wiped the blood from the side of his mouth and vigilantly swept his surroundings.
The Ancient Demon Clan masters who were chasing Yang Kai couldn’t help staring at him in amazement, one of them nodding slightly, “The flesh of this outsider is no worse than that of my clan; he’s not even hurt after falling from such a height.”
“I heard that when he was in Demon God Citadel, he severely injured Pan Lang and several of his lackeys.”
“Really?”
“This is getting interesting.”
All of them were chatting amongst themselves, apparently not in a rush to pursue Yang Kai, openly expressing their admiration.
One of the figures that was floating up higher also stared down at Yang Kai oddly, a powerful and imposing aura pulsing around him.
Chu Jian!
Noticing this stare, Yang Kai’s expression grew heavy as he glanced over towards the distance and discovered that Han Fei, who had been blocking Chu Jian a moment ago, was actually lying in a pool of her own blood, her pair of cold, beautiful eyes slowly blinking, her face pale, her lips slowly mouthing something.
Although they were too far away for Yang Kai to hear what she was saying, from the movement of her lips he could tell that she was trying to tell him to escape on his own.
“Sir!” The surrounding Ancient Demon masters saluted.
Chu Jian gently nodded before turning his attention back to Yang Kai, letting out a burst of laughter filled with mockery, “Your Human Race has a saying, a wise man will submit to his circumstances, I hope you won’t resist any further, Han Fei can’t protect you, and neither can Li Rong!”
“Haha…” Facing this desperate situation, Yang Kai suddenly laughed.
“What are you laughing at?” Chu Jian coldly snorted, seemingly disgruntled with Yang Kai’s attitude.
In response, Yang Kai slowly lifted his hand and pointed to the sky behind Chu Jian’s back, “Instead of telling me that, you should tell Li Rong, she seems to be coming.”
Chu Jian’s look changed abruptly as he turned his head and looked, soon spotting a pretty figure rapidly approaching their position. Li Rong’s face was filled with anxiety as she loudly cried out, “Chu Jian, stop right there. If you listen to me this time, I can forgive all the transgressions you’ve made, but if you harm a single hair on that boy’s head, I’ll never forgive you!”
“Senior Li!” Chu Jian coldly snorted, shouting back at her, “Since I, Chu Jian, have already gone this far, there is now no turning back! Today, it will either be your death, or mine!”
Saying so, he no longer paid any attention to the approaching Li Rong, but instead turned around and stared at Yang Kai with his cold eyes.
The words Li Rong just spoke made Chu Jian feel even more strongly that this human brat really had an unusual position in her mind.
He didn’t have to fight with Li Rong at all. As long as he could capture this human brat, he would have already won!
In that instant, Chu Jian seemed to have seen Li Rong bow down in front of him as he took control of Demon God Citadel and become to absolute ruler of this Mysterious Small World.
Such wondrous prospects made him feel incredibly excited. As long as the Mysterious Small World was unified under his command, he could restore his clansmen’s true nature and when they finally left here, they would once more shake the world.
At that moment, a seemingly ancient voice suddenly resounded throughout the Heavens and Earth.
“Devil Transformation!”
Yang Kai’s quietly whispered, swiping the index finger of his right hand across his forehead. His voice was as ice cold as if it had come from the ninth level of purgatory, sending chills down the spines of all who heard it.
The world trembled, and everyone present couldn’t help feeling unsteady.
In the chaotic sky high above, a great vortex began to form, filled with a powerful destructive aura.
The wind surged and brought with it a sense of intimidation even greater than the fearful volcanic explosion.
Yang Kai’s upper body suddenly let out a scarlet light before a multitude of black lines began appearing, climbing up his body like snakes, branded his skin.
At that moment, Yang Kai’s aura underwent an enormous change, becoming fierce and bloodthirsty.
He had no choice now but to show his trump card in the hopes that he could buy just a little more time to allow Li Rong to arrive.
As long as he could hold out until Li Rong reached him, he would no longer have to worry about being taken away by Chu Jian.
If possible, Yang Kai didn’t want to use his Devil Transformation in front of the Ancient Demon Clan because this technique was too similar to their Demon God Transformation. The origins of his technique were unknown to Yang Kai, but he instinctively felt that if he were to display his Devil Transformation, it would bring him a lot of trouble.
The last thing he wanted was for them to think he had stolen their Demon God Transformation.
That was an untouchable taboo for the Ancient Demon Clan.
But now, he couldn’t concern himself with such things.
However, Yang Kai soon discovered that there was something very different this time when he used his Devil Transformation.
A pulse of energy from all of the surrounding Ancient Demon Clan members flew towards Yang Kai and entered his body, the Second Order Saint Chu Jian was no exception.
Even the heavily injured Han Fei who was a few hundred meters away had her power extracted and, as a result, immediately passed out.
In an instant, the Ancient Demon Clan masters gathered around Yang Kai discovered that their strength had dropped significantly.
On the other hand, Yang Kai felt a tremendous power circulating through his body. He almost couldn’t help roaring in excitement, lifting his hands and gripping them slightly, feeling like he was able to crush the entire world if he wanted to
At that moment, Yang Kai felt invincible, that there was nothing he could not do!
“Demon God Transformation?” Chu Jian called out in alarm as he stared at Yang Ka in shock. Right now, the exposed skin of this human boy, with the exception of his face, was covered in Demon Crests, the most standard form of the Demon God Transformation.
Moreover, the number of Demon Crests Yang Kai had was significantly more than Chu Jian’s own.
“How is that possible?” Chu Jian was dumbfounded.
Demon God Transformation was a heritage Martial Skill that could only be performed by members of the Ancient Demon Clan, not even other members of the Demon Race could cultivate it. After all, Demon Crests were an inherent characteristic, other Demon Race people didn’t have Demon Crests so it was naturally impossible for them to display the Demon God Transformation.
So how could this human brat do it? And his Demon God Transformation… seemed to be stronger and more profound than any Chu Jain had ever seen.
Vaguely, there was even a kind of power radiating from this human that was suppressing him.
Chu Jian quickly noticed that the Demon Crests on his face were melting like spring snow under a hot sun and quickly disappeared. His Blood Force and Demonic Qi plummeted at that moment and his combat strength fell to a near non-existent level…
Both Chu Jian and Li Rong were equally shocking.
But the latter also showed a look of pleasant surprise.
The attractive eyes of the mature beauty who rapidly flew over flashed a strange light as she stared towards Yang Kai, trembling with excitement as if she had just witnessed something she had been greatly anticipating.
Hua Mo, who was behind her, also stared dumbfounded at this scene.
Li Rong and Hua Mo both called out in alarm and fell powerlessly to the ground as soon as they came with a thousand meters of Yang Kai.
As soon as they reached this point, a strong suppressive force came over them, one that made them subconsciously feel like any resistance was futile.
Every Ancient Demon Clan member present couldn’t stop themselves from trembling as they stared towards Yang Kai as if he was their natural enemy, fear filling their hearts.
“It’s real… it’s real… it’s really real, I wasn’t mistaken…” Li Rong murmured over and over to herself, tears slowly gathering at the corners of her eyes.
“Senior Li… What’s happening? Why can he display the Demon God Transformation and why does his Demon God Transformation give us such a massive suppression?” Hua Mo was terrified and hastily asked.
“This must be a gift from Sir Great Demon God to my Ancient Demon Clan! The prayers of our ancestors have finally been answered! Sir Great Demon God has certainly sent him here to save my clan!” Li Rong’s face was filled with reverence and respect.
“Sir Great Demon God?” Hearing these words, Hua Mo’s complexion changed.
In the hearts of the Ancient Demon Clan, the status of Sir Great Demon God was supreme!
“But Senior Li, I can’t summon any of my strength right now,” Hua Mo expression became solemn.
“It’s not just you, but all our Ancient Demon Clan cannot stand before him. The majesty of Sir Great Demon God is inviolable!” Li Rong tried to straighten herself up, standing in place, staring towards Yang Kai with a look of utmost respect.
“Then Chu Jian…” Hua Mo looked changed slightly.
“He is no exception,” Li Rong sneered, no longer saying anything, now just calmly watching this situation play out.
On the other side, Yang Kai suddenly let out a roar.
At this moment, he experienced a kind of happiness that he had never felt before. He didn’t know what had happened or why he felt this way but after displaying his Devil Transformation this time, his mood had become somewhat different.
He felt as if he was standing above the clouds, indifferently looking down on the people below.
The Ancient Demon Clan masters who had given him tremendous pressure, and even Chu Jian who’s strength brought him to despair, were now nothing but ants in his eyes, their lives his to take if he so chose to.
He didn’t understand why he had such a feeling. Just now he had only used his Devil Transformation in the hopes he could delay his death long enough for Li Rong to arrive and save him, yet now this kind of unexpected accident had occurred.
As all the Ancient Demon Clan around him shuddered and trembled, Yang Kai collected himself and glanced over at Li Rong and Hua Mo, who were staring towards him from a thousand meters away, and oddly noticed that they were standing still, not showing any intention of moving closer.
However, the way the mature beauty Li Rong was staring towards him had once again undergone a great change.
If Yang Kai wasn’t mistaken, the look this beautiful woman was now sending him was one filled with respect.
This discovery stunned him.
“Are you a human or a demon?” Chu Jian’s eyes trembled violently, his face pale as he asked angrily.
“Who knows,” Yang Kai let out a light breath and grinned towards Chu Jian.
“Why do you know my clan’s Demon God Transformation? Where did your Demon Crests come from? Why is your Demonic Qi stronger and purer than mine!?” Chu Jian couldn’t understand what was happening, his expression filled with grief and indignation, harshly interrogating the human boy in front of him.
“No comment,” Yang Kai shrugged his shoulders and walked over to him step by step, sneering as he said, “There was no hatred or grievances between us, but since you maliciously targeted and even tried to kill me, you must pay an appropriate price.”
“You dare!” Chu Jian cried out in rage, his eyes going completely bloodshot.
Staring at the human brat who was slowly approaching him and feeling the thick murderous intent he was giving off, Chu Jian naturally knew what he was planning to do.
All of his bones creaked as he desperately tried to summon the Demon Crests on his face, but no matter how hard Chu Jian tried, he simply couldn’t gather the slightest bit of strength.
It seemed that under the influence of this human boy’s aura, his own strength had been completely sealed and was no longer his to control.
This discovery enraged Chu Jian as he glared hatefully towards Yang Kai and shouted, “You despicable human, what do you do to me? Why can’t I use any of my strength?”
“You really can’t gather your strength? I thought it was just my imagination, but it turns out to be real,” Yang Kai gently nodded, his expression completely relaxing.
The reason why he had been slowly walking over was to create a sense of pressure on Chu Jian in order to test his reaction and see if his strange feeling was real.
Now it seemed his intuition was correct and there was no need to fear the current Chu Jian at all.
“Kill him!” Chu Jian shouted coldly, quickly ordering his subordinates. He felt that if he didn’t kill this human right now, he would be suppressed by him forever.
Chu Jian still hadn’t figured out what kind of method this human brat had used to seal his strength.
“Sir, we’re also…” What made Chu Jian fall into desperation was that apparently all of his subordinates, whether they were Peak Immortal Ascension or Transcendent Realm masters, were all rooted in place like wooden stakes, unable to move, only capable of helplessly staring at Yang Kai, powerless to stop him.
“No one can save you!” Yang Kai shouted, his speed greatly increasing, arriving in front of the Chu Jian in the blink of an eye and callously declaring, “Today is the day you die!”
Saying so, without the slightest hesitation, Yang Kai gathered all of his Demonic Qi summoned a massive Black Dragon behind him. Letting out a terrifying roar, the huge dragon gently hovered above Yang Kai’s head and glared down at Chu Jian.
“You can’t kill me, I’m a Saint! My flesh is dozens of times stronger than profound steel, with your pitiful strength…”
*Xii…*
The beam of dark energy struck out as fast as a snake towards Chu Jian and easily pierced a hole in his shoulder.
Chu Jian’s voice caught in his throat as he felt this sharp pain in his shoulder, his eyes going wide with shock as he stared blankly towards Yang Kai, his mouth moving but no sounding coming out of it.
*Xiu xiu xiu…*
One after another, black energy beams bombarded Chu Jian and soon, his strong body was riddled with holes, blood flowing freely from each one, slowly forming a crimson puddle at his feet.
However, the strong vitality of the Ancient Demon Clan allowed Chu Jian to remain standing even though he had suffered such serious injuries.
“Saint Realm indeed!” Yang Kai’s moth curled into a sarcastic grin as he stared towards Chu Jian, “Come to think of it, I have yet to swallow the Soul of a Saint Realm master, I wonder what it tastes like. It seems you’ll have the good fortune to be the first. Don’t worry, I’ll make good use of your sentiments regarding the Martial Dao and Heavenly Law.”
“What do you want to do?” Chu Jian complexion finally changed. With his strength, even if his body were to be destroyed, so long as his Soul survived, he could take over another body, just like what Old Demon had once tried with Yang Kai. Chu Jian had been secretly planning on using this method to survive this ordeal.
All of his clansmen around him were possible candidates. As long as he quietly concealed himself, he would still have an opportunity to stage a comeback. As long as he figured out how Yang Kai was suppressing him and how to resist it, killing an Immortal Ascension Boundary Eighth Stage human brat would be a breeze.
But Yang Kai’s words just now made him realize that something was wrong.
Apparently, Yang Kai had no intention of letting his Soul go!
At this moment, Chu Jian really began to feel desperate.
“You’ll understand soon enough,” Yang Kai grinned. In the next instant, the Black Dragon that had quietly been hovering above his head let out a fierce roar, opened its mouth, and swallowed Chu Jian into its stomach.
It was obvious that Chu Jian was struggling inside the Black Dragon but with his strength completely sealed, there was obviously no way he could escape.
Gradually, Chu Jian’s movements became slowed to the point they came to a stop. At that moment, the Black Dragon collapsed and disappeared, leaving behind a bloody corpse that fell to the ground.
“Sir!” Chu Jian’s subordinates called out in alarm as they witnessed this unbelievable scene.
A Second Order Saint, without even being able to resist, had been ruthlessly killed.
Yang Kai’s tyrannical and merciless methods caused all of them to tremble in fear.
From the corpse, a huge mass of Spiritual Energy emerged and tried to conceal itself. It was Chu Jian’s Soul, he had wanted to use the moment Yang Kai dropped his guard after killing him to secretly take over one of his men’s bodies.
But just as Chu Jian’s Soul left his Knowledge Sea, he suddenly felt an incredible force latch on to him. Facing this suction, Chu Jian was unable to resist, similar to what had just happened a moment ago when he was facing Yang Kai’s strange aura.
Everyone around faintly heard Chu Jian’s screams.
Yang Kai felt a massive Spiritual Energy mass enter his Knowledge Sea.
Inside Yang Kai’s Knowledge Sea, Chu Jian’s Soul avatar vigilantly glanced around.
Everywhere he looked there were raging flames. This human’s Knowledge Sea contained a terrifying Flame Attribute which slowly roasted Jian’s Soul, making him feel incredibly uncomfortable.
In the center of this sea of flames was an incredibly beautiful five coloured island.
While floating high in the sky was a giant closed eye.
The moment he saw this eye, Chu Jian instinctively felt an urge to kneel down and prostrate himself, and before he could regain his composure, the closed eye slowly began to open.
Upon fully opening, the golden eye radiated an awe-inspiring sense of majesty.
A beam of golden light shot out from this solitary eye and struck Chu Jian’s Soul avatar.
An indescribable pain washed over him as his Soul was quickly being purified, causing Chu Jian to scream miserably. As his consciousness was fading, he suddenly recalled some old records he had seen many years ago, causing him to freeze up and his pupils to go wide, staring towards the golden eye in panic as he muttered, “Demon Eye of Annihilation?”
So that’s how it is!
At that moment, he finally understood why this human boy was able to use the Demon God Transformation, and why he was able to suppress all the members of his Ancient Demon Clan.
It turns out he possessed the Demon Eye of Annihilation!
The majesty of Sir Great Demon God… was inviolable.
Before his consciousness disappeared completely, Chu Jian understood everything and realized the stupidity of his actions, but everything was too late.
Outside, after watching Yang Kai kill Chu Jian, all the members of the Ancient Demon Clan couldn’t help shuddering.
All of them were bloodthirsty and militant by nature, unafraid of death, but seeing their leader, a powerful Second Order Saint, die so inexplicably caused them a great deal of fear, all of them directing panic stricken looks towards Yang Kai.
Yang Kai stood motionless, observing the situation inside his Knowledge Sea. After Chu Jian’s consciousness was completely purified, he opened his eyes, nodded with satisfaction, and began glancing around at his surroundings.
His gaze was like a butcher staring at a flock of sheep, and no member of the Ancient Demon Clan could muster the courage to meet eyes with him.
Right now, Yang Kai was considering whether or not to kill all of Chu Jian’s henchmen.
In truth, he wasn’t worried about them retaliating against him. Although these people had followed Chu Jian and opposed Li Rong, in the world of the Ancient Demon Clan, the strong were revered. These cultivators had always been free to choose who they followed.
If Li Rong’s methods were strong enough, it would not be impossible for her to conquer them and let them obey her.
Moreover, after witnessing what happened here today, it was unlikely any of these people would dare try to find trouble with Yang Kai again.
So even if he didn’t kill them, the likelihood they would seek revenge against him was miniscule. Yang Kai had been learning the habits and characteristics of the Ancient Demon Clan from Guan’er over the last year so he understood this point fairly well.
[Might as well ask Li Rong.]
Yang Kai thought about it and decided to put the issue aside for now, ignoring these people and walking over to Li Rong, his pace slow and steady.
“He’s coming!” Hua Mo said, a tinge of fear in his voice. As Yang Kai approached, he could feel the power suppressing him increase. Just now, he could still use some of his strength, but when Yang Kai approached to within two hundred meters, Hua Mo found himself struggling to even move his fingers.
“I’ll talk to him, you just keep quiet,” Li Rong hurriedly urged, turning back to the clansmen who had accompanied her here and ordering, “Don’t show any hostility towards him!”
Even she didn’t know what Yang Kai was going to do now, so naturally she didn’t dare anger him.
All of these Ancient Demon Clan masters nodded solemnly.
“Senior Li!” To Li Rong’s relief, when Yang Kai stood ten feet in front of her and greeted her, his expression was still the same friendly one she was used to.
“Please don’t address me as Senior, just call me Li Rong,” Li Rong managed to squeeze out a smile, carefully observing all of Yang Kai’s reactions.
Yang Kai was a bit startled but soon nodded, “I accidentally killed one of your Saint Realm masters, what do you have to say about this?”
“His death is not worth pitying!” Li Rong rapidly replied.
Yang Kai’s face showed a satisfied expression. He could feel that Li Rong’s words were not just some perfunctory response but her true feelings; however, this answer still caused him to be slightly confused. Smilingly lightly, he followed up, “So, you don’t intend on blaming me?”
“Why would I blame you?”
Yang Kai chuckled and narrowed his eyes slightly, “The struggle between you and Chu Jian is an internal matter of your clan while I am just an outsider. Now that I’ve killed Chu Jian, I think it will be difficult to guarantee that none of your clansmen will want to avenge him. I’m a person who prefers to pull out roots when weeding out trouble.”
Li Rong expression quickly became solemn as she replied, “I can guarantee you that no one will find trouble with you over this.”
Yang Kai’s words were obviously hinting that even she was not free from his suspicion.
“Oh?” Yang Kai’s brow rose.
“Before today, you were still an outsider to my clan, but from now on, you are no longer an outsider.”
In front of Yang Kai who had activated his Demon God Transformation, the beautiful mature woman who led the Ancient Demon Clan also couldn’t summon the slightest bit of her strength, but she still maintained her calm appearance.
“I’m not an outsider?” Yang Kai pointed to himself with a blank expression.
Li Rong gently nodded, “As for the specific reason, please allow me to explain it to you later. This is not a place to talk.”
Yang Kai swept his eyes around and nodded, the erupting volcano and the thunder and lightning shooting across the sky seemed to be growing more and more intense. Soon, it would begin to negatively affect Li Rong and the other Ancient Demon Clan masters even at this distance.
“You’re a perceptive person, so you should know by now that I have never had any malice against you since the first time we met,” Li Rong said gently, “Now, could you please lift your Demon God Transformation so we can leave this place?”
Saying so, she stared at him expectantly with her beautiful limpid eyes.
Behind Li Rong, the other Ancient Demon Clan members also looked towards Yang Kai, waiting for his reply.
It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that their lives were currently completely in Yang Kai’s hands, as long as he wished for it, they would all die.
Deeply staring at the beautiful woman in front of him, Yang Kai thought for a moment before nodding, “I believe you.”
Li Rong let out a sigh of relief and her expression relaxed, smiling light as she said, “You’ll be glad you made such a wise decision.”
Yang Kai showed neither approval nor disapproval to this statement but still restrained his surging evil power. The Demon Crests that covered his body also quickly faded and the potent Demonic Qi quickly receded.
All the Ancient Demon Clan masters regained control of their strength and bodies at that moment.
“Hua Mo, protect him. Let’s go!” Li Rong softly order, her tender body flickering and arriving next to the unconscious Han Fei, gently picking her up before turning and shouting towards Chen Jian’s surviving subordinates, “Chu Jian is dead, if you still wish to remain loyal to him, I won’t stop you, but if you choose this path, there will be no place for you in this Mysterious Small World in the future. If you choose to follow me instead, as long as sincerely pledge your loyalty to Demon God Citadel, I will not hold you responsible for what has happened here.”
Chu Jian’s henchmen all glanced around at each other briefly before quickly falling to the ground and shouting in unison, “We are willing to obey Senior Li’s commands!”
Chu Jian was already dead. There was no benefit to remaining loyal to him, right now their first priority was to stay alive.
Li Rong nodded with satisfaction before quickly flying off with Han Fei.
A large group of people quickly evacuated from the volcanic region.
Hua Mo had a complex look upon his face mixed with a bit of nervous panic as he stuck close to Yang Kai in order to protect him.
After half an hour, the group of masters had traveled a fair distance from the volcano.
Looking back, the sky behind them had turned a brilliant red and orange colour. The aftermath of the volcanic eruption was still apparent even this far away, the ground beneath them even trembling lightly.
Everyone couldn’t help feeling some lingering fear in their hearts.
After taking a moment to stabilize Han Fei’s injuries, the group set off towards Demon God Citadel.
Yang Kai remained vigilant the whole way and quickly noticed that every member of the Ancient Demon clan was unconsciously staying away from him, as if they were very fearful of him. Only Li Rong continued smiling the whole time, seemingly very happy. While she held Han Fei close, she would occasionally whisper to Yang Kai about various trivial topics.
Most of what she talked about were the incredible feats Great Demon God had accomplished that were recorded in her clan’s ancient book, some of these tales were things even Hua Mo and her clansmen hadn’t heard before.
Everyone listened to these stories with great enthusiasm.
One day later, Han Fei woke up, and although her injuries had not healed yet, they didn’t cause her any significant difficulties.
She was in a coma when Yang Kai had used his Demon God Transformation, so she wasn’t aware of what had happened afterwards, but now seeing Li Rong holding her, she naturally assumed that Li Rong had dealt with Chu Jian and didn’t bother asking much.
Two days later, everyone returned to Demon God Citadel.
Yang Kai returned to his stone room and waited for Li Rong to arrive and finally tell him what was going on.
There were a great many things he didn’t understand so he was quite anxious for Li Rong to dispel his doubts, but she had said that that the volcano was not the place for such a discussion and had promised to explain everything later.
Demon God Citadel was still in a state of tranquility, apparently the news that one of the four Great Commanders had fallen had not been made public yet.
Overall, Yang Kai was quite satisfied with the results of this trip, the amount of Yang Liquid he had accumulated in his dantian was quite significant and as long as he didn’t waste it, he estimated he wouldn’t have to worry about having enough for around ten years or so.
On top of that, he had harvested the unimaginable amount of Crystal Stones which was an incredible amount of wealth.
However, what made Yang Kai happiest was that he now knew his Devil Transformation, which was referred to as Demon God Transformation by the Ancient Demon Clan, can be used to suppress them.
He had been here for more than a year now and during this time Li Rong had been quite good to him, neither imprisoning him nor restricting his freedom, allowing him to relax and pursue his studies of the Alchemic Way, and even sending a Third Order Transcendent master to secretly protect him.
However, Yang Kai always felt like he was under a kind of house arrest which made him quite uncomfortable.
But that feeling had disappeared as Yang Kai now had confidence to stand on equal footing with the Ancient Demon Clan and even restrain them in certain circumstances.
With this change in perspective, Yang Kai managed to finally relax somewhat.
Over the next few days, everything was tranquil. Li Rong had not appeared yet, but Yang Kai wasn’t in a hurry. He knew that with Chu Jian’s death, Li Rong must have a lot to deal with, so he simply continued studying Alchemy quietly while he waited.
The door of the stone room was suddenly pushed open and Guan’er rushed in with an excited look upon her face. Arriving in front of Yang Kai, her pair of beautiful eyes filled with wonderment as she hurriedly asked, “Yang Kai, I heard that you killed Chu Jian, is that true?”
“Who told you that?”
“Senior Li told me, is it true?”
“What do you think?” Yang Kai chuckled.
“What do I think?” Guan’er blinked before letting out a snort, “With only your insignificant strength, it’s impossible for you to have accomplished that, but since Senior Li said so, it’s definitely the truth,” Saying so, she suddenly hugged Yang Kai’s arm and shook it like a spoiled child, “Come on, tell me, how did you manage to kill the bastard? Even Senior Li had always had a big headache about how to deal with him.”
As Guan’er swung back and forth, Yang Kai clearly felt a couple of amazingly soft yet elastic mounds press against his arm.
Noticing Yang Kai’s vision unconsciously being drawn downwards to where they were connected, Guan’er suddenly became alert, leaping backwards as she used her arms to cover her chest, grinding her teeth, “You hoodlum, what are you looking at.”
Yang Kai’s face went black, “Why are you asking a question you know the answer to already?”
Guan’er snorted, “You humans are really not good things! I’m going to tell Senior Li that you are trying to harass me!”
“Don’t try to slander me!” Yang Kai shot back angrily.
Guan’er’s eyes narrowed slightly as a cunning smile appeared on her face, “Then tell me honestly how you killed Chu Jian, I’m quite curious.”
“Can’t you just ask Senior Li yourself?” Yang Kai felt a slight headache.
“Senior Li has been taking care of Great Commander Han Fei these past few days and has also been dealing with the members of our clan that were close to Chu Jian. She’s very busy, how can I bother her with such trivial things?” Guan’er pouted, her red lips puckering attractively.
“I’m also quite busy,” Yang Kai sternly replied.
“How are you busy?” Guan’er swept her eyes over his lazy figure before shouting, “Good, then I’ll just go find Senior Li now and tell her that you’re a rogue who was blinded by my beauty and tried to force yourself onto me!”
“Guan’er, you mustn’t be rude!” From the void, a light scolding voice rang out.
The air distorted and Li Rong, Han Fei, and Hua Mo appeared on the scene.
Guan’er’s expression became slightly awkward as she quickly waved her hands, “Senior Li, I was just joking with him, he didn’t really do anything to me.”
Knowing her little argument with Yang Kai was heard by Li Rong, Guan’er was apparently worried that she would believe her and really punish Yang Kai.
“I know,” Li Rong gently nodded, “But don’t say he didn’t do anything to you, even if he really did do something, it would be your honour!”
Guan’er’s jaw couldn’t help dropping as she carefully digested the words her respected Senior Li had just said, becoming completely dumbstruck in the process.
Although officially she was just an ordinary clansman, she had always been together with Li Rong, so her status in Demon God Citadel was not low. Plus, Guan’er was quite beautiful and her aptitude was good, thus many young men in the citadel had intentions towards her, similar to Pan Lang who was thrashed by Yang Kai a while ago.
However, no matter how those people begged, Li Rong never showed the meaning of betrothing Guan’er to them, because Li Rong felt that none of those young men were worthy of Guan’er. Li Rong had always said that she would find a suitable candidate for Guan’er to marry or wait for the one in question to find someone she was interested in herself.
But now, Li Rong had actually said such words, how could Guan’er not be shocked?
How was being together with this human possible a good thing?
“Sorry I’ve made you wait a few days, I really couldn’t get away,” Li Rong nodded to Yang Kai gently.
“No problem, it gave me a chance to relax anyways,” Yang Kai laughed.
Guan’er’s brow wrinkled slightly as she noticed that Senior Li had a different attitude towards this human this time. She couldn’t tell why, but Guan’er now felt like Senior Li was actually somewhat cautious and respectful when she was addressing him.
As soon as this thought crossed her mind, Guan’er couldn’t help feeling a bit scared.
Not only her, Han Fei and Hua Mo also didn’t understand and thus had suspicions of their own.
Even if this human boy was able to use the Demon God Transformation and restrain their Ancient Demon Clan, was that really reason enough to act respectfully towards him? Them not executing him for stealing their Demon God Transformation was already showing him great benevolence.
“Han Fei, Hua Mo, I know that you have doubts in your hearts, just like Sir has.”
“Sir?” Besides Li Rong, everyone else inside the stone room gasped in unison and stared towards Yang Kai.
“Don’t look at me, I’m just as confused as you are,” Yang Kai said.
“I’ll explain everything now,” Li Rong smiled, “Please sit down.”
Saying so, she sat in front of Yang Kai.
Han Fei and Hua Mo glanced at one another and saw each other’s helplessness, but in the end they decided to trust Li Rong and also sat down beside her.
Li Rong looked at Yang Kai gently for a moment before lightly saying, “Please lower your Soul’s defences, we need to enter your Knowledge Sea.”
Yang Kai’s eyes narrowed upon hearing this request, “Enter my Knowledge Sea?”
“Yes, only there can I explain everything clearly and allow Han Fei and Hua Mo to believe what I say.”
“You’re not afraid?” Yang Kai stared towards Li Rong meaningfully.
Li Rong slowly shook her head, “As long as we have no malicious intent towards you, it won’t hurt us. Wasn’t that also the case last time?”
Han Fei and Hua Mo both wore confused looks upon their faces, neither of them understanding what Yang Kai and Li Rong were talking about.
Yang Kai’s brow furrowed as he hesitated for a moment before nodding, “Fine, I’ll allow you to enter my Knowledge Sea, but don’t try to look through my memories, if any of you dares do so, don’t blame me for being impolite.”
“Of course,” Li Rong nodded heavily, “None of us has such poor taste.”
“Who would want to spy on your memories,” Han Fei spat disdainfully.
Hua Mo also laughed, “This old man doesn’t have such bad hobbies.”
“Then come in,” Yang Kai nodded, closing his eyes and sinking his consciousness into his Knowledge Sea, his Soul avatar soon appearing and lowering all of his Knowledge Sea’s defenses.
The next moment, he noticed that three powerful Spiritual Energy masses poured into his Knowledge Sea, and immediately, the Soul avatars of the three Great Commanders of the Ancient Demon Clan appeared in front of him.
At that moment, everyone in the stone room become motionless. Guan’er stood the side, a mix of anxiety and curiosity plastered on her face as she glanced around at the figures before her, suddenly waving her fist towards Yang Kai and snorting cutely.
She knew that the three Great Commanders and this human brat were discussing some secrets at the moment and that she was not qualified to intervene. Naturally she didn’t dare to try to sneak into Yang Kai’s Knowledge Sea so all she could do was sit around outside and wait.
Inside Yang Kai’s Knowledge Sea, wisps of flame whipped about.
Whether it was Li Rong, Han Fei, or Hua Mo, none of them could help instinctively using their Spiritual Energy to protect themselves from this uncomfortable feeling.
The Ancient Demon Clan all hated this blistering aura.
Li Rong was even more surprised than the other two though. The last time she was here, Yang Kai’s Conflagrated Knowledge Sea was far less powerful than it was now; now, the scotching heat here was now able to give even her some faint pressure.
Suddenly she understood; after all, Yang Kai had swallowed more than a dozen Conflagrated Knowledge Seas so obviously his Soul had experienced some growth.
“Can you please clear a place for us to speak more comfortably?” Li Rong suggested.
Yang Kai thought about it and knew that these three were truly a bit uncomfortable here so he quickly pointed to an island in the distance, “Let’s go there, that place isn’t affected by my Conflagrated Knowledge Sea.”
In the direction he was pointing, the three Great Commanders saw a five coloured island that seemed to be floating atop the flaming sea.
Their eyes sparkling slightly, they quickly followed Yang Kai to the island.
As soon as their Soul avatars set foot on this five coloured island, the three Ancient Demon Clan Saints were all shocked.
“How can my Soul be gaining strength inside your Knowledge Sea?” Han Fei stared at Yang Kai in amazement.
“I can also feel my Spiritual Energy growing slightly,” Hua Mo said with a look of shock.
“What is this five coloured island?” Li Rong smiled happily and asked curiously as she glanced around. She naturally felt that the reason their Spiritual Energies were being strengthened even thought they were inside Yang Kai’s Knowledge Sea was entirely because of this strange treasure island.
“Did you come here to discuss such things?” Yang Kai said indifferently, showing no intention to answer them.
The Five Coloured Soul Warming Lotus was able to nourish and repair all things related to one’s Soul, so the three Great Commanders’ Soul avatars were obviously able to obtain some benefits by being around it, though these benefits were incredibly small.
Yang Kai on the other hand was different. As the owner of the Five Coloured Soul Warming Lotus, over many years the small yet steady stream of enhancement he received had accumulated into a significant advantage.
“En, I’ve spoken a bit carelessly,” Li Rong gently nodded, “However, it seems like you have many good things on you.”
“Every man has a secret or two,” Yang Kai said faintly, “Now, I think it’s about time you start explaining what exactly is going on. I’m quite curious to know the truth, and I believe Hua Mo and Han Fei are the same.”
Hearing these words, Hua Mo and Han Fei also quickly turned their attention to Li Rong.
Li Rong smiled and nodded, lifting her jade hand and pointing to an object gently floating high up in the sky, “Look over there.”
Turning their eyes in direction of her finger, Hua Mo and Han Fei stared attentively.
Floating above Yang Kai’s Knowledge Sea was a single tightly closed eyeball. The moment they laid eyes on this eye though, Hua Mo and Han Fei couldn’t help feeling an overwhelming desire to kneel down and submit themselves to it.
Neither of them could explain why they suddenly had this feeling, both of their Soul avatars trembling lightly.
“Can you open it like last time?” Li Rong turned to look at Yang Kai.
Yang Kai nodded lightly and conveyed his thoughts to the golden eye.
The closed eye slowly opened, and through a narrow crack, a majestic golden light appeared and flooded the three Saint’s eyes. It was as if a supreme master who was aloof from the world they lived in was staring down at them indifferently.
Under such an intense gaze, all of them suddenly felt tiny and insignificant, as if this gaze was capable of turning them all into dust and erasing them from the world if it so chose to.
Hua Mo and Han Fei shuddered even more and even Li Rong’s tender body couldn’t help trembling slightly.
“Do you two… recognize this?” Li Rong asked, a look of excitement on her face as her breathing became somewhat quick, her gaze locked solidly on this golden eye, completely unwilling to look away from it despite the intimidating feeling it gave her.
“The Demon Eye of Annihilation?” After a brief moment of silence, Hua Mo suddenly exclaimed.
Han Fei also shivered, her face filling with excitement as she turned to Li Rong and asked, “Is this really the Demon Eye of Annihilation?”
“Without a doubt, it is exactly as it is described in the records left behind by our ancestors. Also, the last time I experienced its golden light, I could feel a terrifying power of destruction, besides it being the Demon Eye of Annihilation, I can think of no other possible explanation,” Li Rong’s proud chest heaved up and down, highlighting her lack of inner calm despite her attempts to speak coherently.
“The Heaven’s have eyes! In this old man’s lifetime, I am actually able to bear witness to the Demon Eye of Annihilation!” Hua Mo couldn’t help calling out in joy, immediately kneeling on the ground and kowtowing to the giant golden eye.
Following his example, Li Rong and Han Fei also kneeled down and solemnly worshiped the floating eye.
Yang Kai’s brain froze up for a moment as he stared dumbfounded at this scene.
At that moment, three beams of golden light suddenly shot out from the Solitary Golden Eye and precisely struck the three kneeling Soul avatars.
Yang Kai expression changed dramatically but he quickly managed to regain his composure.
Because he found that after being illumined by the golden light, the three Saint’s Soul avatars not only didn’t disappear, remaining completely unharmed, but instead showed looks of incredibly joy, as if some kind of shackle which had bound them had been lifted, closing their eyes as they immersed themselves in this wondrous feeling.
Yang Kai carefully observed them and quickly discovered that they were receiving something from the golden light so he did not attempt to interrupt them, standing to the side and waiting quietly.
A moment later, the Solitary Golden Eye closed once more.
After waiting for a long time, the three Great Commanders opened their eyes again. At that moment, Yang Kai clearly noticed that their three Soul avatars were much stronger than before.
It seemed like the benefits they received weren’t small.
Yang Kai became pensive, at this moment, he also realized that the Solitary Golden Eye had a deep connection with the Ancient Demon Clan, but what exactly this relationship was, he wasn’t clear.
The three people all were aware of the changes they had undergone as well, looks of excitement appearing on their faces as they quickly exchanged a glance before turning towards Yang Kai and respectfully cupping their fists. “Greetings, Master!”
Yang Kai’s brow wrinkled deeply and a forced smile crept onto his face, “Ahem, what exactly is the situation, do all of you have some kind of misunderstanding?”
“No, there is no misunderstanding or mistake. Starting today, you are the leader of my Ancient Demon Clan!” Li Rong stared towards Yang Kai with a burning gaze.
Surprisingly, Hua Mo and Han Fei made no attempt to refute her, instead nodding solemnly in agreement.
“Is this some kind of big joke?” Yang Kai’s brow wrinkled even further, “I’m just an ordinary human while all of you belong to the Demon Race. The blood flowing in our veins is completely different. How can I suddenly be the leader of your Ancient Demon Clan?”
“Please be patient, Master, I will explain everything in detail,” Li Rong smiled and pointed towards the sky, “May I ask, where did master acquire the Demon Eye of Annihilation?”
Yang Kai thought about it for a moment before shaking his head, “It’s not convenient for me to disclose that.”
Although he could make up a random explanation, trying to use such a petty trick in front of three Saint Realm masters was pointless. Since they seemed to be treating him completely sincerely, Yang Kai also didn’t want to deceive them.
“En, then I won’t ask about it any further,” Li Rong didn’t mind, laughing lightly, “Master surely has some suspicions about us right now, which is only natural. You acting with such prudence is appropriate. If you were to suddenly expose all of your secrets, we would have to consider whether handing our Ancient Demon Clan over to such an incompetent person was appropriate. However, your performance is indeed worthy of one chosen by Sir Great Demon God!”
“The Great Demon God?” Yang Kai’s brow rose, “What does any of this have to do with him?”
“The Demon Eye of Annihilation was the eye of Sir Great Demon God!” Li Rong replied.
Yang Kai was stunned.
“Master, you have lived in Demon God Citadel for more than a year now and should have heard a lot of rumors about Sir Great Demon God.”
Yang Kai nodded slightly. On the way back from the volcano, Li Rong had also talked at length about the Great Demon God. It turned out that her bringing him up wasn’t just her making conversation, but her deliberate attempt to inform him about the Great Demon God.
“Good, that makes it easier for me to explain,” Li Rong exhaled lightly and continued, “Sir Great Demon God was a supreme powerhouse who was able to shake the entire Tong Xuan Realm. According to the records of our ancestors, no one was worthy to stand side-by-side with Sir Great Demon God. During his time, the Demon Race’s dominion was unchallenged and all other races were but vassals of our Demon Race. Among the clans of the Demon Race, my Ancient Demon Clan had the noblest of bloodlines and were the direct servants of Sir Great Demon God.”
When Li Rong spoke about this glorious past, a look of pride appeared on her face and even Han Fei and Hua Mo showed looks of longing.
“Sir Great Demon God’s cultivation was tyrannical. No one was his opponent, but because his strength was so strong, and there was no one here who could challenge him, he broke from off this world’s shackles and set out alone in search of greater heights on the Martial Dao. According to many of our ancient records, he successfully left this realm, but where he went, no one knows. There are also some ancient books that say he failed, his soul was destroyed, and he was never seen again. No one knows the whole truth.”
“However, it now appears that Sir Great Demon God indeed failed to ascend to a higher plane, otherwise he would not have left behind his Demon Eye of Annihilation!” Li Rong said, suddenly wearing a forlorn expression. “Sir Great Demon God sealed my clan inside this Mysterious Small World before leaving because he knew once he departed, the Demon Race would be greatly weakened and the other races would surely take the opportunity to counterattack. As the closest servants of Sir Great Demon God, we would be facing the threat of extermination, which is why my clan was sent here. However, Sir Great Demon God did not mean to imprison us here forever and deliberately left a solution. When we finally succeeded in leaving this place, the world would have mostly forgotten about our Ancient Demon Clan and would no longer target us because of our role as servants of Sir Great Demon God.”
“Although Sir Great Demon God may no longer be among us, even if it is just one of his eyes, it is not something an ordinary person can acquire. Since you can possess the Demon Eye of Annihilation, it means that Sir Great Demon God has already recognized your ability, and as the servants of Sir Great Demon God, our Ancient Demon Clan will naturally recognize you as well! So, from now on, you are the master of my Ancient Demon Clan and we will serve you faithfully like our ancestors served Sir Great Demon God. You were certainly sent here by Sir Great Demon God to save my clan from their long imprisonment here!” Li Rong declared solemnly.
After listening to Li Rong’s ‘explanation’, Yang Kai was speechless for a long time.
If what this woman said was true, Yang Kai could understand why her attitude towards him had suddenly changed. It would only be natural for such a change to occur after she recognized the Great Demon God’s Demon Eye of Annihilation.
But that was just her side of the story, not enough to fully convince Yang Kai.
“This is all one big coincidence. The reason why I am here is because I was accidentally captured by the Coffin Carrying Man, are you certain that what is in my Knowledge Sea is really the Demon Eye of Annihilation?”
“Absolutely,” Not only did Li Rong nod, but even Hua Mo and Han Fei showed a look of certainty, “We are the blood descendants of the Ancient Demon Clan, our ancestors were the closest servants of Sir Great Demon God, we will not be mistaken about this, and who is to say that you being sent here wasn’t the result of Sir Great Demon God’s guidance?”
“Even so… you don’t have to follow the example of your ancestors, pledging your fealty to me, this kind of thing… Heh, honestly, I’m not too interested,” Yang Kai slowly shook his head.
Li Rong was stunned, but after thinking about it for a moment, she suddenly understood what Yang Kai was hesitant about.
Although he had been able to suppress all of their Ancient Demon Clan when he used his Demon God Transformation, his cultivation right now was still only Immortal Ascension Boundary Eighth Stage. Without the Demon God Transformation, many of her clansmen could easily put him to death.
If he wanted their clan to truly submit to him, it would be impossible without him having absolute strength.
“If master is concerned about his own strength not being sufficient, then there’s no need to worry. The three of us expressing our opinion to you right now is not because of your current strength, but your future potential! I believe that since the Demon Eye of Annihilation chose you, your future accomplishments will not be worse off when compared to Sir Great Demon God.”
“You seem to have a great deal of faith in me,” Yang Kai shook his head and smiled, his expression quickly becoming solemn, “Let’s not talk about this for now, for the moment, I am interested in other things.”
“If that is what Master wishes, then please do say,” Li Rong did not want to force Yang Kai to agree now. She knew if she pushed too hard it would only be counterproductive; for now, this human boy was still suspicious of her Ancient Demon Clan.
“I heard that Demon God Citadel has many Martial Skills and Secret Arts that are related to your Demon God Transformation?”
Li Rong smiled lightly, “If it’s about that, there’s no need for you to ask, you will have free access to all of those techniques. Master’s Demon God Transformation should have been obtained directly from the Demon Eye of Annihilation, correct? If so, then it is the most orthodox Demon God Transformation. Since the power of Sir Great Demon God flows through Master’s body, it is reasonable to understand it as such.”
Yang Kai didn’t say anything.
Li Rong’s speculation was actually wrong. He had no idea about what the Demon God Transformation was before he came to this Mysterious Small World, and his Devil Transformation technique wasn’t obtained from the Demon Eye of Annihilation, but rather from the mysterious Unyielding Golden Skeleton.
“Master, I am only trying to speak the truth, I hope you won’t be angry,” Li Rong giggled as she observed Yang Kai’s reactions.
Yang Kai just shrugged his shoulders in response.
“Master’s Demon God Transformation is too overbearing and although it already has the ability to restrain all of my clan, your understanding of the technique seems to be very shallow so you are unable to exert its full power. Right now, Master’s Demon God Transformation is still only at the initial stage.”
Yang Kai was stunned for a moment but quickly became pleasantly surprised and asked, “You mean, my Demon God Transformation can still be further strengthened?”
“Indeed,” Li Rong nodded, “If not so, then how would my Ancient Demon Clan be able to guard and fight alongside you?”
Currently, when Yang Kai displayed his Demon God Transformation, everyone from the Ancient Demon Clan around him would be paralyzed. If they tried to fight an enemy in that state, they would only die in vain. Even a master like Li Rong would be easily killed by a cultivator far weaker than her if she was incapable of defending herself.
“At the very least, you must cultivate your Demon God Transformation to the second level. Only by achieving the second level will you be able to freely control your ability to restrain my Ancient Demon Clan, allowing us to fight together,” Li Rong quickly said.
“Interesting,” Yang Kai smiled. Before he had enough strength to convince the Ancient Demon Clan to submit to him, Yang Kai was not interested in Li Rong and the other’s announcing their desire to serve him, because his ability was definitely not enough to convince the general public. Even if these three leaders swore an oath to him, he wouldn’t accept, because if he couldn’t display enough competence in the role, it would only lead to their dissatisfaction and cause them to slowly despise him.
During the Inheritance War, Yang Kai had already had a similar experience with the Yang Family, so he had some understanding of these matters.
But studying the Demon God Transformation was something he was interested in.
Yang Kai would never let go of any opportunity to increase his strength.
“You can look for me at any time to read those ancient books,” Li Rong gently nodded.
“Then let’s do so tomorrow, you’ve told me so much today that I need some time to digest all of it,” Yang Kai said.
“Very well, your servants will calmly await Master’s arrival.”
“Also, don’t call me that way, it feels awkward,” Yang Kai’s brow furrowed, the more this woman who was a hundred times stronger than him called him Master the more uncomfortable he felt.
“Then… how should we address you? We’ll do as you like.”
“Just call me like you did before,” Yang Kai smiled, “Your clansmen, if they hear you calling me Master, well, I’m not sure what they’d think, at the very least it would provoke some unnecessary disputes.”
Li Rong laughed in spite of trying not to, “You’ve thought things through quite thoroughly. The Ancient Demon Clan has always taken the four Great Commanders as their leaders, as long as we three recognize you, everyone will recognize you, but since you insist, I won’t insist. Good, I’ll let you get some rest, we’ll retire first.”
Yang Kai nodded lightly.
Li Rong and Hua Mo nodded back and their Soul avatars quickly withdrew.
Han Fei hesitated for a moment, a complicated expression flashing across her face.
“Is there something else?” Yang Kai’s brow rose slightly.
“No, I just wanted to thank you for saving me back at the volcano.”
“You also saved me, so neither of us owes the other,” Yang Kai slowly shook his head.
“Even so, a few days from now I’ll send you something; perhaps it will be of use to you.”
“Send me something? What?”
“You’ll understand when you see it,” Han Fei said before also withdrawing from Yang Kai’s Knowledge Sea.
When Yang Kai opened his eyes again, he discovered that the three Great Commanders had yet to leave his room and were instead standing in front of him, Li Rong smiling as she said, “I forgot to ask, do you want to change your room? This place was originally only meant as an Alchemy room.”
Before she was certain about the speculations she had about Yang Kai, Li Rong hadn’t wanted to offer him too much in terms of accommodations and privileges, lest it draws suspicions from her subordinates, but now that she was certain, naturally she wanted to provide him with better living conditions.
“No need, I’ve grown used to this place. I can practice Alchemy here whenever I want,” Yang Kai shook his head.
“About our Alchemy request…” Li Rong smiled awkwardly, “Before now it was just trade between you and my clan, but now that circumstances have changed, if you no longer want to…”
“You don’t have to worry about that, I was sincere when I originally told you I wanted to study Alchemy, I should really be thanking you for providing me with such a good opportunity to do so.”
Hearing this, Li Rong couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief as she directed a grateful look towards Yang Kai.
Now, Li Rong naturally couldn’t demand Yang Kai to continue pursuing the Alchemic Way, if he were to strongly refuse, she would have no choice but to acquiesce.
“Would you like us to send you a few maidservants to take care of your needs? The young girls from my clan, whether it is their beauty or temperament, are no less outstanding than those from your Human race…” Li Rong bit her lip and asked blushingly.
Hua Mo’s expression remained indifferent, seemingly thinking that all human males were lascivious by nature.
However, Han Fei couldn’t help but cough a little, her expression a bit unnatural as she averted her gaze.
“Just Guan’er is fine, there’s no need to send anyone else,” Yang Kai knew what Li Rong was referring to. He was, after all, a young man. The need to relieve himself was normal, and now that more than a year had passed since he had come here, Li Rong was obviously taking into consideration his needs with respect to women as well, although her having other motives as well could not be ruled out.
If Yang Kai became involved with one of the girls from her clan and developed feelings for her, tying him to the Ancient Demon Clan would become much simpler.
“As you wish,” Li Rong gently nodded, a meaningful light flashing across the depths of her eyes as she turned to Guan’er and seriously told her, “Just like before, you will be responsible for his care, be sure to meet any request he has.”
“Any request? What about if he…?” Guan’er asked in confusion.
“Even that; his words are your orders from now on!” Li Rong firmly declared.
Guan’er was dumbfounded. When she had first been sent to take care of Yang Kai, Li Rong had told her that as long as it wasn’t excessive, she was to do her best to fulfil this human boy’s requests, but now, in front of his face, she had been told to fully satisfy any request he made!
Senior Li’s attitude towards this human boy had really changed dramatically.
As Guan’er stood there absentmindedly, Li Rong and the other Great Commanders left, and by the time she had come to her senses, only she and Yang Kai remained inside the stone room.
Snorting lightly, she waved her fists threateningly towards Yang Kai like a young female tiger, ready to pounce, as she ground her teeth and accused, “You bastard, what did you say to my Mistress? Why is she so attentive to you now?”
“I didn’t say anything really, we just talked casually.”
“Your Human Race really is sinister and deceitful!” Guan’er glared back at him, obviously not believing a word he said, snorting as she continued, “Mistress said I am I am to meet any of your requests, you won’t ask anything shameless of me will you?”
“I won’t.”
“You really won’t? I don’t believe you, you have to swear to me.”
Yang Kai let out a long sigh, feeling a slight headache coming on from listening to this girl’s incessant chatter. Thinking about it for only a brief moment, he took out a big piece of Crystal Stone and tossed it to Guan’er, “Play with that for a while and stop bothering me!”
Guan’er put on a disdainful look and shot back, “You want to buy me off with a single Crystal Stone? Aren’t you looking down on me a bit too much?”
Yang Kai quickly took out another piece and handed it over.
Nodding righteously, Guan’er took it turned around to leave, a big joyful grin on her face.
The stone room had finally become quiet again.
Reflecting back on the conversation he just had with the three Great Commanders inside his Knowledge Sea, Yang Kai still couldn’t quite believe it had happened.
Although he had been studying Alchemy for the past year, he had never stopped thinking about his future plans; after all, it was impossible for him to accept being imprisoned here by the Ancient Demon Clan forever.
Now, unexpectedly, due to a series of accidents and coincidences, he had somehow managed to seize the initiative.
Now, assuming all of this was real, he didn’t have to worry about whether he would be imprisoned here. Whether Li Rong’s words were credible, Yang Kai couldn’t be certain, but he felt that this beautiful mature woman wasn’t deceiving him, because lowering her status and showing such goodwill towards him really didn’t have any advantage to her.
Yang Kai subconsciously trusted her somewhat.
However, as a result of their conversation, many things that had puzzled Yang Kai for many years had finally become clear!
At the very least, he understood that the original owner of his Wordless Black Book was the Great Demon God!
The Wordless Black Book had been inadvertently obtained by Yang Kai, and he had initially been using it as a pillow.
However, after a strange dream and accepting its unyielding will, the Wordless Black Book had opened a whole new world to him.
Yang Kai was able to confirm that the original owner of this Black Book was the Great Demon God from the story Han Fei had told him below the volcano.
She had said that Great Demon God had obtained a massive piece of Soulstone at some point, and although it was unknown what he had used it for, the scraps leftover when he was done had been forged into the four Void Rings that were currently worn by the four Great Commanders of the Ancient Demon Clan.
It seemed like that large block of Soulstone that Great Demon God obtained in the past had been used to create the Wordless Black Book, which meant that the Black Book and the four Void Rings Li Rong and the other Great Commanders had originated from the same source!
If that was the case, then the owner of his Unyielding Golden Skeleton was also likely the Great Demon God.
In the past, the Great Demon God had wanted to break free of this world’s shackles and explore a higher realm, but the result was his failure and the destruction of his body; however, he had somehow managed to preserve his bones. Because the Unyielding Golden Skeleton originally belonged to the Great Demon God, it was only natural for it to be filled with demonic energy.
The Unyielding Golden Skeleton, Incense Burner, True Yang Secret Art, Myriad Drug Liquid, and Demon Eye of Annihilation were legacies that had been passed down to him by the Great Demon God.
However, Yang Kai’s growth had also deviated somewhat from Great Demon God’s expectations.
When he visited Medicine King’s Valley, Yang Kai had obtained the entire True Alchemic Way, which was not something the Great Demon God had intended him to inherit.
Perhaps Great Demon God wanted his successor to wholeheartedly pursue the Martial Peak and not be disturbed by the Alchemic Way.
Thinking about it, Yang Kai’s eyes lit up and he suddenly remembered something.
Guan’er had once told him that the Ancient Demon Race had produced a top-notch Alchemist, one that all the Alchemy Grandmasters couldn’t stand shoulder to shoulder with.
Had that Supreme Grandmaster Alchemist been the Great Demon God? If not, where would he have obtained the True Alchemic Way?
Although it was just a guess, it was a very likely possibility!
Yang Kai eyes flickered brilliantly, his mind rapidly turning as he carefully sifted through all the information he had and all the things he had experienced over the past few years, gradually becoming clear about many things that had once confused him.
…..
“Senior Li, although he has the Demon Eye of Annihilation, isn’t it too much to just hand over total control of our clan to him?”
Once they had left the stone room, Hua Mo suddenly said, a touch of worry surfaced on his face. Although when he first saw the Demon Eye of Annihilation, Hua Mo had been overwhelmed with excitement, after calming down and carefully considering the big picture, he couldn’t help feeling that Li Rong’s decision was not quite appropriate.
“En, there are quite a few questionable points, like how he acquired the Demon Eye of Annihilation in the first place; of course, the most important issue is that he is human…” Han Fei nodded and agreed with Hua Mo.
Li Rong just smiled lightly and replied, “The Demon Eye of Annihilation choosing him, is equivalent to Sir Great Demon God choosing him. We only need to follow the teachings of our ancestors. As for him being human, that’s only for now, as for later… we’ll have to wait and see.”
Hearing all this, Hua Mo and Han Fei went silent for a moment.
“Well, his performance is still satisfactory,” Hua Mo took a step back and nodded, “I thought a young man like him would act impulsively, and upon hearing our Ancient Demon Clan swear loyalty to him would immediately accept it. I hadn’t expected him to actually decisively refuse.”
Not only had Yang Kai refused, from start to finish he hadn’t even shown any excitement.
It seemed like for him, whether he obtained the Ancient Demon Clan’s allegiance or not was irrelevant.
If he wasn’t extremely foolish or overconfident, then he must have already experienced a great many storms and possessed a deep understanding of his own capabilities and abilities.
However, it was impossible for this young man to be an arrogant fool. The scene where Yang Kai had killed Chu Jian still flashed across Hua Mo’s thoughts from time to time, sending chills down his back.
As such, the only explanation left was that he knew very clear about his own weight and would not make a rash decision before he has absolute certainty.
Such people often relied on their own ability to do things rather than allow their fate to be controlled by others.
“That’s why I said Sir Great Demon God’s vision was not wrong,” Li Rong smiled happily, “Just you wait, within five years, our clan will obtain its freedom from this Mysterious Small World and once again return to the world our ancestors came from.”
Hua Mo and Han Fei’s visions trembled lightly, a look of expectation flashing across their eyes.
It had been thousands of years at least since they were sealed inside this Mysterious Small World by Sir Great Demon God, the world would have long forgotten about this clan that served as his most loyal servants and trusted right arm. The sun, moon, and stars, the grand rivers and vast endless seas, such scenes were things that their clansmen had only been able to dream of for generations.
The lifelong dream of each of their clansmen had been to leave this place and finally see these wondrous sights.
“I hope that in my lifetime, such a day will come to pass,” Hua Mo took a deep breath and slowly regained his composure.
…..
Demon God Citadel was an octagonal shaped building. This building wasn’t very tall but it had its own unique sense of architectural beauty. Each of its eight walls had been decorated with ornate carvings of ancient birds and beasts that seemed to fly and swim from window to window.
Under the leadership of Guan’er, Yang Kai walked into the octagonal building.
After a night of contemplation, Yang Kai had sorted out most of his thoughts.
Regardless of what the Ancient Demon Clan was planning, his ultimate goal was still to improve his strength; that had never changed. Only when he was stronger than anyone else could he truly live freely in this world and not be bound by others.
Therefore, how the Ancient Demon Clan treated him was irrelevant, he just needed to stick to the path he had decided upon.
“Mistress is inside, you can go in,” Guan’er reached out and opened the door, standing aside once she was done.
Yang Kai nodded lightly and walked in.
Inside the room, Li Rong was sitting on a chair beside a small table. Upon seeing Yang Kai come in, she quickly stood up and politely greeted him with a smile, “You’ve come?”
“En,”
“Good, the things you requested have been prepared,” Li Rong gently waved towards several old books on the table beside her, “These are all the manuals regarding the Demon God Transformation, you can look through them freely.”
“En, thank you for all your hard work.”
Li Rong’s eyes flickered slightly as she pursed her lips and said, “I am willing to not call you Master in accordance with your request, but in return please don’t act so polite towards us, it feels like you are treating us like outsiders.”
Yang Kai stared indifferently for a moment before finally nodding, “Then we’ll both act a bit more casual.”
Li Rong showed a faint smile.
Yang Kai stepped forward and picked up one of the ancient books before sitting down on the chair Li Rong had been occupying until now.
These secret manuals were indeed all about the Demon God Transformation, instructions for the Ancient Demon Clan’s clansmen on how to cultivate the Demon God Transformation, how to control and develop their Demon Crests, even some notes about how to improve their efficiency and combat strength while in their transformed state.
Every book here was quite precious and contained secrets that not many of the Ancient Demon Clan was privileged enough to access.
Yang Kai had only just begun looking through them yet his eyes were already growing brighter and more excited.
These ancient books all contained profound knowledge about the Demon God Transformation. Without exception, these secret manuals recorded the very essence of the Demon God Transformation.
As if he had found some invaluable treasure, Yang Kai quickly became immersed in the study of these ancient records.
Seeing him enter this kind of focused state so quickly, Li Rong smiled and left Yang Kai’s side, poured herself a cup of fragrant tea, and sat down quietly and waited.
Immersing one’s consciousness into their Demon Crests, guiding these Demon Crests to spread across their body, inspiring the power contained within these Demon Crests with one’s own Demonic Qi to enhance oneself.
In their initial form, the Demon Crests only spread across one’s body, just like when Yang Kai currently used his Devil Transformation.
In their second form, his Demon Crests would become integrated into his physique, so even if he activated his Demon God Transformation, his outward appearance wouldn’t undergo any changes.
What Li Rong wanted Yang Kai to do was to quickly achieve this second form. At that point, even if he activated the Demon God Transformation in front of the Ancient Demon Clan’s clansmen, they would not be negatively affected and retain their combat strength.
The third form would allow his Demon Crests to completely merge with his bones, bringing about an even greater boost in strength.
Yang Kai was fascinated by all of this, because he had already experienced the Demon God Transformation many times. After learning everything recorded in these ancient manuals, his understanding of this technique would increase many fold.
As for the rest, like how to actually apply these techniques, that could only be obtained through continued cultivation.
Taking a deep breath, Yang Kai put down the last ancient manual in front of him and closed his eyes. After a while, his eyes opened and he stared towards Li Rong with enthusiasm, “Is there a suitable place inside Demon God Citadel for me to enter secluded retreat and cultivate the Demon God Transformation?”
“I’ve already prepared an appropriate room,” Li Rong smiled, “Come with me.”
Saying so, she stood up and walked over to a nearby bookshelf, pushing on a few of the old books to activate a mechanism which opened the shelf, revealing a passageway behind it that lead deep underground.
Li Rong walked in and Yang Kai followed.
The sides of this passageway were lined with torches, so it wasn’t dark and down below there should be some kind of secret room.
After descending for quite some time, the pair arrived at a large empty room, even wider and taller than the stone room Yang Kai had been using to study Alchemy.
Around the edges of the room were a number of black stones that Yang Kai faintly perceived were emitting a strange kind of energy fluctuation.
“This is where I usually cultivate. Here, you can boldly activate the Demon God Transformation without worrying about affecting my clansmen,” Li Rong softly explained, next pointing to the black stone pillars, “These are Energy Sealing Stones, they are naturally able to block the transmission of all kind of energy, once you enter, I will activate them to erect a barrier around you.”
“Understood, let’s get started,” Yang Kai couldn’t wait, instantly leaping forward and landing in the centre of the room.
Seeing this, Li Rong smiled and shook her head, whispering softly under her breath, “So impatient!”
Saying so, she calmly began pouring her Demonic Qi into a nearby panel, activating the Energy Sealing Stones which soon erected a hemispherical transparent barrier.
Yang Kai glanced over at Li Rong to confirm everything was prepared, the latter nodding back at him gently.
Taking off his shirt and sitting down cross-legged, Yang Kai lifted his right hand to his forehead.
“Devil Transformation!”
As the Heavens and Earth shook, the barrier formed by the Energy Sealing Stones swayed as ripples propagated across its surface.
On Yang Kai’s upper body, a large number of Demon Crests began to appear, these Demon Crests were like snakes, climbing up his chest and back, forming a complex and imposing pattern.
His strength and Blood Force rose rapidly as his combat power soared…
Yang Kai clearly felt how powerful he was at the moment.
In the distance, Li Rong’s beautiful eyes flashed brilliantly as she stared at this sight and muttered, “Sure enough, it really is different.”
Despite the similarities between Yang Kai’s and the Ancient Demon Clan’s Demon God Transformations, Li Rong was still aware of certain differences.
It was impossible for an ordinary Ancient Demon clansmen’s Demon God Transformation’s Demon Crests to cover such a large area of their body, even when a master as powerful as Li Rong used her Demon God Transformation only her abdomen, chest, neck, and face would be covered by Demon Crests; however, from what Li Rong could see, this human boy’s Demon Crests covered his upper half, back and front, and were it not for his pants covering his lower half, she suspected she would see Demon Crests extending downwards from his waist as well.
In other words, his Demon Crests covered his entire body!
This was, without a doubt, the most orthodox form of the Demon God Transformation.
This discovery even made Li Rong somewhat jealous.
Inside the barrier, Yang Kai carefully felt the changes in his body before attempting to immerse his consciousness into his Demon Crests in an attempt to control them and integrate them into his physique.
Once he had successfully combined his Demon Crests with his physical body and merged their essence into his bloodstream, he would have successfully reached the second form and the strength he could display would increase again.
This was a difficult process, but Yang Kai was both meticulous and dedicated in his efforts.
Time passed by quickly.
After a dozen days, a beautiful figure appeared in the underground secret room. Li Rong, who had been paying attention to Yang Kai’s progress here, turned and look at Han Fei.
Gently nodding, Li Rong then turned her attention back to Yang Kai.
“Why did he take off his clothes?” Han Fei glanced over at Yang Kai inside the barrier, her face blushing slightly as she muttered in dissatisfaction.
“It’s easier for him to observe the progress of integrating his Demon Crests this way, haha,” Li Rong laughed lightly, “What are you embarrassed about? Both of us are many times his age, what’s wrong with seeing him topless?”
Han Fei looked a little unnatural and asked softly, “How is his progress?”
“Good,” Li Rong nodded with satisfaction, “He can already merge some of his Demon Crests into his body. I would guess that after at most a month he will achieve the second form.”
“So fast?” Han Fei was quite surprised.
“En, Sir Great Demon God’s vision is indeed outstanding. If his aptitude wasn’t so high, how could Sir Great Demon God feel relieved allowing him to inherit the Demon Eye of Annihilation?”
“It seems I’ve still looked down on him,” Han Fei narrowed her eyes slightly; “I used to think it was only his luck that was good.”
“Then you should take some time to re-examine him. Later, our clan will probably become his servants,” Li Rong smiled, suddenly turning her attention to a small jade box in Han Fei’s hand, “What’s that?”
Han Fei replied, “What I promised to give him a few days ago.”
Saying so, Han Fei opened the jade box for a moment before quickly closing it again.
Li Rong couldn’t help covering her mouth in amazement as she muttered, “Isn’t that the Wind and Thunder Wings? Why are you gifting him that?”
“He may be able to refine this thing,” Han Fei smiled and replied.
“Why do you say that? Even we haven’t been able to refine them,” Li Rong asked curiously.
The Wind and Thunder Wings was a pair of strange wings formed from a Heavenly Dao Law. It was unknown which Senior from their Ancient Demon Clan had originally obtained it, but after changes owners a number of times, it had eventually ended up in Han Fei’s hands.
Han Fei had been trying to refine the Wind and Thunder Wings for many years, but each time she had failed.
This pair of Wind and Thunder Wings was extremely valuable, and was one of the most remarkable of the Ancient Demon Clan’s treasures.
Li Rong had also tried refining it a number of times, but just like Han Fei, she had been rejected by them and finally had to give up.
But now, unexpectedly, Han Fei had actually taken them out and was preparing to give them to Yang Kai.
“Even though we can’t refine them, he may be able to, because he already has a pair of wings formed by a Heavenly Dao Law.”
“He also has one?” Li Rong was shocked.
“En,” Han Fei nodded lightly, briefly describing what had happened below the volcano.
As Li Rong listened, her beautiful eyes glistened, only collecting herself after a long silence and asking, “If what you say is true, then he really might be able to refine them, but are you willing to up such a precious treasure? I didn’t think you were so optimistic about him, were you?”
Han Fei smiled faintly, “There’s no harm in giving this to him. If he can’t refine them, it just means his ability is insufficient. On the other hand, if he can refine them, it will serve as my thanks for him saving my life. Also, because of him, our clan managed to obtain so many Crystal Stones. Compared to the development of our clan, this pair of dust laden Wind and Thunder Wings is nothing of importance.”
“Fair enough,” Li Rong nodded lightly, “From the looks of it, he won’t stop until he has successfully achieved the second form.”
Han Fei smiled lightly and no longer said anything, standing beside Li Rong as the two of them quietly watched Yang Kai from a distance.
One mature, one icy, two beautiful women standing together like this made for quite an alluring sight.
However, Yang Kai actually paid no attention to this marvellous sight, his entire mind completely immersed in studying his Demon Crests, trying to integrate them into his body, causing his flesh and blood to tremble.
Cultivation knew no years, this statement was not unwarranted.
Yang Kai only paid attention to the progress of his Demon God Transformation and had completely lost track of how much time had passed.
Although his progress seemed slow, it still made Yang Kai quite happy.
He was finally able to effectively control his Demon Crests.
Nearly a month had passed and Li Rong and Han Fei were still quietly waiting outside the barrier, not showing the slightest sign of anxiousness, instead just staring dumbfounded at Yang Kai’s performance.
The Demon God Transformation was capable of bringing great strength to an Ancient Demon clansman’s body, but it was also placed an incredible load on them.
Only the Ancient Demon Clan, with their incredibly strong bodies, could stand using it.
An ordinary clansman could only maintain their Demon God Transformation for about an hour.
Even someone as strong as Li Rong could not maintain her transformed state indefinitely.
However, Yang Kai apparently could. Since he initially activated his Demon God Transformation a month and a half ago, he had not once dismissed his Demon Crests. The strength of his physical body had far surpassed any other Li Rong or Han Fei had ever heard of. Even their Ancient Demon Clan physique was incomparable to it.
“A real monster!” Han Fei slowly shook her head.
Suddenly, there was a humming sound inside the barrier, and the last Demon Crests covering Yang Kai disappeared. His momentum and the intensity of his Blood Force not only did not fall though, but instead improved a grade.
Li Rong’s beautiful eyes flashed brilliantly as she exclaimed, “Success!”
After a month and a half of uninterrupted cultivation, Yang Kai finally managed to achieve the second form of the Demon God Transformation, fully integrating his Demon Crests into his body!
Saying so, Li Rong waved her hand and opened the barrier.
A wild and violent pressure suddenly descended upon them, causing Li Rong and Han Fei to instinctively resist.
However, although this pressure was tyrannical, it no longer had the effect of suppressing their Ancient Demon Clan’s strength and would only do so if Yang Kai intended it to.
In other words, Yang Kai now truly had the power to bargain with the Ancient Demon Clan.
When he noticed that the barrier had disappeared, Yang Kai turned to see Li Rong and Han Fei in the distance, smiling lightly before jumping up and walking towards them.
“How are you feeling?” Li Rong resisted the slight discomfort she felt and asked softly.
“Very good, although it’s still somewhat difficult for me to control,” Yang Kai nodded slightly, glancing down at his bare skin where a number of his Demon Crests seemed to fade in and out.
“Being able to achieve this much in such a short time is already remarkable, with time and practice you’ll become familiar with controlling them,” Li Rong smiled, “Hold out your hand.”
Yang Kai frowned slightly but although he didn’t know what Li Rong wanted to do, he still extended his hand to her.
Faster than Yang Kai could blink, Li Rong’s jade white hand swiped at his palm, opening a small cut.
Blood began leaking out.
Because he didn’t sense any malicious intent from Li Rong, Yang Kai made no effort to dodge this strike but instead just looked at her suspiciously.
“Take a look at your blood carefully, do you notice anything different from before?”
Hearing this, Yang Kai looked down at his palm and was immediately startled.
He discovered that there were some faint golden rays in his blood, almost like the golden light which shone from the Demon Eye of Annihilation; however, these golden streaks were incredibly subtle, if he didn’t pay close attention to it he wouldn’t have noticed them at all, but he could tell that these golden lights contained an enormous amount of power.
“Demon God Golden Blood?” Han Fei’s eyes lit up as she called out in alarm.
“Indeed, Demon God Golden Blood!” Li Rong nodded solemnly, “This is the most prominent sign that one has cultivated the second form of the Demon God Transformation. In our ancient books, only those who possess the golden blood of Sir Great Demon God can be considered part of the noblest lineage.”
Having said so, Li Rong also reached out and cut her palm.
Yang Kai stared carefully and quickly found there were some faint golden rays in Li Rong’s blood as well, and although the golden lights she possessed weren’t as brilliant as his own, they were significantly more abundant.
“This is the ultimate symbol and proof of my Ancient Demon Clan’s relationship to Sir Great Demon God!” Li Rong proudly stated.
Yang Kai’s look became slightly strange, “Do you want to say that I too am a member of your Ancient Demon Clan now?”
“In a manner of speaking, although you were born human, your blood has now undergone a transformation because you obtained Sir Great Demon God’s inheritance.”
“Then in the future will I be human, or demon?”
“That’s up to you. It’s not really that important whether you’re human or demon, what matters is how you perceive yourself,” Li Rong smiled lightly, “But from now on, as long as you continue cultivating the Demon God Transformation, your Demon God Golden Blood will become purer and purer. When your blood becomes completely golden, it will mean you have achieved mastery of the second form and when even your bones turn golden, you will have reached the peak of the third form.”
Yang Kai’s brow knit and didn’t respond.
Because of the Unyielding Golden Skeleton, his bones were already golden.
“Good, you’ve been cultivating for such a long time you should relax for a while. Maintaining the Demon God Transformation for so long must have placed a great burden on your body. When one cultivates, rest is also important,” Li Rong sincerely advised.
Yang Kai nodded lightly, it was true he felt a little exhausted and the ache he felt in his body was quite intense. After dispersing his Demon God Transformation, he felt much more relaxed.
“Han Fei also brought you something good,” Li Rong smiled warmly.
“Oh, what is it?” Yang Kai turned to look at Han Fei.
Han Fei stepped forward and handed Yang Kai the jade box she was holding, “Take a look yourself, maybe it will be of some use to you, maybe it won’t, don’t get your hopes up too high though.”
Hearing her speak so ambiguously, Yang Kai suddenly became curious, accepting the jade box and quickly opening it.
Inside the jade box, there was a pair of tiny wings only the size of his palm. This pair of wings was transparent, and didn’t seem to be forged out of physical material; it was unlike any artifact he had seen. Atop these wings, there were flashes of light and swirling currents. Yang Kai felt the strong powers of wind and thunder from this pair of wings.
As he held the jade box, Yang Kai revealed a surprised expression as he hurriedly asked, “What is this?”
“The Wind and Thunder Wings!” Han Fei replied lightly, “It’s a kind of profound treasure. No one knows what material it was created from but both I and Li Rong have tried to refine it numerous times over the past many years yet have never succeeded. When I saw that you already had a pair of wings that contained a Heavenly Dao Law, I thought I should let you try refining this.”
Yang Kai glanced over at her, a look of hesitation appearing on his face, feeling like he had somehow acquired something he hadn’t deserved to and was just about to refuse, but at that moment, his shoulder blades suddenly gave off a dull ache, as if something was restlessly stirring, trying to break free from his body.
Yang Kai expression changed and before he could regain control of them, his Flaming Yang Wings actually opened all on their own.
It was as if his Flaming Yang Wings and the Wind and Thunder Wings shared some kind of subtle connection.
Yang Kai couldn’t help clenching the jade box and stretching out his free hand towards the Wind and Thunder Wings.
The exquisite Wind and Thunder Wings transformed into a flash of light the moment he touched them and instantly sunk into Yang Kai’s chest. At the same time, Yang Kai expression cramped and as he suddenly felt an unbearable pain seemingly passing through his back, as if his shoulders were being ripped out of his body.
His face instantly went pale and great beads of sweat began forming on his forehead, his entire body trembling violently.
Li Rong and Han Fei glanced at each other but were both powerless to help, so all they could do was watch anxiously, praying that Yang Kai would be successful.
After what seemed like an eternity to him, Yang Kai slowly stood up, panting heavily, his shoulder blades still in intense pain but now at least somewhat bearable.
Seeing this scene, Li Rong couldn’t help breathing a sigh of relief, letting out a light laugh, “It seems like you and the Wind and Thunder Wings really are fated for one another.”
“I haven’t refined them yet!” Yang Kai knit his brow, clearly feeling that there were two tyrannical energies hidden within his shoulder blades, constantly wreaking havoc on his body, the power of wind and thunder erupting from time to time, causing him a great deal of misery.
It was only thanks to his incredible perseverance and resilience that he wasn’t still showing a pained expression on his face.
“I know,” Li Rong smiled, “But when Hand Fei and I attempted to refine them before, without exception, after taking them into our bodies, we had to force them out within an hour, or else both of us would have died long ago. I don’t know how long you must persist for in order to subdue them entirely and fully refine them.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Yang Kai nodded lightly.
He already discovered that refining the Wind and Thunder Wings was similar to refining an artifact, he would need to supply it with a steady stream of True Qi in order to allow it to adapt to him and eventually surrender.
Before he refined it, the Wind and Thunder Wings was similar to a foreign object inside of him. Not only was it unusable, it was also causing harm to his body.
“I’ll send you back to rest. You have many things to do, but you shouldn’t be anxious, just handle them one at a time. No one can grow strong all at once,” Li Rong gently reminded, taking Yang Kai’s hand and silently using her profound movement skill.
Upon returning to the stone room, Yang Kai didn’t bother attending to anything else and quickly sat on his bed, closed his eyes, and began meditating.
In the octagonal building, Li Rong and Han Fei both sipped on fragrant cups of tea.
After a long silence, Li Rong suddenly asked with a serious expression, “Han Fei, what do you think of him?”
Han Fei put down her teacup and also wore a solemn face, “Whether it’s his aptitude, perseverance, boldness, or courage, all of them are far superior to any of our clan’s juniors or even ourselves when we were his age. If he does not die young, his future will definitely be bright.”
Li Rong also put down her teacup and gently tapped the tabletop with her jade fingers, her elegant face showing a slightly complicated expression, “Unfortunately he was born human. If it was our Ancient Demon Clan’s blood that had originally flown through his body everything would have been perfect.”
Han Fei’s look changed, “Li Rong, you…”
Li Rong laughed and shook her head, “What are you imagining? I’m not so vicious, I was just thinking out loud. I am not the kind of person who fails to keep her word.”
Han Fei’s expression loosened. After hearing Li Rong’s words just now, she couldn’t help thinking Li Rong was having some crooked thoughts.
Li Rong suddenly smiled meaningfully, “How come you seem so protective of him all of a sudden?”
“He saved my life beneath the volcano. If it weren’t for him sheltering me, I would already be dead,” Han Fei replied lightly.
Li Rong’s smile deepened as she continued, “It doesn’t seem that simple to me. You even sent him your precious Wind and Thunder Wings.” Saying so, she stared at Han Fei meaningfully.
“You’re thinking too much, he’s just a child!” Han Fei averted her eyes.
“He’s no mere child!” Li Rong shook her head, “Good, let’s put that aside for now, I was just feeling a bit helpless. Even though we’ve made our position clear and fully intend to be on good terms with him, he still seems to see our Ancient Demon Clan as outsiders. He has little sense of belonging here; much less dependence. His self-confidence and will to improve himself on his own are both very strong.”
“That’s only natural, he has enough ability to warrant his confidence; moreover, he was captured and sent here by Coffin Slave Senior and we have yet to really have any deep graciousness towards him. How is he supposed to have a sense of belonging here?” Han Fei said somewhat bitterly.
Both she and Li Rong understood that all of their Ancient Demon Clan’s hopes and dreams were dependent on Yang Kai now, but the other side had no sense of belonging or closeness to their clan. Without a certain degree of attachment and mutual trust, he would always have a sense of wariness towards them and at the very least wouldn’t fully exert all his efforts to help them.
If he could leave, Han Fei and Li Rong were almost certain he would not hesitate to do so and would not look back.
“Do you want to make him develop some kind of fondness towards our clan?” Han Fei suddenly realized Li Rong’s plan.
“That’s what I intended,” Li Rong did not deny it as she gently rubbed her forehead in frustration, “Unfortunately he hasn’t cooperated in that respect. Our ancient books all said that young human men had lascivious natures and constantly sought after beauties, so why does he seem so disinterested? I’ve had Guan’er accompany him for more than a year now yet aside from the occasional joke he hasn’t even attempted to approach her.”
“Is Guan’er simply not in line with his preferences?” Han Fei also felt confused.
She had lived her entire life inside this Mysterious Small World so her understanding of the Human Race was limited to what was recorded in her ancestors’ books. All of those records had said that humans were cunning, sinister, and insidious, and that their desire to possess beautiful woman had no limit!
“Then what kind of woman does he like? There are many young girls in Demon God Citadel with all kinds of temperaments and looks, but I’ve never seen him act anything but politely to any of them.” Li Rong muttered.
“Come to think of it, when we were together below the volcano, despite being in complete control he was still quite well-mannered towards me…” Han Fei said thoughtfully.
“Would you like to test him again?” Li Rong looked at Han Fei with a smile.
“What nonsense are you spouting?” Han Fei’s face went red.
“I’m actually not entirely joking,” Li Rong expression became awkward, “We have to let him feel at least some kind of attachment to our clan, no matter what method we use, as long as it doesn’t hurt him.”
Han Fei stared at Li Rong in shock, seeing that she really was serious about what she had just said.
“I won’t go,” Han Fei’s brow furrowed deeply. Letting her seduce Yang Kai was beyond what she was capable of tolerating.
Li Rong smiled and was no longer forced the issue, just letting out a deep sigh while trying to deal with her headache. With the situation being what it was currently, she could only come up with this kind of harebrained scheme.
This method made her feel quite ashamed in her heart and if she hadn’t been forced into a corner now, she would never have considered trying to honey-trap Yang Kai.
…..
Although the pain on his shoulders was still severe, Yang Kai’s expression now turned to indifference. He had grown accustomed to this severe pain, and it no longer interfered with his ability to circulate his True Qi or refine pills.
Focusing his attention and making full use of his ever improving skill, Yang Kai dedicated himself to his study of Alchemy, and after half a day’s time, a fresh pill emerged from his furnace.
Examining the quality of this pill, Yang Kai nodded with satisfaction, it was a Spirit Grade Mid-Rank pill!
Now, even without relying on supplementary Spirit Arrays, he was able to refine Spirit Grade Mid-Rank pills.
If he were to use a supportive Spirit Array and add a drop of Myriad Drug Liquid to the ingredients, it was even possible for him to refine Spirit Grade Top-Rank pills, meaning he was just one step away from becoming a Saint Grade Alchemist.
Taking out a piece of Crystal Stone and holding it in his palm, Yang Kai meditated for a moment. After restoring himself, Yang Kai walked out of the stone room and walked to the octagonal building that Li Rong had brought him to before.
Heading down to the secret room below the octagonal building, Yang Kai used his Devil Transformation and continued cultivating the second form of the Demon God Transformation.
It had been several months since Chu Jian’s death. Over the past few months, Yang Kai had lived a peaceful life, splitting his time between the stone Alchemy room and the secret room below Demon God Citadel.
Half his time was spent studying Alchemy while the other half was spent cultivating the Demon God Transformation, not a moment was wasted.
The Wind and Thunder Wings were hidden inside his body and were also constantly being nourished and refined by his True Qi, displaying a gratifying level of progress.
Yang Kai had also made great strides in his control of the second form of the Demon God Transformation. More and more golden lights were apparent and now at least a third of his blood had a golden hue. This golden blood contained an amazing amount of destructive power.
In addition to that, after a few months of hard work, Yang Kai’s strength had reached the Peak Immortal Ascension Boundary!
His foundation was incredibly solid and his physical body was also many times stronger than an average Peak Immortal Ascension human master while his perception of the Martial Dao was not inferior to a Saint Realm master.
After all, he had swallowed up the sentiments of many masters into the Heavenly Way contained within the remnants of their Souls after their deaths.
But even though this life was quite relaxed and fulfilling, Yang Kai always felt like something was missing, and to his surprise, after reaching the Peak Immortal Ascension Boundary, the progress of his cultivation became slower and slower.
The gap between the Immortal Ascension Boundary and the Transcendent Realm was massive!
Back in the Central Capital, Transcendents were top masters. Because of the shackles of that world, very few people were capable of reaching such a height and even the Eight Great Families only had three or four such masters each while first-class forces had one or two at most, the vast majority of which were First-Order.
But even in Tong Xuan Realm, with its rich and abundant World Energy, most cultivators would spend their entire lives at the Peak Immortal Ascension Boundary, forever unable to step into the Transcendent Realm.
But overall, the number of Transcendents in this realm wasn’t small. Since he arrived here, Yang Kai had seen several dozen Transcendents and even a few Saints.
Today’s Yang Kai was currently stuck at the door to the Transcendent Realm and was having difficulties pushing past it.
In the underground room of the Octagonal Building, Yang Kai maintained his Demon God Transformation while he felt his Demon Crests faintly pulsing, causing his blood flow to accelerate, and raising his momentum to an astonishing height.
In the distance, the three Great Commanders of the Ancient Demon Clan all observed his movements with great interest, each of them repeatedly nodding in approval.
Yang Kai’s growth these past few months had all been witnessed by them and each of them was quite impressed with Sir Great Demon God’s successor.
The only thing that still gave Li Rong a headache was the fact that even until now, she had not found any way to instill a sense of belonging to the Ancient Demon Clan into Yang Kai.
*Hong…*
A loud bang rang out, and with Yang Kai at its center, a violent wave of energy burst forth. The three Great Commanders who had been passively observing all quickly acted, injecting their energy into the Energy Sealing Stones to reinforce the room’s barrier.
The wild energy fluctuations rampaged about inside the barrier and Yang Kai looked like he was having trouble controlling the power inside his body. It was not until sometime later that everything gradually stabilized.
Li Rong and others exchanged a quick glance before quickly flying over to Yang Kai, a worried expression upon each of their faces as they asked, “How are you?”
Yang Kai’s brow wrinkled and only after a short silence did he finally shake his head, “I’m fine, just feeling a bit restless.”
“Restless?” Li Rong was stunned. She never would have imagined that someone was calm and deliberate as Yang Kai would also have an impetuous side.
“It’s nothing important, I’ll end my cultivation here for today and head back first,” Yang Kai said, getting up and walking out.
Staring at Yang Kai’s slowly disappearing back, the three Great Commanders were speechless for a while.
“Haa, he’s not the type of person who is suitable for growing up in a greenhouse,” Hua Mo sighed deeply.
“I’m afraid that staying here is giving him a feeling of restriction,” Han Fei gently nodded. Although since the death of Chu Jian, the three Great Commanders had not placed any limitations on Yang Kai’s freedom, and had even done their best to help make him feel comfortable, being stuck in this Mysterious Small World probably still made him feel like a prisoner.
The living Ancient Demon Clan people grew up here, so even though they all longed to leave this place, none of their clansmen felt a particular sense of repulsion towards it.
But Yang Kai was different, suddenly being snatched from an incredibly vast world and then being tossed into this small place would inevitably make him feel uncomfortable.
The three Great Commanders weren’t stupid, so they naturally understood what was making Yang Kai feel so restless.
“It seems we won’t be able to keep him here much longer,” Li Rong smiled bitterly.
“I’ll go talk to him,” Han Fei suddenly grit her teeth and said.
“Alright. Be sure to see if there is some other reason as well. If it is something we can help him with, make sure he knows he’s free to ask,” Li Rong reminded.
Han Fei gently nodded.
Back inside his stone room, Yang Kai took out a bunch of herbs and held them in his hands, but for a long time simply couldn’t bring himself to continue, seemingly having lost interest in practicing Alchemy.
Suddenly, a fragrant scent brushed past the tip of the nose. Yang Kai looked up and saw Han Fei standing there silently with her usual cold expression.
“Do you have some worries you’d like to talk to me about?” Han Fei asked softly.
“Worries?” Yang Kai was stunned, soon smiling lightly, “What worries could I have?”
“Then why are you feeling restless?”
“It’s nothing,” Yang Kai slowly shook his head, apparently unwilling to discuss the matter.
“You don’t want to talk about it?” Han Fei stared at him fixedly.
Yang Kai put on a curious expression as he asked, “What is this? Is Great Commander Han Fei now also responsible for enlightening me? I’m afraid you can’t handle such matters, if someone really wants to provide spiritual guidance, I’d say Li Rong is more appropriate.”
“Am I really no good?” Han Fei immediately became a bit disgruntled.
“You prefer to keep to yourself, how are you supposed to get others to open up to you?” Yang Kai argued back.
Han Fei suddenly grinned, “This and that are different issues. It’s normal for young people to have troubles and regardless of anything else, I have at least lived many more years than you so my life experience is far more abundant. As long as you’re willing to discuss it with me, there’s nothing I can’t guide you about.”
“In that case, do you understand the relationships between men and women?” Yang Kai asked jokingly.
Han Fei was suddenly stunned and unable to speak, her tender body trembling lightly. She had never had feelings for any man throughout her life so naturally she had no idea about love. If that was really what Yang Kai was troubled about she really couldn’t help him.
“You just want to leave this Mysterious Small World don’t you?” Han Fei suddenly asked coldly.
“When did I say that?” Yang Kai felt inexplicable.
“What else could it be? The reason you feel restless is entirely because you feel like this world is imprisoning you!”
“Somewhat,” Yang Kai admitted calmly, “I really do feel a bit restrained here.”
“Even though we treat you so sincerely?”
“It has nothing to do with you, it’s just that I have things I need to do, people I need to find,” Yang Kai shook his head as he replied, unable to understand why Han Fei was suddenly so upset.
“I understand,” Han Fei took a deep breath, her rich chest rising and falling dramatically, exhibiting an amazing ripple of elasticity, “But you don’t have to worry, you won’t have to stay here much longer. In a little while you’ll be able to leave.”
“What do you mean?” Yang Kai suddenly looked happy.
Han Fei stared back at him coldly, “Coffin Slave Senior sent you here because you have a Conflagrated Knowledge Sea, which is necessary for you to refine the Saint Grade pill we require, but the rate at which your skill in Alchemy has improved is too fast, leading to a shortage of herbs in this Mysterious Small World. It won’t be long until our supply is completely exhausted. Without herbs, you can’t continue improving your Alchemy skill so the only solution is for you to leave this place and seek out resources yourself.”
Hearing this, Yang Kai’s eyes gradually brightened and the shackles that had been binding him suddenly felt like they had shattered, giving him a renewed sense of freedom.
“Happy?” Han Fei glared at him scornfully, “Whether it is Li Rong, Hua Mo, or I, none of us ever planned on limit your freedom, if you wanted to leave, we would have arranged for it immediately. The only reason you’re still here is because you’re still suspicious of us and didn’t dare to make such a request.”
Yang Kai suddenly couldn’t help feeling awkward.
He indeed did have such concerns. The Ancient Demon Clan had placed all their hopes on him, so he didn’t dare to ask them if he could leave. Even if they respected him and had sworn to follow him, Yang Kai didn’t know if they would suddenly go back on their word if he were to make such a request.
But now Han Fei had bluntly exposed his thoughts and suspicions.
“I just wanted to tell you, no matter what you think or do, since you are the inheritor of Sir Great Demon God, my Ancient Demon Clan will follow the teachings of our ancestors and faithfully serve you and obey your orders for the rest of our lives. If you can’t realize at least that much, then I’m afraid my clan’s only fate will be to be buried in your hands!” Han Fei spat out these words angrily before turning around and leaving.
Yang Kai scratched his head for a while, feeling quite uncomfortable.
Recalling everything that had happened since Chu Jian’s death, especially Li Rong and the other Great Commander’s attitudes towards him, Yang Kai suddenly felt somewhat ashamed.
They had truly been treating him with complete sincerity, but in return he had always kept his distance from them.
After some time, the air in front of Yang Kai distorted and the three Great Commanders appeared together. Yang Kai looked up and noticed that the three of them all wore serious expression on their faces, seemingly having made some kind of important decision.
Li Rong first hurriedly apologized to Yang Kai, “What Han Fei just said to you is was a bit harsh, but she only said them because she was thinking about our clansmen, I hope you can understand.”
Han Fei also stepped forward, a somewhat awkward look upon her face as she stammered, “Sorry.”
“The one who should apologize is me,” Yang Kai shook his head, “I’m the one who was over-thinking things and disappointed your sincerity.”
“We also prioritized the future of our clansmen, so it is not just your fault,” Li Rong smiled bitterly, “But from now on, we will do our best to consider things from your perspective. Good, do you really want to leave here?”
As soon as she asked this question, all three Great Commanders couldn’t help staring at Yang Kai.
Yang Kai nodded.
Han Fei couldn’t help feeling somewhat lost while Hua Mo’s expression did not hide his disappointment.
Li Rong’s expression remained unchanged though as she smiled lightly, “You wanting to leave is also reasonable. Good, then we’ll send you out as soon as possible. You’re not one of our clansmen so you won’t be subject to this Mysterious Small World’s restrictions, so you are free to come and go as you please.”
“I didn’t say I would leave right away,” Yang Kai shook his head.
The faces of the three couldn’t help brightening upon hearing this, doing their best to calmly wait for him to continue.
“Han Fei mentioned earlier that your supply of herbs is nearly exhausted, correct?”
“En,” Li Rong nodded, “Demon God Citadel’s supply was actually consumed some time ago but after collecting the herbs Chu Jian had privately stored away, we managed to stretch things until now. But at the speed you perform Alchemy, I’m afraid that within a month even that will be used up.”
“Then I’ll use all the remaining herbs to refine pills that will be useful to you and once supplies run out I’ll leave.”
“Fair enough,” Li Rong smiled faintly, “We’ve been fortunate to receive your contributions this past year and a half, my clan now has many good pills to use so our overall strength has improved significantly. On behalf of them, I sincerely thank you.”
“You say that as if I’m an outsider.”
“You think of yourself as an outsider anyways so what does it matter?” Han Fei said bitterly. Although she had apologized just now, that didn’t mean she wasn’t still angry about Yang Kai being so determined to leave.
“Since all of your herbs are gone, it’s pointless for me to stay here, you can’t possibly want me to wait here for dozens of years until your supplies are replenished in order to continue studying Alchemy, right?” Yang Kai smiled lightly towards her, “That would be a big waste of time. When I leave here, I can seek out my own herbs to continue improving my skill in Alchemy so I can become a Saint Grade Alchemist sooner.”
His expression suddenly becoming dignified, Yang Kai solemnly declared, “I promise you that when my Alchemy level meets your requirements, I will definitely return here and bring all of you out!”
The three Great Commanders couldn’t help trembling as the turned joyful and excited looks towards Yang Kai.
“Can we take your statement seriously?” Li Rong asked urgently.
“Yes!” Yang Kai nodded firmly, “I have never sworn an oath to anyone about anything before, this is the first and I do not intend on breaking it!”
Li Rong looked at him seriously and realized that he was being sincere, her pair of beautiful eyes suddenly becoming slightly wet as she whispered, “Thank you.”
Han Fei and Hua Mo also quickly thanked him, feeling a deep sense of gratitude in their hearts.
“You can rest assured that my clan also takes places the highest of importance on our commitments and ancestral teachings. Even after we gain our freedom, we will still faithfully follow you!” Li Rong quickly added, her expression incomparably firm.
“That’s a discussion we can have later,” Yang Kai smiled, “For now, give me the rest of your herbs.”
“I’ve already brought them,” Li Rong said, reaching out and swiping her Void Ring, dumping a heap of herbs in front of Yang Kai’s eyes.
“These are all the herbs we have left.”
“I’ll finish using these up as soon as possible,” Yang Kai gently nodded, his mind and body feeling much more relaxed.
Amidst towering snow-capped mountains, under layers of ice that were several hundred meters thick and thousands of years old, a great blizzard that seemed as if it would never end raged, making it impossible for one to see more than a hundred meters in front of their face.
The temperature here was extremely low. Even powerful cultivators, without special reason, would not be willing to step into this place. If one stood high up in the sky and scanned their surroundings, the only thing they would be able to see all around them was an endless world of snow and ice
Half-way up one of these snowy mountainsides was a hidden cave that led deep into the mountain’s belly, the interior of which was covered in pure, translucent ice that exuded a profound chill.
The power of the void suddenly filled the air, and immediately after, a red light burst forth, illuminating the entire cave, making everything inside seem extremely gloomy.
A figure emerged from the void, and as if unable to control his strength, crashed face first into the ice.
After picking himself up and established his foothold, Yang Kai immediately sent out his powerful Divine Sense to check his surroundings, a moment later his expression relaxing as he took back his Divine Sense.
“Sure enough, I’m really in the snowy mountains,” Yang Kai had used his Divine Sense to examine the terrain around here and couldn’t help muttering to himself.
Before exiting the Mysterious Small World, Li Rong told him that Coffin Slave Senior was most likely hiding in an extremely cold and desolate environment.
It seemed that her speculation was correct.
Coffin Slave Senior had been dead for innumerable years now, but even so, before his death, he was a powerful Saint Realm master and a member of the Ancient Demon Clan, so his body possessed incredible physical strength. Nevertheless, over the centuries, rot and decay would still occur and the only viable way to preserve his body would be to spend most of his time in a frozen, isolated area.
A cave deep inside a snowy mountain in the middle of a glacial dessert was undoubtedly the ideal location.
Li Rong had said that Coffin Slave Senior would go out once every ten years to search for cultivators that possessed Conflagrated Knowledge Seas, continuing until he either found one or could no longer maintain his strength before return to his resting place to restore himself.
Then, a decade later, he would set out again.
Li Rong didn’t know how many times Coffin Slave Senior had repeated this cycle, but he had sent in more than a dozen cultivators with Conflagrated Knowledge Seas over the years she knew about.
Turning his head to the side, Yang Kai immediately saw Coffin Slave Senior sitting cross-legged, his body exuding an unbearable rancid smell that made his stomach turn, his skin filled with old wounds, sores, scabs, and pus.
It wasn’t clear how much longer his body would be able to last.
Seeing him like this, Yang Kai instinctually understood that although he didn’t know what kind of obsession Coffin Slave Senior had that compelled him to loyally carry out this mission millennia after his death, such a person was worthy of respect!
Behind Coffin Slave Senior was the blood red coffin.
The world didn’t know what was hidden inside this coffin or what mysteries it concealed, but Yang Kai knew that in fact what was inside was the Mysterious Small World he had been a guest in for the past year and a half.
After reaching an understanding with Li Rong and the other Great Commanders, it took Yang Kai only half a month to refine all the remaining herbs into pills and after taking a day to recover, and the three leaders worked together to break the void of the Mysterious Small World and send Yang Kai out.
[I wonder if they found the gift I left them yet?] Yang Kai thought to himself, a smiling appearing on his face as he slowly stepped forward, keeping a watchful eye on Coffin Slave Senior.
He definitely didn’t want to wake up this living corpse Saint Realm master from his meditation.
Although he could use his Demon God Transformation to suppress Coffin Slave Senior, if there were any powerful masters nearby that detected his aura it would expose this hiding place.
Fortunately, Coffin Slave Senior seemed to be in a deep sleep and showed no signs of waking up.
After a long climb, Yang Kai finally exited the cave.
The bone-chilling wind blew past Yang Kai’s skin, alerting him to just how cold and unforgiving the surrounding environment was. Shivering from the cold, Yang Kai couldn’t help circulating his True Yang Secret Art to dispel the chill around him.
Seeing the blowing snowstorm all around him, Yang Kai gave up the idea of trying to find his bearings.
Although he had been in Tong Xuan Realm for more than a year and a half now, he had spent most of that time in the Mysterious Small World, so it wasn’t an exaggeration to say he was completely unfamiliar with this world. Even if he could figure out his bearings, he still wouldn’t know where to go next.
With no better option available, Yang Kai simply decided to set out, shooting off into the snowstorm like a lighting bolt, quickly disappearing.
…………
Above Demon God Citadel, the three Great Commanders stared up at a slowly closing crack in the sky.
“He’s gone,” Han Fei muttered.
“En,” Li Rong nodded, “But he’ll be back.”
Hua Mo hesitated but was unable to stop himself eventually, “It’s not that I wish to play the gentlemen while thinking like a villain but, Senior Li, why are you certain he will honour his oath?”
“Instinct!” Li Rong smiled faintly, “That day, when he swore to us, the look in his eyes was very sincere, so I chose to believe in him. Just wait, he will definitely come back and lead us out of this world as he promised.”
Hua Mo’s brow furrowed but he no longer said anything.
Although he also wanted to believe Yang Kai’s promise, the idea that humans were cruel, cunning, and untrustworthy was deeply ingrained in his mentality, so who knew if Yang Kai had just said such words in order to deceive them.
“Mistress, Mistress!” At that moment, Guan’er suddenly ran over in a fluster.
“What’s happened?” Li Rong turned her head and gently brushed her hair back behind her ear.
“Look at this,” Guan’er said, reaching out and holding up something in her hands to the three Great Commanders.
“A Crystal Stone?” Li Rong was surprised, “Where did you get it?”
Although Han Fei had brought back a lot of Crystal Stones last time, compared to the demand of their entire clan it still wasn’t enough, so these Crystal Stones were currently being strictly managed by the three Great Commanders and were only given out at certain times to those who could truly make the best use of them.
Guan’er had also received a few pieces during the last distribution but she had quickly used them up and shouldn’t have any extra on her hands now.
“I found it in the stone room Yang Kai was using to study Alchemy! You should come and take a look, there’s still a lot of them there!” Guan’er’s face was filled with excitement as she quickly urged them.
Li Rong and Han Fei exchanged a dumbfound look before hurriedly flying off.
Soon, the three Great Commanders came to Yang Kai’s stone room, and after seeing the situation inside, they couldn’t help feeling stunned.
In the corner of the stone room, there was a mountain of Crystal Stones, the number too great to estimate!
“These…” Li Rong could hardly speak, her tender body shivering as she stared excitedly.
“These should be the ones he collected beneath the volcano last time,” Han Fei explained.
“This many?” Hua Mo almost bit his tongue as his face twitched awkwardly.
When they came back from the volcano last time, Han Fei had told them about the experience she and Yang Kai had under the volcano and also that Yang Kai had acquired a huge amount of Crystal Stones, but none of them had ever mentioned the issue again, much less asked him for them.
But apparently, before he left, he had decided to leave behind such a massive fortune to them.
The amount of Crystal Stones here was at least four times as many as the amount Han Fei had brought back.
“After giving us so many, he probably doesn’t have much left for himself,” Han Fei muttered, her pretty face showing a grateful look, her eyes suddenly fixing on a couple dozen crystal blocks that were placed in a more conspicuous position and gave off a much stronger aura, “He even left behind these Saint Crystals, he…”
When she recalled the little Crystal Stone mining episode she shared with Yang Kai under volcano, and how she had even conned him into giving her his shirt so she could carry more, Han Fei suddenly felt her cheeks become slightly hot.
“Senior Li…” Hua Mo took a deep breath, calming his excitement, and quickly said, “This old man also believes that he will definitely come back now.”
“En, definitely,” Li Rong smiled happily, tears of joy welling up at the corners of her eyes as she spoke her heartfelt thoughts.
If Yang Kai didn’t plan on returning, he would never have left them such a tremendous gift.
The reason he had left them such wealth was obviously because he hoped these Crystal Stones would be able to help the Ancient Demon Clan improve their strength, so when they finally left here, they would be better able to protect themselves.
[We can’t let down his expectations!] Li Rong secretly thought. Now, if anyone in Demon God Citadel wanted pills, they could have pills, if they wanted Crystal Stones, they could have Crystal Stones. Within a few years, these would lead to a comprehensive improvement in their Ancient Demon Clan’s strength.
When Yang Kai returns next time, the Ancient Demon Clan would also give him a big gift! Li Rong took a deep breath and reaffirmed her commitment.
…..
Above the snowy mountains, Yang Kai continued his lonely journey. This glacial field was simply too big and the bone-chilling wind was relentless, he could only fly for so long before becoming physically and spiritually exhausted.
Yang Kai landed and started walking to conserve his strength, yet no matter how far he went he didn’t see another living soul, no humans, demons, or even Monster Beasts.
It was as if he was the only person in this endless white world.
The density of World Energy in this place was quite extraordinary, but the environment was completely desolate. Even cultivators skilled in Ice Attribute Secret Arts and Martial Skills would find it extremely difficult to endure such harsh conditions.
Yang Kai showed neither joy nor sadness, simply trudging along indifferently across the snow-capped mountains and fields of ice. The only time his expression changed was when he occasionally felt an unbearable burst of pain from his shoulder blades, the result of the Wind and Thunder Wings rampaging inside his body.
It had been some time now since he first absorbed the Wind and Thunder Wings and his progress in refining them was still progressing, but Yang Kai instinctually felt that refining the Wind and Thunder Wings was not as simple as nourishing them with his True Qi and that he needed some special method to truly complete the process.
After a few days in the snow-capped mountains, the wind and snow gradually began to weaken.
Atop a particularly high mountain, Yang Kai stood motionless, basking in the warm sunlight he had not seen or felt in many, many days, feeling particularly refreshed.
“Hm?”
All of a sudden, he noticed several auras a few dozen kilometers away.
Yang Kai couldn’t help but smile happily. Currently, he had no idea where he was, so naturally, he wanted to seek out someone to ask for directions. After walking for several days though, he had yet to come across a single person, but now he had finally found someone.
Inferring from the strength of these people’s auras, they should not be Transcendent Realm masters, allowing Yang Kai to relax somewhat.
Smiling lightly, Yang Kai didn’t act hastily, leaving his perch atop the snowy mountain and slowly flying towards this group.
Several dozen kilometers away, atop the snow, a group of three people, one man and two women, all of whom were Immortal Ascension Boundary Seventh or Eighth Stage, were slowly walking along. The male was handsome while the females were beautiful, all three of them wearing matching golden robes which appeared particularly eye-catching above the pure white snow. Obviously, they were from the same Sect or family.
At the moment, the two women were walking in front with linked arms. Even in such a cold environment, one of the women’s clothes was still very thin, showcasing her slender figure and well-developed curves, drawing the heated eyes of the young man following behind her as her graceful waist and round hips swayed back and forth attractively.
The other woman was a little shorter and her pretty face contained a trace of curiosity and wonderment, once in a while pointing in various directions and giggling happily, seemingly innocent and cute.
As the three marched forward, they constantly released their Divine Senses into the surrounding snow and after a while, the face of the woman wearing thin clothes lit up as she pointed in a certain direction, “There should be spirit medicines over there!”
Saying so, she hurriedly led the other two over.
After crossing several hundred meters, the three worked together to clear a couple meters of snow, slowly revealing a plant which resembled fine ice crystals, it’s stem and leaves all glittered in the afternoon sun, giving it a beautiful and dazzling appearance.
Atop the plant were a few thumbnail-sized snow-white fruits which gave off a light appealing fragrance.
“Senior Sister Ji is amazing, you even managed to find White Jade Fruit buried so deep under the snow!” The younger woman happily applauded.
Ji Meng smiled as she glanced over at Zhu Ying Yue and warmly said, “You should pay closer attention to your surroundings and I’m sure you’ll also be able to find some.”
Zhu Ying Yue pursed her lips and pouted, “I’ve tried my best but every time Elder Sister Ji finds them first, even Senior Brother Qi isn’t your match.”
Qi Chao Wen felt a little disgruntled hearing these words and shot back, “Are you implying that I’m weak?”
Zhu Ying Yue just snorted, “You’re at least worse than Senior Sister Ji.”
Ji Meng tapped the young girl’s head gently, “When we go back you’ll have a share too, so don’t be discouraged.”
The latter innocently nodded her head.
Qi Chao stepped forward at that time and said, “Let’s pick these first. Make sure not to hurt the roots or stem. After a few years, it will bear more White Jade Fruit.”
Ji Meng nodded and stretched out her jade hand, carefully picking the small fruits and storing them into her Universe Bag.
For these kinds of spirits medicines that could continuously bear fruit, cultivators would generally not collect the whole plant as this was akin to killing an egg-laying chicken, reducing the overall amount of spirit grasses and spirit medicines in the world.
Obtaining this harvest, the three people looked very happy but suddenly, Qi Chao and Ji Meng frowned, both of them turning to stare at a spot in the distance, a look of vigilance appearing on their faces.
The two of them had just noticed that someone was quickly approaching them.
A vague figure appeared on the horizon and after a short moment, a young man appeared in front of them, stopping a couple dozen meters away from them.
Yang Kai saw the wariness in these three’s eyes but didn’t pay it any mind. In this wilderness, anyone who suddenly met a stranger would become somewhat vigilant.
It was the same for him, before he had approached them, he had determined their strength wasn’t enough to threaten him so he had decided to appear in an upfront manner.
If the other party had a Second Order Transcendent member among their ranks, Yang Kai would naturally have avoided them.
These three weren’t too old, at least not much older than he was, so communicating with them should be relatively easy.
Yang Kai nodded slightly, revealing a friendly smile.
“Who are you?” Qi Chao stepped forward, putting himself between Yang Kai and Ji Meng and Zhu Ying Yue, asking coldly, “Why are you here in the Snow Mountain Range Range?”
“I’m just a traveller who was passing through this place and accidentally lost my way,” Yang Kai replied honestly.
“A passing traveller?” Qi Chao frowned and swept his eyes over Yang Kai, his face expression with suspicion “You don’t look like a simple passerby. What purpose do you have for entering the Snow Mountain Range?”
This young man’s attitude wasn’t just vigilant but was bordering on outright hostile, which made Yang Kai feel somewhat puzzled, wondering what he had done to offend him. Not losing his temper, he quickly tried to explain, “I really was just passing through when I lost my way. When I noticed your auras I decided to come and speak with you hoping you could tell me how to leave this place, I’ve been stuck in this Snow Mountain Range for many days now after all.”
As he was explaining, Yang Kai noticed the small White Jade Fruit tree behind the trio, its beautiful appearance bringing a look of appreciation to his face.
Qi Chao carefully stared at Yang Kai, observing all of his movements and changes in demeanour; meanwhile, Yang Kai remained perfectly calm, not showing the slightest signs of anxiousness.
He wasn’t lying. Now that he had now left the Mysterious Small World, his current goal was really just to find his bearings and leave this seemingly infinite Snow Mountain Range.
After a short period of silence, Qi Chao slowly retrained his hostility and slowly nodded, “I’ll believe you for the time being, but this Snow Mountain Range is not something that outsiders can intrude upon. If you want to leave, just walk that way.”
Saying so, he pointed in a certain direction.
Yang Kai glanced in that direction before cupping his fists, “Thank you, perhaps one day I can return this favour.”
Having offered his thanks, he quickly used his movement skill and left.
“Wait!” Qi Chao suddenly shouted.
“What’s wrong?” Yang Kai paused, his brow furrowing slightly.
“Have you collected any spirit herbs or spirit medicines in these snowy mountains? If so, please hand them over. This is my Spirit Religion’s territory, everything here belongs to my Spirit Religion, outsiders aren’t permitted to take even one blade of grass from here!”
Yang Kai couldn’t help wearing a disdainful frown, feeling slightly impatient in his heart. Don’t say that he didn’t collect anything, even if he really had, with this man trying to order him about like this, he definitely wouldn’t hand anything over. This Snow Mountain Range was incredibly vast, it was impossible that it was the private property of a single force.
Glancing over at the two women behind this young man, Yang Kai was too lazy to stir up trouble and just bluntly replied, “No.”
The next moment, Yang Kai felt a Divine Sense unscrupulously searching for him.
Was this youth really so bold? Yang Kai was dumbfounded, wasn’t this guy worried about suddenly being retaliated against and being heavily injured?
But after thinking about it briefly, Yang Kai still decided not to bother with him and simply let him investigate.
After a moment, Qi Chao nodded with satisfaction, “You can go.”
Yang Kai said nothing, turned around, and walked away.
After he left, Zhu Ying Yue asked softly, “Senior Brother Qi, over there…”
“Shh!” Qi Chao raised a finger to his lips and slowly shook his head, glancing around before leading the two young women in a different direction.
Zhu Ying Yue stared at him doubtfully but still obediently followed, occasionally glancing back in the direction Yang Kai had walked, a trace of worry and regret flashing across her eyes.
After walking for an hour or so, Zhu Ying Yue finally couldn’t help asking again, “Senior Brother Qi, why did you point him in the wrong direction?”
Ji Meng also chimed in, “I’d also like to know what you’re thinking, Qi Chao,”
“That man is very suspicious don’t you think?” Qi Chao glanced at them and declared, “The words he spoke are clearly not credible.”
Ji Meng was struck speechless and slowly shook her head, “Even if he is suspicious, there was no reason to intentionally harm him, what you did just now is no different than sending him to his death! The direction you pointed him in is a region where Monster Beasts are active! If he encounters a powerful one how is he supposed to survive?”
“His life or death is none of our business,” Qi Chao coldly snorted, “Whenever you’re out in the field, you must always be on alert. His strength seems to be higher than ours, I only acted to ensure our safety.”
“How do you know that? I couldn’t tell at all,” Zhu Ying Yue asked curiously.
“Because he discovered us first,” Qi Chao explained briefly, “He is not one of our Spirit Religion’s disciples, so he either came to this Snow Mountain Range to collect spirit medicines or because he has some other hidden agenda. Didn’t you notice that when he saw the White Jade Fruit Tree he showed a greedy look? If I didn’t quickly send him away, maybe he would have killed us in order to seize our treasures. I’d be fine, death would be the end of it, but if you two fell into such a person’s hands, hah…”
Zhu Ying Yue’s pretty face went white, her tender body trembling somewhat, faintly recalling Yang Kai’s appearance and thinking his face did indeed look somewhat like a rogue.
Ji Meng’s face, on the other hand, became somewhat disgruntled as she argued back, “Why did you automatically assume he was someone nefarious? What if he really was just a traveller who lost his way? Getting lost in this Snow Mountain Range isn’t abnormal.”
“Then you can go back and tell him that the way we pointed to him is a dead end,” Qi Chao snorted.
Ji Meng became somewhat annoyed, “How am I supposed to find him?”
“When I lied to him, did you say anything? Why are you pestering me about it now, standing up for a mere outsider?” Qi Chao also became irritated.
“We’re all disciples from the same Sect, I didn’t want to say anything that would cause you to lose face in front of an outsider!”
“Stop arguing,” Seeing how these two were becoming more and more heated, Zhu Ying Yue quickly interceded.
“Let’s go, whatever happens, isn’t our concern. If he’s a good person he won’t die,” Qi Chao said indifferently while striding forward.
Ji Meng sighed helplessly, turning to look back somewhat reluctantly but after a while just shaking her head and following behind Qi Chao.
“Senior Sister Ji, will he die?” Zhu Ying Yue asked softly.
“Probably.”
“Did Senior Brother Qi do the wrong thing?”
“No, he also has his own reasons,” Ji Meng smiled slightly. However, when they had met, that young man had intentionally released his Divine Sense before making an appearance to alert them to his presence, so he shouldn’t have had any malicious intent.
If he really nefarious intentions, he could have just concealed himself and launched a sneak attack.
Ji Meng really couldn’t understand why Qi Chao had pointed him in the wrong direction so she felt a bit guilty towards this stranger.
…..
Yang Kai panted heavily, his expression quite gloomy as he stared down at the fresh corpse of a Seventh-Order Monster Beast beneath his feet.
Fresh blood still dripping from his wounds, the battle just now had not been an easy one.
A Seventh-Order Monster Beast was equivalent to Human Race’s Transcendent. Fortunately, this Seventh-Order Monster Beast wasn’t too strong and thus he could still somehow deal with it.
Following the directions given to him by the man in yellow robes, Yang Kai walked for three days but actually suffered seven or eight Monster Beast attacks.
These Monster Beasts, without exception, were all quite strong and posed grave threats to him. If it were any other Peak Immortal Ascension Boundary cultivator, facing such powerful Monster Beasts in their home territory in such a harsh environment, who knows how many times they would have died?
And as time passed, Yang Kai found that the snowstorms were becoming stronger and stronger, as if he had gone back to where he had first emerged from the Mysterious Small World.
This discovery made his expression quite ugly.
By now, he also realized that he had been cheated by that man.
They had met by chance and he had only asked them for direction, never once revealing any malicious intent, so after receiving an answer Yang Kai naturally didn’t have any reason to suspect him, how could he have known that he would be so sinister?
Taking out the Monster Beast’s core and breaking off its two horns, Yang Kai turned around and with a cold look in his eyes began retracing his steps.
As he trekked along the towering Snow Mountain Range, a world of pure white surrounding him, Yang Kai’s mood was obviously not very good.
Three days later, Yang Kai suddenly stopped.
Hearing a commotion up ahead, he released his Divine Sense to investigate and his expression suddenly became strange.
A dozen kilometers or so in front of him were two familiar auras, they belonged to the group of three who he had bumped into earlier. However, these two auras were somewhat unstable at the moment and were seemingly being chased by something. Right now, they were actually fleeing in his direction.
Soon, Yang Kai noticed a powerful aura chasing behind the two which obviously belonged to a Seventh-Order Monster Beast.
[The world is really small!]
Yang Kai revealed a weird smile and stopped in place, quietly waiting.
A great howl rang out and shook the earth, sending snow flying behind them as Ji Meng and Zhu Ying Yue fled for their lives. They no longer had the calm, carefree look they had when they first met Yang Kai, their clothes ripped in multiple places and blood leaking from numerous wounds, their exposed white skin now stained red.
Feeling the cold wind on her face, Zhu Ying Yue couldn’t help trembling.
“Hurry!” Ji Meng shouted as she ran.
“Senior Brother Qi, he…” Zhu Ying Yue cried out while glancing back, but seeing the ferocious Monster Beast chasing them, her beautiful face drained of all colour and fear flashed across her eyes.
“He’s dead, don’t look back.” Ji Meng did her best to sound calm, but her heart was already a mess. She had never thought they would suddenly encounter an Ice Crystal Wolf here.
Ice Crystal Wolves were authentic Seventh-Order Monster Beasts, their whole body covered in thick fur that was as strong as steel. Ordinary artifacts and Martial Skill could only leave shallow traces on it.
On top of that, it was extremely fast and its four claws and fangs were incredibly sharp.
The three of them had only confronted this Ice Crystal Wolf for a few breaths before Qi Chao was shredded to pieces before their eyes.
They had explored this region of the Snow Mountain Range numerous times and had never had any problems, but this time they had encountered such a terrible accident.
Compared with Ji Meng’s apparent calm, Zhu Ying Yue was completely flustered. Under the threat of death, she couldn’t even exert half of her Immortal Ascension Boundary Seventh Stage strength, only able to flee with all her might. If it weren’t for Ji Meng using her artifact from time to time to impede the Ice Crystal Wolf, Zhu Ying Yue would have been caught by it long ago.
“Senior Sister Ji!” Zhu Ying Yue wept as she shouted.
“If you don’t want to die, don’t cry!” Ji Meng shouted to her in a solemn tone.
Having been scolded, Zhu Ying Yue nodded hastily.
Through the wind and snow up ahead, Ji Meng suddenly saw a stationary figure, her beautiful eyes lighting up as she quickly called out, “Friend up ahead, can you help us?”
At this moment, it was like she had suddenly caught a glimpse of hope.
The other party was clearly waiting here so they obviously weren’t afraid of the Ice Crystal Wolf, perhaps it was a Senior from their Spirit Religion, if that was the case, Zhu Ying Yue and her might really be saved.
Just as she spoke though, a burst of True Qi shot towards her.
Accurately striking right in front of her, Ji Meng noticed a hostile aura from this person and quickly pulled Zhu Ying Yue closer to her, stopping in place.
“What a coincidence!” A sarcastic voice called out to them as the man slowly approached.
Ji Meng immediately became vigilant, her brow furrowing deeply as she gazed forward.
A moment later, Ji Meng’s expression froze up as she stared dumbfounded at Yang Kai. Zhu Ying Yue also couldn’t help covering her small mouth and exclaiming in shock, “You’re alright?”
“Were you hoping I wouldn’t be?” Yang Kai sneered lightly.
“No, we didn’t mean…” Zhu Ying Yue quickly waved her hands, her face filled with anxiety.
“What about that guy?” Yang Kai glanced around but didn’t see any signs of Qi Chao.
“He died!” Ji Meng protected Zhu Ying Yue behind her, replying icily, “He was killed by the Ice Crystal Wolf chasing us.”
“He’s dead?” Yang Kai was a bit surprised.
“I admit that we didn’t act appropriately last time. Qi Chao should not have pointed you in the wrong direction and I should not have stood idly by and allowed him to, but can we discuss that later?” Ji Meng hurriedly said, “If we don’t leave now, it will be too late. The Ice Crystal Wolf that is chasing us is a Seventh-Order Monster Beast, none of us can resist it!”
Yang Kai frowned and shook his head, “It’s already too late!”
Just as he said so, a whooshing sound burst from behind the two young women.
Feeling a cold murderous intent lock onto her, Ji Meng’s expression changed greatly as she quickly turned around, her hands waving as they sent threads of silk, blocking a number of ice blades that were approaching her
*Hong Hong Hong…*
Countless ice blades were smashed, creating a fog of white powder. Ji Meng grunted as her delicate shoulder was sliced through by one of the blades, immediately sending out a stream of fresh blood.
A huge figure suddenly landed in front of the trio, and the Ice Crystal Wolf bared its fangs, spewing a foul stench from its mouth, its two giant eyes staring towards Ji Meng and Zhu Ying Yue, drops of saliva leaking from its jaw, giving it a particularly fierce appearance.
The moment the Ice Crystal Wolf appeared, Yang Kai leapt up into the sky and stared down. He quickly noticed that this Monster Beast was actually crystal clear, like a jade carving, its smooth fur coat giving off a soft radiance. If it weren’t for the cruel murderous aura it gave off, it would look actually be quite beautiful.
Ji Meng and Zhu Ying Yue both went pale, knowing that the brief delay they had suffered dealing with Yang Kai meant they could no longer escape the scope of the Ice Crystal Wolf’s attack. Unwilling to simply lie down and die, Ji Meng summoned a Lightning Attribute artifact in the shape of a whip, poured her True Qi into it, and attacked the Ice Crystal Wolf.
At the same time, although she was still shuddering, Zhu Ying Yue summoned her own artifact, a small fan, and waved it frantically, sending out a stream of visible wind blades towards the Monster Beast.
When the two joined forces, the strength of the combined attacks was actually quite good.
But against the Ice Crystal Wolf’s thick fur, these attacks were nothing more than an irritant.
After a series of sparks bounced off its fur, the Ice Crystal Wolf stood in place, completely unscathed. Opening its mouth, the beast let out a loud roar and a giant ice spear quickly formed, shooting towards Ji Meng and Zhu Ying Yue in the next instant.
The two women were sent tumbling and were inevitably injured. The smell of fresh blood further stimulated Ice Crystal Wolf’s brutality and it became more and more aggressive.
Before the pair could steady themselves, another wave of ice blades condensed around the Ice Crystal Wolf and was sent towards them, forming an inescapable net. Facing this crisis, the two women could only focus all their efforts on dodging and defending themselves
Snow flew up and the entire scene became chaotic.
Ji Meng suddenly looked up, anxiety plastered all over her face as she shouted to Yang Kai who was still standing high up in the sky, “Please help us!”
Yang Kai however just stared back at her coldly and slowly shook his head.
Although Qi Chao, the one who had actually maliciously tricked him before, had already died under Ice Crystal Wolf’s claws, these two women not speaking up at the time had made Yang Kai quite disgruntled.
Their little deception had delayed him six or seven days and caused him to fall into danger numerous times.
Seeing Yang Kai’s decisive rejection, Ji Meng suddenly knew that he was still holding a grudge against them for their previous actions and quickly shouted, “We were certainly wrong to deceive you. Even though Qi Chao was the one who lies, we also share some responsibility, but are you really just going to stand there and watch us die?”
“Why should I save you? I also almost died because of you,” Yang Kai said indifferently.
The Ice Crystal Wolf charged at that moment, forcing Ji Meng to quickly retreat, but she was still scratched by one of its claws, tearing open her clothes and revealing her flat belly and delicate navel.
More fresh blood flowed out from this new wound but all Ji Meng could do was clench her teeth and endured the pain while trying to open some distance between her and the Ice Crystal Wolf.
Seeing this, Zhu Ying Yue quickly used her fan artifact to try to help.
The two women worked together to resist the Ice Crystal Wolf’s attacks but quickly noticed that this Seventh-Order Monster Beast wasn’t treating them seriously at all. Apparently, it had no intention to take their lives immediately and was instead treating them as toys, tormenting them like a cat playing with a mouse, its eyes flashing a hint of disdain.
Seventh-Order Monster Beasts already had a high degree of sentience and if they could obtain enough resources and meet certain conditions, they were even qualified to take on human form and join the Monster Race.
Realizing this truth, Ji Meng once again called out to Yang Kai, “We are disciples of Bright Thunder Spirit Religion. If you can save us, we will certainly compensate you for your losses after we return. Qi Chao is already dead, can you really not put down your grudge and help us?”
“Bright Thunder Spirit Religion?” Yang Kai’s expression changed slightly, feeling like he had heard of this Sect somewhere before but even after thinking about it for a while he couldn’t remember where.
When Ji Meng saw his thoughtful expression and realized he might have some kind of relationship with their Sect, she suddenly became excited, “Are you acquainted with my Spirit Religion?”
“Nope, I’m not,” Yang Kai shook his head.
“You bastard!” Ji Meng cursed, her heart filled with bitterness as she clenched her teeth in anger, wanting nothing more than to slap this shameless man across his face. She had felt quite guilty about deceiving him before but now seeing his abominable and petty character, she really thought he should have just died in the Snow Mountain Range to spare her some grief.
“Seeing two young women in danger and doing nothing to help, are you really a man!?” Ji Meng shouted.
Yang Kai still stood still, “Saving you isn’t difficult, but I’m still quite upset about our previous encounter, and since I’m upset, I don’t want you to feel happy either. Well, if you somehow manage to survive, I’d be happy to show you if I’m a man or not.”
As Yang Kai spoke, the two women fell into even greater danger, receiving more and more attacks from the Ice Crystal Wolf. Ji Meng clenched her jaw so tightly her teeth nearly shattered yet she didn’t give up trying, “How can we make amends? State your requests, if I can, I will fulfil them!”
“I don’t want anything,” Yang Kai slowly shook his head, folding his arms pretentiously and putting on an amused expression, like he was enjoying a good show.
Ji Meng was so angry that she coughed up blood!
Yang Kai’s calm attitude made her realize that he certainly had the strength to deal with the Ice Crystal Wolf. At the very least, he could escape from this Seventh-Order Monster Beast, otherwise, it would have been impossible for him to just stand there and being tormented to death, making Ji Meng feel even more helpless.
“Is it really no good, even if I beg you?” Ji Meng bit her lip so hard it bled, feeling a deep sense of resentment in her heart but still somehow managing to lower her attitude.
“This Senior Brother, I’m also begging you!” Zhu Ying Yue stared up at Yang Kai pitifully, his eyes completely wet, doing her best to hold on despite her obvious fear.
Staring into this pair of beautiful limpid eyes, Yang Kai’s expression couldn’t help softening slightly, the coldness in his eyes gradually converging.
Seeing this young woman’s clear and innocent eyes, without the slightest trace of impurity, he was suddenly reminded of Xia Ning Chang.
Yang Kai suddenly went silent but also didn’t show any intention of helping them, so Ji Meng couldn’t help thinking he was really cold-blooded and was just going to stand by and watch them die.
Feeling a cold chill in her heart, she smiled bitterly and said, “Ying Yue, don’t bother asking him anymore, I’m afraid we’re really going to die here. Before I die, I just want to remember what he looks like, so when I die I can become an evil spirit and haunt him for the rest of his miserable life!”
As she spoke, she turned her head and glared towards Yang Kai.
Yang Kai couldn’t help chuckling dumbly, “Woman, you’re really a vicious cunning snake!”
“Takes one to know one!” Ji Meng retorted sarcastically.
Yang Kai expression suddenly became serious as he asked, “With your strength, can’t you just run away?”
It wasn’t the two women differed that much in strength, but that in this dangerous situation Ji Meng was able to remain calm and exert her full strength. Even though the Ice Crystal Wolf was a Seventh-Order Monster Beast, with her Immortal Ascension Boundary Eighth Stage cultivation, if he wanted to escape, it should still be possible.
Unfortunately, the other young woman was different, she was really frightened so her attacks had become chaotic and her combat ability had sharply decreased. At first glance, it was obvious she was someone who had lived under others’ protection all the year round. Obviously, her status within her Sect wasn’t low thus she had very little practical experience, much less life or death experience.
“If I were to run, what would happen to Ying Yue? I’m not as despicable as you!” Ji Meng shouted as she clenched her fists.
“Seems you have some righteousness after all!” Yang Kai nodded gently, suddenly grinning, “I’ve changed my mind, I’m willing to save you!”
Every wrong had its justice, every debt its collector, the man who had cheated him had already died so Yang Kai hadn’t really planned on holding these two women accountable. He had just wanted to give them a bit of trouble for the role they had played. On top of that, Yang Kai really did need someone to acquire information from.
Hearing Yang Kai say this, Ji Meng was overjoyed and exclaimed, “Really?”
Yang Kai nodded, “But I have conditions!”
“What conditions?” Ji Meng asked hurriedly, with their lives hanging in the balance, she decided that no matter how excessive this man’s requests were, she would agree to them, as long as Zhu Ying Yue wasn’t hurt.
“Shouldn’t you replay a life-saving grace with your body?” Yang Kai touched his chin and smiled evilly.
Ji Meng’s expression suddenly became cold; although she had been mentally prepared for this, she hadn’t expected this young man to really make such shameless demands!
Although she was infuriated in her heart, she didn’t dare show it on her face, blocking a strike from the Ice Crystal Wolf before shouting out, “It doesn’t matter what happens to me, but… don’t get any ideas about Ying Yue!”
“Oh?” Yang Kai stared at her in surprise. He had only said those words in jest and had no real intentions towards these two women, from the conversation they had during this second meeting, he could tell that these two weren’t really malicious or treacherous in nature, saving them wasn’t an issue.
“Are you going to help us or not? If you don’t take action soon when we die you won’t be able to get anything!” Ji Meng had finally been driven beyond the limits of her forbearance, and so too had the Ice Crystal Wolf apparently, its attacks becoming more and more fierce, to the point where she and Zhu Ying Yue weren’t able to resist at all. If Yang Kai continued to idle any longer, the two of them would definitely be defeated.
“Very well,” Yang Kai shook his head before his figure flickered and disappeared from the sky.
The huge Monster Beast rapidly closed in, it’s fangs fully bared as a foul smell burst from its mouth. Seeing it approach, Zhu Ying Yue screamed in terror as tears poured down her face.
But before she knew what was happening, her body suddenly became light, and in the next moment, she found herself slung over someone’s shoulder and the surrounding scenery quickly receding behind her. Everything happened too quickly and she couldn’t help shutting her eyes in fear.
Ji Meng also had a similar encounter. Before she could respond, she too was grabbed by Yang Kai and taken away.
Obviously not having anticipated such a development, the Ice Crystal Wolf was temporarily dumbstruck before it roared angrily and hastily chased after the trio, but the distance between them was slowly opening. Seeing this, Ji Meng still didn’t feel relieved and constantly urged, “Faster! It’s still trying to catch up!”
Yang Kai coldly snorted in response, “Easy for you to say, this is already my fastest speed.”
Ji Meng decisively shut her mouth and simply stared at the Ice Crystal Wolf and only after seeing it slowly fall further and further behind, she couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.
After a while, the Ice Crystal Wolf finally stopped chasing them, stopping in place and howling towards the sky, its voice filled with unwillingness and anger.
Somewhere in Snow Mountain Range, Yang Kai stood calmly as he stared towards the two raggedly dressed women bustle about.
They seemed to have a lot of experience living in this snowy environment and quickly dug out a subterranean hollow. The interior was spacious while the outside was hardened and sturdy.
A short time later, a fully formed snow cave appeared.
Ji Meng glanced over towards Yang Kai vigilantly and said in a somewhat weak voice, “We have to change our clothes and apply some healing medicine to our wounds. You should not come in until we’re done, if you peek, I’ll dig your eyes out!”
“Hey, you’re already my women now, what’s wrong with me taking a peek or two?” Yang Kai teased.
“You…” Ji Meng was so angry that the sound of her teeth gnashing was audible, eventually shouting out, “If it’s just me I don’t mind, but Ying Yue is off limits!”
Saying so, the two women ducked into the snow cave and soon after, the sound of rustling clothes could be heard. Apparently, they had removed all of their bloodstained robes.
Yang Kai stared blankly and suddenly felt that this woman had actually meant what she had just said.
Was she really willing to offer up her body just like that? Yang Kai’s face went black, thinking to himself that if he got tangled up with her, it would be more trouble than it was worth.
Now he was in a bit of an embarrassing situation, who told him to have such a cheap mouth and propose such conditions? Now it seemed he had caught himself in his own trap.
After roughly half an hour, Ji Meng’s voice called out, “You can come in now.”
Yang Kai smiled wryly before jumping into the snow cave.
The inside was really quite spacious and was neither chilly nor damp, on the contrary, in the contrast of the outside environment, this snow cave actually gave off a warm, cosy feeling.
The two women had processed their wounds already and donned clean dresses, allowing Yang Kai to secretly nod.
The first time he had encountered them, Qi Chao had intentionally blocked his view, so Yang Kai didn’t really notice what they looked like, and during their second meeting, the two women were dishevelled and covered in blood so their true appearances were completely masked.
But looking at them now, the taller one had an outstanding figure and an elegant look, while the shorter one had a delicate face and a cute, innocent air about her.
Of course, right now, the taller woman was glaring towards Yang Kai with smouldering anger, seemingly wanting nothing more than to eat his meat and drink his blood, her teeth grinding heavily. Meanwhile, the little girl was currently shrunk behind her Senior Sister, only daring to peek out once in a while, appearing quite weak and helpless.
“Well, for the time being, hello,” Yang Kai offered this strange greeting before sitting down cross-legged across from them.
“I thought you were some kind of powerful master, but facing that Ice Crystal Wolf all you were capable of was fleeing,” Ji Meng said with a sneer.
Before, when she noticed how calm Yang Kai was acting, not showing the slightest fear in front of a Seventh-Order Monster Beast and even having the mind to toy with her, Ji Meng had mistakenly thought that this guy was capable of defeating it, so this outcome had inevitably disappointed her.
It turns out this young man was just a little bit faster and didn’t actually have the courage to fight with the Ice Crystal Wolf.
“My ability to run away is what saved you,” Yang Kai didn’t care about her little display.
Facing unfamiliar outsiders, especially ones who had tricked him once before, he was not willing to show all of his strength.
A Seventh-Order Monster Beast was equivalent to a Transcendent Realm powerhouse, if he killed it in front of these two women, the full extent of his combat strength would likely be exposed.
Yang Kai was not willing to show them all of his cards until he had a better idea about their identities and dispositions.
“…Fair enough. Thank you for saving us,” Ji Meng suddenly relented, her expression quite sincere, gently urging Zhu Ying Yue behind her forward.
Zhu Ying Yue was apparently still in a state of shock and she noticeably trembled upon being pushed forward, but quickly understanding Ji Meng’s intentions, she somehow managed to whisper with a blushed face, “Thank you.”
“It was just a slight effort, no need to be too polite,” Yang Kai’s mood became significantly better upon seeing their frankness.
“In addition, we apologize to you about the previous incident,” Ji Meng bit her thin red lips a look of guilt surfacing on her face, “When Qi Chao lied to you, we wanted to remind you, but we didn’t know who you were, what your intentions for entering the Snow Mountain Range were, or what your strength was, so…”
“It’s all in the past, when one goes out, having a heart of vigilance is a necessity,” Yang Kai laughed, “In any case, that guy is dead so this matter should end here.”
Ji Meng gently nodded, suddenly discovering that this youth was actually quite easy to speak to and not as cold and ruthless as he had first appeared.
“We are the disciples of Bright Thunder Spirit Religion, my name is Ji Meng and she’s Zhu Ying Yue, what about you?” Ji Meng introduced herself and then turned to ask Yang Kai.
Yang Kai casually reported his name.
“What Sect do you come from?” Ji Meng asked curiously.
“I have no Sect, I’m just a lone wanderer.”
“No Sect?” Ji Meng was a little surprised, “Seeing your methods, you don’t seem like someone who isn’t from a great force. You’re not strongest I’ve ever seen, but you’re still quite good.”
Being able to calmly rescue two people from an Ice Crystal Wolf, Ji Meng was certain that Qi Chao couldn’t do that if Yang Kai really was a lone cultivator who had never received any teaching or guidance, how could he be so powerful?
“How come you lost your way in the Snow Mountain Range, where were you headed?” Ji Meng continued to ask, seemingly wanting to know more about Yang Kai.
“I accidentally entered this place and became lost, as to where I was headed… I haven’t decided that yet. Do you have any recommendations?” Yang Kai said thoughtlessly.
“En,” Ji Meng nodded and explained, “This ten thousand kilometer Snow Mountain Range isn’t considered the territory of any one force, but because there are only two or three large forces nearby, my Bright Thunder Spirit Religion being one of them, it’s almost as if this region belongs to my Spirit Religion. Many disciplines from my Sect enter the Snow Mountain Range to look for opportunities like rare herbs or other valuables. If you don’t have any specific destination, you might as well come with us for the time being.”
Yang Kai glanced between the two women and immediately understood that Ji Meng’s invitation was not because she had a good impression of him or because she wanted to fulfil their previous agreement, but because they were currently injured and needed someone to help protect them.
“Sure!” Yang Kai nodded.
“Many thanks!” Ji Meng’s shoulders relaxed, a bright smile appearing on her face.
Over the next few days, the trio slowly explored their surroundings.
The Snow Mountain Range was vast and stretched in all directions; with the two women being injured, the groups’ speed was naturally not quick. Also, while they walked, the trio would occasionally come across some spirit herbs buried deep beneath the snow which further delayed them.
Yang Kai wasn’t in a hurry though. Having someone lead the way was always much faster than him walking about aimlessly.
After five days of such wandering, the group finally left the more dangerous region of the Snow Mountain Range.
As they were walking, Yang Kai suddenly stopped and turned his eyes towards a spot in the distance, a moment later saying to Ji Meng, “There are people who seem to be from your Bright Thunder Spirit Religion over there.”
“Really?” Ji Meng was very surprised and also turned towards the direction Yang Kai was looking but was unable to see anything.
“En, their clothes are similar to the ones you were wearing when we first met, pure golden yellow in colour.”
“They’re definitely from my Spirit Religion then,” Ji Meng clenched Zhu Ying Yue’s hand, her nerves which had been quite strained these past few days finally relaxing while Zhu Ying Yue also smiled.
Yang Kai’s brow furrowed slightly and asked, “Is it going to be a problem if they find an outsider like me in this area of the Snow Mountain Range?”
Ji Meng was slightly startled but quickly replied, “It shouldn’t matter. As long as we say you’re together with us there won’t be any problems.”
“That won’t be necessary; perhaps we’ll meet again if there’s a chance.” Saying so, Yang Kai turned around and quickly flew off.
Ji Meng didn’t even have time to react before he disappeared into the distance.
“Ah…” Zhu Ying Yue looked towards the spot on the horizon Yang Kai disappeared over and said in a somewhat lost tone, “How could he just leave like that?”
Ji Meng’s expression was also somewhat complex as she thought back on the past few days they had been together, suddenly gritting her teeth and grumbling, “That bastard, turns out he was just messing with me this whole time! Hmph, causing me to worry for so long while he secretly laughed at me!”
“He was deceiving you, how?”
“He said that he wanted me to repay him with my body, and I really thought…” Ji Meng blushed bright red, only now realizing Yang Kai had just been joking with her.
If Yang Kai had really had such intentions, how would he have just left so easily?
“He’s a good person,” Zhu Ying Yue smiled mischievously, “Is Senior Sister Ji tempted now? If you chase after him quickly you can still catch up.”
“Stop speaking nonsense!” Ji Meng pouted.
However, in her mind, she also felt like Yang Kai wasn’t so bad. After getting along with him for a few days, Ji Meng found that he wasn’t really as hateful as he had first appeared to be.
At the edge of Snow Mountain sat Grand Boulder City.
This was the only major city within a few thousand kilometers, with so many cultivators passing through it they seemed like flowing water, the various businesses and stalls reaping large amounts of profit.
Bright Thunder Spirit Religion wasn’t the only Sect near Snow Mountain Range. There were two or three other Sects that resided in the nearby area, so Grand Boulder City had become a natural transit point for these forces where exchanges between their disciples and Elders could take place, making it a veritable commercial and social hub.
Cultivation was not simply about dedicated self-torture in a secluded retreat, supplementary aids were also a necessity.
Pills and artifacts belonged to the category of supplementary aids and provided an indispensable boost both during combat and cultivation. Since there was a need to acquire or sell such things, a transaction market naturally came about.
After separating from Ji Meng and Zhu Ying Yue, Yang Kai took four days to arrive at Grand Boulder City.
Yang Kai showed a happy smile when he saw the flowing crowds as he had spent quite a lot of time wandering alone by now.
It’s not that he was specifically looking for someone to talk to, but that staying in the Snow Mountain Range, with no one and nothing around for tens of thousands of kilometers had made him feel somewhat gloomy.
At the gates of the city, there were several cultivators wearing guard uniforms, performing checks on the passing pedestrians. When it was Yang Kai’s turn, having learned from the people who had entered before him, he quickly stuffed a Crystal Stone into the guard’s hand.
Quickly collecting the Crystal Stone without exposing himself, the guard faintly nodded to Yang Kai and motioned him inside.
“Many thanks!” Yang Kai smiled and strolled into Grand Boulder City.
It wasn’t just cultivators from the local forces that patronized Grand Boulder City, but also those from far off lands. Snow Mountain Range produced a great deal of Ice Attribute spirit grasses and spirit medicines, so any cultivators in need of such items would come here seeking them. As such, many people would pass through here in order to acquire special local merchandise.
Grand Boulder City welcomed all visitors, but if you didn’t want to answer too many questions, you’d have to pay some Crystal Stones. This was also one of the ways Grand Boulder City made money, unofficially that is.
The various shops in the city were the real breadwinners of Grand Boulder City though.
The owners of these shops were mainly disciples of the several nearby Sects, and few outsiders managed to take roots here in Grand Boulder City.
Yang Kai strolled through the streets at a brisk pace; purchasing a number of herbs he needed as he passed through.
Although he had left most of his Crystal Stones to Ancient Demon Clan before leaving the Mysterious Small World, he still had quite a lot on him, at least enough for him to be considered quite a wealthy individual considering his cultivation realm.
Yang Kai also paid especially close attention to the materials needed to refine the Saint Grade pill the Ancient Demon Clan required.
Before leaving, Li Rong had told him this information, but what Yang Kai hadn’t expected was that the pill they needed was actually a Saint Grade Top-Rank pill.
Currently, he could barely refine Spirit Grade Low-Rank pills, so there was still a massive gap for him to cross before he could refine Saint Grade Top-Rank pills.
Along the way, having swept through a dozen or so shops, Yang Kai managed to haul in a decent harvest, piling up all kinds of herbs inside his Black Book Space.
When he came to a particularly large-scale shop, Yang Kai spent a lot of Crystal Stones to purchase many of the materials he needed.
“Little brother doesn’t look familiar, are you perhaps buying so many herbs to perform Alchemy yourself?” The grey-haired shopkeeper with an Immortal Ascension Eighth Stage cultivation sized up Yang Kai with great interest, stroking his beard gently as he asked.
“Old shopkeep, are you here to do business or inquire about news?” Yang Kai stared at him and asked with a smile.
The other party suddenly saying such words had inevitably made him a little vigilant, but in Grand Boulder City, law and order was relatively well maintained, so there wouldn’t be any disputes suddenly breaking out. Even if there was some kind of friction between cultivators, the dispute would generally be resolved outside the city.
As such, Yang Kai wasn’t the slightest bit worried.
“I was simply asking. If little brother doesn’t want to answer, you don’t have to,” The shop owner replied somewhat awkwardly, seemingly cognisant of Yang Kai’s vigilance. Not wanting him to misunderstand, he quickly continued, “But if little brother is an Alchemist, you can buy herbs here at a discount.”
“Discount? Why can I get a discount?” Yang Kai heard the words and became somewhat interested.
He had never heard at any of the other stores that Alchemist could receive a special discount.
Before the shopkeeper could answer, a nearby cultivator who was picking out herbs suddenly spoke up, “Because this shop was opened by the Alchemist Guild. As long the one purchasing things is an Alchemist, they can receive all kinds of preferential treatment. You didn’t know?”
As he spoke, he walked over and handed his chosen herbs to the shop keeper along with a Jade Token.
When Yang Kai snuck a peek at this Jade Token, he saw the word ‘Pill’ (丹) clearly engraved on it.
The shopkeeper took a look at the herbs and calculated the sale price before picking up the Jade Token and pouring a thread of True Qi into it. The Jade Token lit up and the shop keeper nodded slightly, “Spirit Grade Low-Rank Alchemist, according to the rules of the guild, you can receive a 20% discount.”
The man paid the required Crystal Stones to the shopkeeper and concluded the transaction.
After buying his herbs, the man left without looking back.
Yang Kai was dumbstruck.
“The Alchemist Guild is a force established by the world’s Alchemists. Only Alchemists are eligible to join but as long as one is a member of the guild, they will receive preferential treatment in any store owned or operated by the guild. On top of that, the guild’s stores are spread all over the world, so one can receive support from them in most major cities,” The shopkeeper explained with a smile.
“How did you know I was an Alchemist?” Yang Kai asked. The shopkeeper obviously knew he was intending on refining pills himself or he would not have asked such a question.
Now Yang Kai was somewhat curious, wondering how this Immortal Ascension Boundary Eighth Stage old man had seen through his status.
“Alchemists are unlike general cultivators. I’ve been tending this store for many years now and have seen plenty of Alchemists come and go. As such, I’ve developed a keen sense for this kind of thing,” The shopkeeper slowly shook his head, appearing a bit inscrutable. “Little brother is quite young, but from the herbs you’ve chosen so far, you should at least be a Mysterious Grade Low-Rank Alchemist, yes?”
Yang Kai neither confirmed nor denied this guess.
The old shopkeeper nodded in appreciation, “This old master has been studying Alchemy for many years but is still just a Mysterious Grade Top-Rank Alchemist. I really envy you.”
How far one could go in the Alchemic Way had a lot to do with natural aptitude.
“Grand Boulder City has a branch of the guild. If you want to buy herbs at a discount in the future, you should go there and get a Jade Token. Not only will you save Crystal Stones, but you’ll also be safer when you travel. Alchemists are highly valued everywhere, so as long as you can prove your status basically no one will find trouble with you,” The old shopkeeper said with a smile.
“Many thanks for your advice.” Yang Kai cupped his fists.
“You’re welcome.”
Outside the shop, Yang Kai became lost in thought.
The old shopkeeper’s words had undeniable interested him, buying herbs at a discounted price was quite attractive. Although he had a lot of Crystal Stones right now, even if he had enough to pile into a mountain, there would always come a day when he would exhaust his supply. Saving a little here and there would allow him to continue his studies that much longer.
However, what he was most concerned with was the influence the Alchemist Guild possessed, something that far exceeded any other force.
He had come to Tong Xuan Realm in order to find Su Yan and his Little Senior Sister.
However, this world was incredibly vast and he had little hope of finding them on his own.
It wasn’t like back in the Central Capital, where he had a large number of allies and subordinates who he could issue orders to in order to expedite the process.
Here, he could only rely on himself.
When Shui Ling and Yun Xuan invited him to join Water Spirit Temple or Bold Independent Union, Yang Kai had directly turned down their kindness.
At the time, Yang Kai had wanted to rely on his own strength to find Su Yan.
But now he realized that idea was somewhat impractical.
Using his identity as an Alchemist, couldn’t he find a force to join and then get that force to help him in his search?
Inside an inn, Yang Kai thought over the issue for a long time before eventually deciding to go to the Alchemist Guild to get a Jade Token. In any case, possessing this Jade Token would save him a lot of trouble in the future so regardless of anything else Yang Kai wanted to acquire one
Asking around Grand Boulder City, Yang Kai quickly found the location of the Alchemist Guild branch.
Standing in front of a magnificent Alchemist Guild building, it took a while before Yang Kai managed to come to his senses, shaking his head wryly.
Although he had long known that Alchemists were a group of super-wealthy people, Yang Kai hadn’t expected them to be rich to this extent.
The Alchemist Guild’s building, even just its exterior, was quite different from the other buildings in Grand Boulder City. One could literally see an aura of wealth radiating from it.
On the outside of the building, various images of ancient beasts were carved out of rare ores and infused with subtle energy fluctuations; obviously, these engravings comprised a powerful Spirit Array.
If someone dared to have any malicious intentions towards this building, they would undoubtedly suffer a big loss.
Glancing towards the interior, Yang Kai saw that the floors were all covered in thick red carpets and the walls were inlaid with various gemstones that glittered brilliantly.
The Alchemists who occasionally entered and exited all had faces filled with pride and arrogance as if they couldn’t wait for people to look up to and venerate them.
A top-rank Alchemist not only possessed incredibly wealth but also had a venerable status, this wasn’t just idle talk but an actual fact.
In the Central Capital, Alchemists and Artifact Refiners all had noble identities, and in Tong Xuan Realm, this status was only magnified not diminished.
“Little brat, what are you doing sneaking around here?” An angry voice suddenly rang out as a man glared at Yang Kai and questioned, “Which force do you belong to? Don’t you know where this is?”
“Hello,” Yang Kai’s expression remained unperturbed as he calmly explained, “I’m actually here to acquire a Jade Token.”
“Acquire a Jade Token… Are you an Alchemist?” Hearing these words, the big man glanced over Yang Kai and scanned him with his Divine Sense, soon nodding his head slightly, “En, good, the True Qi in your body has a strong Yang Attribute, but you seem a bit too young, did you just start practising Alchemy?”
“Haha, I indeed haven’t been learning for that long,” Yang Kai smiled and nodded.
“Good, come in,” The big man waved his hand and walked inward, motioning Yang Kai to keep up.
Along the way, Yang Kai couldn’t help feeling amazed. Just from glancing around at the outside of the building he knew that the Alchemist Guild was quite rich, but upon entering and really seeing the interior he knew this place was far wealthier than he had initially anticipated.
After learning that Yang Kai was also an Alchemist, the big man’s contempt for him decreased significantly and began to converse with him in an easy-going manner, “Since you want to be certified as a member of the Alchemist Guild, you must first pass our test. After doing so, you can receive a Jade Token that corresponds to your rank, but keep in mind that once you become a formal member of the guild, you must not take any action that could be deemed harmful to our Human Race. If you dare perform Alchemy for the Demon Race or Monster Race, don’t blame the guild for tidying you up.”
“*Cough*, of course, of course,” Yang Kai hurriedly nodded.
Silavin: 9 Chapters this week 😀
There was an email directed to me about the comments – those within the ( ) and I posted a feedback post on Discord.
Well, the result ended up with quite a landslide: 3 – 49 (3 being changed to post two separate versions and 49 being no change).
Anyways, I would like to hear the thoughts of you guys.
The big man had clearly just been warning him casually but unexpectedly he had actually hit the mark.
Yang Kai studying the Alchemic Way was mainly in order to perform Alchemy for the Demon Race. Moreover, it was specifically to help the Ancient Demon Clan, the servants of the Great Demon God who reigned supreme thousands of years ago!
Inside the Alchemist Guild, a light medicinal fragrance could be smelt everywhere. From time to time, Yang Kai could also feel a surge of hot Qi coming from different wings of the building, obviously there were Alchemists here practicing Alchemy at this very moment.
Following behind the big man, Yang Kai eventually arrived at a relatively remote room, “Wait here, someone will come to see you after a while.”
Yang Kai nodded slightly and sat down on a nearby chair.
This room wasn’t big and there wasn’t much furniture inside, it seemed almost like an empty storage room.
After waiting for two hours or so, Yang Kai was beginning to feel somewhat impatient when he suddenly heard a set of approaching footsteps.
Soon, the door was pushed open, and a young woman with a somewhat disgruntled look upon her face walked in. Turning to look at Yang Kai, she bluntly asked, “Are you the one who wants to join the guild?”
Yang Kai nodded, stood up, and asked, “Is it possible to start the test now?”
“How long have you been studying Alchemy?” The woman’s brow wrinkled, seemingly a little unhappy as she muttered.
“Not too long, as for exactly how long, I’m not certain.”
If it was about how long he had actually been practicing Alchemy, then the answer would be about a year and a half, but if he counted the time he spent studying the fundamentals, then it would be a bit longer. From the time he acquired the True Alchemic Way until now, about four or five years had passed, but during that time he would only study the mysteries of the True Alchemic Way on and off.
So when this young woman asked this, Yang Kai didn’t know how to answer.
“Trying to act all mysterious!” The young woman coldly snorted, apparently dissatisfied that Yang Kai had not given her a straight answer. Touching the Universe Bag at her waist, she fumbled around for a moment before pulling out an herb and handing it over to Yang Kai, bluntly explaining, “This is a stalk of Cold Star Grass a Heaven Grade Low-Rank material. Purify it into medicinal liquid for me.”
Yang Kai reached out and accepted this stalk of grass from her blankly and couldn’t help asking, “Purify it just like that?”
The young woman sneered, “If you can’t even do this much, then don’t even dream about joining the guild. Do you think just anyone is eligible to join? Only Alchemists above Heaven Grade are qualified to receive Jade Tokens. Quickly now, I’m also in a hurry.”
Saying so, she began muttering under her breath, “Master is really too much. Such a young kid, why didn’t he just drive him out, wasting my precious time!”
When Yang Kai listened to her quietly complaining, he couldn’t help but laugh.
He understood that this young woman was unhappy because his arrival had cut into the time she had to study Alchemy.
When an Alchemist was performing Alchemy, the most taboo thing was to disturb them, so this young woman being in a foul mood was something Yang Kai could understand.
However, her words and demeanor clearly indicated she was looking down on him, which made Yang Kai feel somewhat helpless.
It was likely she really thought he had just begun studying the Alchemic Way.
Thinking so, Yang Kai began circulating his True Qi, wrapping up and slowly infiltrating it into the Cold Star Grass.
Soon, a faint fragrance began filling the air and the young woman finally reigned in the contemptuous look on her face, focusing her attention on Yang Kai’s movements.
The Cold Star Grass appeared as if it was melting and quickly transformed into a liquid suspended above Yang Kai’s palm, all the impurities evaporating under the effect of his True Qi.
As time passed, the Heaven Grade Low-Rank Cold Star Grass was transformed into a pure medicinal liquid with a light green hue.
With Yang Kai’s current level of skill, purifying a Heaven Grade herb into medicinal liquid was as easy as flipping his palm. Even without a pill furnace or any supplementary Spirit Arrays he could completely remove all traces of impurities.
After roughly the time it would take to boil a cup of tea, the medicinal liquid was completely formed. When the young woman released her Divine Sense and examined it, her pretty face quickly showed a look of surprise as she turned to stare at Yang Kai with amazement.
“Is this alright?” Yang Kai asked.
He could have further purified this medicinal liquid, but he had not done so intentionally as he thought this level should be able to meet this young woman’s requirements.
“Let me ask you, what grade of pill are you capable of refining?” The young woman looked at Yang Kai seriously, only not discovering that she had apparently underestimating the ability of this little brat.
“Spirit Grade.”
“What!?” The woman yelped as she gawked towards Yang Kai incredulously.
“Spirit Grade Low-Rank, and I sometimes still fail,” Yang Kai added hastily, not daring to over-inflate his skill lest he attract unwanted attention. Unfortunately for him, Spirit Grade Low-Rank still seemed to be beyond this young woman’s ability to accept.
“Impossible! You only look about twenty years old, how can you already refine Spirit Grade pills?”
“I can demonstrate for you,” Yang Kai shrugged his shoulders.
The young woman stared at him deeply, seemingly wanting to see if he was just idly boasting, a moment later saying seriously, “You come with me. If you really have such ability, it’s no longer within my ability to assess you.”
She was just a Mysterious Grade Top-Rank Alchemist, how was she supposed to evaluate a Spirit Grade Alchemist?
Inside another room, the big man who had first greeted Yang Kai was staring at an ancient Alchemy book with a serious expression, engrossed in studying an old Spirit Array, a pensive look upon his face.
When his door was suddenly knocked, the big man lifted his head and indifferently called out, “What is it?”
“Master,” The young woman softly shouted, “It’s about the young man who wanted to join the guild.”
“Oh? Did he pass the test?” The big man asked.
“Well… not exactly…”
“No? Then don’t bother me, go attend to your own Alchemy studies.”
Hearing this off-handed remark, the young woman suddenly ground her teeth and proceeded to violently kick open the door, leaving Yang Kai somewhat stunned.
Seeing his young female disciple rudely burst into his room, the big man angrily slammed his fist on the table in front of him, “How improper! Actually ignoring the orders of your master, do you still put your master in your eyes?”
The young woman grumbled in annoyance, holding her arms akimbo as she shouted, “Master, didn’t you say this guy had just begun studying Alchemy?”
“That’s right, what’s the problem?”
“Then why can he refine Spirit Grade pills? My using a Heaven Grade Low-Rank Cold Star Grass to test him made me lose a lot of face!”
“Ah?” The big man was dumbstruck, standing up from his chair quickly, “He can refine Spirit Grade pills? Impossible! Little girl, you dare lie to me!?”
“I’ve brought the person in question here, whether he has such ability, you can verify it yourself,” The woman beckoned to Yang Kai, the latter letting out a sigh and bracing himself.
The big man stared at Yang Kai with a dignified expression and asked, “You claim you’re able to refine Spirit Grade pills?”
Yang Kai nodded sternly.
The look on the big man’s face became somewhat gloomy, “Boy, you understand that this is the Alchemist Guild? No matter which force you come from, if you dare spout nonsense here you won’t be leaving alive!”
Yang Kai rubbed his forehead and felt a headache coming on. All he wanted was to get a Jade Token, never had he expected the process would be so convoluted and tiresome.
“Forget it, I don’t need that Jade Token anyways, I apologize for bothering you. I’ll see myself out.”
“You dare!” The big man roared, his voice echoing throughout the nearby halls, sneering hard as he said, “You think the Alchemist Guild is a place you can casually come and go as you please? Trying to back out now just because you’re afraid of being exposed is impossible! I will prepare the materials for you and see how you refine Spirit Grade pills. If you are unable to satisfy me, heh heh…”
“I also want to see if you have such skill,” The young woman also sized up Yang Kai.
Yang Kai took a deep breath, and helplessly nodded.
“Mi Na, take out your Spirit Grade materials,” The big man fixed his eyes on Yang Kai as he issued an order to the young woman.
The young woman nodded gently and searched through her Universe Bag, a moment later withdrawing a pile of Spirit Grade materials and placing them gently onto a nearby table.
The big man also stretched out his hand and summoned a pill furnace roughly the size of his head onto his palm, turning to look at Yang Kai and saying, “This is my personal pill furnace, I spent eight years collecting the materials for it before commissioning a Saint Grade Artifact Refiner to forge it. It is capable of greatly increasing the chance of successfully forming a pill, so don’t even think of claiming I am trying to make things difficult for you. If you can’t manage to refine a Spirit Grade pill even with this pill furnace, I’ll make sure your head flies from your body!”
Having issues this ultimatum, the big man threw the pill furnace over.
Yang Kai reached out and grabbed it, sweeping his Divine Sense over it and nodding slightly.
The quality of this pill furnace was indeed very good, beyond that of any ordinary furnace he had seen before, and the Spirit Array engraved inside it also had the effect of enhancing the chance of successful pill formation. However, Yang Kai was keenly aware that the Spirit Array inside it was not complete and wasn’t capable of displaying its full effect.
“Here are five sets of Spirit Grade materials, you must succeed three times in order to pass my test, if you can’t, heh!” The big man sneered, waving his hand as he said, “You may start. I will be observing you closely so don’t think about trying to pull some kind of clever trick.”
Now that things had gotten to this point, it was impossible for Yang Kai to back out; setting down the pill furnace on the table, he began to carefully check the five sets of materials.
After a moment, his brow wrinkled and rearranged the position of a number of herbs.
The big man and the young woman both couldn’t help looking at him suspiciously, not understanding why he seemed so self-confident still. The materials had already been laid out in the optimum configuration so why had he changed their positions?
Not saying anything, the two simply stood there and quietly watched.
After a brief silence, Yang Kai began moving, adding one herb after another to the pill furnace in a methodical way, pouring his True Qi into the furnace to refine them into medicinal liquid, paying careful attention to use the right amount of heat and the proper timing.
Seeing this, the big man and the young woman’s expression brightened.
Just this series of preliminary actions allowed them to realize that this young man really had some skill and was not idly boasting. His steady technique and calm demeanor were clearly built upon a large amount of experience.
Soon, all the medicinal herbs were added to the pill furnace, and under Yang Kai’s precise control, a light medicinal fragrance gently wafted out.
The big man and the young woman’s eyes stared at Yang Kai without blinking, their expressions gradually becoming solemn, without a hint of their prior suspicion or contempt.
After about the time it would take to burn a stick of incense, Yang Kai reached out and patted the pill furnace and a round, golden yellow pill leapt from it. The big man reached out swiftly and drew the pill into his palm.
After carefully inspecting it, his eyes bulged as he muttered under his breath, “It really is a Spirit Grade pill.”
“Is this little brat really so fierce?” Mi Na was also dumbfounded. She hadn’t expected Yang Kai could really refine Spirit Grade pills. Even though it was just a Spirit Grade Low-Rank pill, it was still beyond her current ability.
“The medicinal properties are well preserved and none of the herbs’ medicinal essences were wasted. It’s only a step away from giving birth to Pill Veins, a pity,” The big man pined, as if he was somewhat regretful.
A Pill that developed Pill Veins had twice the medicinal efficacy as one that did not. Even if it was the big man who was a Spirit Grade Top-Rank Alchemist, he could only occasionally refine a single pill that possessed Pill Veins, and that was only under extremely good conditions while he was particularly lucky.
As for the legendary Pill Cloud, he had never even seen such a thing.
Holding this pill, the big man was rendered speechless for quite a long time.
After an hour or so had passed, Yang Kai had finished his Alchemy.
Out of the five sets of ingredients, a total of four pills had been successfully refined, but the last attempt had been a failure, something Yang Kai did deliberately.
By now, both the big man and the young woman were staring dumbfounded at Yang Kai, shocked beyond words.
“Master, did this guy use some kind of face rejuvenating technique? How else could he appear only twenty years old?”
“Unlikely. This should be his real age, yet how can he be so fierce?” Saying so, he turned to stare at the young woman, his expression a somewhat forlorn look upon his face.
“Master, why are you staring at me like that? I’ve been working very hard.” Mi Na felt aggrieved.
Her Alchemy aptitude was also quite outstanding, and she had acquired quite a bit of fame in the surrounding thousand kilometer range. All of the nearby forces were trying to invite her to be an Honoured Guest. Because of her talent, Mi Na had always been a bit conceited, but her pride had been thoroughly broken by the four Saint Grade pills lying in front of her.
While this master and disciple pair whispered to one another, Yang Kai did not deliberately eavesdrop, waiting until they seemed to have finished before asking, “Have I passed this test?”
Hearing Yang Kai’s question, the big man came back to his senses and let out a big laugh, smiling sincerely as he nodded, “Indeed, completely passed.”
“Then my Jade Token…”
“Rest assured, we will definitely issue you your Jade Token will, but before that, there’s someone you should meet. Wait a moment, I’ll call him now!” Saying so, the big man dashed out.
Now, inside the room, there was only Yang Kai and the young woman left.
Yang Kai was once again speechless.
“You’re really impressive!” The young woman said in heartfelt admiration, extending her hand without any of her previous contempt and solemnly said, “Let me re-introduce myself, my name is Mi Na, Mysterious Grade Top-Rank Alchemist and a member of Grand Boulder City’s Alchemist Guild branch.”
“Yang Kai,” Yang Kai laughed and gently shook her hand.
“Where do you come from?” Mi Na asked curiously.
“The west.”
Mi Na stared at him and pursed her lips, saying with a smile, “You’re quite vigilant aren’t you? Forget it, just pretend I didn’t ask.”
West of here was the Snow Mountain Range, Yang Kai saying he came from the west was obviously an arbitrary answer.
“Right, why did you change the configuration of those materials?”
“Wasn’t that part of the test?” Yang Kai was stunned.
Mi Na slowly shook her head, “They were arranged in what I thought was the best possible configuration, but after you changed it, it seemed that the refining process became smoother. Who taught you that?”
“It was just intuition…” Yang Kai replied somewhat nervously. He hadn’t thought much about it at the time and had just assumed that they had deliberately misplaced some of the herbs to examine his skill, but apparently that was not the case.
“Why did you arrange it like that? That pill recipe was taught to me by my master. Does that mean my master’s pill recipe was mistaken?” Mi Na knit her brows.
Yang Kai thought about it for a moment but decided not to conceal anything, carefully explaining why he had made those changes. Mi Na listened to him with sparkling eyes, suddenly feeling like she had greatly benefited.
The two of them soon entered into a discussion about the pill recipe in question. Meanwhile, outside the room, the big man and another old man lingered and listened. The more they listened though, the more surprised they became.
They had believed that pill recipe had been fully optimized, but after listening to and adopting the changes Yang Kai proposed, they discovered that it was indeed much better than the original one.
At the very least, if you they used Yang Kai’s method to refine that pill, it was possible to reduce the possibility of failure and increase the quality slightly while more fully utilizing the medicinal efficacies of the herbs.
“Where did you find this boy?” The old man asked as he stroked his beard, looking at the big man.
“He came here on his own,” The big man shrugged his shoulders, “Have we picked up a treasure?”
Not bothering to answer, the old man simply pushed the door open and walked in.
Upon hearing the movement of the door, Yang Kai quickly glanced over and saw the big man from earlier, as well as another sage-like old man enter.
Mi Na quickly introduced them to Yang Kai, “This is Old Man Du, Old Man Du is the manager of this branch and a Saint Grade Low-Rank Alchemist.”
Yang Kai couldn’t help drawing a quick breath and hastily paying his respects.
Du Wan smiled and nodded, “Little friend does not need to be so polite, everyone here will be one family from now on.”
“This is my master, you’ve already met him, he’s a Spirit Grade Top-Rank Alchemist.”
Ye Xiong grinned towards Yang Kai.
“Please sit down,” Old Man Du gestured.
After taking their seats, from who knows where, Mi Na pulled out a few cups of fragrantly scented tea and offered them to everyone. After taking a sip, Old Man Du smiled warmly and said, “I am already aware of why little friend has visited our Alchemist Guild branch today. Already capable of refining Spirit Grade pills, you are certainly eligible to have your own Jade Token. This old master will later officially send you a Jade Token on behalf of the Alchemist Guild.”
“Many thanks,” Yang Kai nodded.
“May this old master ask, which great master did you study under?”
As he asked this question, Du Wan’s gaze towards Yang Kai became brilliant.
When he had listened to Ye Xiong’s report earlier, Du Wan had just faintly felt that this young man was not simple, but after listening to many of his unique insights and opinions from the other side of the door, Du Wan suddenly realized just how extraordinary Yang Kai was.
Such insights were things even he was unclear about, so how could a mere boy understand them?
The only possibility was that someone of incredible skill had taught it to him.
Du Wan very much wanted to know which powerful master could teach such an outstanding disciple.
At such a young age, reaching the Peak Immortal Ascension Boundary and also becoming a Spirit Grade Alchemist, his background must be incredible and his teacher was no doubt an earth-shaking figure.
Although Old Man Du was a Saint Grade Alchemist and had an honoured status, there were still some famous Alchemist who surpassed him, not to mention the old monsters who hid in the mountains and forests all year round. These old monsters may not show up for hundreds of years but once they did, each of them had exceedingly profound methods and divine abilities that were capable of thoroughly astounding people.
Moreover, these old monsters were normally the type who would aggressively hide shortcomings and would send their disciples out from their places of seclusion at some point in order to gain life experience. These successors would often stir up a great storm within a few years of their appearance and become famous throughout the entire realm.
The young man in front of him called Yang Kai, in this respect, was quite suspicious.
He was already a Spirit Grade Alchemist, but there was no record of him in the Alchemist Guild, he didn’t even have his own Jade Token. This clearly meant he had only recently emerged from some very remote region.
When Old Man Du looked at Yang Kai, he could almost see the great monster hiding behind him, so naturally he would discretely try to inquire about Yang Kai’s true identity.
Ye Xiong and Mi Na also stared at him fixedly, apparently very interested in this topic.
“My master?” Yang Kai smiled and shook his head, “I don’t have a teacher, no one has formally taught me.”
“No master… hehe,” Old Man Du smiled lightly and didn’t mind. If he was able to dig up his background that easily, it would be strange. Instead, Yang Kai saying this just reinforced Old Man Du’s previous guess that the former had some kind of extraordinary backer.
However, these kind of silver lined words were a bit too naive.
Young people really didn’t know how to hide themselves.
These kinds of mysterious successors would not always openly announce their Master’s name or the Sect they belonged to when they went out for life experience. However, if one could establish a good relationship with such a person, it would be akin to establishing a connection with their formidable background as well, which would be hugely beneficial.
A hundred years ago, there was once a small force that had befriended such a mysterious successor. Ten years later, this force became enemies with another more powerful force and was madly suppressed, suffering heavy casualties, but overnight, that hostile forces was completely destroyed and disappeared entirely from Tong Xuan Realm.
Old Man Du was a Saint Grade Alchemist, so no one would seek trouble with him and he had no great personal enemies; he naturally didn’t want to rely on the power of outsiders to protect himself. What he valued was the master who had taught Yang Kai Alchemy. Such a person must be amongst the most powerful Alchemists in the world.
Old Man Du had been stuck at the Saint Grade Low-Rank for many years and his bottleneck showed no signs of loosening, but if he could get the direction of a powerful master, he might be able to gain some kind of enlightenment that would allow him to break through and become a Saint Grade Mid-Rank Alchemist.
“Where is little friend planning to settle down?” Old Man Du kindly inquired.
“I don’t know, I was planning to stay in Grand Boulder City for the time being,” Yang Kai shook his head, “I just came out from a very remote place and am not familiar with the world. I’m not afraid to admit to Old Man Du that before recently I didn’t even know the names of the great forces in this region and I had not even heard of the Alchemist Guild before today.”
Du Wan’s old eyes flashed brilliantly as he smiled and nodded, “Good good good, there’s nothing for you to feel embarrassed about. As long as little friend is still in Grand Boulder City, you can come to this old master to ask about anything you don’t understand. This old man will certainly answer your doubts.”
Yang Kai expression became slightly strange, not understanding why this Saint Grade Alchemist was so good to him.
“Old Man Du, can you let him live here in the Alchemist Guild?” Mi Na suddenly proposed.
Old Man Du said with a smile, “That depends on whether he wants to or not.”
“I can live here?” Yang Kai was stunned.
Mi Na quickly explained, “As long as you are an Alchemist, you can live here. The entire Grand Boulder City Alchemist Guild branch basically only has the three of us living here. Everyone else has hired themselves to one of the nearby forces and there will only be some Alchemist from other regions stopping over here to rest. Therefore, this place is relatively clean and quite, if you don’t have any particular destination, you might as well just stay here for now, en, if you stay here we can also compare notes on Alchemy techniques so all of us can benefit, how about it?”
Mi Na obviously hoped that Yang Kai would stay. The brief conversation the two just had already allowed her to benefit greatly, naturally she wanted to compare notes with him again.
“Then I’ll thank you in advance for your hospitality.” Facing such a warm offer and seeing Mi Na’s look filled with expectation, it was difficult for Yang Kai to turn them down. On top of that, he also felt that Old Man Du and Ye Xiong didn’t have any malicious intentions.
“Little friend, you are too polite,” Old Man Du smiled.
“However, I probably won’t be staying here for too long,” Yang Kai added.
“Whatever little friend likes, no need to feel constrained,” Du Wan said, next pulling out a Jade Token and handing it over to Yang Kai, “This is the identify token of my Alchemist Guild. With this, you can enjoy special benefits in any shop operated by the guild and if you ever find yourself in a dangerous situation, showing this Jade Token will normally allow you to turn danger into safety.”
“Many thanks, Old Man Du,” Yang Kai accepted the Jade Token and poured in his True Qi with a happy expression. Inside this Jade Token were some mysterious energy markings that allowed a person to easily identify who its owner was and what grade of Alchemist they were.
Five hundred kilometers away from Grand Boulder City, at the very edge of the Snow Mountain Range, there was a beautiful temperate landscape that seemed to be in a perpetual state of spring. In the midst of this landscape was a great valley that was dotted with a large number of buildings stood. From time to time, powerful cultivators would fly in and out.
This place was the foundation of a great force.
At this moment, in a secluded secret room, an old man who normally sat in meditative retreat year to year suddenly opened his eyes, a brilliant spark flashing across them. A curious expression surfaced on his face as he turned his gaze in the direction of Grand Boulder City and stared.
Just now, he had felt a vague energy fluctuation coming from that direction that was somewhat familiar.
After thinking about it for a moment, the old man formed a series of profound hand seals and gathered his energy at his fingertips.
A moment later, the old man reached out and stroked the air in front of him. A series of ripples appeared as the void seemed to split and at the center of this distortion a vague figure emerged.
The old man stared at this figure suspiciously, his expression becoming more and more puzzled. Silently recording the general characteristics of this figure, he was about to push his strength slightly more to get a clearer view when the void trembled slightly and the figure he was observing suddenly turned its head towards him, a look of vigilance and doubt appearing on its face.
“Such strong vigilance!” The old man was surprised.
The old man could tell the age and cultivation of this individual were not very high and yet even though he had used a powerful divine ability to spy on the latter from a few hundred kilometers away, he had actually still been noticed.
The next moment, the ripples in the air settled and the figure disappeared.
“Interesting,” The old man grinned, calmly calling out, “Cang Yan.”
The door to this secluded room was soon pushed open and a man with a reserved aura walked in, respectfully asking, “What is ancestor’s command?”
“Go to Grand Boulder City and invite this person to see me!” The old man reached out his finger and shot a thread of Divine Sense into Cang Yan’s mind, showing him a fuzzy figure.
“Yes, ancestor,” Cang Yan nodded solemnly.
“Good, treat him politely,” The old man purposefully reminded.
Cang Yan’s expression became a bit strange but he did not ask anything more, turning around leaving to prepare for his trip to Grand Boulder City.
Alchemist Guild.
Mi Na, who was consulting Yang Kai about the Alchemic Way, suddenly asked, “What’s wrong?”
Yang Kai’s brow wrinkled as he stared at a certain place in the air. Just now, he had faintly sensed that someone was spying on him and could not help shiver slightly.
However, when he tried to investigate, he found nothing.
“It’s nothing,” Yang Kai shook his head, though still puzzled in his heart. With the current strength of his Divine Sense, even if the one trying to spy on him was a Transcendent, he would still be able to trace them. Only if a Saint Realm master was secretly observing him would he not be able to find them, but why would such a master be staring at him?
Since he came to Tong Xuan Realm, Yang Kai had not contracted any enmity with anyone besides the Charm Monster, but she was already dead.
“Oh,” Mi Na stopped asking about it and continued her discussion about Alchemy with Yang Kai instead. Yang Kai also didn’t try to hide his ability by remaining silent and answered her questions as best he could.
Of course, he did not speak about some of the more profound secrets of the True Alchemic Way.
The True Alchemic Way was very likely a legacy left behind by the Great Demon God, revealing too much about it would only bring harm to himself.
After having stayed in the Alchemist Guild for more than half a month, whether it was Old Man Du, Ye Xiong, or Mi Na, all of them treated him like family, which warmed Yang Kai’s wayward heart.
However, Yang Kai noticed that, Mi Na aside, both Old Man Du and Ye Xiong often treated him a bit too casually, not having the attitude or demeanor a senior should have towards a member of the younger generation, making him feel out of place.
These days, Yang Kai had also been immersed in Alchemy, and the materials he had purchased were being rapidly consumed.
Before, in Demon God Citadel, Li Rong had provided all of the herbs he had used, so Yang Kai didn’t feel anything about it, but now that he was preparing his own materials for Alchemy, he suddenly realized just how astonishing this consumption was.
Even though he had a lot of Crystal Stones on hand, at the rate he was spending them it would not be long before he ran out.
However, in order to continue improving his skill in Alchemy, he had to constantly keep practicing.
“Mi Na, how do you ensure that you have enough materials to practice Alchemy?”
“Who asked you to be such a freak?” Mi Na rolled her eyes, “You’re rate of Alchemy is simply too fast. When my master refines Spirit Grade pills, he normally spends at least half a day, so at most he can refine two per day.”
Yang Kai was stunned.
“But I digress; the pills we refine can be sold for Crystal Stones which we can then be used to buy materials to continue practicing Alchemy.”
A light suddenly went off in Yang Kai’s head. The whole time he had been practicing Alchemy, he had never once sold his own pills, so he had completely forgotten about this option.
Because until now, Yang Kai had never had to worry about maintaining his own finances, he had never thought about how to make money.
Most of the pills he had on him now were Spirit Grade and whether it was in terms of quality or grade, they were well aligned with the needs of most cultivators, so he would certainly have no trouble selling them.
Under the leadership of Mi Na, Yang Kai came to the shop operated by the Alchemist Guild. The old shopkeeper who he had previous met gave Yang Kai a favourable price and the Crystal Stones he had spent before were not only fully recovered but he also made a significant profit.
After purchasing enough materials, Yang Kai returned to Alchemist Guild again.
Time flew by and another month passed.
After confirming that the people from the Alchemist Guild really had no malicious intentions towards him, Yang Kai decided to have a chat with Old Man Du.
Yang Kai didn’t plan on studying Alchemy in Alchemist Guild for a lifetime. His goal in approaching them was to obtain the distinguished identity of Alchemist in order to help him realize his goal of finding Su Yan and his Little Senior Sister.
“Little friend is looking for someone?” Old Man Du was surprised to hear Yang Kai’s words.
“En, my two Senior Sisters and my Martial Uncle,” Yang Kai nodded, not daring to reveal any news about Old Demon. Meng Wu Ya was Xia Ning Chang’s master so he could naturally be counted as his Martial Uncle.
Old Man Du eyes flashed as he suddenly thought that along with Yang Kai there were actually three successors to the latter’s great Alchemy Master, and obviously the identity of these two women was not simple as there was even an Elder accompanying them. On top of that, this Elder was likely even more accomplished than Yang Kai.
“If little friend wants to find someone, the guild can provide you with some help. This old man will send a letter to the other branches of the guild, if there is any news, I’ll be sure to inform little friend as soon as I receive it. However, the guild has many matters to attend to so the old man can only guarantee that the other branches will keep any eyes out for your Senior Sisters and Martial Uncle. If little friend really wants to find them, it would probably be best to find your own solution.”
“Many thanks, Senior, even that will be a great help,” Yang Kai replied sincerely.
Old Man Du hesitated for a moment, mulling over something for a while before finally proposing, “If little friend wishes to take a more active approach, this old man suggests relying on one of the nearby forces to help find them. As a Spirit Grade Low-Rank Alchemist, I don’t believe any Sect would refuse your, wherever you go you would be courteously received as a guest.”
“I also had this idea, but I am not familiar with the nearby forces and don’t know which one I should choose. I hope Senior can offer me some guidance!”
Yang Kai really wasn’t familiar with any of the nearby Sects so if he were to hire himself to one that had unscrupulous intentions, it would be difficult for him to later withdraw safely. If he wasn’t forced to by the situation, Yang Kai would not even have considered such an idea.
“I see,” Old Man Du nodded slightly, “Of the nearby forces, Bright Thunder Spirit Religion, Soaring Heaven Sect, Ancient Moon Cave, and Luo Sheng Sect are those with the greatest influence and strength. If you want to hire yourself to a force, you should pick from one of these four; however, I don’t suggest looking for Luo Sheng Sect, those people aren’t easy to get along with. As for the remaining three… En, this old man has some slight friendship with each of them, if you want to choose from among them, it really is a bit difficult for me to recommend one.”
“Can I choose any of these three forces?” Yang Kai asked spiritedly.
“These three Sects’ reputations are all quite good. Give this old man a few days to think about it before giving you an answer, alright?”
“Then I shall have to trouble you Old Man Du.”
“Little friend is too polite.”
The next few days passed by uneventfully, Yang Kai still practiced Alchemy every day and Mi Na would often come to him for advice.
One day, Old Man Du suddenly summoned him so Yang Kai put down what he was working on and went to the former’s room.
Yang Kai thought that Old Man Du had come to a decision about which of the local Sects he should look for but when he opened the door, Yang Kai found that there was actually an unfamiliar face present as well.
This man’s aura was restrained and a strong light could be seen in the depths of his eyes. When Yang Kai entered the room, this man immediately stared towards him with a look of intense interest.
A Transcendent Realm master! Yang Kai immediately thought, and judging from the faint pressure he felt he estimated that this man was at least a Second Order Transcendent.
“Old Man Du,” Yang Kai greeted.
“Little friend Yang, please sit,” Old Man Du smiled.
“This is the new member of the Alchemist Guild?” The man swept his eyes over Yang Kai curiously and asked.
“En, he is a Spirit Grade Alchemist with excellent aptitude,” Old Man Du answered seriously.
“Spirit Grade?” The man’s face changed abruptly, now staring at Yang Kai with some disbelief.
“This old master wouldn’t lie.”
“Naturally I trust Old Man Du,” The man replied hurriedly.
“Little friend, let me introduce you, this is Elder Duan Hai of Bright Thunder Spirit Religion.”
Yang Kai nodded politely, offering his greetings.
“This old master has some friendship with Elder Duan, and I don’t know where Elder Duan heard the news but he recently learned about you staying in the guild and quickly came here today to invite you to go to Bright Thunder Spirit Religion to serve as an Honoured Guest.”
Duan Hai smiled and said, “I haven’t been monitoring your Alchemist Guild or anything, it was just that when my Junior Brother came to Grand Boulder City the other day he happened to see Mi Na and this friend enter the guild together. My Junior Brother knew that Old Man Du and I share some friendship so he quickly pushed me to act, lest we move too slowly and allow him to be won over by someone else.”
Old Man Du let out a light chuckle.
Since Yang Kai first entered the Alchemist Guild, he had really only gone out once. It quite unexpected that this one outing allowed him to be discovered by someone interested in recruiting him. This could only be said to be a coincidence.
“Would this friend be willing to come to my Spirit Religion?” Duan Hai showed an expectant look to Yang Kai and asked. A Spirit Grade Alchemist was already a valuable asset, but what was especially noteworthy was that this person was very young so obviously his aptitude was extraordinary. If Duan Hai could truly recruit him into Bright Thunder Spirit Religion, in time it might be possible to cultivate him into a top Saint Grade Alchemist. This level of Alchemist had never once appeared in Bright Thunder Spirit Religion before.
This was a long-term investment.
But Duan Hai had such vision and boldness!