The next day, at dawn, Yang Kai, who was meditating, felt some movements from the room next door. Releasing his Divine Sense, he found that Cang Yan, Li Wan, and Fei Jian had quietly left, obviously heading towards Ascending Heaven Cliff to investigate the situation over there.
Fei Yu, on the other hand, after a night of excessive drinking, didn’t wake up at all and was currently lying on her bed in a slovenly manner, her robes only half covering her pure white thighs, causing Yang Kai’s vision to spin when he glanced over at her.
Shaking his head helplessly, Yang Kai silently crept over and covered her with the beddings in an attempt to maintain some semblance of modesty for his Martial Aunt.
It was not until noon that Fei Yu lazily got up, stretched, and walked over to the window, standing there quietly for a while.
“Hey, little Martial Nephew, let’s go out and have a look at the city,” Fei Yu suddenly suggested.
“But Cang Yan Martial Uncle said for us to wait here until they came back to the inn,” Yang Kai wrinkled his brow.
“Relax, in Floating Clouds City, there generally won’t be any danger, and even if a fight does break out, the City Lord’s Mansion’s people will handle it,” Fei Yu walked over and sat her enchanting bottom down next to Yang Kai leisurely, exhaling a fragrant breath as she continued to persuade him, “Come on, let’s go. It’s so rare we get a chance to come here, there’s no point if we just stay here in this stuffy room. Cang Yan and them may not be back for a few days, are we supposed to just sit here and wait the whole time?”
As she said so, Fei Yu unscrupulously wrapped her arms around Yang Kai’s, pressing her amazingly soft and elastic capital against his shoulder.
Yang Kai’s face went black, “Fine fine, let’s go, better than staying here and letting you take advantage of me.”
“Little bastard!” Fei Yu grit her teeth angrily.
The two took a moment to clean up before quickly leaving the inn and walking out onto the busy street.
Even if Fei Yu didn’t propose so, Yang Kai had planned to go out.
Old Man Du had said that because the Thousand Year Demon Flower was about to bloom, there would be a lot of excellent Alchemists and powerful cultivators from around the world gathering here. Where there were many people, there were many resources.
A variety of rare herbs, spirit grasses, and spirit medicines which were usually difficult to find would appear here.
Yang Kai needed to collect some of these herbs!
Although he was currently being provided herbs by Soaring Heaven Sect in order to practice Alchemy, he still needed to search for others, firstly for his own cultivation, and secondly for the Ancient Demon Clan.
When he left Demon God Citadel, Li Rong gave him a list of materials needed in order to refine the Saint Pill they required. After such a long time, Yang Kai had almost completely collected these herbs, but there were still some he had yet to find.
This time’s trip to Floating Clouds City was a rare opportunity.
Inside Floating Clouds City, there were many shops and cultivators, people flowed through the streets like a great river.
Fei Yu held Yang Kai’s arm intimately as they strolled through the streets, their handsome man and beautiful woman combination drawing many people’s attention.
“Martial Aunt, isn’t this a bit inappropriate?” Yang Kai felt more than a little uncomfortable. As they walked, he would occasional have some excessive physical contact, causing him some discomfort.
“How is it inappropriate? I’m responsible for protecting you; little bastard, you’re not going to tell me you’re reacting to your Martial Aunt, are you?” Fei Yu glanced at him and smiles sweetly.
Yang Kai shrugged his shoulders, “I’m a young man, and this is just a normal phenomenon.”
“Well, don’t stress yourself out over minor matters,” Fei Yu chuckled, seemingly enjoying herself greatly as she walked along and whispered quietly to Yang Kai.
Along the way, under her guidance, Yang Kai was able to accurately distinguish who belonged to the Demon Race and who was from the Monster Race.
In Tong Xuan Realm, the Human, Demon, and Monster Races dominated over all other races, with Humans being the most numerous, followed by the Demon Race, while the Monster Race had the least members.
The root cause of the scarcity of the Monster Race was the Beast Transformation Pond.
The Beast Transformation Pond was the core foundation of the Monster Race, when a Monster Beast reached a certain level of strength, they could assume human form with the assistance of the Beast Transformation Pond and obtain wisdom and sentience not inferior to a Human Race powerhouse.
It can be said that every Monster Race with a human form was a true master, this was very different from the other two races.
However, this was not the whole story. There were some formidable members of the Monster Races that innately possessed the ability to assume human form from birth, and some among the Monster Races with outstanding aptitude that could achieve human form without the assistance of the Beast Transformation Pond.
These were the true elites of the Monster Race, the apex powerhouses.
Yang Kai gained a great deal of understanding and insight through Fei Yu’s explanations.
Inside a shop owned and operated by Floating Clouds City’s Alchemist Guild, Yang Kai walked a few laps before wearing a helpless look.
He hadn’t found any of the herbs he was looking for.
“Little brother, I’ve seen you come around several times but never buy anything, could it be that the things in my shop aren’t to your liking?” The shopkeeper couldn’t help but ask.
Yang Kai shook his head, “These are all good things, but they’re not what I’m currently looking for.”
“Is little brother an Alchemist?”
Yang Kai nodded lightly and showed his Alchemist token. The shopkeeper took the token and investigated it for a moment before his expression became even friendlier, “I don’t know what this little brother is searching for, so if it is convenient, can you tell me? I can help keep an eye out for little brother that way.”
Nodding, Yang Kai casually reported the names of the herbs he was looking for.
The shopkeeper’s face became awkward and nodded, “The medicinal herbs little brother is searching for only grow in very specific environments and are as such, precious and scarce. Such things aren’t likely to appear in this store. If you want to obtain them, it won’t be easy. Little brother may wish to go to the Trading District to have a look, if you’re lucky, you might have some gains.”
“Trading District?” Yang Kai’s expression changed.
“Good, for this grand occasion, the City Lord and two Vice City Lords specially designated an area of the city where Alchemists from all over the world can exchange goods. There are many excellent Alchemists here who have collected rare and precious herbs they don’t have a use for and are willing to exchange for things they do need, little brother can go there and try your luck.”
“Where is the Trading District?”
The shopkeeper warm heartedly pointed Yang Kai in the right direction. Yang Kai nodded slightly and offered his thanks before he and Fei Yu left for the indicated district.
After half an hour, Yang Kai looked at an open square where a lively scene was taking place and couldn’t help showing a light smile.
“Does this place remind you of something?” Fei Yu couldn’t help asking, seeing Yang Kai laugh so strangely.
“En, some past events in my Sect,” Yang Kai replied casually.
The scene in front of him, with countless people setting up stalls and bargaining back and forth, reminded him of when he was just young, weak boy visiting the Black Wind Trade Market set up by High Heaven Pavilion, Storm House, and Blood Battle Gang.
This kind of buying and selling scene gave him the illusion he had gone back to those simpler times.
Of course, this Trading District was not surrounded by a forest or manned by Elite Disciples of the Three Sects.
After sweeping his eyes around, Yang Kai was shocked to discover that many of the stall owners here were actually Alchemist. They had hung their Alchemist tokens on their chests to reveal their identities.
There were also some ordinary cultivators who had obviously obtained good herbs when they were out adventuring who were waiting behind their booths for prospective buyers.
There were things to buy and things to sell, the whole scene was incredibly lively.
There were even people who hung signs asking for Alchemists to help them refine pills.
Everything here was basically related to herbs and pill, and a thick medicinal fragrance lingered in the air.
Yang Kai picked up his feet and began walking around, wandering back and forth between the various stalls.
It was a rewarding experience.
Many herbs that were all but impossible to find actually appeared here.
Most sellers also didn’t have any special requests for payment and most things could be bought with sufficient Crystal Stones.
Fortunately, Yang Kai had many Crystal Stones on him. Although the vast majority of his Crystal Stones had been left to the Ancient Demon Clan, what he kept on him was still enough for him to be considered wealthy.
Bargaining back and forth with these sellers, Yang Kai had soon acquired a few herbs.
During this process, Fei Yu played a big role. Yang Kai had never expected that this Martial Aunt of his would possess such phenomenal skill in this area, using her sharp wits and tongue, along with her own great beauty to mercilessly butcher these sellers, often allowing her to acquire these precious herbs at much lower prices than they were initially being sold for.
After half a day, Yang Kai had harvested quite a few precious herbs, and even some he required for the Ancient Demon Clan’s Saint Pill.
He was very satisfied.
“I helped you save a lot of Crystal Stones today, so how do you plan on thanking me?” Fei Yu held Yang Kai’s arm a little tighter as she asked with a sweet smile.
“Buy whatever drink you want.”
Fei Yu’s beautiful eyes flashed as she joyfully shouted, “Little Martial Nephew, you really know how to make your Martial Aunt happy!”
“But! You’re not allowed to get drunk! Otherwise, when Cang Yan and them return, they’ll complain.”
“I know,” Fei Yu curled her lips faintly.
As they were speaking thought, there was a sudden burst of excited voices not far from them, as if they crowd had discovered something incredible.
In the next moment, Yang Kai clearly smelt a faint fragrance fill the air. As soon as this fragrance entered his nose, he felt a cool, refreshing sensation all the way to his core!
Yang Kai and Fei Yu’s eyes simultaneously lit up as they exchange a quick glance. They knew that a real treasure had appeared.
Turning their eyes towards the place where the ruckus originated from, Yang Kai found that a noisy three layer crowd had already formed. Fortunately, through the gaps in the crowd, Yang Kai could still see a faint multi-coloured light bloom.
“Let’s go see,” Fei Yu said, pulling Yang Kai’s arm as she walked over to the crowd.
However, even after quite some effort, the two of them couldn’t squeeze their way through the crowd and instead could only listen to the other buyers calling out, “Brother, what are you selling this thing for?”
“Ten Saint Pills!” A slightly aged voice answered.
Immediately after these words were said, the crowd of people fell silent.
“Brother, isn’t that a too expensive? Saint Pills can’t be refined casually. In this world, there are only a handful of Alchemists capable of refining Saint Pills. You all of a sudden asking for ten, don’t you think that’s a bit outrageous?”
“That’s right, can’t you trade this thing for other herbs or Crystal Stones?”
“How about exchanging it for an artifact? I have a few Spirit Grade Top-Rank artifacts here you can choose from!”
“Ten Saint Pills, I only need ten Saint Pills. If you don’t have any Saint Pills, please leave.”
“Brother, can’t you stretch the rules a bit, don’t be so unreasonable.”
“This guy is simply too arrogant! Can this thing possibly be worth ten Saint Pills? Bullshit! I think this guy must have gone crazy from poverty.”
“Big brother, if you give this thing to me, I can be yours from now on, how about it?” A pretty voice called out.
“You immoral woman, don’t you have any sense of shame?” Someone immediately called out in disdain.
“Depending on your looks, you dare try to pull off such a scheme? You really don’t have any self-awareness.”
“It’s none of your damn business!”
The voices grew louder and the scene quickly became messier and messier.
“Scram!” A shockingly loud voice rang out, causing everyone’s eardrums to rattle, instantly silencing the crowd. Some of the weaker cultivators even had blood flowing out of their ears. Obviously, everyone being so noisy in front of his booth had cause the seller to become a little angry.
“I don’t want to repeat myself again, if you can’t meet my requirements, leave,” The seller said in a low but firm tone.
“Third Order Transcendent!” Some among the crowd shouted.
The faint aura emanating from the seller allowed everyone to realize just how high his strength was, causing many people who were hoping to take advantage of this situation to sigh and slowly receded.
At first glance it was obvious this seller was a fierce and decisive person who had seen more than his fair share of blood. Anyone trying to take advantage of him would surely end up with only more trouble for themselves.
However, there were still many people who stayed behind and continued to try to bargain with the seller.
Unfortunately, the seller always shook his head and insisted on his original price of ten Saint Pills.
Gradually, the number of people in front of the booth decreased until it became a nearly deserted spot.
Yang Kai and Fei Yu finally made their way to the front of the booth and upon seeing what was being sold, they eyes couldn’t help flashing.
In front of the seller was a palm sized pure white lotus that seemed to have been carved from the purest ice, but it was actually exuding a strong vitality from its blossom, while a faint fragrance wafted from it that gave both Yang Kai and Fei Yu a comfortable, pleasant sensation that affected even their Souls, allowing their thoughts to become clearer and sharper than normal.
[A rare treasure!] Yang Kai immediately concluded.
“Ice Heart Snow Lotus?” Fei Yu immediately called out in alarm, quickly squatting down and examining the ice lotus with her beautiful eyes before drawing a sharp breath, “Could this be over 10,000 years old?”
As soon as this statement came out, Yang Ka’s expression changed greatly.
[10,000 years!] No matter what herb it was, even the lowest most ordinary herb, if it could grow to 10,000 years of age, it would become a valuable treasure, not to mention this ice lotus which, from the start of its inception, was clearly not ordinary.
The face of the seller which had always been tranquil ancient well also moved slightly, turning his eyes to Fei Yu and nodding slightly, “Finally someone with some vision.”
Fei Yu smiled lightly, “It’s not that I am the only one who can judge the quality of your goods, it’s just those who have the knowledge don’t want to reveal the truth.”
Those who wanted this ice lotus would obviously not emphasize its value in the hopes that the seller’s eyes weren’t so keen so they could pick up a bargain.
“Are you really only willing to accept ten Saint Pills in exchange for this?” Fei Yu asked softly.
To which the seller nodded firmly.
Fei Yu shook her head and sighed, ten Saint Pills was a price she couldn’t pay. Saint Grade pills weren’t something that just anyone could refine; even Saint Grade Alchemists would also have a great chance of failure when refining one.
As such, Saint Grade pills were always expensive; with ten of them one would even be able to afford a small city!
For any ordinary cultivator, it would basically be impossible to see ten Saint Pills throughout their entire lifetime.
“Martial Aunt, can this thing nourish one’s Soul?” Yang Kai also had a sharp eye for treasures but after all, he was somewhat lacking in experience so he did not immediately recognize this ice lotus.
Fei Yu, on the contrary, was different. Although she was not Alchemist, she had lived many years so she had considerably broader vision and knowledge than Yang Kai. It wasn’t surprising she was able to recognize this Ice Heart Snow Lotus and its true age at a glance.
“En, it’s a rare treasure which can nourish one’s Soul,” Fei Yu nodded lightly, “You don’t even need to refine it into a pill, you can simply swallow it directly. Anyone who consumes such an Ice Heart Snow Lotus would experience a vast increase in the strength of their Spiritual Energy. But it’s strange, this thing is extremely hard to come by, why don’t you simply take it yourself and instead want to exchange it for ten Saint Pills?”
“I naturally have my own reasons,” The seller said bluntly, obviously not willing to explain any further, “Do you have enough Saint Pills? If you have them then we can make a deal now, if you don’t, don’t waste my time.”
Fei Yu pursed her lips slightly, her opinion of this seller dropping considerably.
Yang Kai pondered for a while then asked, “Can you give me a few days to gather that many Saint Pills?”
“How long do you want?” The seller turned his eyes to Yang Kai.
“Three days!”
“I can give you the time, but I can’t guarantee I won’t sell it by then,” The seller bluntly replied.
Yang Kai frowned, “But I only have one Saint Pill on me right now!”
“That’s your problem.”
Seeing the sellers inflexible attitude, Yang Kai didn’t bother saying anymore. A treasure which could nourish one’s Soul was something he really wanted, but in order to refine ten Saint Pills, even with his current proficiency in Alchemy, it would still take him some time to prepare.
At the very least, he would need to collect some herbs that were not lower than Spirit Grade Top-Rank grade, preferably Saint Grade.
With the assistance of a supplementary Spirit Array and the Myriad Drug Milk, Yang Kai was confident he could refine ten Saint Pills in three days.
Of course, the price he would need to pay would be massive as he would definitely waste countless materials along the way.
Just as he was considering whether it would still be worth it to do this, someone suddenly appeared beside him. Yang Kai turned to look at this newcomer and discovered it was actually a young man around his age with a handsome appearance.
The young man also glanced towards Yang Kai and as their eyes met, both of them couldn’t help feeling astonished.
Both of them felt that the other party’s strength was outstanding.
Fei Yu’s beautiful eyes also flashed as she stared at this young man curiously.
The young man suddenly showed a temperate yet enchanting smile, causing the world around him to seem a bit sunnier than before.
“This Ice Heart Snow Lotus is quite good,” The young man took back his gaze from Yang Kai and shifted his attention to treasure in front of him.
“Ten Saint Pills!” The seller still said indifferently.
“Good, I want it,” The young man nodded lightly.
Yang Kai and Fei Yu both wore stunned expressions, and even the seller seemed to be in a state of shock, frowning as he said, “Give me the ten Saint Pill first, then it’s yours.”
He obviously didn’t believe such a young man could suddenly come up with ten Saint Pills.
The young man’s sunny smile didn’t fade though as he casually tossed a Universe Bag to the seller, “Check it yourself, exactly ten. If you want more, I’m afraid I can’t help you.”
The seller released his Divine Sense to investigate, smiling happily a moment later. Standing up, he quickly packed up his stall and strode away, his figure soon disappearing without even saying a word.
Yang Kai and Fei Yu were both dumbfounded.
The young man on the other hand smiled lightly, reached out his hand which looked as fair as a young maiden’s and carefully picked up the Ice Heart Snow Lotus, placing it in another Universe Bag before nodding to Yang Kai in a friendly manner, “I would seem I’ve been rude to this friend, seizing something you were after. I hope you can forgive me, after all, everyone wants good things.”
“Not a problem,” Yang Kai nodded lightly, not showing any intention of haggling with the youth over this.
He couldn’t afford to purchase the ice lotus while the other side could, there was really nothing more to say.
“En, goodbye then,” After the young man said it, he quickly disappeared into the crowd.
“That kid… What kind of background does he have?” Fei Yu said after a long period of absentmindedness, still somewhat stunned, “Ten Saint Pills, he didn’t even blink.”
“He should have an incredible background,” Yang Kai stared at the direction in which the youth disappeared, “On top of that… he’s a very high level Alchemist himself.”
“How do you know?” Fei Yu asked curiously.
“His fingertips had a fragrance of pills, and that fragrance was from Spirit Grade pills, probably from immersing himself in Alchemy all year round.”
Fei Yu couldn’t help covering her mouth in shock, “Doesn’t that mean he’s on the same level as you?”
So young, but able to refine Spirit Grade pills, that was not something an ordinary person could accomplish. Mi Na was also a Spirit Grade Low-Rank Alchemist, but she was older than Yang Kai.
But the youth from a moment ago looked to be about the same age as Yang Kai.
“No,” Yang Kai shook his head with a solemn expression, “He might even be better than me.”
This time, Fei Yu was so shocked she couldn’t speak.
Originally, she had thought a monster like Yang Kai would only appear in this world once every hundred years, but now, just after arriving in Floating Clouds City, she had actually met another one.
“However… he looks like a genuine gigolo, while I’m not!” Yang Kai suddenly grinned proudly, obviously taking pleasure in others’ misfortune.
Fei Yu shook her head in amazement, “You… he’s just a bit more handsome than you.”
“If he grew out his hair, I’m sure he would definitely be mistaken for a beautiful young woman, hahahaha!” Yang Kai laughed heartily, a man growing into such an appearance was in itself a kind of sadness.
“Let’s go see if there’s anything else good before heading back,” Yang Kai said, beckoning to Fei Yu, the latter hurriedly following after him with a somewhat dissatisfied look upon her face, “Hold on, you said you’d treat me to anything I want to drink, were you lying to me?”
“We can buy what you want and take it back to the inn to drink.”
After that, it was as if the pair had used up all their luck, so even after wandering around the Trading District for two hours they didn’t encounter anything good.
Just as they were preparing to head back to the inn, Yang Kai and Fei Yu saw a new stall go up and the person behind it take one precious herb after another from his Universe Bag.
Yang Kai couldn’t help having some expectations seeing this. This person seemed to be an Alchemist as he had an Alchemist Guild Token on his chest, and although he couldn’t tell this person’s grade just from that, the herbs the latter was taking out were all rare treasures.
“Let’s go take a look,” Yang Kai said to Fei Yu, walking over and standing in front of the booth, waiting quietly for the seller to take out all his wares.
The people around the area also seemed to have discovered something going on here and soon many people had gathered around. As a result, the Alchemist’s business was red hot and his herbs were quickly snatched up.
When the audience saw that this seller’s Universe Bag was finally empty, they couldn’t help feeling disappointed.
“Wait a moment please, my companion is on his way and he too has a lot of good things on him,” The seller hurriedly said.
Hearing this, everyone’s enthusiasm picked up once again and no one left, all of them crowding in even closer as they looked forward to what else would be for sale.
“Friend, where did you and your companion obtain all these treasures. They all seem to be quite well aged,” Someone asked curiously.
“Heh heh, I might as well tell you, we actually accidentally found a Mysterious Small World. There was nothing in there except for some herbs though, all of which we harvested and brought here to sell.”
“Your luck is really good,” Many envious people looked on and muttered.
Mysterious Small Worlds came in all shapes and sizes; for instance, the Mysterious Small World where the Ancient Demon Clan resides is relatively large. As for some of the smaller ones, their entrances were normally well hidden, but if one could find one, it was quite possible they would be able to find treasures left over by ancient cultivators. On top of that, some Precious Treasures and rare herbs may naturally grow in these Mysterious Small Worlds and reach a very old age as no one was there to disturb them. Of course, there was also a chance there would be nothing inside such a small world. Everything depended on the luck of the finder.
Despite the many years Tong Xuan Realm had existed and the countless cultivators who sought out these hidden Mysterious Small Worlds, there were still many places that had yet to be discovered. These Mysterious Small Worlds were uncultivated virgin land and any one of them may contain incredible wealth.
The Alchemist behind this stall and his companion were obviously very lucky to have found such a space.
This alone was enough to make the crowd envious.
After a while, another middle-aged man came over and, just as the Alchemist before him, he began taking one rare herb after another from his Universe Bag.
Every time he took something out, it would lead to a flurry of people trying to snatch it up.
Those who had come to the Trading District to find herbs generally had higher vision than average buyers, so they naturally would not miss such a great opportunity.
The scene was so lively that the Alchemist and his companion had to split the work, one of them handling the sales while the other received Crystal Stones, keeping the both of them quite busy.
The two men were also quite honest and upright and didn’t take this opportunity to sell their wares at an inflated price, instead only selling them for slightly more than the market value. This increased all of the buyers’ enthusiasm and willingness to participate.
Yang Kai had been paying attention the whole time but was in no hurry to purchase anything.
Although these herbs were all rather precious, he had yet to see something he really needed.
Suddenly, the Alchemist’s companion took a fiery red orb that resembled a small burning fireball. As soon as this thing appeared, the surrounding air took on a scalding heat. Everyone felt this change and realized the potency of the medicinal properties contained within this thing, quickly noticing that there were even a lot of dense lines atop its surface which resembled a cultivator’s meridians.
Yang Kai eyes light up the moment he saw this and quickly reached out his hand!
At the same time, many people who were able to judge the quality of this item also stuck out their hands. In an instant, more than a dozen big hands grabbed towards this red herbs.
Fei Yu silently stamped her foot on the ground and an invisible wave of air centered around her suddenly spread out.
This stealthy eruption of a Third Order Transcendent power forced all of the rivals Yang Kai was competing against to stumble backwards.
In that instant, Yang Kai and Fei Yu exchanged a glance, both of them smiling lightly in understanding.
The next moment, Yang Kai’s hand caught the round fiery herb, but what he had not anticipated was that there was another hand that caught hold of it from the opposite side as well.
Of everyone present, only Yang Kai and this challenger had not been affected by Fei Yu’s little trick.
Looking up at the owner of this hand, Yang Kai’s face couldn’t help showing an astonished look while Fei Yu was also quite surprised.
This person was actually the young man who had bought the Ice Heart Snow Lotus with ten Saint Pills earlier. The opposite party also grinned back at Yang Kai when he noticed who his competitor was.
After everyone else regained their balance, they all shot bad looks towards Fei Yu, but upon seeing the opposite party was actually such a beautiful woman, all of the anger in their hearts failed to materialize.
“Heh heh, looks like there’s going to be a good show,” Someone who saw the dispute between Yang Kai and the young man couldn’t help laughing.
Everyone else’s attention was also drawn towards this standoff, each of them guessing who would be the one to win this precious herb in the end.
“Friend, we meet again,” The young man smiled at Yang Kai and showed a dazzling white smile.
“Indeed,” Yang Kai also laughed, his brow rising slightly, “Do you also want this thing?”
“I believe I said earlier that everyone wants good things.”
“There are so many good things around, you shouldn’t need to keep grabbing the same things as me, right?” Yang Kai said in an easy-going manner, seemingly wanting to persuade this youth to give up.
The youth however just shook his head, “There are certainly many good things here, but nothing I want, I only want this Earth Fire Core.”
“What a coincidence, so do I.”
“Then what should we do?” The young man frowned, he also hadn’t anticipated encountering such a situation so he turned to the seller and asked, “Shopkeep, do you have another Earth Fire Core?”
The seller slowly shook his head, “There’s only this one, the two of us exhausted all our strength searching that small world and only found this after digging several thousand meters down.”
Earth Fire Cores would only appear underground in places with significant amounts of flame energy, and even in such environments they would still be a rarity. It was called a fire core because it was formed by gathering a great deal of subterranean flame essence and had many wondrous uses.
It also happened to be one of the herbs Yang Kai needed to refine the Saint Pill for the Ancient Demon Clan, but although he didn’t know what this young man needed the Earth Fire Core, it was obvious he wasn’t willing to give up on it.
“Hey, friend, you should lighten your grip, if you use any more force, this Earth Fire Core just might break,” The young man’s expression changed as he noticed that unlike last time, Yang Kai’s attitude was quite determined, feeling things had become somewhat difficult.
“You as well!” Yang Kai smiled lightly, hesitating for a moment before saying, “You bought that Ice Heart Snow Lotus a moment ago so you’ve already made a big gain today, why compete with me of this Earth Fire Core still?”
“This and that are two different things,” The other party kept shaking his head, “How about this, if friend is willing to take a step back, I can compensate you for your loss. How about I offer you a price equivalent to this Earth Fire Core?”
Yang Kai shook his head firmly and said, “If you are willing to take a step back, I can compensate you instead.”
“Heh heh!” The young man laughed somewhat hollowly, a look of helplessness appearing on his face.
“You two, arguing like this is bad for my business, can you please decide who is going to buy it already?” The seller was also a bit embarrassed and tried to move the situation along.
“Wait a moment, I’ll try again to convince this friend to give way,” The young man said lightly.
But before he could open his mouth to continue persuading Yang Kai, someone suddenly pushed his way through the crowd and after shooting everyone a disdainful glance, stuck out his hand and grabbed towards the Earth Fire Core, arrogantly saying, “You two don’t have to fight anymore, this Earth Fire Core now belongs to this Young Lord.”
Yang Kai and the young man’s faces both changed simultaneously. In order to compete for this Earth Fire Core, both of them had use the largest amount of strength it could withstand, if anyone were to add any more strength to their grasp, the Earth Fire Core would be immediately ruined.
As such, before this newcomers hand had even reached the Earth Fire Core, both Yang Kai and the young man took action at the same time, both of them using their free hand to send out a punch.
The newcomer was also a young man, but from the expensive robes he was wearing it was clear he had a superior identity and strong background.
After being knocked backwards, the new young man became angry and grinned fiendishly, “You two dare attack me? Your courage isn’t small! Don’t you know who I am? No one dares fight with me in this Floating Clouds City!”
“I don’t give a damn who you are, if you dare stick your hand out again, I swear I’ll chop it off.” The young man who was competing for the Earth Fire Core with Yang Kai suddenly said savagely. Regarding his contest with Yang Kai, he could still remain calm as both of them relied on their own strength and methods, but this person suddenly showing up and butting in made him somewhat unhappy.
Yang Kai’s eyes also flashed; he didn’t speak any words but his aura became dangerous.
The gathered crowd of people suddenly became agitated upon seeing this.
“Two little brothers,” The seller’s face changed greatly after he glanced over at the newcomer and whispered, “This is Young Master Nie Cong, you can’t afford to offend him.”
“Does he have some kind of strong backer?” Yang Kai asked offhandedly, he had already noticed that many people around him were giving him looks of pity when they saw Nie Cong arrive. Many had also started to distance themselves.
The cultivation of this Nie Cong wasn’t high having only reached the Immortal Ascension Boundary Sixth Stage, nothing to fear, so it must be that the power behind him was worth caring about.
The seller’s face became somewhat flustered as he quietly looked over at Nie Cong and saw the other side wearing a smug look, apparently not having any intention of stopping him. Seeing this, the seller immediately realized that Nie Cong wanted him to report his identity to these two little brats who didn’t know the immensity of Heaven and Earth so they would take the initiative to withdraw and apologize.
The seller let out a long breath and began explaining, “Two little brothers should have recently arrived in Floating Clouds City so it is not surprising you are unaware. Floating Clouds City has one City Lord and two Vice City Lords, all of them Saint Realm masters; one of the Vice City Lords is called Zhou Liang, a master from the Human Race and he had a favoured woman named Nie Chu Feng, who is also a First Order Transcendent. This Young Master Nie Cong is the nephew of Nie Chu Feng.”
“I see,” Yang Kai nodded at the same time as his competitor. Behind this Nie Cong was a Saint Realm master who was also an overlord of Floating Clouds City, no wonder he was able to act so arrogantly in front of all these people without any fear.
Now that his identity had been revealed, Nie Cong sneered dismissively and said, “Do you now know who this Young Lord is? Since you know, hand over the Earth Fire Core, if you put it down now, I’ll be generous and allow you to leave safely.”
Yang Kai asked back blankly, “Isn’t fighting forbidden within Floating Clouds City?”
The seller wore a bitter expression as he stuttered, “Little brother must be joking, this place not allowing fights is true, but such rules only apply to most people, there are still a small number of people who are outside this rule.”
As he spoke, he glanced over at Nie Rong intentionally or unintentionally.
This Nie Cong obviously belonged to the latter category.
“Do you know how grave your situation is now?” The young man Yang Kai was competing with suddenly said, “If you know, you should let go of this Earth Fire Core, otherwise, if you stir up this Nie Cong’s anger, I’m afraid you won’t be able to leave here safely.”
“Then why don’t you let go first?” Yang Kai turned his eyes back to the pretty youth and smiled.
The young man just grinned back at him, “Why you… I really don’t know if you know how to write the word dead?”
“I don’t know if I’ll be the one to die first, or if it’ll be you?” Yang Kai didn’t back down.
Fei Yu’s beautiful eyes shimmered as she kept a close watch on the quickly evolving situation, secretly condensing her True Qi in case she needed to take action.
As the two youths argued, Nie Cong’s expression became quite ugly. He found that these two kids didn’t fear him at all even after learning about his identity and background and were instead still fighting over ownership of the Earth Fire Core while ignoring him.
This made him very sullen.
Stepping forward, Nie Cong firmly declared, “I don’t care where you brats come from or what kind of background you have, but in this Floating Clouds City, only I have the last say.”
Saying so, he once again reached out for the Earth Fire Core, his True Qi gathering in his hand, apparently holding the mentality that it would either belong to him or be destroyed.
Yang Kai immediately became angry and did not hesitate to punch towards the outstretched hand.
At the same time, the youth opposite Yang Kai also sent out his own attack.
Nie Cong suddenly froze in place, his face filled with disbelief.
In the next instant, with a great splash of blood, Nie Cong’s hand was severed from his wrist and before it could even fall to the ground had burst into a bloody fog.
With a pitiful scream, Nie Cong stumbled back, blood bursting from his new wound, creating a spectacular red fountain.
The onlookers also called out in shock, none of them having anticipated seeing such a scene.
Although Yang Kai’s punch contained a substantial amount of force, it had still only been meant to push Nie Cong back, the one responsible for cutting off the latter wrist was the young man Yang Kai had been competing with. Without the protection of Nie Cong’s True Qi, his severed hand then directly exploded under the influence of Yang Kai’s attack.
The seller’s jaw dropped as he wore an expression of utter disbelief.
“You… you dare hurt me? You bastards, I’ll kill you!” Nie Cong didn’t come to his sense for a while but the moment he did, seeing his stump hand, his eyes instantly went bloodshot as he rushed towards Yang Kai and the young man in a hysterical rage.
Yang Kai remained indifferent and simply stared back at him coldly.
The youth opposite him went one step further and coldly said, “I told you, if you dare reach out for it again, I’d cut off your hand.”
Nie Cong once again froze up as he felt a chill run up his spin and penetrate his heart, his eyes wavering.
“If you dare take one more step, I’ll kill you!” The young man threw out this threat.
Nie Cong’s expression twisted as he did his best to endure the humiliation he felt in his heart before yelling, “Just you wait!”
Having left this threat behind, Nie Cong flew off, leaving a trail of fresh blood behind him.
Yang Kai’s eyes flashed dangerously but quickly suppressed his idea of cutting weeds and pulling out roots before glancing over at his competitor.
The scene was so quiet one could hear a needle drop. Everyone’s eyes were focused on Yang Kai and the young man. Some of them had expressions of pity while others were taking pleasure in their misfortune, while still others had thoughtful looks, wondering what kind of strong backing these two had that allowed them to not fear a Saint Realm master.
“Two little brothers, you…haa!” The seller was speechless, all he wanted to do was sell some herbs but now it had actually turned into such a mess.
“Sorry about that, I got a little too excited,” The young man smiled before turning to look at Yang Kai, “Stirring up such trouble, aren’t you afraid?”
“You’re clearly not afraid, so why should I be?” Yang Kai grinned meaningfully.
“Interesting, I suddenly found that I quite like you.”
Yang Kai’s face went black, “I’m not interested in men.”
The young man quickly realized the ambiguity in his words and waved his hands in a flurry, “You misunderstand me, I just think that your temperament is quite to my taste, how about we become friends?”
“Good, give me this Earth Fire Core first.”
The youth couldn’t help gritting his teeth and going silent for a while before finally saying, “If we continue like this, neither of us will ever give in.”
Yang Kai nodded gently. Strictly speaking, he also noticed that he and his opponent’s personalities were somewhat similar. When people of similar dispositions have a dispute, it is often difficult for them to resolve things due to their similar methods of handling affairs. Of course, this also led to them being able cooperate quite smoothly with one another like how they had just dealt with Nie Cong. In truth, Yang Kai was not the only one just now who had wanted to cut weeds and pull out roots, the youth also had such thoughts flash across his mind.
“Is friend an Alchemist?” The young man asked with a smile.
“En, just like you.”
“Since we’re both Alchemist, and this dispute is over an herb, how about we settle things with an exchange of pointers?” The young man narrowed his eyes and proposed.
“Good!” Yang Kai nodded slightly, his expression overflowing with confidence.
“Great!” The other party nodded repeatedly as he laughed, “Then we have a deal, whoever wins this contest gets to keep the Earth Fire Core. Before then, we’ll let this beautiful girl hold on to it.”
Saying so, he glanced over at Fei Yu.
Fei Yu smiled and let out a light giggle, “Young man, you really know how to talk.”
“Just stating the facts!”
Fei Yu smiled even wider.
After asking the seller about the price of the Earth Fire Core, Yang Kai and the young man both handed over half the required Crystal Stones and bought the Earth Fire Core before turning it over to Fei Yu, who smiled and said, “Little Martial Nephew, although Martial Aunt wants to help you, since you’ve already agreed to settle this with a contest of skill, Martial Aunt will act fairly and present this to the winner. If you lose, don’t blame Martial Aunt, a real man must keep his word.”
“En,” Yang Kai nodded, “Let’s first find some place quiet, there seems to be a few too many people here.”
The young man happily agreed.
Seeing their nonchalant attitude, the seller couldn’t help calling out, “Two little brothers, you should hurry up and leave Floating Clouds City, after injuring Young Master Nie Cong, if you don’t leave now, I’m afraid you’ll never be able to, him withdrawing just now was definitely to find reinforcements.”
“It’s not a problem,” The young man shook his head lightly before turning to Yang Kai, “Let’s go to your place, it’s not convenient for others to come to where I’m staying.”
Yang Kai shrugged his shoulders and nodded before he and Fei Yu led the way back to their inn.
Only after the three of them had left did the seller shake his head and sigh, “Two lunatics.”
“What are you so worried about? Them acting so fearless must mean they have an incredible background. Perhaps this time, Nie Cong has gotten in over his head, heh heh,” The Alchemist companion of the seller whispered softly. Apparently, he didn’t have a very good impression of Nie Cong and hoped these two young strangers would teach him a harsh lesson.
His words also resonated quite well with the surrounding crowd, many of them who were idle at the moment choosing to follow after the three ‘lunatics’ in hopes of seeing this good show continue.
Back at the inn, inside Yang Kai and Fei Yu’s room.
After stepping inside, the young man took a quick glance around before giving a slight nod and extending his hand to Yang Kai while introducing himself, “Di Yao, how should I call this friend?”
“Yang Kai,” Yang Kai didn’t hesitate to give his real name as he shook the outstretched hand before turning to Fei Yu, “This is my Martial Aunt, Fei Yu.”
“Did you come here for the Thousand Year Demon Flower?”
“En, you as well?”
“Indeed, but my purpose is different from yours, so you don’t have to worry about me trying to snatch the Thousand Year Demon Flower’s medicinal essence from you, it may even be possible for us to cooperate.”
“Cooperate?” Yang Kai’s brow furrowed slightly, “Cooperate how?”
“Let’s not mention this for now, we can always talk about it when the time comes. Just, perhaps you won’t be able to reach Ascending Heaven Cliff as easily as you think,” Di Yao smiled lightly, “Let’s first deal with the matter at hand.”
“How should we do this?” Yang Kai sat down cross legged and took out his Incense Burner.
This Incense Burner was the reward he obtained from the third page of the Black Book; whenever Yang Kai performed Alchemy he would generally use this pill furnace.
When he saw the Incense Burner, Di Yao’s eyes couldn’t help shining, “Friend is a real master, being able to use such a small pill furnace is quite rare.”
Alchemists, when refining pills, needed to portray various kinds of Spirit Arrays inside their pill furnaces to assist them in the Alchemy process. The larger the pill furnace, the easier it is to portray a Spirit Array, and the less precise the Spirit Array would have to be.
Conversely, a skilled Alchemist didn’t need to use a large pill furnace to portray the required Spirit Arrays. To some extent, the smaller the pill furnace used by an Alchemist, the superior that Alchemist’s skill was.
As he made this comment, Di Yao also took out his own pill furnace.
His pill furnace was exquisite, with carvings of dragons and phoenixes all over its surface. It was a high quality item that obviously stemmed from the hands of an Artifact Refining Grandmaster. Its size was also just about the same as the one Yang Kai used.
In comparison, Yang Kai’s pill furnace seemed a bit quaint compared to this one, but anyone with any kind of vision could tell that his Incense Burner was a higher grade item.
Di Yao stared at Yang Kai’s Incense Burner with a look of envy.
His pill furnace was given to him by his master and it was actually a world famous pill furnace. It had been used by Di Yao’s Alchemy Master when the latter was young. Di Yao had thought that there was no pill furnace in the world better than his own, but now he had actually discovered one.
“Let’s have a single round Alchemy Technique contest. No matter what pill you refine, we only look at the grade and quality of the pill as well as the time used to refine it.” Di Yao composed himself and laid out the contest’s rules.
“Agreed,” Yang Kai nodded succinctly.
“Then let’s get started,” Di Yao cracked his neck and in the next instant became focused, quickly taking out a number of herbs from his Universe Bag.
At the same time, Yang Kai’s hands also started moving, pulling one kind of rare herb after another from the Black Book space, each of their ages and efficacies reaching the highest standard.
An invisible aura condensed inside the room as the two young men both reached the height of concentration as they arranged their ingredients and began circulating their True Qi, warming up their pill furnaces as they portrayed their chosen Spirit Arrays.
Fei Yu’s beautiful eyes couldn’t help flashing as she stared at their movements, covering her mouth in shock as clear signs of admiration appeared on her face.
She quickly found that the actions of the two young men in front of her were surprisingly consistent and the speed at which they engraved their Spirit Arrays was essentially equal.
In this world, there was someone of the same age who was actually able to compete evenly with her little Martial Nephew in Alchemy? Who exactly was this Di Yao?
Fei Yu was shocked and soon became immersed in watching their performance, even going so far as to silence her breath so she wouldn’t disturb their concentration.
After just ten breaths of time, the Spirit Arrays inside both pill furnaces had been perfectly drawn and the two young Alchemists simultaneously picked up one of their chosen herbs while pushing their True Qi.
Yang Kai’s True Qi carried a strong and pure Yang Attribute which was scorching hot like the sun while Di Yao’s True Qi, similar to Cang Yan’s, was of a burning hot Flame Attribute. Both of them were perfectly suited for Alchemy.
The herbs quickly dissolved under the effects of the pair’s True Qi and medicinal liquids were rapidly produced, the various impurities being burned away and evaporated as a visible rate.
Medicinal liquid, like spring raindrops, danced through the air inside the two young men’s swirling True Qis and with every rotation increased in purity and density.
The two young men’s hands both waved and the condensed medicinal liquid fell directly into their respective pill furnaces.
A second herb was taken by each of them at that moment and the process began repeating itself.
Fei Yu’s eyes flashed with a brilliant light as she stared fixedly at these two.
She found that the hearts of these two young men in front of her were now completely immersed in Alchemy, neither of them responding to or even aware of the world around them, such dedicated focus was truly remarkable.
Men who were completely serious always had a unique and distinctive air about them.
Seeing this, Fei Yu’s brow furrowed slightly as she suddenly came to the understanding that these two youths would definitely become grand figures in the future and reach a height others could only look up to in awe.
Time passed slowly, and the room gradually filled with an enchanting pill fragrance.
The two young men’s True Qi wrapped their respective pill furnaces tightly at that moment in preparation for the final stage of refinement.
Suddenly, Di Yao wore a happy expression and a smile appeared on his lips. Reaching out, he opened his pill furnace and a round golden pill flew out and was immediately caught.
Inspecting the quality and grade of the pill, Di Yao nodded with satisfaction, although he had been rushing himself and was quite nervous, he had still managed to perfectly display all of his Alchemy skills.
Nearby, Yang Kai also seemed to have reached his final step.
Fei Yu couldn’t help becoming nervous. Yang Kai had fallen behind in terms of refinement speed, so if he couldn’t surpass this Di Yao in terms of quality, he would lose.
The Alchemy contest between these two young Alchemists was coming to a head, causing Fei Yu to feel almost breathless.
Just after Di Yao successfully refined his pill, Yang Kai also patted his pill furnace with his hand and a brownish pill flew out which Yang Kai quickly caught.
“Impressive!” Di Yao sincerely complimented, from the aroma wafting from Yang Kai’s pill furnace, he could tell that the pill Yang Kai refined was without a doubt Spirit Grade, as for the specific rank it was, he would have to see it in order to make a proper judgement.
What was most incredible though was that Yang Kai’s speed was not inferior to his own.
Regarding the speed Di Yao could perform Alchemy, he had put in a great deal of effort to reach his Master’s high requirements.
From the moment he gained awareness of the world around him, Di Yao had followed his Master and studied the Alchemic Way as they crossed mountains and plains. Every day, he would listen attentively to his Master’s teachings and receive hands-on guidance, taking nearly two decades before finally reaching his current level of achievement. So the question was who was the master of this youth he had just met? Who was capable of raising such a talented disciple?
Di Yao was now really interested in Yang Kai, his eyes filled with curiosity, but also a strong determination not to lose.
“When it comes to refining speed, you’ve won. I’m impressed.” Yang Kai’s expression was light, not showing the slightest emotional fluctuation because of this little loss, “Let’s compare the quality and grade of our pills then.”
Di Yao smiled and opened his hand, presenting the pill he had just refined to Yang Kai, confidently declaring, “Spirit Grade Top-Rank!”
“What a coincidence, I also refined a Spirit Grade Top-Rank pill!” Yang Kai opened his hand and said.
Hearing this, Fei Yu let out a light sigh.
The two of them had refined the same quality and grade of pill, but Di Yao had used slightly less time to do so, the result of this competition was clear.
“Hahaha, I won!” Di Yao laughed happily.
“Not necessarily,” Yang Kai slowly shook his head.
“Do you want to renege on our deal?” Di Yao’s expression abruptly became gloomy as he stared at Yang Kai with cold eyes, his True Qi showing some signs of welling up.
“Of course not, take a look yourself,” Yang Kai also shook his head lightly before tossing over the pill he had just refined. Di Yao grabbed and turned his eyes suspiciously towards it, but in the next instant, his eyes bulged as he called out in shock, “Pill Veins?”
The pill refined by Yang Kai just now had a myriad of tiny lines atop its round surface. These lines closely resembled the meridians within a human’s body and inside them a powerful medicinal efficacy flowed. Listening carefully, it was almost as if Di Yao could hear the medicinal power coursing through these Pill Veins.
The medicinal efficacies of this pill had undoubtedly been refinined to the extreme by Yang Kai.
“How can this be?” Di Yao couldn’t believe his eyes as he stared fixedly at this pill.
Yang Kai on the other hand wasn’t in any hurry and simply waited quietly. Fei Yu’s face also lifted as she swept away her prior nervousness and replaced it with a bright smile.
After a short while, Di Yao took a deep breath and straightened his half collapsed self-up before turning a complex look towards Yang Kai, “You’re really fierce!”
Regardless of whether this pill giving birth to Pill Veins was due to Yang Kai’s luck, they very fact that it had meant the latter’s Alchemy technique was unquestionably profound. If Yang Kai didn’t refine the pill’s medicinal efficacies to their fullest extent, even with great luck, forming Pill Veins would have been impossible.
Once a pill formed Pill Veins, its value would be multiplied several times.
It was for this reason that highly skilled Alchemists would pursue the birth of Pill Veins when they refined pills, because if they succeeded, the efficacies of the ingredients used would be magnified several times.
Even Di Yao’s Master couldn’t refine pills that gave birth to Pill Veins as he pleased; only when he was in a perfect state was it sometimes possible to do this.
Pills with Pill Veins had always been considered treasures by cultivators, and were often capable of saving their lives in the most critical of situations, placing them on the same level of trump cards.
“I lost,” Di Yao took a deep breath, calmed the unwillingness in his heart, and once more wore his usual sunny smile, calmly admitting his defeat without the slightest bit of grievance.
Yang Kai simply smiled back at him.
Fei Yu made the final announcement, “Since this little brother admits defeat, this Earth Fire Core now belongs to little Martial Nephew and myself.”
“Good, since I am willing to gamble I am prepared to lose, it’s yours,” Di Yao nodded lightly.
Fei Yu handed the Earth Fire Core to Yang Kai and the latter quickly stuffed it into his Black Book space.
“Friend, may I take the liberty to ask, who is your teacher?” Di Yao asked with a hopeful grin.
“I can’t say,” Yang Kai shook his head; it was actually the truth he couldn’t say anything about this subject.
“I understand.” Unexpectedly, Di Yao didn’t continue to inquire, instead just nodding easily and saying, “These powerful masters aren’t normally willing to expose their identities.”
Yang Kai stared at Di Yao thoughtfully as he suddenly realized that this youth must have been taught by a powerful master. It was highly probable that the Master behind him was an Alchemy Grandmaster who was famous throughout the realm.
“I have a presumptuous request, would friend be willing to agree?” Di Yao looked at Yang Kai sincerely.
“What request?”
“Can I take this pill away with me?”
“Feel free,” Yang Kai smiled faintly.
A Spirit Grade Top-Rank pill with Pill Veins was quite expensive, but it was still slightly inferior to the Earth Fire Core. Moreover, this Di Yao fit quite well with Yang Kai’s personality and after openly competing against him he naturally didn’t care about such minor gains and losses.
“Many thanks!” Di Yao was overjoyed and quickly stored the pill away.
“Martial Aunt, can you help me pour some tea? I want to talk a little bit with Brother Di a little more,” Yang Kai asked Fei Yu. It was rare for two such people to meet like this so Yang Kai also had the intention to make friends with Di Yao.
Yang Kai had very few male friends he could speak openly with while he actually had a considerable number of ‘close’ female friends. When he thought of this, Yang Kai couldn’t help feeling a bit ashamed.
“I’m afraid you won’t be able to calmly drink tea right now,” Fei Yu didn’t move, her pretty face suddenly wearing a chilly expression.
Yang Kai blinked once and quickly realized that the trouble he had been expecting had come. Outside the inn where he was currently staying there was a group of people rapidly approaching, they had yet to arrive but their murderous intent could already be felt.
“He really went and found reinforcements?” Di Yao just shook his head.
“Kid, I don’t know what you are relying on, but since this mess was something you provoked on your own, don’t expect others to help you. One of Floating Clouds City’s Vice City Lords, even I can’t afford to offend such a character,” Fei Yu said with a smile.
“Don’t worry, I didn’t plan to bring you into this matter,” Di Yao said, walking to the window and glancing out; but after seeing the situation, he simply whistled in admiration, “There sure are a lot of people.”
Turning around, he called out to Yang Kai, “Brother Yang, I hope we have a chance to chat again another day. En, you must go to Ascending Heaven Cliff and condense the medicinal liquid of the Thousand Year Demon Flower, it will have great benefits for you. I’m looking forward to working with you!”
Yang Kai expression changed and was about to ask what Di Yao meant, but before he could open his mouth the opposite party had already leapt from the window.
“This little kid…” Fei Yu lazily leaned against the window and looked at the situation down below while helplessly shaking her head.
“He seems to know some secrets that others don’t,” Yang Kai frowned, Di Yao’s last words before he left had piqued his attention.
This trip to Floating Clouds City was mainly for the medicinal liquid of the Thousand Year Demon Flower which could greatly assist Transcendent Realm masters break through to the Saint Realm, but listening to the meaning of Di Yao, simply condensing the medicinal liquid would also have benefits for Yang Kai.
But it was just condensing medicinal liquid, how could that bring any benefits to him? Yang Kai simply couldn’t understand.
Standing at the window and looking out, Yang Kai saw the street below the inn was now completely crowded with people.
Most of these people had come from the Trading District. Knowing there would be a good show here, they had come early to stake out good seats in preparation to watch the fun.
Still others had gotten word of this event and had hurriedly made their way over.
The rest of the people were cultivators brought by a beautiful middle-aged woman. This beauty was emitting a fierce aura, her pretty face twisted in anger as she ground her teeth menacingly.
Beside this beautiful woman was the one handed Nie Cong. He was silently rubbing his stump arm while staring at Di Yao with extreme hatred.
“Hey, this guy has some guts, not only did he not run away, but he even showed up on his own initiative,” Seeing Di Yao jump out all on his own surprised many in the crowd.
“Like I said, this little brother must have a very strong background so he doesn’t fear that bitch Nie Chu Feng!”
“Who cares how strong his background is? Strong dragons don’t oppose local snakes, this is Floating Clouds City, and I still think this brat is more unlucky than lucky.”
“This little brat really doesn’t have a sense of discretion, actually provoking Nie Cong. Everyone in Floating Clouds City knows that Nie Cong is doted upon by that bitch, only a foreign genius would dare act so unscrupulously. With her nephew losing a hand, how could Nie Chu Feng possibly just let things go?”
There was a constant buzz amongst the crowd as everyone talked about the relationship between Nie Cong and Nie Chu Feng. These voices did not escape the ears of the middle-aged beauty though and only caused her murderous intent to rise as she swept her eyes coldly around the onlookers.
Everyone hurriedly shut up, for fear of getting into trouble.
“Was it you who took the hand of my nephew?” Nie Chu Feng stared at Di Yao and asked in a cold voice.
“En,” Di Yao nodded casually.
“Why would you do such a thing?” Nie Chu Feng asked as she grit her teeth hard.
“I warned him. He didn’t listen, so I acted,” Di Yao shrugged his shoulders and snorted, “Anyone who dares to destroy my herbs is my enemy, I show no mercy to my enemies!”
“Your courage isn’t small!” Nie Chu Feng sneered, “A trivial herb, can it compare to my nephew’s hand?”
Di Yao expression became cold, “What thing is your nephew? Can his life compare to the herb I want?”
“Aunty, don’t talk nonsense with him, let me kill him!” Nie Cong snarled.
Nie Chu Feng stared deeply at Di Yao and asked in a cold voice, “There were two of you who dared attack my nephew right? Call that other brat out, I’ll send both of you off on the road together.”
“A real man takes responsibility for his own actions, this matter is mine and mine alone,” Di Yao slowly shook his head.
“Good,” Nie Chu Feng took a deep breath, her full rich peaks heaving up and down as she spoke icily, “How do you want to die? Tell me and I can grant it as your last request.”
“I don’t want to die!” Di Yao smiled, not showing the slightest signs of nervousness.
“That’s not something you can decide anymore,” Nie Chu Feng slowly raised her jade hand and gathered a green True Qi into her palm. In an instant, a putrid scent filled the air, causing anyone who smelt it to have the urge to vomit.
Nie Chu Feng was a First Order Transcendent, and although this level of cultivation was not very strong considering the whole of Tong Xuan Realm, she could still be counted amongst the ranks of the Transcendents.
Di Yao, like Yang Kai, was still just a Peak Immortal Ascension Boundary cultivator, so the gap between their strengths was still quite large. The moment Nie Chu Feng began condensing her True Qi, Di Yao’s face became dignified.
Not waiting for this woman to attack, Di Yao quickly raised his hand and threw something over to Nie Chu Feng.
Nie Chu Feng’s eyes flashed as she reached out and easily caught this object, her beautiful face changing abruptly upon seeing what it was.
“Golden Dragon Token?” Nie Cong also called out in surprise.
“No wonder he dares act so crazy, it turns out this little brat has the Golden Dragon Token of Floating Clouds City,” Fei Yu suddenly understood, her beautiful eyes fixedly staring at the token in Nie Chu Feng’s hand, her red lips pursing lightly.
“His background really isn’t small,” Yang Kai smiled.
Anyone who held the Golden Dragon Token of Floating Clouds City was considered a VIP of the City Lord’s Mansion. Although Yang Kai didn’t know Di Yao and Floating Clouds City’s City Lord were related, he had still heard about the tyrannical methods of this Demon Race’s Saint Realm master, Ao Gu.
After recognizing the Golden Dragon Token, Nie Chu Feng’s murderous intent and momentum deflated like a popped balloon, her beautiful eyes staring in shock towards Di Yao as she asked, “Where did you get the Golden Dragon Token?”
She was somewhat dubious about how such a young man could have any relationship with Ao Gu.
However, Di Yao just shrugged his shoulders, “Senior Ao Gu gave it to me, if you don’t believe me, you can ask him yourself.”
“I will indeed ask,” Nie Chu Feng’s expression became somewhat uncertain, beckoning to a nearby cultivator before ordering him, “Go and ask Zhou Liang Vice City Lord about this.”
“Yes!” The man replied firmly before flying off quickly.
The scene suddenly stagnated and the audience began whispering amongst themselves again, many of them finding it difficult to hide their surprise.
Nie Chu Feng looked Di Yao over, her eyes flashing a complex light; this boy suddenly taking out the Golden Dragon Token had really made things somewhat difficult for her.
“Aunty, you have to help me kill him!” Nie Cong lowered his voice and glared hatefully towards Di Yao.
“Stop. He has the Golden Dragon Token!” Nie Chu Feng slowly shook her head and frowned.
“What of it?” Nie Cong bit his lip so hard it bled as he muttered under his breath, “Since he has the Golden Dragon Token, I have to swallow the insult of losing my hand? No matter what, I want him to die today!”
Nie Chu Feng opened her mouth and was about to try persuading her nephew once more, but when she saw Nie Cong’s pain and aggrieved face, her heart couldn’t help filling with anger.
From infancy to maturity, Nie Cong had grown up under her care and had never suffered the slightest grievance. In this Floating Clouds City, as soon as the name Young Master Nie Cong was reported, anyone and everyone would bow politely and flatter him, he had not once encountered a situation where he could not obtain what he wanted.
But today, one of his hands had been cut off and destroyed.
“Do you really want him to die?” Nie Chu Feng’s beautiful eyes gradually revealed a dangerous light.
“He must die or my hatred will never be soothed!”
“Good, then aunty will help you!” Nie Chu Feng’s expression became cold as she immediately made up her mind. In order to kill this brat, she had to end everything before Zhou Liang arrives, otherwise, it would be impossible for her to act.
As for what this brat’s true identity was and what kind of relationship he had with Ao Gu, once he was dead, none of that would matter.
As long as Zhou Liang said a few words to sooth Ao Gu’s anger, he could calm the situation down sufficiently; after all, this young man was just a guest of Ao Gu.
For such a person, especially after he died, would Ao Gu risk having a conflict with Zhou Liang?
Thinking so in her heart, Nie Chu Feng no longer hesitated, the green True Qi once again emerging from her tender body and before anyone could respond, transforming into a viper and shooting towards Di Yao.
Di Yao’s face changed abruptly, hot True Qi pouring out of his body rapidly, setting the air around him ablaze and forming a three-layered barrier.
The green serpent opened its teeth and broke through this blockade of flames easily before continuing to press towards Di Yao. From the mouth of this snake, a putrid aura sprayed out, instantly corroding Di Yao’s Flame Attribute True Qi.
In the blink of an eye, all of Di Yao’s True Qi defences were broken, and the snake arriving in front of him. Di Yao’s pupils shrank and his body flickered, barely avoiding this fatal blow.
Before he could catch his breath though, from the ground below his feet, a number of green snakes burst forth and tightly encircled him, attacking from all directions.
Di Yao’s flustered look suddenly became calm and he activated an extremely profound movement skill, allowing him to disappear like a ghost, leaving behind multiple after-images as he once again dodged this assault.
The audience uttered a string of exclamations, none of them having anticipated that this young man could still remain safe under Nie Chu Feng’s attack.
Before everyone could recover from their shock though, from the third story of the inn, an earth-shaking eruption of True Qi burst forth, sending out a series of ripples visible to the naked eye. These ripples seemed to contain some kind of extremely mysterious power and the moment they contacted the deep green snake, the latter stagnated and was gradually being suppressed.
In the next instant, a dazzling light, like the blade of the sharpest knife, split into ten strikes and slashed down from the sky above.
As if the sun and the moon had exploded, a brilliant flash of light that blinded everyone in the vicinity shot out and the putrid green True Qi snake was eviscerated without leaving behind a single trace.
After everyone recovered their sight, they found that there was another young man now standing in front of Di Yao, the very one who had previously been competing for the Earth Fire Core in the Trading District.
“Brother Yang…” Di Yao stared at Yang Kai’s back, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly, a slightly unwilling look appearing on his face.
The eruption of power a moment ago made him realize just how absurd Yang Kai’s combat power was. Di Yao had originally thought that as an Alchemist like him, it was impossible for Yang Kai to possess impressive fighting strength, but now it was clear that the other side’s combat prowess was actually far greater than his own.
Inferior in terms of Alchemy and weaker in terms of strength, it was unavoidable that Di Yao felt somewhat aggrieved.
Yang Kai also frowned, feeling a bit of helplessness himself.
If possible, he had wanted to avoid getting involved with this trouble, but from the way Nie Chu Feng and Nie Cong were acting, even if he didn’t show up, he knew they would come looking for him sooner or later.
It could be said that the moment he had competed with Nie Cong for the Earth Fire Core, this grudge could only be resolved by force.
Knowing Soaring Heaven Sect’s four Protectors couldn’t compete with a Saint Realm master from Floating Clouds City, Yang Kai could only place his hopes on Di Yao.
This kid was always acting mysterious, so he definitely had some kind of background to rely on, hopefully, it would be enough to solve this problem.
Realizing this, Yang Kai decisively took action.
Fei Yu also fluttered down from the window and stood in front of the two kids with a begrudging smile on her face, muttering through her clenched teeth, “Little brat, you really know how to stir up trouble.”
Di Yao just curled his lips in response, “She can’t kill me.”
“Oh? So young yet already possessing such a bold tongue, your temper is really just like my bastard Martial Nephew’s here,” Fei Yu smiled.
“Aunty, those two are his companions,” After seeing Yang Kai, Nie Cong stared at and quickly pointed to Yang Kai and Fei Yu.
Yang Kai’s expression was indifferent. In truth, back at the Trading District, he had only forced Nie Cong to take a few steps and had never actually wounded him. However, the other party seeking vengeance for even this made him feel quite helpless.
“Rest assure, aunty will help you seek revenge,” Nie Chu Feng pretty face became chilly as she waved her hand and shouted, “Kill them all!”
With this one command, the cultivators she brought with her all pushed their True Qi and rushed towards Fei Yu and the others.
Fei Yu’s smile didn’t fade in the slightest even when the dozen or so cultivators crashed towards her, not showing the least bit of alarm. A gentle strength pulsed from her body in the next instant and in the blink of an eye the entire area was filled with a dense mist.
This mist rapidly condensed into thousands of water droplets and under Fei Yu’s exquisite control short out in all directions, intercepting all of her would-be attackers.
“Third Order Transcendent?” Nie Chu Feng pretty face changed once more.
When Fei Yu attacked just now, Nie Chu Feng realized the huge gap in strength between them and immediately understood that today, it would not be possible for her to help Nie Cong get his revenge.
Among the people she brought, the most powerful was a single Second Order Transcendent while two others were First Order Transcendents, the rest were just Immortal Ascension cultivators.
Such a force was certainly not enough to challenge a Third Order master.
Her expression growing increasingly hazy, Nie Chu Feng’s fury nearly drove her mad!
For so many years, no one in Floating Clouds City had ever dared to disobey her. Because she received Zhou Liang’s asylum, even Third Order Transcendent masters would treat her courteously.
But now, the situation had grown completely beyond her control.
This hateful group of outsiders had enough guts to ‘act like a fool in front of their lord’, they must really be impatient to die.
*Xiu xiu xiu…*
The water droplets surged forth with uncommon momentum and knocked back all the cultivators who had attacked just now, sending most of them to the ground, crying in pain. Only the three Transcendents managed to emerge relatively unscathed.
This was all because Fei Yu had no intent to kill them; after all, this was someone else’s territory, giving these people a lesson so they would back down was enough for now.
After witnessing Fei Yu’s methods, the three Transcendents who had just escaped all wore ugly expressions as they stared towards this beautiful woman with fear and dread.
“Still want to play?” Fei Yu smiled lightly as she teased, “Big sister here may not be so gentle next time.”
“Aunty!” Nie Cong called out in an aggrieved voice.
Nie Chu Feng’s expression fluctuated and was uncertain about how she should proceed from here when suddenly an angry shout rang out, “All of you stop this instant!”
At the same time, this voice reached everyone’s ears, an incredible pressure descended like a great mountain falling from the sky, causing everyone’s breath to stagnate.
Immediately after, a figure appeared in the distance and rapidly approached, soon landing right in the middle of the square.
Nie Chu Feng’s beautiful eyes lit up as she quickly squeezed out a smile as if she had just seen her saviour, calling out hurriedly, “Zhou Liang!”
Zhou Liang glanced at her faintly before immediately turning his eyes away and focusing on Di Yao who was standing behind Fei Yu and Yang Kai and quickly walking toward him, his expression quite gloomy.
The eyes of Fei Yu and Yang Kai narrowed, feeling like they were being stared at by a vicious snake, finding it difficult to even swallow.
Nie Chu Feng was incomparably excited as she thought Zhou Liang was going to personally vent her grievances for her. Gently patting Nie Cong’s head, she silently signalled him that everything was all right now.
Nie Cong wore a sinister smile as he opened his eyes wide and stared. He wanted to see just how these fools who provoked him would die.
Zhou Liang doted upon Nie Chu Feng greatly. Any time this beauty made a request to him, he would always carry it out, so naturally, this time would not be any different.
Nie Cong was full of confidence as he smiled grimly while taking pleasure in these bastards’ misfortune.
Under the stern look and quick approach of Zhou Liang, Yang Kai felt as if he had been suppressed by the other party’s momentum, a cold chill running up his spine, unable to move at all.
A Saint Realm master, two Great Realms above his current cultivation. If Zhou Liang really wanted to kill him, Yang Kai wouldn’t be able to resist, and even Fei Yu wouldn’t be able to escape this catastrophe.
Di Yao, who was still standing behind Yang Kai, whispered softly at that moment, causing both Yang Kai and Fei Yu to be shocked.
Zhou Liang ignored Yang Kai and Fei Yu completely, went straight up to Di Yao, and hastily asked, “Has Young Master Die been injured?”
His tone of voice was filled with concern and urgency, and even some faint nervousness and fear, it seemed like to Zhou Liang, what he was most worried about was whether Di Yao had suffered any harm in the previous battle.
The audience was stunned, Nie Chu Feng’s smile went stiff on her face, and Nie Cong could do nothing but stare dumbfounded with his jaw dropped.
“Nope, I’m fine,” Di Yao casually shook his head.
“That’s good,” Zhou Liang let out a sigh of relief, his face finally relaxing as the wrinkles on his brow smoothed, in the next instant gently comforting, “Young Master Die must have been frightened. This Zhou Liang was negligent and hopes Young Master Di won’t take offence.”
Di Yao just smiled lightly and waved, “It’s fine.”
Zhou Liang next turned to Yang Kai and Fei Yu, gently nodding as he asked, “Are they friends of Young Master Di?”
“En,” Di Yao smiled and replied, “New friends.”
Zhou Liang’s look instantly became friendly as he nodded towards Yang Kai. “En, good, very good. Since you are a friend of Young Master Die, that makes you an honoured guest of my Floating Clouds City. You can rest assured that I will give you an explanation for this mess!”
After saying so, Zhou Liang’s face became cold and his aura became chilly as he turned around the walked towards Nie Chu Feng.
Nie Chu Feng was still recovering from her initial shock; her eyes were somewhat dull as the scene in front of her really went beyond her ability to accept.
Although Di Yao had previously shown her Ao Gu’s Golden Dragon Token, that should only have meant he was a guest of Ao Gu. Why was Zhou Liang so polite to him then, even going so far as to flatter him?
Was the force behind this young man something that made even Zhou Liang fearful?
When she finally managed to compose herself, Zhou Liang was already standing in front of her.
“Uncle Zhou…” Feeling Zhou Liang’s anger, Nie Cong went pale and his knees began to tremble as he called out.
*Pa…*
A loud slap rang out and Nie Cong was sent flying, spinning a few times through the air before he hit the ground and instantly fainting.
“Zhou Liang, what are you doing?” Nie Chu Feng’s beautiful eyes gradually restored their clarity and upon seeing Nie Cong being slapped across his face, she cried out.
*Pa…*
Another crisp slap rang out and a clear handprint appeared on Nie Chu Feng’s pretty face as a trickle of blood left her lips.
Covering her cheek with her hand in shock, Nie Chu Feng trembled fearfully as she stared at the man who had always doted upon and favoured her, suddenly feeling like this person had become a complete stranger.
The coldness on Zhou Liang’s face made her feel like she had been dropped into an icehouse as the blood in her heart froze up.
“Lowly slut, do you have any idea what you’ve done?” Zhou Liang asked coldly.
Nie Chu Feng was dazed and could only shake her head.
“Ignorant woman!” Zhou Liang eyes became sharp and he coldly shouted, “All these years, you and your bastard nephew have used my name to commit all kinds of evil in Floating Clouds City and I have always opened one eye and closed the other while sheltering you, but today, I cannot stand idly by!”
“Why?” Nie Chu Feng screamed.
“You have offended someone who absolutely should not be offended!” Zhou Liang replied coldly and indifferently, “Leave, take your bastard nephew with you and go. From now on, you are forever banned from entering Floating Clouds City, if I see you here again, you know the consequences.”
Nie Chu Feng’s beautiful face lost all colour upon hearing these words, utterly shocked that Zhou Liang would speak such heartless words to her.
“Why have you not left my sight?!” Seeing that she was not moving, Zhou Liang roared angrily once more.
Feeling Zhou Liang’s rising murderous intent, Nie Chu Feng tender body trembled as she realized he was not joking; only now understanding how profound the power behind Di Yao must be.
Nie Chu Feng was certain that Zhou Liang would not treat her so cruelly even if she had offended someone from Ao Gu’s family, him acting so callously now made Nie Chu Feng see just how horrifying Di Yao’s background was.
Naturally, it must be some behemoth that even Zhou Liang had to show deference and respect towards.
Upon understanding this, Nie Chu Feng suddenly burst into tears and pleaded, “Zhou Liang, please don’t be so cold-hearted, I know I was wrong, I will sincerely apologize to this young man and swear to never provoke him again.”
Nie Chu Feng was just a First Order Transcendent. In other words, her strength was insignificant, and all she had to take advantage of was her beauty. Being able to receive Zhou Liang’s love and protection allowed her to live freely in Floating Clouds City, but once she lost that, with her weak cultivation, she would not be able to support herself.
She had offended too many people in Floating Clouds City over the years.
Once she lost Zhou Liang’s asylum, she was very clear about what would be waiting for her.
Therefore, in full view of the public, Nie Chu Feng fell to the ground, held on to Zhou Liang’s thigh and begged.
However, not only did the audience not feel that this beautiful woman was pitiful, most of them showed happy looks.
This woman’s evil deeds were well known throughout Floating Clouds City and her unpopularity was as high as could be.
Zhou Liang’s face remained indifferent throughout everything and simply looked down at her coldly.
Nie Chu Feng gradually despaired, knowing that her former lover would not change his mind, regaining her calm after a moment, brushing her messy hair back behind her ear as she slowly rose up and said, “Zhou Liang, you driving me away, I won’t complain any further about, but out of considerations for the many years of love we shared, I wish to ask one last thing of you/ I hope you can promise it to me, if you do, I will leave right now!”
Staring at the beautiful face of this woman, Zhou Liang expression changed slightly, seemingly reminiscing about the time he had spent with her before letting out a light sigh, “Say it, if I can, I will fulfil your last wish.”
Nie Chu Feng smiled helplessly and asked in a quiet voice, “Last night, I heard you say that a very powerful Alchemist had arrived in the City Lord’s Mansion. Can you ask him to help refine a pill to restore my nephew’s severed arm? Since even you say he is so powerful, surely he had the ability to refine such a pill, right?”
“En, he can,” Zhou Liang nodded.
“Then…” Nie Chu Feng smiled happily.
“But I cannot satisfy your request.”
“Why?” Nie Chu Feng became slightly hysterical, “One day as husband and wife, a hundred days of graciousness, are you really so unfeeling as to deny me even this small favour?”
“It is not that I am too unfeeling, it is that you are too stupid,” Zhou Liang leaned over and whispered into Nie Chu Feng’s ear, “The young man you offended is the only disciple of that Alchemy Grandmaster. That Alchemy Grandmaster is the existence which Ao Gu, Jin Jiao, and I dare not provoke.”
Nie Chu Feng’s eyes went round with shock.
“Leave,” Zhou Liang waved his hand. “I hope that from now on you won’t be so blind.”
Grief and indignation filled Nie Chu Feng’s face as she bit her lips so hard blood oozed from them. Immediately bending over and picking up Nie Cong, who was still unconscious off the ground, she shot a hate-filled glance towards Zhou Liang and Di Yao before quickly using her movement skill to disappear into the crowd.
Among the crowds, there were many who wore cold and sinister expression on their faces. After Nie Chu Feng made her move, many of these plotting individuals followed.
Every grudge was owed its due vengeance, and it was time for these people to settle their accounts with this poisons woman.
Zhou Liang witnessed all this but did not stop it.
“That woman is dead,” Yang Kai whispered softly.
“She’s just getting what she deserved,” Fei Yu spat disdainfully. She despised this kind of woman who only knew how to flatter those with power yet lacked any kind of self-awareness.
Zhou Liang came over and looked at Yang Kai and Fei Yu kindly, “Since the two of you are friends of Young Master Die, why not come to the City Lord’s Mansion for a few days? There should still be some time before the Thousand Year Demon Flower blooms.”
Di Yao also showed Yang Kai a somewhat expectant look, seemingly hoping he could come to the City Lord’s Mansion as well.
But Yang Kai simply shook his head, “I have a few Martial Uncles who are currently running some errands outside, we have to wait for them to come back so I’m afraid I must decline your gracious offer.”
“Since that’s the case, this old master won’t insist. If you have time, do come to the City Lord’s Mansion to visit,” Zhou Liang smiled before turning to Di Yao. “Young Master Di, let us return first.”
Di Yao responded with a sigh, nodded to Yang Kai, and left with Zhou Liang.
All around the gathered crowd was silent, many of the people who had come to watch the show still unable to recover from what they had just witnessed, looks of shock and disbelief still plastered all over their faces.
For an unknown young man, Zhou Liang not only beat his beloved mistress but also drove her out of Floating Clouds City, this was the epitome of ruthlessness.
Moreover, simply because they had some relationship to that young man, Yang Kai and Fei Yu received a warm and courteous invitation from Zhou Liang.
What exactly was the background of this young man to warrant such treatment?
After some time, the crowd gradually dispersed. Some bold people wanted to inquire about Di Yao’s background from Yang Kai but Yang Kai and Fei Yu didn’t give them a chance, quickly hiding themselves inside the inn.
In truth, they too were a bit shocked.
Despite knowing that Di Yao must have some kind of strong background, Yang Kai still found that he had greatly underestimated the other’s origins.
After he and Fei Yu pondered over it for a while, they couldn’t think of anything reasonable, so they simply let the matter drop.
After returning to the City Lord’s Mansion, Di Yao immediately went to see his Master.
In a quiet room, Di Yao’s Master was silently meditating so when the former walked in, he simply stood quietly and waited. After waiting for a long time, the old man slowly opened his eyes.
“Master, I lost again,” Di Yao sighed lightly.
“Lost again?” Hearing this, the old man was quite surprised.
“En, Master, take a look at this pill,” Di Yao reverently handed over the pill that Yang Kai had refined in their contest a short time ago.
The old man took it and his eyes immediately brightened, “Pill Veins?”
Releasing his Divine Sense to inspect it, the old man’s look gradually change and only after quite a while did he hand the pill back to Di Yao and asked, “Was this pill refined by your opponent?”
“En.”
“What kind of person was it?”
“He’s about the same age as me,” Di Yao quickly described Yang Kai’s appearance.
The old man listened quietly as he stroked his beard and after a moment said, “This young man is a serious monster.”
“Why does Master say so?”
“His Alchemy technique is a bit sloppy, it seems like he had never been strictly taught. That is to say, unlike you, he has never had formal instruction from a Master.”
“What?” Di Yao cried out in shock.
Not having a master yet already possessing such outstanding Alchemy technique, then if Yang Kai was the same as him and had received more than ten years of careful guidance, just what kind of level would he have reached?
“If my guess is correct, he should be self-taught through some ancient books and handwritten notes left behind by a highly skilled predecessor,” The old man speculated, his guess infinitely close to the truth.
“Teacher, I suddenly feel quite depressed!” Di Yao sighed dispiritedly.
“Hoh hoh, there’s no need for that,” The old man smiled softly, “There are always one or two people in this world that have Heaven defying aptitude, he belongs to this category. Although he has never had formal training, his control of Spirit Arrays and True Qi and even his ability to select and process herbs all bare the mark of his own unique insights, a very good seed indeed.”
“Haa…” Di Yao sighed heavily, “Master, it’s been just slightly more than a year since we emerged from the wilderness yet I’ve already lost to two different people. The last failure can be taken for granted, her physique was special after all, but today’s defeated really left me somewhat muddleheaded.”
He had great confidence in his ability to win this contest, but at the last moment, Yang Kai had actually successfully refined a pill with Pill Veins, causing him to lose.
“Then you should understand well now what it means to always strive to improve yourself, there are always heavens beyond heavens, and people beyond people,” The old man said solemnly.
Di Yao nodded repeatedly, “Master can rest assure that disciple will redouble his efforts in the study of the Alchemic Way and will certainly not disappoint Master’s expectations.”
The old man caressed his beard, smiled, and nodded lightly.
There was a glimmer of light in the depths of his eyes though as he thought of something but decided not to say to his apprentice.
From the pill brought back by Di Yao this time, the old man had discovered some familiar traces, specifically from the Spirit Array technique that this young Alchemist utilized while refining this pill.
These traces seemed to be somewhat similar to the ones used by a little girl who defeated Di Yao a year ago.
[Is there some kind of relationship between the two?] The old man became pensive, in his heart feeling quite curious about this Yang Kai and very much looking forward to meeting him.
Two days later, Cang Yan and the others finally returned. When Yang Kai saw them again, he found that the expression of his Martial Uncles was not very good.
After taking a short break and drinking some tea, Li Wan sighed heavily and said, “It seems that we underestimated the attraction of the Thousand Year Demon Flower has to Transcendent Realm masters. This time’s matter will probably be a bit difficult.”
“How so?” Yang Kai asked.
“There are too many people here, there are already at least a hundred Transcendent Realms gathered around the mountain, waiting for the Thousand Year Demon Flower to blossom. On the actual day, that number will likely triple,” Cang Yan replied, letting out a slightly helpless sigh.
Yang Kai’s face also changed greatly.
More than three hundred Transcendents; even if only ten percent of them were Third Order, that still meant there would be at least thirty.
Although the four Protectors from Soaring Heaven Sect were all incredibly strong, able to dominate over opponents in the same realm with ease, in such a chaotic environment among so many masters, it would still be very difficult to escort Yang Kai to Ascending Heaven Cliff and monopolize the Thousand Year Demon Flower.
If things went badly, there was even a chance they would be completely annihilation.
Talents like Yang Kai were incredibly rare, so now Cang Yan and the other three had to consider whether taking this risk was worth it, if they couldn’t afford the consequences, it would be best for them to leave Floating Clouds City now.
“What if we find someone to work with?” Yang Kai’s expression changed once more as he made this proposal.
“Who could we find to work with?” Cang Yan slowly shook his head, “Everyone is aiming for the Thousand Year Demon Flower so it’s not realistic to find someone to cooperate with. Cooperating means dividing up the medicinal liquid of the Thousand Year Demon Flower. There are already four of us here who need a share and no one knows just how much medicinal liquid can be condensed from the Thousand Year Demon Flower can condense, if there isn’t enough in the end, it would only lead to another dispute.”
“What if there was someone who had no interest in the Thousand Year Demon Flower’s medicinal liquid, could we work with them?” Yang Kai asked with a smile.
“Where would we find such a person?”
“Close by.”
“You mean that little boy?” Fei Yu spoke thoughtfully, quickly understanding who Yang Kai was talking about.
“En,” Yang Kai nodded.
“Boy, what little boy?” Li Wan chimed in, “Didn’t we say you should stay in the inn these days before we came back?”
“Never mind that, it was just a small outing,” Fei Yu quickly transferred the topic, “Actually, we met a very interesting little fellow.”
“Let’s hear about it,” Cang Yan asked curiously.
Yang Kai quickly summarized the events that led up to him meeting Di Yao, greatly surprising his three Martial Uncles, especially when he mentioned how Zhou Liang, a genuine Saint Realm master, treated this strange boy, not even hesitating to banish his mistress in order to appease the latter. All this considered, the identity of this Di Yao was definitely extraordinary.
Moreover, he was not a guest of Zhou Liang’s, but of the Demon Race master Ao Gu! Zhou Liang, who was from the Human Race, had actually stepped forward to protect him, further increasing Yang Kai’s Martial Uncles’ interest.
Although they had never met this boy, after listening to Yang Kai’s description, all three of them were vaguely able to see a giant shadow hiding behind Di Yao, silently protecting him.
“Is he trustworthy?” Cang Yan asked solemnly.
“I believe so,” Yang Kai nodded.
“Objectively, I also believe him, that little boy isn’t half bad,” Fei Yu added with a smile.
“Since the two of you say so, it should be credible,” Cang Yan nodded, “The other party indicated he wanted to work with you, right?”
“That’s what he said.”
“It seems that he has some other objective on Ascending Heaven Cliff that the public is unaware of. If that’s the case, then you should try talking to him about it, if everyone can work according to their own needs, it would be for the best,” Cang Yan’s eyes flashed brilliantly, “However, if he doesn’t want the medicinal liquid of the Thousand Year Demon Flower, what is he after? We need to investigate this clearly so as not to fall into a trap.”
“Then how about I go to the City Lord’s Mansion to talk to him?” Yang Kai asked, he too was quite concerned about what Di Yao said before. It seems this guy knew some secret that others didn’t. Yang Kai was interested in knowing where he learned this hidden information.
Moreover, Yang Kai wanted to know what force was behind Di Yao.
It was impossible for Zhou Liang to treat a young man so courteously if there wasn’t someone extremely powerful behind Di Yao the former wanted to curry favour with.
If Yang Kai’s guess was correct, this person should be Di Yao’s Master and they should also currently be a guest in the City Lord’s Mansion!
This person was no doubt a top-level Alchemy Grandmaster, being able to speak with such a master would be greatly beneficial to Yang Kai.
Obtaining the consent of his several Martial Uncles, Yang Kai left with Fei Yu and headed for the City Lord’s Mansion.
However, before they could go far, the two of them ran into a familiar pair, one old, one young, it was old man Du Wan and the young Mi Na. Upon catching sight of them, Mi Na ran over happily and said a few words to Fei Yu before her beautiful eyes glanced over at Yang Kai and asked, “Who is this toy boy?”
Yang Kai’s face immediately went black, “What did you say?”
Mi Na couldn’t help covering her mouth as she stared at Yang Kai in shock, pointing to him as she stuttered, “You… but… how are you…”
Suddenly remembering something, she clapped her hands and nodded, “Right, Old Man Du gave you that thing, I almost forgot.”
As she said so, she reached out and started pinching and pulling Yang Kai’s face, muttering in amazement.
Old Man Du and Fei Yu just stood to the side and smiled wryly, not making any attempt to interfere.
“You little bastard, stirring up so much trouble the moment you arrive in Floating Clouds City, you really can’t sit still can you?” Mi Na smiled happily, playing with Yang Kai’s new handsome face excitedly.
“You’ve already heard about that?” Fei Yu smiled towards Mi Na elegantly.
“En, the whole of Floating Clouds City knows about it,” Mi Na nodded while continuing to knead Yang Kai’s face like she had found a new toy and was happily playing with it.
Yang Kai gradually became frustrated with this but instead of getting angry he instead wore a nasty smile and retorted, “If you keep pinching me, I’ll have to fight back, little girl, don’t reach out for a yard after taking an inch !”
Saying so, he directed his gaze at her full rounded chest, his eyes filling with a sinister light.
Mi Na suddenly stepped back as she crossed her arms defensively across her chest and ground her teeth, “Rogue.”
“Old Man Du, where are you headed?” Yang Kai paid no more mind to this crazy girl and turned his attention to Du Wan.
“There’s going to be an Alchemy contest in the main square hosted by the Alchemist Guild. This old man was bringing Mi Na to the competition. It’s not often she comes out so it will be a good experience for her,” Du Wan explained, suddenly wearing an expectant expression as he asked, “Little friend Yang, do you want to participate? Although it is already passed the registration time, with this old man’s recommendation, there won’t be any problem joining the competition.”
“Good, you have to go, everyone competing is from the younger generation, if you go, you can definitely earn our Grand Boulder City Alchemist Guild branch some fame!” Mi Na said eagerly.
Yang Kai scratched his nose and smiled, “Old Man Du, did you perhaps make a special detour?”
Du Wan smiled without the slightest hint of shame, “Have I been seen through by little friend Yang?”
If Du Wan really was headed to the main square, it made no sense of him to appear here. When Yang Kai and Fei Yu were visiting the Trading District a few days ago, Yang Kai had also heard about this Alchemy contest and knew that it wasn’t being held anywhere around here.
Because of the Thousand Year Demon Flower, countless Alchemists had no gathered in Floating Clouds City, which was a truly rare occurrence. The Alchemist Guild would naturally try to take advantage of this situation to examine the standard of the younger generation of Alchemists by giving them a platform for exchanges and competition.
“Actually, this old man made a bet with a few old friends regarding which of our Alchemist Guild branches had the best junior. En, the bet was any one item in our Universe Bags. The heritage of these old fellows is quite rich after all,” Du Wan’s made his sales pitch.
Mi Na also chimed in, “If you can win the final victory, the Alchemist Guild will also provide a generous reward of rare herbs and even a high-quality pill furnace.”
Saying so, she shamelessly grabbed on to Yang Kai’s arm and begged, “Big Brother Yang Kai, you have to go, Junior Sister really wants that pill furnace, it’s a Saint Grade item!”
Seeing Mi Na act this way gave Yang Kai goosebumps but he still managed to put on a wry grin, “Since Old Man Du has asked, how can I refuse? Don’t shake me anymore, you’re making me dizzy.”
“You’ll really come? Great!” Mi Na shouted excitedly.
Yang Kai only hesitated for a moment before giving in and nodding, “Good, if I can win the final victory, I hope that I can choose the herbs I need from the bet and rewards, as for the pill furnace, I don’t need it.”
“En en, no problem!” Mi Na nodded her head furiously like a chicken pecking rice.
“Don’t get so excited, there are many strong Alchemists in this world, I won’t necessarily be the last one to laugh.”
“Nope, this is a competition amongst the younger generation of Alchemists, so no one can beat you,” Mi Na replied, full of confidence in Yang Kai.
The trip to the City Lord’s Mansion to negotiate with Di Yao about the Thousand Year Demon Flower had been temporarily set aside, in any case, Yang Kai wasn’t in that much of a hurry.
Yang Kai agreed to Old Man Du’s request because Old Man Du had been very good to him. Back in Grand Boulder City, if it wasn’t for Old Man Du’s conscientious care, Yang Kai wouldn’t have been able to settle in so easily and ultimately it was because of Old Man Du that Cang Yan had found him.
On top of that, Yang Kai was indeed tempted by the potential profits.
He had now collected a lot of the required herbs for refining the Saint Pill the Demon God Citadel needed, even the extremely rare Earth Fire Core from a few days ago, but there were still a few precious materials he had yet to obtain.
These old friends of Old Man Du may not necessarily have what Yang Kai needed, but they may have a way of acquiring them, so establishing a good relationship with them was by no means a misdemeanour.
As long as the remaining herbs could be collected and he continued promoting his Alchemy skills, Yang Kai could return to the Snow Mountain Range and bring the Ancient Demon Clan out.
In this unfamiliar realm, he urgently needed to have his own strength and support.
In the northwest corner of Floating Clouds City, a large crowd of people had gathered around a three hundred meter open square were roughly a few hundred tables had been set up.
These tables had been prepared for the Alchemist who would soon be participating in the competition.
Outside the square, countless cultivators and Alchemist were quietly waiting while a number of white-haired old men were busy making final preparations.
Yang Kai’s mental state was calm, without much tension, while on the other hand, Mi Na, after seeing such a magnificent scene, was constantly chattering, like a village girl who had never seen the world suddenly entering the magnificent city. Everything here was fresh and amazing to her.
“Brother Yang!” Someone suddenly called out from the side.
Yang Kai looked over and realized that Di Yao was also here and behind him were two powerful Transcendents wearing black armour.
It seemed like after the incident a few days ago, the City Lord’s Mansion had specially prepared these two bodyguards for him, the care they showed towards this youth was indeed unordinary.
“You came too?” Yang Kai smiled. This was a pleasant coincidence, if Yang Kai had just gone directly to the City Lord’s Mansion, he might have missed Di Yao as the latter had actually come here.
“I came to watch the fun,” Di Yao smiled, “Did you also come to enjoy the excitement?”
“I came to enter the competition,” Yang Kai said lightly.
“Seriously?” Di Yao was obviously taken aback, “If you attend, what’s the point in even holding a competition?”
Amongst the younger generation of Alchemists, those who had reached Spirit Grade were already considered extremely good seedlings and they were quite scarce in number, forget about there being freaks like Yang Kai who had already reached the Spirit Grade Top-Rank.
Him participating under these circumstances was really not much more than bullying the weak.
“I’m just playing casually,” Yang Kai smiled.
Di Yao’s gaze flashed and a mischievous grin formed on his face, “If you’re going to participate… I want to as well.”
“Yang Kai, who is this?” Mi Na blinked as she stared at Di Yao.
“This is the person who competed with me for the Earth Fire Core a few days ago, Di Yao,” Yang Kai introduced, next pointing to Du Wan and Mi Na, “These two are Old Man Du, Du Wan, manager of Grand Boulder City’s Alchemist Guild branch and Mi Na, a Spirit Grade Low-Rank Alchemist.”
Di Yao fixed his expression and respectfully cupped his fists, “So it is Grand Boulder City Alchemist Guild’s manager, Junior Di greets Old Man Du!”
“Do you know me?” Du Wan smiled lightly.
“My Master has told me of you. Master said that you are one of the few Alchemists in the world that is likely to become a Saint Grade Mid-Rank Alchemist!”
“Your respected Master…” Du Wan expression changed.
“Sorry, my Master does not allow me to freely expose his name,” Di Yao explained.
Du Wan couldn’t help feeling slightly disappointed but he quickly composed himself and nodded, “It’s fine since your Master has said so much, he must be my Du Wan’s Senior. In that case, please convey to him that this Du Wan will definitely live up to his expectations and in his lifetime absolutely arrive at the Saint Grade Mid-Rank! “
“Junior will definitely convey Old Man Du’s sentiment to my Master,” Di Yao nodded politely.
“My respects to the young,” Du Wan sighed, “I had thought little friend Yang was the absolute best amongst the younger generation of this world’s Alchemists, but upon seeing little friend Di, I now realize that this old master’s eyes are still too inexperienced, little friend Di is in no way inferior to little friend Yang.”
“Old Man Du, how do you know that his Alchemy technique is comparable to Yang Kai’s?” Mi Na asked curiously.
“Hoho, Alchemists are not the same as ordinary cultivators, when you become as old as I, you naturally will be able to see through such things,” Du Wan smiled.
Mi Na glanced over at Di Yao and found that the latter actually wore an indifferent expression as if accepting Old Man Du’s evaluation was only natural. Mi Na snorted with dissatisfaction at this and immediately said, “It seems you’re quite the arrogant one.”
“Huh, I am?” Di Yao was dumbfounded.
Mi Na nodded and said, “I want to see if your Alchemy technique is really on par with Yang Kai’s. Old Man Du, let him sign up, who knows, maybe he’s just an embroidered pillow, pleasant to look at but ultimately useless.”
“Mi Na, don’t be rude!” Old Man Du quickly reproved.
“Good, since Brother Yang is participating, of course, I have to participate,” Di Yao cut in happily, “Senior Du, how about I enter under the name of your Alchemist Guild branch?”
Hearing this, Du Wan couldn’t help smiling bitterly and shaking his head, “It seems my old friends will be suffering some massive haemorrhaging today.”
Originally, with just Yang Kai participating, first place was already his, and now that Di Yao was also joining in the fun, clearly no one else stood any chance of winning.
[I hope they aren’t hit too hard,] Old Man Du secretly thought.
Now that Di Yao was joining in, Yang Kai could only keep him company while trying not to stir up too much trouble.
Du Wan went over to the high platform at the head of the square and completed the registration process, soon returning with two numbered plates for Yang Kai and Di Yao.
These two youths were different from all the other Alchemists present, both of them wearing casually expression without the slightest tension or excitement. It seemed that they really were just here to play casually.
While they were waiting, a group of people, a number of old folks at their head followed by some young Alchemists.
Yang Kai suddenly understood that these should be the old friends Old Man Du mentioned.
When this group arrived in front of them, each of them smiled and exchanged greetings with each other, the scene was quite harmonious.
These old guys had been friends for many years so naturally, their friendship was quite deep. On the other hand, the younger generation Alchemists were all glaring at each other with some faint hostility, making for a somewhat awkward atmosphere.
The older generation members also detected this but made no attempt to stop it, on the contrary, they instead were constantly stimulating these young people with their words as if they feared the world would not be chaotic enough.
As a result, the calmness of Yang Kai and Di Yao caught their attention. All of Old Man Du’s old friends tried to inquire about these two youths’ details but Old Man Du would always just laugh them off and change the subject.
Suddenly, a gong sounded and wind instruments sang out, causing the extremely lively scene to quickly calm down.
Atop the high stage, a majestic voice soon called out, “Greetings everyone, this one is Floating Clouds City’s Alchemist Guild branch’s manager, Liu Fu. To all of the Alchemists visiting from afar, this Liu extends his warmest welcomes. No matter what everyone’s purpose for visiting Floating Clouds City is, so many friends from so far away gathering together is a rare occurrence so my Alchemist Guild has taken this opportunity to host this Alchemy competition. I hope all of you will put forward all your skills today so we may decide the number one Alchemist among the younger generation.”
After saying a few words of greeting, Liu Fu quickly went over the contest’s rules as well as the final reward.
The announcement of a Saint Grade pill furnace being awarded to first place instantly turned the eyes of countless Alchemists red.
Mi Na was also incredibly excited, her expression burning with passion as if she would not relent until that Saint Grade pill furnace was hers.
After speaking for a while and rallying everyone’s spirits, Liu Fu paused and swept his eyes over the crowd, smiling as he announced, “Now, let the contest begin! Please find your position according to the number plate you received!”
As soon as he shouted so, hundreds of people poured into the square. All of these people were Alchemist from the younger generations, having a maximum age of no more than forty. All of these Alchemists had at least reached the Mysterious Grade while only around ten percent were Spirit Grade Alchemists.
Yang Kai and Di Yao exchanged a glance before they too slowly walked towards the square.
The two of them were the last to sign up, so their location was naturally at the back corner and it was quite clear their tables had just been added.
If it weren’t for Old Man Du pulling strings, the two of them would definitely not be eligible to participate.
However, this also lined up well with Yang Kai’s intentions, he could take this opportunity to discuss cooperating with Di Yao.
On the tables in front of them, there was a Universe Bag, Yang Kai picks it up and examined it with his Divine Sense, quickly discovering it contained a large number of herbs as well as a pill furnace.
The pill furnace was Mysterious Grade Mid-Rank and the grades of the herbs were also not high, only a few reaching Spirit Grade. With these imposed limitations, most of the Alchemists here would be able to easily display their skills while making it easier for the judges’ final review and comparison.
The Alchemy competition was divided into several events, the first one being the refinement of medicinal liquid. The higher the amount of medicinal liquid one could condense within a specified time, and the purer that medicinal liquid was, the higher their score would be.
It could be said that everyone’s starting point was exactly the same so the end result would be up to each individual’s own skill.
Liu Fu gave the word, and the contest officially began.
Yang Kai took out all the herbs in the Universe Bag, picked up a few of them, and rested them atop the palms of his hands before refining them with his True Qi, a relaxed expression upon his face the whole time.
Sweeping his eyes over to Di Yao, Yang Kai found the former had done the same.
An outstanding Alchemist would be able to refine several herbs into a medicinal liquid at once.
Mi Na, who was located in the centre of the square, also displayed an impressive speed.
Although she had no confidence in competing with Yang Kai, compared to all the other Alchemists gathered here, she was undoubtedly excellent.
Flames of True Qi danced and herbs were quickly condensed into medicinal liquid and their impurities removed, these movements were all smooth and orderly.
“Brother Di!” Yang Kai called out as his hands continued moving, “About the cooperation you mentioned before.”
“Have you considered my offer?” Di Yao called back, his speed also not dropping in the slightest.
“We can cooperate, but I want to know if your goal is not the medicinal liquid of the Thousand Year Demon Flower, why are you participating at all?”
“I’m afraid I can’t say right now. All I can tell you is that condensing the medicinal liquid has great benefits for you and me alike. Naturally, the medicinal liquid I condense can all be turned over to you, your several Martial Uncles and Martial aunt need it, right?”
“Good,” Yang Kai nodded, his brow furrowing slightly in the next instant, “If it is convenient, can you tell me what these benefits are?”
“It’s not that it is inconvenient, it’s simply that I don’t know,” Di Yao smiled and shook his head, “My Master only told me so much, I am simply complying with his instructions.”
Di Yao once again mentioned his mysterious Master, only increasing Yang Kai’s curiosity, he didn’t know just how powerful and influential this Master was, but he knew that if he asked anything directly, most of his questions would simply receive no answer.
“There are four Third Order Transcendents on my side that can escort me to Ascending Heaven Cliff, what about you, Brother Di?” Yang Kai decided to focus on things he could get an answer to for now.
“Senior Ao Gu will probably give me a few Transcendent Realm masters as escorts, but I don’t know exactly how many; however, as long as we work together, our chances will be much higher than most. At the start it will be a battle between Transcendent Realm masters, but once we reach the peak of Ascending Heaven Cliff, it will be a battle between Alchemists, and the strength of most Alchemists can be a discounted direction, so you and I should easily be able to snatch up the Thousand Year Demon Flower,” Di Yao smirked.
“Good, then we’ll go with that. We’ll act together on the day the flower blossoms,” Yang Kai nodded, putting down the medicinal liquid he had just condensed before raising his hand.
Di Yao was dumbfounded, “So fast?”
In the short time they were speaking, Yang Kai had actually condensed all the herbs into medicinal liquid.
The old men on top of the head platform who was in charge of supervising the competition all stared blankly, seemingly unable to believe one of the competitors had already completed the first event.
However, before they could return to their senses, in the next moment, Di Yao also hurriedly raised his hand, only lagging behind Yang Kai by a few breaths.
Immediately, one of the Saint Grade Alchemists flew down from the high platform and came over to Yang Kai and Di Yao; after checking their medicinal liquids, he announced in a somewhat strained voice their successful clearance.
Sitting atop the high platform, Du Wan smiled as he stroked his beard, seemingly having expected this scene from the start, his expression the very picture of calm as if he was simply enjoying the mid-day sunshine.
On the other hand, Old Man Du’s old friends couldn’t sit still, one of the yellow-faced old people asking, “Brother Du, where did you find these two little monsters? The speed they condensed their medicinal liquid was basically on par with our own.”
“Hoho, that’s a secret,” Du Wan smiled and shook his head, “I hope all of you are prepared to shave off a few pounds of meat.”
The faces of a few old fogies atop the platform turned bitter at these words, all of them clear that Du Wan had been assured of victory in their little game and that they had all stupidly walked right into his trap.
But all of them had been old friends for many years, so naturally, they wouldn’t renege on their debts for something like this and transfer things out of their Universe Bags.
On the contrary, they all became quite interested in these two outstanding young Alchemists, and they were all quite pleased to see the younger generation filled with such hopeful talents.
In the first test, out of the original several hundred contestants, more than half were eliminated. These people were unable to condense all of their herbs into medicinal liquid within the prescribed time or had failed too many times in the process.
Mi Na managed to enter the second round so she was quite happy.
After the first round, the second began immediately – portraying Spirit Arrays.
Using the Mysterious Grade Mid-Rank pill furnace inside the Universe Bag, the competing Alchemists were to portray Spirit Arrays. There was no time limit for this round, the more Spirit Arrays one could portray and the more complex their structure, the better.
Yang Kai and Di Yao once again easily won first place.
Third round, control of fire.
Fourth round, arranging medicinal herbs.
Fifth round, sixth round…
Finally, the last round was a competition of refining pills.
There was no time given to the competitors to rest and in just over a day, the Alchemy contest was completed; in the end, only Yang Kai and Di Yao remained.
Mi Na had been eliminated during the fourth round and although she was a bit frustrated with this result, it was still quite a good showing for her. After a few compliments from Old Man Du, she was immediately happy again.
In front of the whole crowd, when the last round of the competition came around, Di Yao took the initiative to forfeit.
For one, from their previous contest, he already knew he wasn’t Yang Kai’s opponent. Although their accomplishments in the Alchemic Way were quite close, there was still a small but obvious difference.
Di Yao also didn’t want to expose the full extent of his and Yang Kai’s abilities in front of so many people. The previous rounds were just side by side, single technique comparisons, so there wasn’t much of a problem showing off a little bit, but if the two of them were to go through the entire process of refining a pill, some things which were best kept secret would definitely be exposed.
Their Alchemy speed and methods were simply too unusual.
The Alchemist Guild experts were somewhat astonished, never having expected Di Yao to give up such a great opportunity, but after noticing his indifferent expression and mentality, they relaxed.
“Brother Yang, I’ll say goodbye here for today, let us meet again soon. I’ll be heading back first, or Master will yell at me again,” Di Yao said, and under the escort of the two Transcendent Realm guards, strolled back towards the City Lord’s Mansion.
Liu Fu stood atop the high platform and announced that the winner of the competition was Yang Kai and then delivered the prizes promised by the Alchemist Guild to the latter on the spot.
A Universe Bag filled with rare herbs and a Saint Grade pill furnace.
Countless people stared with envious eyes.
Yang Kai immediately threw the Saint Grade pill furnace to Mi Na, causing the little girl to become so excited she ran up to him and kissed him on the cheek.
“Little friend Yang, come here,” Du Wan smiled and beckoned him over to a corner of the high platform.
Yang Kai nodded and walked over.
“Kid, who is your teacher?”
“How about coming to my Three River City’s Alchemist Guild branch? We’re much richer than Grand Boulder City’s branch and there are many more beautiful women there as well.”
“If you keep following Du Wan, your future prospects will be limited. This old fart already has half a foot in the grave, you should come with us instead.”
As soon as Yang Kai arrived, all the old fogies beside Du Wan began bombarding him with such comments as they stared at Yang Kai feverishly.
Yang Kai was shocked, the enthusiasm of these old fogies was way too high and he immediately felt smothered.
“Do all of you old farts, have you no shame?” Du Wan cut in, “Since when did I become a half-dead old man? Actually trying to snatch a treasure right in front of me? If any of you dares say anything more, this old Du will go all out with you!”
“Du Wan, save your energy, what’s the point in becoming so excited at your age? Be careful not to strain your back,” Someone laughed.
“Your age is not small either,” Du Wan snorted back.
“This Junior is grateful for various Seniors’ care,” Yang Kai took this chance to get in a few words, “But Junior does not intend on pursuing the Alchemic way for his entire lifetime, I wish to spy on the peak of the Martial Dao. Studying Alchemy is just a way for me to compliment my pursuit of the Martial Dao, so Junior is sorry but he must reject your good will.”
The crowd of old fogies were all dumbstruck, their jaws dropped as they stared at Yang Kai, even Du Wan was no exception.
“You want to immerse yourself in the Martial Dao? With such astounding aptitude in Alchemy, why would you insist on pursuing the Martial Dao? Young man, don’t you understand what kind of potential you have?”
“Indeed, this is simply a waste of the gifts the Heavens have bestowed you. If your objective is to protect someone, you can do so easily by enhancing your Alchemy skills. As long as your Alchemist grade rises to a certain point, there is nothing in this world you cannot obtain, whether it is wealth, privilege, reputation, status, or beauties. On top of that, you won’t need to struggle to obtain them yourself, as long as you put out the word, someone will naturally deliver it to you.”
“After becoming an Alchemy Grandmaster, you will receive all kinds of advantages, no matter where you go, even if you visit the Demon Land or Monster Domain, those Demon Race and Monster Race powerhouses will treat you as a respected guest.”
The group of old folks continued their attempts to persuade Yang Kai, painstakingly describing the wondrous prospects of becoming a top tier Alchemist in an attempt to change his mind.
“My only hope is to reach the peak of the Martial Dao!” Yang Kai declared firmly, without the slightest hint of uncertainty in his eyes.
Everyone was struck speechless.
The Martial Peak was not something one could achieve simply by pursuing Alchemy.
Feeling the steadfast determination of Yang Kai, everyone sighed as they all thought he was ruining himself.
“Du Wan, you must spend some time talking to this little boy, he’s too young and impetuous, I’m afraid he cannot see far enough into his future to understand,” The old man who invited Yang Kai to Three River City before whispered into Du Wan’s ear.
Du Wan nodded lightly, “When I have a chance to, I will speak with him.”
Du Wan obviously also felt like pursing the peak of the Martial Dao would be too much of a waste given Yang Kai’s aptitude for Alchemy.
Coughing lightly, Du Wan said, “This matter can be set aside, for now, little friend Yang having his own goals is a good thing, young people must naturally have their own thoughts and pursuits.”
He was afraid that the zealous teachings of these old guys would have the opposite effect which would do no good in the end so he quickly changed the subject, “Since you all are willing to gamble, you must be prepared to lose, are you all ready?”
Hearing this, the crowd of old fogies all suddenly wore bitter expressions as they clenched their teeth and scowled towards Du Wan, “You old fox!”
Although they all said as much, none of them was about to renege on their bet so they all took out their own Universe Bag and tossed it to Yang Kai.
Yang Kai stretched out his hand and in an instant; there were five new Universe Bags in his hand.
“Heh heh, who made you all so overconfident?” Du Wan laughed happily while saying to Yang Kai, “Little friend Yang, no need to act polite, if you have a liking for anything you see, just take it, the good things in their Universe Bag were all gifted to them anyways.”
“Then… Junior will be impolite,” Yang Kai also smiled and in front of these old folk’s nervous stares, released his Divine Sense and carefully examined the Universe Bags.
After simply seeing the content of the first Universe Bag, Yang Kai’s face changes greatly.
It was worthy of being the Universe Bag of a Saint Grade Alchemist, everything contained inside was extraordinary, there was nothing below Spirit Grade Low-Rank, and whether it was pills, herbs, Secret Arts, or artifacts, there was no shortage of items which had reached Saint Grade.
There were also a number of strange items Yang Kai couldn’t identify.
But regardless of what it was, the aura and energy fluctuations given off by them made it obvious they weren’t ordinary.
Yang Kai was dazzled but after confirming that there were no herbs he needed in this Universe Bag, he then began the difficult process of choosing something else.
“Young man, do hurry up, this old master can’t help feeling a little anxious if you act so slowly,” The owner of this Universe Bag couldn’t help but comment.
“Old Man Du, can I only take one thing?” Yang Kai turned an awkward look to Du Wan.
“En, my bet with these old friends was for one item each,” Du Wan nodded gently before suddenly wearing a mischievous grin, “But my old friends are all generous characters who are especially fond of promising young talents, therefore, I think it won’t bother them if you were to take something more as a sign of their appreciation, isn’t that right, Brother Chang?”
Saying so, Old Man Du smiled crookedly at the owner of this Universe Bag.
“Of course!” The old man surnamed Chang’s face was a dark shade of blue but he still managed to smile and nod; even though he knew he was being conned by Du Wan, in front of a promising young Junior, he would lose too much face if he were to say no, “This Chang has always been the epitome of generosity.”
As he somehow managed to form these words, his mouth twitched violently and his fiery gaze made it abundantly clear he couldn’t wait to beat Du Wan to a pulp.
“Then I’ll take these two things,” Yang Kai calmly took out two herbs from the Universe Bag.
The old man surnamed Chang’s face suddenly loosened, quickly snatching back his Universe Bag from Yang Kai and nodding, “Take it, take it!”
Seeing him like this, it was obvious that the things taken by Yang Kai weren’t particularly precious to him, thus he was able to relax.
Yang Kai naturally wouldn’t reach out for a mile after taking an inch; this time, he had really picked up a huge bargain, being able to obtain two Saint Grade materials from this Universe Bag already made him more than satisfied.
With these two Saint Grade herbs as the primary materials, Yang Kai could later refine two Saint Pills.
After processing the first Universe Bag, Yang Kai moved on to the second one and after he swept the contents with his Divine Sense, his eyes couldn’t help lighting up.
He found an ingredient he urgently needed inside this Universe Bag, a stalk of Congealed Dew Grass!
From the items on the recipe Li Rong gave him, the Congealed Dew Grass was a must have. The environment this herb grew in was extremely demanding and although it may exist somewhere in Tong Xuan Realm, it was still incredibly rare.
What’s more, the Congealed Dew Grass in this Universe Bag had reached absolute perfection in terms of shape and age.
Yang Kai unceremoniously accepted this stalk of Congealed Dew Grass as well as another Saint Grade from the Universe Bag.
The third and fourth Universe Bags didn’t have anything of particular interest to Yang Kai so he simply picked two Saint Grade herbs from both at random.
Finally arriving at the last Universe Bag, Yang Kai carefully began looking through it.
A moment later, he couldn’t help revealing a somewhat disappointed look because he did not find any of the ingredients he was looking for and was preparing to casually pick something when his expression suddenly changed and his focus was drawn to a particular item inside the Universe Bag.
After examining this item for a while, a faint smile appeared on his face as he muttered, “It really is the same.”
As he muttered, he took out two items.
Everyone who saw what Yang Kai pulled out though couldn’t help revealing a strange look, because although one of the items was a Saint Grade herb of similar value to the ones he had taken before, the other was actually a small round dark stone.
“What is this?” Du Wan’s swept his eyes over the stone and asked curiously.
The other members of the older generation gathered around also examined this tone and shook their heads.
Apparently, none of them recognized what this round black stone was.
The owner of the Universe Bag also shook his head slowly and said, “Don’t look at me, I don’t know either. When I first found it, I just thought it was quite strange and placed it in my Universe Bag. After so many years though I haven’t been able to identify it or understand what it is for. Does little friend Yang happen to know what it is?”
Asking so, he turned his eyes to Yang Kai.
“I also don’t know, I just thought it was unusual so I chose it.”
“Good, then you can take it away, in any case, I have no idea what kind of material it is so it’s pointless to hold on to it,” The owner of the Universe Bag said generously.
“Many thanks, Senior,” Yang Kai smiled and stored the dark round stone into his Black Book space.
With the gambling debts having been settled, Yang Kai asked to be excused and then jumped off the high platform.
The old fogies still wanted to try persuading him some more, but before they could open their mouths Yang Kai had already made his escape, so they could do nothing but sigh.
“Du Wan, you must not let him go astray. It is rare such a good seedling appeared; he will definitely achieve great things in the Alchemic Way. None of us wants to see him ruin his own promising future.”
“En, Du Wan, you have to persuade him after going back. If you can’t, I’ll come to snatch him and bring him back to my Three River City.”
“This old man will do his best,” Du Wan smiled bitterly, somewhat unable to understand in his heart why Yang Kai was so obsessed with the Martial Dao. In this world, eighty percent of the people studied Martial Dao and could be called cultivators.
But among them, Alchemists were rare. There might not necessarily be one qualified Alchemist among 10,000 cultivators, and those who had good aptitude in Alchemy were even scarcer.
Alchemists with both excellent aptitude and high skill were admired existences wherever they went goes. It was simply impossible for this little brat to not understand the gap between ordinary cultivators and Alchemists yet he still insisted on pursuing the Martial Dao instead.
…..
After meeting up with Fei Yu, Yang Kai and his Martial Aunt immediately returned to the inn to share with Cang Yan and the others the results of their discussion with Di Yao.
Having listened to what they had to say, Cang Yan nodded slightly, “If that is the case, our chances would undoubtedly be much higher. That kid is a VIP guest of Ao Gu’s, so the City Lord will definitely not be stingy with him. At that time, the bodyguards he will have accompanying him will include at least one or two Third Order Transcendents, and that is only a conservative estimate.”
“Martial Uncle, how long will it be until the Thousand Year Demon Flower blooms?”
“Specifically how long, I don’t know, but according to the ancient records I’ve seen, there will be a Heavenly Manifestation before the Thousand Year Demon Flower blossoms, so we’ll know when it is time.”
“Now there are many people gathered around the mountain waiting for the Thousand Year Demon Flower to blossom, some of them are even camped out on Ascending Heaven Cliff, but the closer one stays to the target, the more dangerous it is, so there’s no need for us to worry,” Li Wan smiled confidently, “Little Martial Nephew, you have a good rest, for now, when the time comes, we’ll be sure to escort you there.”
“En,” Yang Kai nodded.
Returning to his room, Yang Kai sat cross-legged and took out the two dark round stones from inside his Black Book space.
“Hey, isn’t that the stone you obtained last time from that ancient cave mansion?” Fei Yu asked curiously, “How come there’s an extra one now?”
“I just obtained the second one from an Alchemist Senior’s Universe Bag,” Yang Kai explained, he had specifically chosen the dark round stone for this reason, “Martial Aunt, do you have any idea what these things could be used for?”
“I honestly don’t know, it’s the first time I’ve ever seen this kind of thing,” Fei Yu shook her head.
“How odd,” Yang Kai was also quite puzzled. Even a powerful Alchemist Senior couldn’t even recognize what material this stone was and had not been able to inquire about its use or identity for several decades.
Yang Kai instinctively felt that these two dark round stones were not simple.
Circulating his True Qi to probe them, releasing his Divine Sense to examine them, Yang Kai tried multiple methods but discovered nothing in the end.
After half a day, Yang Kai reluctantly gave up and stored them away again.
Over the following days, Yang Kai entered a kind of secluded retreat inside the inn, always maintaining his peak condition in order to cope with the upcoming battle.
His Martial Uncles and Martial Aunt were also making their own preparations.
One morning, while Yang Kai was meditating, he suddenly opened his eyes as he felt a strange change in the World Energy around him.
It felt like some invisible force was drawing it in, gathering it in one specific direction.
Before he could even figure out what was happening, the situation became heated.
Even though he was indoors, Yang Kai felt a sudden gust of wind blowing and all the doors and windows began to creak.
Fei Yu also opened her beautiful eyes hastily and muttered, “This is…”
As she spoke, a light flickered across her eyes as she leapt towards the window and stared off into the distance, excitedly calling out, “The Thousand Year Demon Flower is about to bloom!”
Yang Kai’s spirit shook.
From the next room over, the sound of rustling clothes sounded. Apparently, Cang Yan and the others had already set out. Yang Kai and Fei Yu exchanged a single glance before the two of them also jumped out the window and flew off.
At the same time, all of Floating Clouds City began boiling up as countless cultivators rushed into the streets from all directions and stared towards the tall mountain in the distance.
“There’s movement from the Thousand Year Demon Flower!” Someone shouted.
This sentence set off everyone’s excitement.
Yang Kai narrowed his eyes and stared at the tall mountain peak, only to see, high up in the sky, a five coloured burst of light shining atop the clouds. World Energy continuously gathered towards the five coloured light while all of Floating Clouds City erupted into activity.
“Let’s go!” Cang Yan called out before transforming into a streak of light and speeding towards the mountain.
The crowd quickly followed behind.
*Shua Shua Shua…*
Countless people all began rushing out.
Yang Kai realized just how high the difficulty of this competition would be in an instant, there were Transcendent Realm masters everywhere he looked. Although only a few of them were Third Order, the total number of competitors was still far greater than what Cang Yan had previously estimated.
The Transcendents who just rushed out of Floating Clouds City already totalled more than four hundred, and that wasn’t even counting the ones who had camped out on the mountain in advance.
Even a conservative estimate right now would place the number of Transcendents involved in this event at over five hundred.
Such a terrifying number made Yang Kai’s scalp feel somewhat numb.
Above the City Lord’s Mansion, Ao Gu, Zhou Liang, and Jin Jiao stood tall, staring at the movement atop the distant mountain peak, each of them wore dignified expressions.
“Grandmaster seems to have gone as well,” Jin Jiao caught sight of a certain figure leaving the City Lord’s Mansion and commented.
“Hm? Isn’t Grandmaster a Saint Realm master? In the past, the Thousand Year Demon Flower failed to bloom because of the presence of a Saint,” Zhou Liang was shocked.
“You don’t have to worry about it. Grandmaster seems to have taken some kind of pill to temporarily suppress his cultivation,” Ao Gu said faintly, “After all, the last time the Thousand Year Demon Flower bloomed, he was the one who condensed its medicinal liquid. Obviously, he knows more about it than anyone else.”
Hearing this, Zhou Liang and Jin Jiao both breathed a sigh of relief.
Although they had only recently met Grandmaster and done him some small favours, they had already gained unimaginable benefits from him.
The Saint Pill the Grandmaster had refined for them had allowed both their physiques and Souls to grow substantially. Although the cultivation of the three Saints had not improved, all of them realized they had grown noticeably stronger.
Grandmaster arriving in Floating Clouds City was really an unexpected blessing for them.
In order to repay Grandmaster’s kindness, Ao Gu and the two Vice City Lords had spared no effort to ensure the safety of his disciple, dispatching the strongest guards from the City Lord’s Mansion to serve as his escorts.
From the Three Clans, a total of six Transcendents were deployed, two of which were Third Order while the others were all Second Order, it was a considerably luxurious lineup.
Ao Gu and the two Vice City Lords were originally preparing to snatch the medicinal liquid of the Thousand Year Demon Flower. Although the three of them no longer needed it, each of them had friends and relatives who could make sure of it.
But since Grandmaster arrived, the three of them felt somewhat embarrassed to ask for even more benefits.
Floating Clouds City’s Transcendent Realm masters all flew forward as swift as the wind, rushing to be the first to reach the peak of the mountain.
A grand battle had also already erupted at the foot of the mountain.
No one wanted to let someone else go first and everyone around was an enemy, so it was only natural that some hot-blooded individuals would think of eliminating their competition first. A little friction between individuals triggered small-scale battles which then expand and affected others, causing more and more masters to quickly join in.
Under the protection of Cang Yan and the others, Yang Kai was able to safely rush into the chaotic battlefield.
A team with four Third Order Transcendents was still a very powerful force in this situation and everyone in their surroundings seemed to realize Cang Yan and the others weren’t easy to deal with, so most tried to avoid provoking them for no reason.
Screams rang out one after another. In this kind of large-scale melee, naturally there were injuries and deaths; blood and broken limbs were scattered about miserably.
The distance of several dozen kilometers to the mountain’s base was crossed by Yang Kai’s group in less than half the time it would take to burn a stick of incense.
When they arrived here, Yang Kai and the others paused and watched as others continued rushing towards Ascending Heaven Cliff.
Cang Yan turned around and asked in a deep voice, “Little Martial Nephew, is that person who agreed to collaborate with you not here?”
“Not yet,” Yang Kai shook his head as he could not spot Di Yao.
“Should we continue heading up?” Li Wan asked slightly anxiously.
“Let’s wait a moment,” Cang Yan’s brow wrinkled, “If Little Martial Nephew’s inference is not wrong, then that boy must know some secrets that others don’t. If we act together with him, it will definitely be to our advantage.”
The first ones to rush up the mountain would not necessarily be the ones to laugh in the end, the mountain had plenty of potential dangers so whether they could reach the summit of Ascending Heaven Cliff was still unknown.
Standing in the same place and waiting quietly, Yang Kai and his group saw some other teams consisting of two or three masters excitedly rush up the mountain from time to time.
After the time it would take to boil a cup of tea, Di Yao’s voice suddenly called out, “Brother Yang!”
“Over here!” Yang Kai quickly waved his hand as he turned around and saw the lineup the other side had brought, his eyes immediately flashing brilliantly.
He discovered at this moment that he had still been underestimating Di Yao’s ability as a whole seven masters were accompanying him.
Six of these masters belonged to the Three Clans and each of them was either a Second or Third Order Transcendent while the last one was somewhat a mystery; Yang Kai couldn’t spy on his cultivation and the other party’s face was also concealed by a cloak. It seemed this individual was not willing to expose his true face.
However, from the small bit of skin he exposed, it was easy to tell that this person was an old man.
After staring at this old man for a moment, Yang Kai’s expression changed as he faintly guessed something, but he did not take the initiative to ask.
The masters from the City Lord’s Mansion and the four Soaring Heaven Sect Protectors stared at each other, both sides seem quite satisfied with the other’s strength, suddenly wearing happy expression as they felt the opposite party would not drag them down.
“This event is of great importance, so I hope everyone here can cooperate sincerely to insure we are all satisfied in the end. I want to remain friends with Brother Yang when this is all over after all,” Di Yao said with a smile.
The six masters he brought all nodded firmly, “Young Master Di can rest assured.”
Cang Yan also nodded, “Little brother is too polite, but despite that, I must take this opportunity to confirm, the Thousand Year Demon Flower’s medicinal liquid, do you truly not need it?”
“Indeed, I have already explained this to Brother Yang,” Di Yao confirmed.
“Good, then there should not be any issues,” Cang Yan said in a satisfied tone, “Since that is settled, let’s go.”
“There’s no rush,” Di Yao smiled and shook his head, “Wait a moment, it’s not time yet.”
“Wait a moment?” Cang Yan’s brow wrinkled, although he also knew that this kind of opportunity could not be obtained simply by rushing forward, now that the Heavenly Manifestation had emerged, it was certain the Thousand Year Demon Flower was about to bloom, with so many people rushing forward, if they were to delay too long, forget about eating meat, there wouldn’t even be soup left for them to drink.
“It’s still too early, all of this is just a precursor to the Heavenly Manifestation. When the real Heavenly Manifestation emerges, it won’t be too late for us to go up,” Di Yao didn’t explain too much as he replied with a relaxed look, not showing any signs of tension at all.
Cang Yan and the others were puzzled and couldn’t help but ask, “Little brother, it’s not that we don’t believe you, but we’re somewhat curious, how much do you know about the Thousand Year Demon Flower?”
“En, well, more than any of you at least, heh heh,” Di Yao grinned confidently.
As they were talking, Yang Kai couldn’t help glancing suspiciously over at the old man who had covered his face with a cloak. He instinctually thought this person was Di Yao’s mysterious Master!
Di Yao knowing so much about the Thousand Year Demon Flower was definitely because of this old man.
The old man also seemed to be aware of Yang Kai’s gaze and the corners of his mouth slightly rose as he said, “Is this little brother the one who won the final victory in the Alchemy contest the other day?”
Yang Kai nodded lightly.
“En, the younger generation is filled with talent,” The old man commended lightly.
Cang Yan and the others also glanced over at this old man suspiciously, somewhat unable to understand what this person’s background or status was that allowed him to have such a big tone.
“Yang Kai!” Suddenly, a sweet sounding voice called out. Yang Kai turned around to state at the source and sure enough, he saw Mi Na and Old Man Du both approaching. Before they had even arrived, the little girl was exchanging enthusiastic greetings.
But when they arrived in front of one another, Yang Kai couldn’t help staring at her solemnly and asking, “How come you’re here?”
Old Man Du let out a helpless sigh and explained, “This little girl really can’t sit still and insisted on coming to take a look at the excitement, so this old master had no choice but to come with her.”
“You’re deliberately causing trouble!” Yang Kai reproved her seriously.
Mi Na couldn’t help spitting out her tongue and replying coyly, “I just came to watch, I won’t be going up so there shouldn’t be any danger.”
“All the same, be extra careful,” Yang Kai sighed.
Mi Na glanced all around and smiled happily as she commented, “If you don’t go up, you’ll probably not be able to obtain a spot.”
“We’re waiting,” Yang Kai replied casually.
“Waiting for what?”
“For when the real Heavenly Manifestation appears.”
“The real Heavenly Manifestation?” Du Wan also wore a blank expression, even he knew very little about the Thousand Year Demon Flower. But after mulling over these words, his eyes suddenly stared at the old man in the cloak pensively and after hesitating for a moment, he nervously asked, “May I ask your Excellency’s honoured name?”
His tone of voice clearly conveyed a sense of tension.
Yang Kai’s eyes also couldn’t help but flash.
“Ho ho, the name of this old master is not worth mentioning,” The old man said with a chuckle.
Du Wan’s body shook as if he had been struck by lightning, his eyes going wide as he stared at this old man incredulously as he muttered, “You… you are…”
“Shh…” Di Yao quickly raised his finger to his mouth.
Du Wan, however, was too excited, as if he was a devout believer who had met his spiritual leader, in the next instant bowing deeply as he shouted, “Disciple Du Wan, humbly greets Grandmaster!”
Yang Kai, Cang Yan, and everyone else all froze on the spot, completely dumbstruck.
Du Wan was the head manager of the Grand Boulder City’s Alchemist Guild branch, a figure famous throughout the entire realm. Saint Grade Alchemists were incredibly rare, so someone of Du Wan’s status would be regarded as an honoured guest wherever he went, others would treat him with reverence and respect but now, this famous Saint Grade Alchemist, had actually not hesitated to bow down before this old man and even claimed to be his disciple.
This was all simply too shocking.
Everyone was stunned silent, even the six Transcendent Realm masters that Di Yao brought with him were completely ignorant, they had only been ordered to come here and didn’t know much about Di Yao or the identity of this old man.
The old man suddenly smiled wryly, “There’s no need for you to do this, haven’t you seen this old master hiding his face so as to avoid attracting too much attention?”
As if he had awoken from a dream, Du Wan stood up straight, sweat pouring down his forehead as he harshly blamed himself, “Disciple has been negligent in his conduct and hopes Grandmaster will not take offence.”
“It’s fine,” The old man waved his hand lightly and chuckled, “How did you recognize me?”
“Does Grandmaster not remember?” Du Wan said with excitement, “When disciple was young, he had received some guidance from Grandmaster, and although it was only a short ten days, disciple has always remembered Grandmaster’s teachings and voice.”
“So that’s how it is,” The old man gently nodded.
Cang Yan’s face also suddenly changed as he cried out in a voice much higher pitched than normal, “So it’s him!”
Listening to Du Wan’s words, Cang Yan immediately guessed who this venerated old man really was, he also understands why Ao Gu had to take such good care of Di Yao, even sending six Transcendent Realm masters to escort him to Ascending Heaven Cliff.
It turns out Di Yao’s Master was a true top-tier character!
Only such a person could teach a disciple like Di Yao. At this moment, Cang Yan understood everything.
“Who is he?” Fei Yu whispered as Li Wan and Fei Jian also looked at him curiously.
Cang Yan glanced over at the old man and saw that he didn’t intend on stopping him so he moved his lips silently.
Understanding these silent words, Fei Yu, Li Wan, and Fei Jian were all dumbstruck once more.
Yang Kai also read Cang Yan’s lips and couldn’t help feeling shocked.
Old Man Of Heaven’s Keep!
The Grandmaster Alchemist who had earned the respect of Human, Demon, and Monster Race alike, and, like Yang Kai, a possessor of a Conflagrated Knowledge Sea.
Cang Yan recognized his identity because Du Wan had once mentioned to him a long time ago he had studied under the Old Man Of Heaven’s Keep for ten days when he had begun his Alchemy career.
When Du Wan mentioned this just now, Cang Yan had naturally pieced things together.
Cang Yan couldn’t help feeling excited, in fact, everyone here was so.
After all, the legendary Old Man Of Heaven’s Keep was in front of him. Cang Yan and the others unconsciously converged their strength and momentum and became respectful, their eyes filling with a look of worship.
Yang Kai also secretly examined this legendary figure, his mood somewhat turbulent.
There were very few people with the Conflagrated Knowledge Seas, and even fewer of those were high level Alchemist. In this world, it was likely that he and the Grandmaster in front of him were such cases.
This commonality made Yang Kai want to hear from this old man about the secrets of the Conflagrated Knowledge Sea.
Yang Kai’s current use of his Conflagrated Knowledge Sea was still somewhat rough, but this Grandmaster was different. The latter had lived for countless years and whether it was in terms of experience or knowledge he had countless times more than Yang Kai. If Yang Kai would gain a massive amount of benefits if he could discuss this with him.
However, Yang Kai was still somewhat uncertain about whether he should disclose the secret of his Conflagrated Knowledge Sea.
While he was debating this idea in his head though, the Old Man Of Heaven’s Keep suddenly laughed, “Since you have all recognized me, this old master won’t bother with these cheap tricks.”
Saying so, he lifted the hood from his cloak and revealed his face.
“Grandmaster, disciple has long wished to see Grandmaster again, to listen to Grandmaster’s teachings face to face, and now, finally…” Du Wan was so excited that he was actually sobbing between his words.
“When this matter comes to an end, we will have some time to talk. You having your current achievements greatly pleases this old master. This old master taught you for only ten days, and you being able to reach this step is all thanks to your own skill and efforts,” The Old Man Of Heaven’s Keep said lightly.
Du Wan was extremely flattered and continuously thanked him.
“Don’t call me Grandmaster, if people were to hear it things would only become more complicated. En, this old master’s real name is Li Rui, you call me Old Man Li.”
“Yes,” Du Wan respectfully responded.
“Who is this Senior, why does Old Man Du call himself a disciple?” Mi Na was still unaware of the situation and whispered to Yang Kai.
“You should ask Old Man Du some other time,” Yang Kai replied quietly.
“Hmph, acting all mysterious,” Mi Na spat disdainfully.
Given her personality, if she had encountered such a situation before, she would definitely have come right out and said, “Hey old man, who are you?”
But when she saw how Old Man Du was acting, Mi Na didn’t dare speak too rashly.
She was blunt but not an idiot.
Before the group of people had recovered from the excitement, Yang Kai looked over at the Old Man Of Heaven’s Keep and asked, “Old Man Li, Brother Di knowing so much about the Thousand Year Demon Flower, were you the one who told him?”
“Indeed,” Old Man Li nodded lightly as he glanced over at Yang Kai and smiled, “Little friend, I feel from you an aura somewhat similar to my own, after the conclusion of this event, would you care to speak of few words with me? If you don’t mind, I believe there are many things I can help you to understand.”
Cang Yan and the others’ eyes all brightened as they silently signalled to Yang Kai to accept.
Yang Kai was a promising young Alchemist and the other side was the world’s foremost Alchemy Grandmaster. No matter who it was, they would leap at the chance to listen to the Old Man Of Heaven’s Keep’s teachings. Such a great opportunity suddenly appearing in front of their Little Martial Nephew, how could they not encourage him to agree?
Yang Kai couldn’t help smiling wryly. He had just been agonizing over whether to disclose the secret of his Conflagrated Knowledge Sea to Old Man Li, but now it seems the other party had been aware of this secret all along.
Now, with no need to hide anything, and given the fact that Yang Kai felt no maliciousness intent from this powerful old master, he quickly nodded, “I’d like nothing more!”
“Good good good,” Old Man Li nodded with a big smile.
“Master, let’s talk about this Thousand Year Demon Flower with Brother Yang and the others, they all must be quite confused right now while hoping you can dispel their doubts,” Di Yao suggested.
Everyone turned their attention to Old Man Li upon hearing these words.
Old Man Li drew a light breath before nodding, “Good, making Di Yao wait here was indeed this old master’s intent, because the Heavenly Manifestation really has not yet appeared. The Thousand Year Demon Flower is currently in the process of opening and it will be around another half a day before it truly blossoms, it won’t be too late to ascend the mountain then. All there is up there now is a chaotic battlefield; going now has only detriments and no benefit.”
“A thousand years ago, when the Demon Flower last bloomed, it was Master who condensed its medicinal liquid, so in regards to it, he definitely knows more than anyone else,” Di Yao added.
Cang Yan and others were once again shocked.
This piece of news was something they had never heard of before.
A thousand of years ago, the Old Man Of Heaven’s Keep certainly did not have the same aloof status and worldwide fame as he did today. At the time, he was also just a young man like Yang Kai and Di Yao.
As time passed, he had gradually earned his reputation until finally, the name Old Man Of Heaven’s Keep had been etched into Tong Xuan Realm’s history.
As for his early exploits, most of them had basically been forgotten by the world.
Old Man Li smiled and slowly continued, “The Thousand Year Demon Flower is said to originate from the Starry Sky. Legend has it that many years ago, a seed fell from the Heavens onto Ascending Heaven Cliff and the Thousand Year Demon Flower came into being, its medicinal liquid is able to greatly enhance one’s chance of breaking through to the Saint Realm, so every thousand years, there is an epic struggle for it in which many masters lose their lives.”
“Many masters have attempted to monopolize this Thousand Year Demon Flower over the years, but no matter how many people searched for its whereabouts, before the time came, none of them ever found a trace of it. Ascending Heaven Cliff, once reached a height of ten thousand meters, but now it is only eight thousand because many have tried to smash open its summit in order to find the Thousand Year Demon Flower.”
Everyone listened carefully, as if afraid they would miss something, their demeanours all extremely focused.
“Why couldn’t they find it? I have always been very curious about this; since the Demon Flower is so important, why has no one ever successfully taken it from Ascending Heaven Cliff?” Mi Na asked the question on everyone’s mind.
“Because the Thousand Year Demon Flower is not there!” Old Man Li glanced at her and smiled, “What you see, is not the real Thousand Year Demon Flower!”
“Not the real thing?” The crowd was stunned.
“En, it is indeed a rare treasure of heaven and earth and contains extremely mysterious energy. After waiting for a while, when you see it, you will naturally understand what this old master means,” Old Man Li seemed to have no intention of hiding anything, freely explaining all he knew, “Also, it is quite sensitive, once it detects the aura of a Saint Realm master, it absolutely will not blossom. Long ago, many Saints tried to obtain the Thousand Year Demon Flower during its scheduled blossoming, but each time the Demon Flower failed to bloom, that is why in recent times no Saint has participated in this event.”
“Old Man Li, what should we do after this wait?” Cang Yan asked quickly.
“Escort these two youngsters until they enter the flower, after that, everything will be up to their own abilities. There’s nothing more you can do to help them.”
Hearing this, Cang Yan couldn’t help feeling confused.
Old Man Li laughed and said, “Saying anything more now won’t make it any clearer, when the time comes, you will understand.”
Cang Yan and the others nodded slightly and no longer asked.
While they were speaking, the violent battle up ahead continued. It was as if the entire mountain had become a battlefield with various Transcendent Realm masters escorting their Alchemists to the summit all while competing against their surrounding rivals.
Gradually though, the fight calmed down. It seemed as though everyone had noticed that something was not right with the Thousand Year Demon Flower and had ceased their battle for now.
Half a day later, the five coloured rays atop the mountain peak burst and in the sky, a beautiful flower bud appeared.
This flower bud was so massive that even those back in Floating Clouds City, several dozen kilometres away, could clearly see it suspended mid-air above the summit of Ascending Heaven Cliff.
Everyone also saw that this flower bud had no physical form and was instead purely composed of energy; it was extremely mysterious.
When this flower bud manifested, the World Energy within a few hundred kilometres immediately began madly flooding towards it.
The streams of converging World energy were visible to the naked eye and were constantly pouring into the flower bud, disappearing in the next instant.
At the same time, atop the mountain, the masters who had survived the previous war all rushed towards the flower bud.
Several dozen teams comprised of hundreds of Transcendents all exerted their full strength in an attempt to claim this prize.
The battle that had just calmed down broke out once again, and this time, it was even bloodier and crueller than before.
Masters continuously fell as Martial Skill and artifacts flashed across the sky, shredding both bodies and Souls. Even the Alchemists who were being protected by these masters were not spared in this chaotic melee.
In a flash, several teams were completely annihilated, leaving no survivors behind.
Everyone couldn’t help wearing dignified expressions as they suddenly realized just how intense this competition would be.
“Old Man Li…” Cang Yan asked once again, his face quite tense.
“There’s no rush!” Old Man Li slowly shook his head, his expression remaining as calm as ever.
Cang Yan took a deep breath and steadied his mood, waiting quietly for the moment to come.
A short time later, one team managed to rush over to the flower bud, but this team did not even have time to rejoice before they were submerged in attacks by the crowd that followed.
In the vicinity of the flower bud, countless people fought a bloody battle.
There were also some cunning people who avoided this whirlpool of death and were trying to find ways to condense the Thousand Year Demon Flower’s medicinal liquid, but no matter what they tried, they failed to achieve anything. Helpless, they could only turn towards the flower bud and join the fray.
This battle over the Thousand Year Demon Flower had greatly damaged the strength of several dozen forces and resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Transcendents.
After another hour or so, the World Energy in the air gradually became thinner, apparently, it had all been absorbed into the flower bud of the Thousand Year Demon Flower and reached a saturation point. The flower bud which had been closed the whole time also began showing signs of blooming.
“It’s time,” Old Man Li said lightly.
“Let’s go!” Cang Yan shouted, and with Yang Kai and Di Yao in the middle, their team set out, each of them using their movement skills to quickly rush towards the bud.
Their group of twelve, with the exception of Yang Kai and Di Yao, were all Transcendents, six Third Orders and four Second Orders, whether it was in terms of number or strength, they were amongst the most formidable teams on the mountain.
However, Cang Yan and the others still dared not relax, tightly surrounding Yang Kai and Di Yao to ensure not the slightest harm came to them.
Everyone’s eyes were fixed on the huge flower buds ahead and gradually, the closed petals began expanding outwards, blossoming faster and faster. Cang Yan and the others had only made it halfway up the mountain yet the Thousand Year Demon Flower had almost fully bloomed.
Suddenly, a multi-coloured light burst out and an inexplicable energy fluctuation pulsed across the sky. Under the influence of this strange energy, everyone couldn’t help suddenly calming down.
The remaining masters also stayed their hands, each of them directing all of their attention towards the now open petals of the Thousand Year Demon Flower, each of them putting their guards up and monitoring their surroundings while signalling to their respective Alchemists to begin condensing the medicinal liquid.
Unfortunately, though, none of these Alchemists knew where to start, the True Qi they sent out towards the blossomed flower was able to wrap up its petals but that was all, no sign of refining or condensing occurred.
This discovery made everyone’s expression sink.
All of them had scrambled madly to be here, many of their teams having suffered heavy injuries or even deaths, but now they couldn’t make any progress at all, what was the point in all of this then?
By the time Yang Kai’s group arrived, the Thousand Year Demon Flower floating in the sky had already been surrounded with almost no free space for them to settle down on.
“Go to the position where the centre of the flower is!” Di Yao suddenly whispered.
As they had no idea what else to do, upon hearing this, Cang Yan led everyone towards the indicated spot.
The centre of the flower (the pistil) was naturally a very eye-catching position, and at this moment it was already occupied by two powerful teams, each of them searching for a way to condense the medicinal liquid.
The arrival of Yang Kai’s team had immediately aroused their attention and vigilance.
The two competing teams both turned to face their new opponents, their attitudes surprisingly consistent.
Perceiving the number and cultivation of the other party, Cang Yan’s brow furrowed, quickly summoning his Saint Grade sword and pushing his Flame Attribute True Qi to condense a giant flame sword, his momentum rising to its peak as he stared towards his opponents.
“There’s no need to settle this with violence,” Di Yao said before immediately calling out the two other teams, “How about you open up a spot for us and in return I tell you how to refine the Thousand Year Demon Flower.”
“Do you know how?” The eyes of the opposite groups all flashed upon hearing Di Yao’s words.
“Probably,” Di Yao smiled lightly, “But if you don’t agree, we can only fight it out.”
Di Yao used a perfect mix of courtesy and force, his expression calm the whole time.
Hearing his words, the other side’s expressions all became solemn. When they scanned this group of newcomers, they realized that the situation was not good; although their numbers and cultivations were more or less even, in the end, their side was still made up of two different teams so acting in unison would be difficult. On the other hand, Cang Yan’s side were one whole, so if a fight were to really start, their side would clearly be at a disadvantage and would likely be the ones ultimately forced to withdraw.
The masters from the two teams glanced at each other and quickly reached a consensus.
The two teams merged together, opening up a spot for Yang Kai’s group.
Di Yao’s expression brightened, appearing somewhat pleasantly surprised. He had just been speaking casually before and had not anticipated things would go so smoothly, quickly saying, “Thank you!”
As he spoke, their team settled into the open space.
Stepping onto the broad petal, Yang Kai had a strange feeling.
Although the Thousand Year Demon Flower was purely composed of energy and had no physical substance to it, the energy itself was so rich it was no different from a solid form.
“We’ve given you a spot as agreed, now why don’t you tell us how to condense the medicinal liquid?” Once of the masters from the other two teams stared at Cang Yan vigilantly while asking Di Yao.
“Just wait,” Di Yao smiled and didn’t answer.
The masters from the other two teams suddenly looked uncomfortable, silently circulating their True Qi and raising their guard, preparing to take action at any moment.
After about ten breaths of time though, at the very pistil petals, a ripple of energy visible to the naked eye appeared, attracting everyone’s attention and causing them to become even more alert.
Di Yao suddenly leaned over to Yang Kai and whispered something into his ear; Yang Kai nodded silently in response.
Immediately after, Di Yao went around to all the others in the group and told each of them something.
This little action didn’t go unnoticed by the other two teams of course, and one of their masters soon angrily called out, “What are you doing? If you dare try to deceive us, we’ll make you pay a steep price!”
Di Yao just laughed however and casually said, “Rest assured, I will tell you how to condense the Demon Flower’s medicinal liquid, I won’t deceive you.”
“You better!”
As the two were speaking, the ripples from the pistil became more and more pronounced, as if small stones were constantly being thrown into a calm lake.
From the pistil, where the ripples were originating, a mysterious energy began appearing and spreading out.
“Go!” Di Yao suddenly shouted and together with Yang Kai, rushed towards the epicentre.
The two’s speed instantly reached an extreme and in the blink of an eye they had already arrived at the centre of the ripples.
In the next instant, a shocking scene took place; the two young men dove into the ripples and, as if they had fallen into a deep pool of water, completely disappeared.
Although the masters from the other two teams had been on full alert, none of them had anticipated such a strange and sudden development, and by the time they came to their senses were too late to stop it.
These masters instantly became furious and were just about to attack when Cang Yan suddenly said, “Wait a moment.”
“You group of lying bastards, what do you want to say at this point!?”
“I can let your Alchemists go in, only on the other side is it possible to condense the medicinal liquid, but all of you must stay behind and help us guard this entrance. You don’t want any other opponents to break in, right?” Cang Yan said calmly while still holding his Saint Grade sword covered in flames, exerting an invisible pressure on them.
All of the other teams’ masters were somewhat stunned by this proposal but with no time to think it through, they simply nodded, “Good!”
“Thank you!” Cang Yan gestured.
The Spirit Grade Alchemists from the two teams quickly followed after Di Yao and Yang Kai and dove into the pistil, their figures disappearing in the next moment.
Four Spirit Grade Alchemists suddenly disappearing into the flower had naturally attracted a lot of attention from the surrounding teams.
Although none of them understood what was happening, all of them were keenly aware of what needed to be done and faintly felt that this occurrence was related to how to condense the Thousand Year Demon Flower’s medicinal liquid.
Dozens of sharp gazes focused on the pistil and in the next instant, countless teams rushed over.
Cang Yan grinned fiercely and the Saint Grade sword in his hand suddenly transformed into a roaring Fire Dragon that shot towards the incoming crowd.
*Xiu xiu xiu…*
Fei Jian pulled open his bow and shot out a barrage of powerful, yet invisible arrows skewering several of the incoming opponents.
Li Wan’s short body suddenly radiated a dazzling golden radiance and in an instant, his barely adult-sized body transformed into a massive giant towering over everyone else.
Fei Yu’s red lips parted as she blew a watery mist from her seemingly delicate mouth. This mist morphed into a giant serpent that bore its fangs and struck like lightning towards nearby cultivators. Each of its victims immediately became red faced and disoriented, as if they were completely drunk and incapable of even standing up straight.
In the air, there was suddenly a strong smell of wine which was both fragrant and intoxicating.
The four masters from Soaring Heaven Sect suddenly bursting out their complete strength sent a cold chill down the backs of the other Transcendents beside them guarding the Demon Flower’s pistil.
None of them dared hold back either, whether it was the Transcendents from the other two teams or the six guards sent by the City Lord’s Mansion, they also displayed their most formidable Martial Skills and artifacts.
In an instant, Martial Skills and artifact strikes flew out atop the petals of the Thousand Year Demon Flower and an earth-shaking battle began.
Although the Soaring Heaven Sect Protectors, City Lord’s Mansion guards, and the masters from the two unfamiliar teams totalled eighteen masters altogether, and each of their individual strengths was no low, a few fierce tigers were still unable to beat back a massive pack of wolves. Facing hundreds of Transcendent Realm masters, they quickly fell into a disadvantageous position.
After less than twenty breaths, all of them had suffered varying degrees of injury. Li Wan, who was at the forefront, had already been beaten bloody by the countless attacks he had endured.
Cang Yan’s expression was incredibly solemn as he fought while keeping a thread of Divine Sense locked on the pistil, making sure not to miss any changes that occurred.
After the four Spirit Grade Alchemists entered, the ripples spreading from the centre of the petals began slowing, and as time passed they began fading.
Soon, the ripples stopped propagating at all.
“Retreat!” Cang Yan shouted, no longer daring to stick around, grabbing Li Wan and fleeing as swift as the wind and quick as lightly.
Fei Yu, Fei Jian, and the six guards from the City Lord’s Mansion were close behind.
The remaining two teams were stunned, unable to understand why their allies had suddenly abandoned their position, but without Cang Yan and the others, it was impossible for them to continue guarding this place so they too hurriedly escaped.
At the pistil, the guards had left and the door was wide open.
The cultivators who had just arrived were overjoyed and hurriedly tried to escort their own Alchemists forward in order to have them follow after Yang Kai and Di Yao.
But to their dismay, now that the ripples had ceased, no matter how hard they tried, no one else was able to enter the flower.
For a time, countless shouts and curses rang out.
Meanwhile, Cang Yan and the others had already returned to the base of the mountain, each of them bathed in blood and panting heavily for breath, even the beautiful Fei Yu was a complete mess as a tinge of fear still gripped her heart.
Fortunately, all of them had only needed to guard the entrance for about thirty breaths of time, if they had to remain any longer, it was possible none of them would have survived.
All of them had received quite heavy injuries with Li Wan being the most severely wounded. After dispelling his golden giant form, he immediately collapsed to the ground.
Old Man Li quickly stepped forward and gave everyone a pill.
Cang Yan and the others expressed their gratitude before hurriedly swallowing the healing pills.
A short time later, all of them felt significantly better and Li Wan’s injuries had also been stabilized, at least, there was no immediate threat to his life.
“Old Man Li, is this all right?” Cang Yan opened his eyes and turned to look at the Thousand Year Demon Flower which was still floating gently in the sky. Even now, atop its giant petals, there were countless masters looking for a method to enter.
“En,” Old Man Li nodded lightly, “The rest will depend on their own good fortune.”
“Two other Alchemists also managed to go in, we were powerless to stop them,” Cang Yan muttered somewhat dissatisfied.
“No problem, even though they went in, they won’t be able to obtain anything,” Old Man Li laughed, obviously he had great confidence in Di Yao.
“Fair enough,” Cang Yan nodded lightly. With Yang Kai there, those two Alchemists obviously wouldn’t be able to make any waves, that kid had even been able to kill Second Order Transcendents.
“We really must thank Old Man Li for everything,” Fei Yu said, still somewhat distressed, “If it weren’t Old Man Li’s instructions, we would be no better than headless flies like everyone else.”
Who could have thought it would be so difficult to condense the medicinal liquid of the Thousand Year Demon Flower. All of them had originally thought that when the flowers blossomed, the nearby Alchemists would simply need to refine it and that would be it. If it weren’t for some lucky coincidences causing Yang Kai and Di Yao to meet and befriend one another, thus allowing them to obtain Old Man Li’s advice, the four Protectors were certainly they wouldn’t have been able to complete their task here so smoothly.
“Hoho, I’ve just lived a little longer than all of you, nothing more,” Old Man Li laughed lightly, “Good, there’s no need for us to wait here, let’s head back to Floating Clouds City, it will be more than a few days before they come out again.”
Everyone nodded and turned towards Floating Clouds City with Old Man Li.
Along the way, Cang Yan found that Old Man Li seemed to be quite interested in his Little Martial Nephew and asked a lot about him. Although there were outsiders present, in the face of Old Man Li’s inquiries, Cang Yan answered as much as possible.
“Oh, so you say he is from a very remote place?” Old Man Li suddenly smiled, “I see.”
“We were also quite surprised, never had I thought such an amazing talent like that kid would emerge from such a small place,” Cang Yan smiled and shook his head. Compared with Yang Kai’s performance, the so called Elite Disciples of Soaring Heaven Sect were mediocre at best.
“You should not underestimate those who are born in lower levels of our world. There are many talented people from all places, but because of various constraints, their development is limited; however, if any of them manage to rise up even in such a harsh environment, they can often ascend to great heights,” Old Man Li lightly said.
“What Old Man Li says is absolutely right,” Cang Yan smiled and nodded, “I would never have believed so before, but after seeing Little Martial Nephew, I am thoroughly convinced. I even heard Little Martial Nephew say he has two Senior Sisters who came out from his homeland who are no worse than him, possibly even better in certain aspects.”
“He has two Senior Sisters?” Old Man Li raised his eyebrows.
“En, Little Martial Nephew has been looking for them, but unfortunately he has no clue where to start. Haa… it truly is difficult to find two individuals in such a vast sea of people.”
Amidst the void, Yang Kai and Di Yao suddenly appeared. The moment they emerged, Di Yao quickly summoned a defensive artifact and a beige light curtain wrapped both him and Yang Kai. With a solemn expression, he hastily called out, “Brother Yang, don’t leave the scope of my artifact, or you’ll be in grave danger.”
Yang Kai didn’t answer though as he was completely focused on the scene in front of him.
Up and down, left and right, there was absolutely nothing but a seemingly endless abyss.
All around there were bright stars while slightly closer by there was a great sun that gave off waves of heat and a pale moon that radiated a cold light, making Yang Kai wonder if he was dreaming.
Although this void was not completely pitch black, have essentially no point of reference and not being able to see where it began or where it ended caused a type of uneasiness to well up in Yang Kai’s heart.
There was no ground beneath his feet and no force pulling him down, he was simply drifting about randomly. The Ascending Heaven Cliff and the Thousand Year Demon Flower had vanished and all Yang Kai could see in his immediate surroundings was something that resembled a dark cave entrance.
Naturally, this was a Void Corridor.
The Thousand Year Demon Flower’s pistil seemed to be an entrance to a Void Corridor and Yang Kai currently didn’t know where it had sent him.
“Where are we?” Yang Kai asked quickly.
“The Starry Sky!” Di Yao took a deep breath and said with an excited expression, gazing around at his surroundings in wonder.
“The Starry Sky?” Yang Kai’s brows jumped as he couldn’t help asking, “Are the legends really true?”
“Of course they’re true,” Di Yao nodded repeatedly, “Most of the world’s masters have heard rumours about the Starry Sky, and there are also many products from the Starry Sky in Tong Xuan Realm, but no one has ever arrived at the Starry Sky or knows what it truly looks like; but who would have ever thought that the Thousand Year Demon Flower was actually a doorway to the Starry Sky?”
“Is this really the Starry Sky and not just some Mysterious Small World?” Yang Kai was still unable to believe it; he was more inclined to believe this was some magical Mysterious Small World.
“Why would I need to lie to you?” Di Yao smiled, “Master told me this place is indeed the Starry Sky; see the large star over there bursting with vitality? That is our Tong Xuan Realm!”
Yang Kai turned in the direction Di Yao pointed and indeed saw a huge star; of course, from where he was standing, this star only appeared about the size of a fist, as if he could hold out his hand and tightly grasp it.
His mood was hard to describe.
“Why is it round?” Yang Kai frowned, he had never expected the so-called Tong Xuan Realm to be spherical in shape.
Wouldn’t the people on the backside fall off? Yang Kai felt deeply worried.
“I don’t know why,” Di Yao shrugged his shoulders.
As the two were talking, their expressions suddenly changed and they quickly turned their gazes to the Void Corridor behind them.
Di Yao manipulated his defensive artifact and brought Yang Kai back a short distance.
The next moment, from the Void Corridor, two more people appeared.
The two men were the Alchemists from the other two teams they had been collaborating with, and as soon as they stepped out of the Void Corridor, the two Alchemists assumed a fighting stance.
Obviously, they also knew that in order to obtain the medicinal liquid of the Thousand Year Demon Flower they would have to first defeat Yang Kai and Di Yao.
These two Spirit Grade Top-Rank Alchemists weren’t young and their cultivations weren’t low, both of them First Order Transcendents; however, because they specialized in Alchemy, their combat power was only slightly higher than that of Peak Immortal Ascension cultivators, incomparable with true Transcendents.
But facing two kids like Yang Kai and Di Yao, they showed no fear and firmly believed they would be the ultimate winners.
Yang Kai snickered and was about to respond to their provocation when Di Yao reached out and stopped him, slowly shaking his head and grinning, “There’s no need to fight with them.”
“Huh? Why?” Yang Kai was confused.
Di Yao just laughed in response, “Because they’re already dead.”
Saying so, he turned to the other party and shouted, “Friends, you should summon your own defensive artifacts or your deaths will be quite miserable.”
The two men were stunned by these words and were quite doubtful but after noticing their current situation and location, their eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
Obviously, they had never anticipated that after entering the Thousand Year Demon Flower they would arrive at the Starry Sky.
This vast and endless abyss greatly frightened them.
Worse though, before they could compose themselves, the two of them felt a powerful destructive force tearing at their bodies.
Their faces changing drastically, neither of them hesitated to summon their most powerful defensive artifacts to protect themselves from this strange energy.
Alchemists were never poor, so their artifacts weren’t bad, the two of them both possessing Spirit Grade Mid-Rank or Top-Rank grade defensive artifacts. This level of the defensive artifact was enough to withstand the full blow of a Third Order Transcendent master.
Unfortunately for them though, in the Starry Sky, such artifacts could only slightly delay their time of death.
The strange energy in their surroundings continuously impacted their defensive artifacts, causing their radiance to quickly flicker and dim like candles in the wind that could be snuffed out in the next instant.
“Where is this?” One of them cried out.
“Who knows,” Di Yao wouldn’t kindly dispel their doubts and simply waved goodbye to them before gradually drifting away with Yang Kai.
The two men were stunned but quickly recovered and immediately took action, not daring to remain a moment longer. But when they prepared to return the way they came, they noticed that the Void Corridor behind them had already closed. Turning around once more, wanting to seek Di Yao and Yang Kai’s help, they noticed that this pair of youngsters had also disappeared. Their eyes went dull as their minds were overcome with terror.
Vaguely, Yang Kai thought he heard some miserable screams in the distance and upon looking back, he saw the two men disintegrate, not leaving behind any bones. Even the two Alchemist’s defensive artifacts broke down into dust and were quickly scattered.
“Does some kind of powerful destructive energy permeate the entire Starry Sky?” Yang Kai quickly realized the seriousness of the problem. The light barrier created by the defensive artifact that Di Yao had summoned also showed traces of being attacked, but this artifact’s grade was obviously incredibly high so there was no need to worry about it collapsing.
“En, the power flowing through the Starry Sky is not something we can resist. Master almost died here a thousand years ago; if it wasn’t for him coincidentally having a powerful defensive artifact at the time, there would be no Old Man of Heaven’s Keep. Master said that in order to withstand the destructive force of the Starry Sky, one’s physique needs to be at least on par with that of a Second Order Saint or have a comparable defensive artifact.”
Yang Kai nodded slightly, now quite curious about the Starry Sky.
He had never known that the legendary Starry Sky would be so dangerous, even just standing in it was life-threatening.
As he spoke, Di Yao’s movement suddenly stopped and he grinned, “Found it.”
As he spoke, he pointed his finger forward.
Yang Kai turned to look in the direction Di Yao pointed and his eyes couldn’t help flashing, “The Thousand Year Demon Flower?”
A short distance away, there was a flower that looked exactly the same as the Thousand Year Demon Flower Yang Kai had seen before floating in the sky, the only difference was that this Thousand Year Demon Flower was countless times smaller
“En, this is the real Thousand Year Demon Flower!” Di Yao nodded lightly, “In fact, the Thousand Year Demon Flower we saw atop Ascending Heaven Cliff is just a projection. The real Thousand Year Demon Flower and Tong Xuan Realm have some kind of inexplicable connection, and through it, the Demon Flower can absorb energy from Tong Xuan Realm. During this process of absorption, its image will be magnified many times and appear atop Ascending Heaven Cliff, but the World Energy it absorbs actually flows here.”
At this moment, the Thousand Year Demon Flower appeared a vibrant green colour and in the centre of its blooming petals, there were a few drops of crystal clear, jewel-like liquid that gave off an intoxicating fragrance, calming the minds of anyone who smelt it.
“Brother Yang, go ahead and take them, condensing this medicinal liquid doesn’t require any special method, as long as one can find the real body of the Thousand Year Demon Flower, they can take it away. These drops of liquid are the essence of the Thousand Year Demon Flower, the wondrous medicine that can greatly enhance a Transcendent’s chances of breaking through to the Saint Realm!” Di Yao explained.
Yang Kai nodded lightly and moved in front of the Thousand Year Demon Flower before carefully counting, soon revealing a happy smile because he found a whole six drops of crystal liquid.
“There are a lot of them, it seems Brother Yang’s luck is quite good,” Di Yao smiled, “Last time, when Master came here, there were only three drops. I was originally worried there wouldn’t be enough for your Martial Uncles and Martial Aunt to use but now it seems there are actually two extra drops.”
“You take these two drops,” Yang Kai said as he took out a jade bottle and carefully collected the medicinal liquid.
“I don’t need them,” Di Yao shook his head, “We made an agreement before that all of the medicinal liquid would belong to you and to me it really isn’t something important. Master is already a Saint, and with regards to myself… En, I want to break through to the Saint Realm through my own efforts and not by external factors.”
Yang Kai looked at him for a moment before nodding, “Then I won’t be polite.”
Di Yao was obviously confident in himself and believed that with his natural aptitude, even if he had no external assistance, he would one day successfully become a Saint.
This was exactly the same as Yang Kai!
When Yang Kai broke through each Great Realm, he never used external forces and relied solely on his own sentiments and efforts. In doing so, his foundation would be more stable. On the contrary, if he relied on external forces, he might actually limit his future potential.
However, unlike Di Yao, who only had Old Man Li, Yang Kai had many friends and family members, so these extra two drops would definitely come in handy one day.
After collecting the six drops of medicinal liquid, Yang Kai was in a good mood and asked, “How do we go back now?”
“There is another Void Corridor nearby which leads back to Tong Xuan Realm, as long as we find it we can go back, but Master didn’t mention anything about its location and told me to seek for it myself,” Di Yao suddenly grinned, “But even if I find it, I’m in no hurry to go back.”
“Why is that?” Yang Kai couldn’t help asking.
“This is an incredibly rare opportunity Brother Yang,” Di Yao said in an excited voice, “This is the Starry Sky, and we are currently surrounded by the power of the Starry Sky which contains countless traces of Heavenly Dao Laws. Cultivating here for a single day is equivalent to cultivating back on Tong Xuan Realm for half a year, and if you can comprehend anything while in this place, it will bring you a lifetime worth of benefits!”
Hearing all this, Yang Kai’s eyes lit up and he eagerly asked, “Is that true?”
Di Yao nodded firmly.
“Then what are we waiting for?” Yang Kai was impatient to get started and quickly sat down before circulating his Secret Art.
Seeing this, Di Yao was dumbfounded and couldn’t help chuckling, “There’s no need to rush, right now my Saint Grade artifact is blocking the ambient energy of the Starry Sky, wait a moment and I’ll let some of it inside so we can cultivate.”
Saying so, Di Yao’s expression suddenly became dignified as he controlled his defensive artifact and opened a small crack in its light barrier.
Amidst the endless Starry Sky, the beige coloured light curtain that was surrounding Yang Kai and Di Yao thinned slightly and allowed in a wave of violent energy that tore at their bodies.
Immediately, both of the young men showed pained expressions, their bodies trembling as countless small, bloody wounds appeared on their skin.
Although Di Yao had the face of a gigolo and was prettier than most women, his physique was actually quite strong, far surpassing what an ordinary Alchemist would normally possess. It could be said that Di Yao was the same similar to Yang Kai in that not only was he proficient in Alchemy, but also in combat.
Both of them sat within the protection of the defensive artifacts and while they tempered their physiques they also tried to perceive the mysteries of the Starry Sky’s energies, trying to glean some benefits from it.
Quickly, two days passed since they first came to the Starry Sky. For the past two days, Di Yao had been occasionally weakening the power of his defensive artifacts to allow the Starry Sky’s ambient energies to leak in, each time increasing the amount slightly. For him, the harvest was not small.
These two days worth of tempering had made his body a lot stronger.
However, Yang Kai gradually felt somewhat dissatisfied. The Starry Sky energy which was allowed into the defensive shield now had essentially no effect on him at all while Di Yao was obviously being pushed to his limit.
If Yang Kai were to continue cultivating here, it would be impossible for him to make any significant progress.
After thinking about it for a while, Yang Kai suddenly said, “Brother Di, let’s act separately. I can see that maintaining this artifact consumes a great deal of your True Qi, but if you don’t need to protect me as well, your expenditure should decrease significantly.”
These past two days, Di Yao had been constantly taking pills to supplement his True Qi, otherwise, it would have been impossible to maintain this artifact’s shield.
Fortunately, he had apparently brought many high-quality pills, obviously in preparation for this situation.
Hearing this, Di Yao frowned, “Acting separately is fine, but do you have a Saint Grade defensive artifact? It can’t be Saint Grade Low-Rank either, it has to at least be Mid-Rank to withstand the ambient energy here.”
“I think… I probably don’t need to use an artifact,” Yang Kai replied hesitantly.
“…what?” Di Yao apparently thought he had heard wrong, “You want to resist the strength of this Starry Sky energy directly with your flesh?”
“Let me try it first, if I can’t then I’ll think of something else,” Yang Kai suggested.
Di Yao’s brow wrinkled and only after a long silence did he nod slightly, “Then you be careful, although I also think that your physique is stronger than mine, this is no joking matter. This is the Starry Sky, if one’s physique is not strong enough, the only result will be death, even Saint Realm masters are no exception to this!”
“I know,” Yang Kai smiled, “I’m heading out.”
As soon as he said so, Yang Kai left the scope of Di Yao’s artifact.
Now fully exposed to the Starry Sky, Yang Kai immediately felt a drastic difference. From all directions, indescribable energy surged towards him, as if he was surrounded by an invisible enemy that was mercilessly attacking every inch of his body.
*Xiu xiu xiu…*
Atop his firm muscles, countless small wounds appeared and blood began flowing out, but Yang Kai not only felt pain, but excitement as well.
Sure enough, with just his body alone, he was able to withstand the destructive energy of the Starry Sky; in fact, not only did he not have to worry about his life, if he continued tempering himself like this, the benefits he would obtain were simply unimaginable.
Di Yao’s face went blue in an instant, his expression twitching violently for a while before he let out a long and envious sigh, “Monster!”
He did not dare to leave the scope of his artifact’s protection. Although his physique was indeed above average, it was far from the freakish level of Yang Kai.
Even if he were to take a few more years and dedicate them to tempering his physical form, he may not be able to achieve such a standard.
“How do you feel?” Di Yao quickly calmed down and asked curiously.
“Terrible,” Yang Kai’s face made a pained expression as shot a grin towards Di You, “Would you like to come out and try?”
“Yeah right, I still have some self-knowledge!” Di Yao quickly refused, “Good, since you don’t need the assistance of my defensive artifact, we’ll act separately and see who finds the Void Corridor back to Tong Xuan Realm first.”
“Good!” Yang Kai nodded.
“It’s not convenient for us to contact one another here if I find the Void Corridor and reach my limit but you still have yet to appear, I’ll take my leave first.”
“Brother Di doesn’t have to worry about me, when I’ve had enough, I’ll leave here on my own.”
“Then be careful not to die out here,” Di Yao reminded, “Keep in mind that the ambient energy of the Starry Sky is not evenly distributed, there may be some places where it is far more concentrated and violent, you should avoid such places at all cost or you really will die without any chance of burial!”
“There are such places?” Yang Kai’s showed an expression of eagerness and excitement.
Seeing this, Di Yao rubbed his forehead and felt a big headache coming on. He found that Yang Kai indeed had a similar personality to his own but there was one big difference between them. When faced with great danger, he was the type that liked to approach it from a stable position while Yang Kai was the type that liked to dive in and take risks.
“Good, I’ve said what I needed to say if you still die then that’s your own fault. Goodbye, let’s meet again in Floating Clouds City!” Di Yao was too lazy to care about Yang Kai’s recklessness any further and simply cupped his fists, turned around, and prepared to leave.
“Take this with you,” Yang Kai threw something out to Di Yao.
“What is it?”
“Something good,” Yang Kai smiled, “If you suffer any grievous wounds, apply this to them and they’ll soon be healed.”
“Thanks,” Di Yao smiled and nodded before quickly drifting off into the Starry Sky.
Staring at his disappearing back, Yang Kai smiled.
Yang Kai was quite fond of Di Yao, he had received a great deal of help from the latter regarding this time’s quest to obtain the Thousand Year Demon Flower’s medicinal liquid. Without Di Yao, Yang Kai knew it would have been impossible for things to have gone so smoothly.
So before they parted, Yang Kai had gifted Di Yao some Myriad Drug Milk.
The Yang Kai from before, who had not delved into the Alchemic Way, could not tell the grade or preciousness of various high-quality medicinal herbs, but now that he was an experienced Alchemist, his vision had become much more refined.
He could now somewhat identify the various grades of the Myriad Drug Liquid series.
The lowest level Myriad Drug Liquid could be considered Spirit Grade while the Myriad Drug Milk was Saint Grade. As for the small amount of Myriad Drug Cream he possessed, Yang Kai was still unable to completely classify it but he always felt it was somewhat different and beyond the scope of Saint Grade.
Giving Di Yao some Myriad Drug Milk was just a simple exchange of gifts between friends.
After quietly standing in place for a moment, Yang Kai turned around and flew off in the opposite direction of Di Yao.
In this endless Starry Sky, the only point of reference he could count on was the first sized Tong Xuan Realm, so Yang Kai has to keep an eye on it while simultaneously searching for the Void Corridor and quenching his body.
The power of the Starry Sky was constantly tearing at his flesh and although this tearing was not life-threatening to Yang Kai, it was enough to cause him significant pain.
In the fresh blood that flowed from his wounds, there was a faint golden radiance.
This was the blood of the Demon God.
Li Rong and Han Fei also said that one day, when Yang Kai’s blood turned completely golden, he would have the same ability as the legendary Great Demon God.
Yang Kai was greatly looking forward to that day.
Time flowed by and Yang Kai lost track of just how long he had been wandering around the Starry Sky. In the beginning, the power of the Starry Sky could wound his body, but gradually, as his flesh became tougher, this destructive energy could only leave behind small scratches on him.
As for the Void Corridor, Yang Kai had still yet to catch even a glimpse of it, so he concluded he was searching in the wrong direction. Apparently, the way Di Yao went was the correct one.
However, Yang Kai wasn’t in a hurry to find the Void Corridor; shuttling freely through the Starry Sky, he continued looking for places to temper his flesh and comprehend the Heavenly Way.
As Di Yao had said, amongst the Starry Sky, the distribution of the mysterious destructive energy was very uneven; there were places where it was dense and places where it was sparse.
Now, places, where this energy was thick, had become Yang Kai’s goal, only such regions of the Starry sky could effectively temper his physique now.
In this long and boundless journey, Yang Kai’s mood underwent some invisible changes and his Divine Sense became more and more acute.
One day, Yang Kai was sitting in an energy-filled region, quenching his flesh, and allowing his Divine Sense to explore the mysteries of the Starry Sky, when he suddenly felt something was not quite right.
Quickly immersing his consciousness into himself, after a careful inspection, he finally discovered the source of this strange sensation.
It was actually coming from his Wordless Black Book.
Or rather, it was coming from the Black Book space.
The ambient power of the Starry Sky was very slowly pouring into the Black Book space and disappearing without a trace as if it was being absorbed by something inside.
Examining the objects inside the Black Book space for a while, Yang Kai was amazed to discover that the power of the Starry Sky was actually being absorbed by the two strange black stones.
As energy flowed into them, the two dark stones actually shimmered with a dim light and suddenly felt as if they were full of vitality.
Yang Kai was stunned.
He quickly realized that if he wanted to understand what these black stones really were, the power of the Starry Sky was the key!
The old friend of Old Man Du who obtained one of these black stones several decades ago had never managed to learn anything about them because he had never been to the Starry Sky.
This was really a big coincidence, Yang Kai secretly thought, unable to concentrate again on his cultivation as he focused on the changes the two stones were undergoing.
However, after quite some time had passed, Yang Kai slowly gave up.
Because the two black stones seemingly did not change at all from beginning to end, they simply continued to draw in the energy of the Starry Sky while emitting dim light, other than that, nothing else happened.
Shaking his head, Yang Kai no longer wasted his time paying attention to them. Standing up and glancing around casually, he eventually decided on a direction and once again travelled across the Starry Sky.
Any time he sat in one spot, quenching his flesh, the power of the Starry Sky in the vicinity would be consumed and eventually could no longer be used to temper himself.
Time after time Yang Kai changed location, each time seeking out places with increasingly dense Starry Sky; in this way, the intensity of his physique soared upwards.
The wounds he suffered layered against one another. Each time a wound healed and left a scar, another wound would tear open in its place. The ongoing process left his body tattered with horrendous marks. However, this did not bother him. He understood the benefits of this act and continued to suffer the agonising pain, looking forward to the benefits later on.
Gradually though, Yang Kai was unable to find places suitable for his cultivation and regions that had once almost brought him to the edge of death could now be strolled through without suffering any harm.
Although Yang Kai believed there would be more violent energy further out into the Starry Sky, he was worried that if he went any further, he would be unable to find his way back.
If Yang Kai lost his way in the endless Starry Sky, he would definitely die.
Feeling that his harvest was big enough, Yang Kai turned around and returned the way he came. Although the Starry Sky was vast and empty, by using the Tong Xuan Realm as a point of reference he could still make his way back.
Moving forward day by day, although his speed was extremely fast, there was still a long way to go, but Yang Kai was not in a rush and instead was doing his best to relax both physically and mentally in order to obtain the maximum benefit he could from this trip to the Starry Sky.
At some point though, he suddenly paused and frowned.
The power of the Starry Sky flowing around him seemed to have suddenly undergone a strange mutation, something he had never experience before.
Yang Kai immediately became alert and quickly turned around, all the colour draining from his face in the next instant.
As far as Yang Kai could see, across the entire expanse of the Starry Sky, a churning storm like phenomenon had appeared and was approaching his position.
What’s more, its speed of approach was incredibly fast!
Yang Kai was terrified, although he had been searching for places where the ambient destructive energy of the Starry Sky was stronger in order to temper he physique, he had never anticipated such a massive, violent, storm front would instead find him.
Even though this storm was still quite far from him, from the vague energy fluctuations he could sense, Yang Kai felt that an aura of death was moving towards him.
[I can’t withstand it!] In an instant, Yang Kai understood this simple fact. With the current strength of his physique, once the storm caught up with him, it would only take a short time for even his bones to be smashed into dust!
The Starry Sky was filled with danger.
Di Yao and Old Man Li did not know much about the mysteries of the Starry Sky, and had never seen such a Starry Sky storm, so obviously, they had not provided Yang Kai with any information regarding this phenomenon.
Realizing all this, all the hair on Yang Kai’s body stood on end and without any hesitation, he removed the Primordial Shackles which were still on his ankles even now and fled as quickly as possible.
Since Fei Yu gave him the Primordial Shackles, Yang Kai had always been wearing them, but now, in order to increase his chances of surviving even a bit, he had decisively removed them.
Like a bolt of lightning, Yang Kai soared across the Starry Sky, covering great distance in the blink of an eye.
However, Yang Kai still felt his speed was inadequate. Opening his Wind and Thunder Wings behind him, Yang Kai once again rapidly accelerated, reaching his absolute maximum speed a moment later.
The wind was nimble and the thunder was swift. After being completely refined, the Wind and Thunder Wings and merged perfectly with Yang Kai’s Flaming Yang Wings and greatly boosted Yang Kai’s movement speed and agility.
Yang Kai had no idea how long he had been escaping, but he didn’t dare stop nor look back, because he knew that not only had he not opened up any distance between him and the Starry Sky storm, it was instead gaining on him rapidly.
The range of the storm was further than Yang Kai could see, so there was no way he could avoid it, if he couldn’t find some way to outpace it, then there was no way he could escape.
Maintaining his current speed consumed a massive amount of Yang Kai’s True Qi but with the Starry Sky storm behind him closing in, he had no time to care about such consumption. As the storm approached, Yang Kai felt like the sky itself was collapsing on him, leaving him nowhere to run.
As the pressure behind him increased, Yang Kai’s expression became solemn and he suddenly came to a stop. Retracting his Wind and Thunder Wings back into his body, he turned around and stared at the Starry Sky storm that was approaching.
[I can’t escape! It’s impossible to outrun it!]
[Since I can’t escape, I can only resist it directly!]
Yang Kai wasn’t confident he could face this storm head on, but right now he did not have any other choice.
As the Starry Sky storm got closer and closer, Yang Kai was surprised to find that instead of being nervous, he instead felt a sense of anticipation and a desire to compete with this storm made his blood boil. His eyes shining brightly, his spirit was roused and a fierce fighting spirit overwhelmed all of Yang Kai’s other thoughts.
The ambient power of the Starry Sky was filled with violence and destruction, but that was simply incomparable to this Starry Sky storm.
Not far in front of Yang Kai, there was a small Asteroid Sea, where hundreds of thousands of large and small asteroids were floating. Some of them were only the size of a fist while others were bigger than mountains.
Yang Kai had just passed through this Asteroid Sea.
Soon, the Starry Sky storm’s destructive aura reached this Asteroid Sea and, the instant any of the asteroids was touched, it would be ground into dust, regardless of its size.
Hundreds of thousands of asteroids that were spread out over tens of thousands of kilometres were vaporized within a short three breaths of time, leaving behind only a cloud of dust in the Starry Sky.
Seeing this, Yang Kai grinned fiercely.
In the next moment, the Starry Sky storm swallowed him too.
“Devil Transformation!” Whispering in a low voice, a dark Demonic Qi explodes out from Yang Kai’s body as black Demon Crests covered his entire form, disappearing in the next instant into his skin.
Yang Kai’s Blood Force rose madly and the strength of his physique increased rapidly.
Yang Kai next summoned out his Bone Shield and set it up in front of him.
However, this Mysterious Grade Top-Rank defensive artifact only lasted two breaths of time before it shattered in Yang Kai’s hand, unable to play the slightest role.
Devastating energy surrounded Yang Kai, tearing his clothes to shreds and ripping apart his flesh and blood. Yang Kai gritted his teeth and roar in alternation, pushing his True Qi to its limits to form a protective barrier around him.
The moment his True Qi appeared though, it melted away like snow in the early spring.
Yang Kai’s face sank upon realizing that his True Qi couldn’t provide him with any protection.
The only thing he could use to resist this wanton destructive energy was his body.
Understanding this, Yang Kai no longer wasted his True Qi and instead concentrated on the changes in his flesh while doing his best to move in the opposite direction of the storm!
He was like a lonely boat in a violent storm, the waves tossing him back and forth, constantly in danger of being torn apart.
What was truly astonishing though was despite having basically lost control of his own body, he was somehow still alive.
The omnipresent energy of the Starry Sky surged into Yang Kai’s bodies through his innumerable wounds, wreaking havoc both inside and outside his physique.
His five viscera and six organs all suffered grave injuries and every part of Yang Kai’s body was dyed gold as his blood flowed freely. If anyone were to see him right now, he would appear like a man stripped of all his skin, his torn muscles and tendons exposed, a truly terrifying sight to behold.
Even after using his Demon God Transformation, Yang Kai’s tough and powerful body was still incapable of resisting this Starry Sky storm. His body suffering near-fatal damage, his Soul also began to tremble and the Spiritual Energy that comprised his Knowledge Sea was on the verge of being blown apart.
Not daring to hesitate, Yang Kai hastily took out some Myriad Drug Milk and smeared it over his body while swallowing down one Saint Grade herb after another.
The powerful medicinal properties in these raw herbs, combined with his own enhanced Blood Force after the Demon God Transformation allowed Yang Kai’s damaged body to rapidly be repaired, but as quickly as his flesh and blood were restored, they were again torn apart by the Starry Sky Storm.
As time passed, the destructive energy in Yang Kai’s surroundings became richer and more violent as he approached the centre of the Starry Sky storm.
Flesh and muscle were quickly ripped apart, exposing golden bones within.
Naturally, it was the Unyielding Golden Skeleton, the remains of the Great Demon God!
Even in the face of the devastating Starry Sky storm, these bones remained completely unscathed.
By now, Yang Kai had become completely numb to pain and the only thing driving him forward was his stubborn will to survive, he understood that if he were to admit defeat here, he would undoubtedly die.
Although he was still not sure whether he could survive this disaster, while there was still a glimmer of hope, he refused to give up.
Time had never passed so slowly for Yang Kai. Since he had been enveloped by the Starry Sky storm, only the time it would take for half of stick of incense to burn had elapsed, yet to Yang Kai it felt like years had gone by, every single moment was filled with suffering and torture the likes of which he had never even imagined possible before now.
Myriad Drug Milk was constantly being consumed and Yang Kai had no time to care about just how many Saint Grade herbs he had wasted by swallowing them raw.
The cycle of destruction and repair his physique was undergoing continued without end, becoming tougher, stronger, and more able to withstand damage from the Starry Sky storm each time.
After what seemed like an eternity to Yang Kai, the violent energy around him finally began to weaken.
Yang Kai’s very soul shook as he carefully examined his surroundings and discovered that he had already passed through the center of the storm and was now approaching its tail end.
Realizing the most difficult time had passed, Yang Kai was ecstatic, feeling that he really had hope of surviving this tragedy and sparing no effort towards that end.
The violent energy continued growing weaker and gradually, Yang Kai emerged from the Starry Sky storm.
Dizzy and disoriented, it took Yang Kai quite some time to stabilize himself; turning around to stare at the slowly disappearing Starry Sky storm, he couldn’t help letting out a laugh.
His voice was hoarse, but despite its weakness, it was filled with joy.
The next moment, Yang Kai trembled fiercely and weakness overcame him, his consciousness quickly swallowed by the darkness as he fainted on the spot.
…
Amidst the endless void, Yang Kai lay motionless, lacking the strength to even wiggle his fingers, his body and Soul relaxed to the extreme, completely unaware of the changes his physique was undergoing.
He didn’t know how long he had been in a coma, but the dull pain from radiating from his entire body eventually woke him up.
Although he couldn’t see what he looked like right now, Yang Kai knew his appearance must be miserable because he could tell that much of his flesh and blood was missing.
The blood of the Demon God, which radiated a pale golden light, was constantly being generated inside Yang Kai though, circulating through his veins, bringing magical energy and rich vitality to every corner of his body, repairing his damaged flesh.
His Unyielding Golden Skeleton was the source of Yang Kai’s Demon God Blood and after experiencing this disaster, the Unyielding Golden Skeleton seemed to have been stimulated and was now producing pure Demon God Blood slowly. Each drop it generated quickly transforming into Yang Kai’s vitality.
Inside Demon God Citadel, Yang Kai had witnessed the astonishing resilience of the Ancient Demon Clan, their physical prowess was several times stronger than that of Human cultivators.
And the primary reason for this was because they had an excellent bloodline, within their bodies flowed a trace of the Great Demon God’s blood.
But Yang Kai, as the legitimate successor to the Great Demon God, had an even more astounding resilience than the Ancient Demon Clan.
His tough veins and physique squirmed and under the influence of the Demon God’s blood, the damaged areas of his body emitted a faint golden radiance. Broken tendons connected together and become tougher and more flexible while his flesh and blood were slowly regenerated, stronger than ever before.
In this disaster, with the exception of his bones, every inch of Yang Kai’s body had suffered varying degrees of damage.
The bones of the Great Demon God were unscathed by the ravages of the Starry Sky storm because they were tougher than a Saint Grade Top-Rank defensive artifact.
This made Yang Kai pleasantly surprised.
Right now, Yang Kai’s entire physique was no covered in a faint golden aura, even his damaged five viscera and six organs were giving off a golden glow as a staggering vitality gradually rebuilding his flesh and blood.
The Myriad Drug Milk’s medicinal efficacies were still playing their role and complimented Yang Kai’s newly formed Demon God Blood.
Floating in the void, Yang Kai let go of all his thoughts and completely relaxed his mind and body while silently allowing the Demon God Blood to transform his physique and mend his body.
If an outsider were to come across him now, all they would be able to see would be a human-shaped figure shrouded in golden light. This golden light gave off a pure and vigorous vitality that was slowly blending into the hidden figure.
All of Yang Kai’s fatigue and pain gradually disappeared under the influence of the Demon God Blood while his strength also began recovering.
After an unknown amount of time passed, Yang Kai’s eyes began to brighten. At that moment, he felt a few strange energies well up inside his body.
Naturally, these were the energies that had poured into his body while he was enveloped by the Starry Sky storm.
From the various broken parts of his physique, the inexhaustible Starry Sky energy flooded out and after their initial rampage, they gradually settled down, as if they were very satisfied with Yang Kai’s current body and decided to take up residence, becoming a part of his strength.
These Starry Sky energies contained all kinds of profound and mysterious elements and in the blink of an eye, they circulated throughout Yang Kai’s entire body and were quickly absorbed into his physique.
However, all this meant was that Yang Kai had taken in this Starry Sky energy, he still needed to slowly comprehend its mysteries before it could truly be considered his own strength.
Not daring to neglect, Yang Kai immediately calmed himself and immersed his consciousness inside his body.
An invisible door seemed to be slowly opening in front of him, allowing Yang Kai to catch a glimpse of a whole new world he had never seen before.
Faintly, Yang Kai felt as though he was standing atop the clouds, overlooking the mortal beings below.
At that instant, he felt as if he had broken free from the bonds of mortality and arrived at a higher realm of existence.
As his flesh and blood squirmed and regenerated, impurities Yang Kai never knew existed slowly began discharging from his body, purifying his physique while increasing its formidability. At the same time, these impurities were being expunged, an invisible layer of shackles that had been binding Yang Kai was slowly broken and he took a great step forward on his path to the peak of the Martial Dao!
This feeling became clearer and clearer as time passed and gradually Yang Kai’s entire consciousness became immersed in it, his mood becoming calm and steady.
Amongst the endless Starry Sky, Yang Kai lay quietly, his mind lost in this ethereal state, feeling the Martial Dao and Heavenly Way, his Soul undergoing a profound sublimation.
Although his body’s restoration was somewhat slow, not only was it regenerating, it was also undergoing a transformational quenching.
Both Yang Kai’s body and Soul were experiencing rapid improvements; surviving the Starry Sky storm disaster had brought him unimaginably huge benefits.
As his physique was restored and his Soul became stable, Yang Kai soon forgot about the passage of time.
At this moment, he even forgot he was adrift in the Starry Sky as no one was there to bother him.
It wasn’t until after a great amount of time passed that Yang Kai’s eyes suddenly shot opened and flashed brilliantly. Cracking his bones as he inspected himself, Yang Kai quickly noticed the various changes his flesh and blood had undergone.
The mysterious energies in the surrounding Starry Sky were seemingly being drawn into his physique by some kind of invisible force.
After the baptism of the Starry Sky storm, these Starry Sky energies could no longer damage Yang Kai and instead, after pouring into his body, were assimilated and became part of his strength.
An invisible momentum spread out and became stronger and stronger, creating a kind of small storm with Yang Kai at its centre.
His body and soul reached a kind of critical point as every inch of his physique gave off a joyful aura, causing Yang Kai to throw back his head and roar towards the Heavens.
Halos of light suddenly burst from his body and spread out rapidly towards the surrounding Starry Sky.
Then, all of sudden, everything became incomparably calm.
Yang Kai quietly stood in place and felt enormous power course through his body. Gently gripping his fist, he felt like he could reach out and pluck the stars from the sky and move the moon with his hands, the strength he possessed at this moment was unlike anything he had ever felt before.
[Transcendent Realm!]
The moment his body was fully restored, Yang Kai successfully broke through to the Transcendent Realm. From now on, he had truly left behind the mortal plane.
Yang Kai quickly realized the difference between his current realm and the Immortal Ascension Boundary.
Whether it was his physical strength or Spiritual Energy, both had achieved astonishing growth and his combat power had improved dramatically.
If he were to fight with Xu Qi and Duan Hai of Bright Thunder Spirit Religion, Yang Kai was confident he could thrash both of them so hard they wouldn’t be able to tell what direction up. It was unlike last time where he had to rely on the power of the Wind Eye to kill them.
Breaking through to a new Great Realm was very difficult, but once one succeeded, they would undergo fundamental changes, which was why all cultivators pursued higher realms with a burning desire that could never be satisfied.
After calming down, Yang Kai began inspecting his body.
What he was most surprised to find though, was that there were no scars left on his body and all the broken parts of his physique had perfectly healed and were even much stronger than before.
Not only that, Yang Kai could feel that the blood flowing through his veins was very different from before. Approximately one-third of his blood no contained devastating power.
This was definitely the Demon God’s Blood.
Moreover, the Unyielding Golden Skeleton had also experienced some kind of awakening; from now on, his bones would continue to produce Demon God’s Blood, slowly replacing Yang Kai’s original blood. It probably would not be long before all the blood in his body completely held a golden hue.
When that time came, his strength would probably experience another dramatic growth.
Closing his eyes and silently contemplating his current circumstances, a grin slowly formed on Yang Kai’s lips and he began to laugh. At first, it was just a small, quiet chuckle, but soon it grew louder until finally it was a riotous uproar that could be heard far off into the Starry Sky.
His journey through the Starry Sky had, for the most part, been arid and boring, but Yang Kai felt it was truly worthwhile.
The benefits he gained from the Starry Sky were unfathomable.
Unfortunately, that kind of Starry Sky storm was probably a very rare phenomenon, so it was unrealistic to want to use it to quench his flesh again. Thus, it was time to go back!
With that idea in mind, Yang Kai took a deep breath before sweeping his gaze around to gain his bearings. Suddenly though, he caught sight of some faint glowing objects in the distance.
He quickly flew over to investigate.
These glowing objects were actually some small pieces of precious ore.
Yang Kai’s expression became puzzled, wondering how these ores would suddenly appear here but after giving it some thought, he realized that there must be leftovers from the Asteroid Sea that was destroyed by the Starry Sky storm.
That Asteroid Sea was composed of hundreds of thousands of large and small rocks so it was not odd there would be some precious minerals in them. After the outer rocks were crushed, the precious ores inside were all that remained as they were the only materials tough enough to withstand the force of the Starry Sky.
This meant, at the very least, these ores were Saint Grade Mid-Rank materials!
If he collected these ores and used them to refine artifacts, Yang Kai should be able to obtain a number of Saint Grade artifacts, provided he could find an Artifact Refiner capable of crafting such artifacts of course.
Yang Kai quickly collected these ores. His Bone Shield had been ground into dust earlier so collecting these materials was quite important to him. If he ever got the chance, he could ask an Artifact Refiner to help him refine a new, better artifact.
Yang Kai’s harvest was quite rich as he managed to obtain hundreds of large and small chunks of ore in the end, most of which, to his embarrassment, Yang Kai could not identify.
However, since all of these were products of the Starry Sky, not being able to recognize them was actually a given.
After stuffing all of these ores into his Black Book space, the feeling of regret Yang Kai had over his lost Bone Shield dissipated.
Taking a moment to find the right direction, Yang Kai embarked on the journey back home.
He didn’t know how long he had spent in the Starry Sky, only that it was definitely not short as it had been at least two or three months alone for his wounds to heal from the Starry Sky storm.
In other words, it had taken him two or three months of uninterrupted meditation and to break through to the Transcendent Realm, the hardship of reaching this realm could easily be imagined.
Him not returning for so long would definitely cause his Martial Uncles and Martial Aunt to grow somewhat anxious.
Time flew by and just when Yang Kai thought he had become completely lost, he finally spotted a green flower bud emitting a faint, pleasant fragrance.
The Thousand Year Demon Flower!
It wasn’t in bloom at the moment but had instead restored its original flower bud form as it gently floated in the voice.
Upon finding this place, a great weight was lifted from Yang Kai’s heart. Many days ago, he and Di Yao appeared near this place and according to Old Man Li, the Void Corridor leading back to Tong Xuan Realm would certainly not be far away.
Circling around the Thousand Year Demon Flower’s location, Yang Kai shuttled back and forth several times until he finally found the Void Corridor.
There was no trace of Di Yao nearby so it was likely he had already gone back.
Both of them had agreed before that they need not worry about the other. If either of them found the Void Corridor and needed to return ahead of the other, they should simply do so. Yang Kai felt that after such a long time had passed, Di Yao should have left the Starry Sky.
Not hesitating for an instant, Yang Kai plunged into the dark corridor and disappeared.
After experiencing familiar dizziness, Yang Kai suddenly opened his eyes and found himself surrounded by a beautiful and refreshing mountain forest on a warm spring day.
Gazing around, Yang Kai couldn’t help scratching his head as he didn’t recognize where he was.
Releasing his Divine Sense and sweeping the area though, he soon smiled.
In a place a few dozen kilometres away, there were some life auras that should be cultivators.
Using his movement skill, Yang Kai rapidly flew towards this group, arriving nearby a short time later.
After a glance though, Yang Kai’s look became somewhat strange as he found these people to be somewhat interesting.
They were all members of the Human Race, but they were actually grouped in male, female pairs. There were three pairs in total and every one of them was an Immortal Ascension cultivator, their strength neither high nor low.
At the moment, they were fighting a fierce Monster Beast.
From the way they fought, and the way their True Qi was flowing, these men and women pairs seemed to be of one mind and body, in other words, they have all practised some kind of dual cultivation Secret Art.
When two of them acted together, they could bring out strength beyond the sum of their individual cultivations.
Actual Title- Transcendent Realm
When Yang Kai appeared, he did not conceal his aura so naturally, he was noticed by this group.
Although they were in combat, the six people of this group did not forget to maintain vigilance during their battle. Obviously, they immediately realized Yang Kai’s approach and even though they did not feel any hostility from him, they still had one of their pairs break off from the fight and monitor his movements lest this newcomer makes any sudden moves against them.
Yang Kai smiled and didn’t mind their attitude, when one met strangers outside, especially when one was fighting, maintaining a healthy degree of suspicion was undoubtedly correct.
The Monster Beast they were dealing with wasn’t particularly strong, only around a mid-Sixth-Order level, so under the joined attack of the remaining four people, it was quickly killed.
After waiting for them to process the aftermath of their battle and restoring themselves, Yang Kai approached and greeted them in a friendly manner and asked them for directions.
“The way to Floating Clouds City?” One of the women wrinkled her brow and looked at Yang Kai suspiciously before pointing in a certain direction, “Floating Clouds City is that way, if you just travel in that direction you should arriving in three to five days.”
“Many thanks!” Yang Kai couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. He was really worried that the place he returned to would be a great distance from Floating Clouds City. Tong Xuan Realm was too big after all, if the Void Corridor in the Starry Sky had sent him to some far off place, it wouldn’t be unthinkable for him to need to fly for a year simply to get back.
“This friend, might I ask why you want to travel to Floating Clouds City now? The battle for the Thousand Year Demon Flower ended a year ago, did you not receive news about that yet?” One of the men asked.
“A year ago?” Yang Kai’s face went black, obviously, he had greatly underestimated the passage of time, he had thought he had spent at most half a year in the Starry Sky but apparently, it had been twice that long.
Seeing the look on Yang Kai’s face, the members of the group misunderstood him and thought he really intended to visit Floating Clouds City to compete for the Thousand Year Demon Flower but had made a grave miscalculation in timing.
The three women all stifled their laughter as they stared at Yang Kai like he was a fool.
“En, it ended a year ago. It was said that it the winners of the competition was actually a couple of young kids, but that they’ve now gone missing. Many people are now looking for them, hoping to buy the Thousand Year Demon Flower’s medicinal liquid from them,” One of the men with a burly build smiled and explained, “Friend, I’m afraid it’s a bit late for you to be rushing there.”
“Haa… I really had no idea,” Yang Kai said while immediately becoming vigilant in his heart, thinking he should quickly remove the disguising artifact on his face lest someone recognize him and try to ‘buy’ the medicinal liquid from him.
“Where is this friend from? How could you have not received news of such a big event after so long?” The big man asked lightly.
“I come from a remote countryside region, news is a bit slow to reach there,” Yang Kai casually answered, not waiting for them to speak again, cupping his fists and saying, “In any case, you have my thanks, goodbye!”
After saying so, he shot off in the direction the woman had pointed.
“That guy is really interesting, even knowing he’s a year late he’s still in such a rush,” The woman next to the big man smiled and commented.
“That’s his business, in any case, let’s first take a look at the quality of this Monster Beast’s core.”
The group of six suddenly wore excited looks after these words were spoken.
Yang Kai was as swift as wind and quick as lightly as he sped forward, removing the disguising artifact on his face and revealing his original appearance shortly after he parted with the former group of six.
This artifact that Old Man Du had given him was really useful. If he hadn’t had such an artifact at the time, Yang Kai estimated that he would now be facing the pursuit of Transcendents from across the continent.
When he thought about Di Yao and the difficulties the boy toy would encounter, Yang Kai couldn’t help grinning, taking some pleasure in his misfortune.
Of course, with the protection of Old Man Li, even if Di Yao was found, no one should be daring enough to provoke him.
…
Floating Clouds City, City Lord’s Mansion.
Old Man Li and Di Yao had already been here for a year now, making the Three Clans Saint Realm masters, the City Lord and the Vice City Lords, extremely happy.
Although these three masters didn’t know why Old Man Li had lingered here for so long, the latter’s mere presence was a kind of glory all on its own. Every day they would respectfully greet him, completely putting on the appearance of respectful juniors, while taking special care of Di Yao.
At this moment, Di Yao was listening to Old Man Li’s lecture on the Alchemic Way.
Nine months ago, Di Yao had returned after spending three whole months in the Starry Sky and obtaining unimaginable benefits. This had made Old Man Li very satisfied.
He had originally thought that Di Yao would only be able to stay in the Starry Sky for a month, so his Apprentice’s performance far exceeding his expectations had been a pleasant surprise.
As he was lecturing though, Old Man Li suddenly found that Di Yao was a little absent-minded, smiled lightly, and paused to ask, “Are you worried about the little boy surnamed Yang?”
“En,” Di Yao nodded, “At that time if I had only insisted on moving together with him… It’s been more than a year since then yet he’s still not back, Master, you don’t think…”
“If that truly is the case, that is his fate!” Old Man Li sat down and took a sip of tea, placing the cup down after a moment of reflection, “After a year in the Starry Sky, I can hardly imagine him surviving.”
If it weren’t for Di Yao insisting that Yang Kai would return, Old Man Li would have already taken him out from the City Lord’s Mansion to continue their journey around the world. Although Di Yao had an agreement with Yang Kai to meet here, considering the honourable status of Old Man Li, waiting for an entire year was showing more than enough respect.
“Brother Yang shouldn’t have died,” Di Yao’s brows wrinkled, and though his words were firm, his tone showed that even he was somewhat uncertain.
“It looks like you have quite a bit of confidence in him.” Old Man Li chuckled lightly.
“En, I witnessed firsthand the absurdity of his physical strength in the Starry Sky!” Di Yao’s eyes shimmered brilliantly, “Even after spending three months tempering myself in the Starry Sky, I still wouldn’t dare compare my current self with him from that time. I just can’t believe such a monster would die so easily.”
“A year of time is really too long though, it’s possible he lost his way or encountered some kind of unexpected accident,” Old Man Li sighed slightly, “I also don’t want to see a young man like him die, but if that is the case, there is nothing we can do to change it. Yao’er, we should leave here, staying in this place for too long is not good for your education.”
“Master… let’s wait another ten days. If he doesn’t come back after ten days, then let’s leave!” Di Yao asked on last time.
“Good, we’ll wait another ten days to see if he can create a miracle!” Old Man Li nodded lightly, but just as he spoke these words, his face suddenly cramped up and his expression became awkward.
“Master? What happened?” Di Yao asked curiously, he had rarely seen his Master show such an expression, it seemed something truly beyond the latter’s comprehension had happened.
“The miracle you’ve been waiting for seems to have really appeared,” Old Man Li quickly regained his composure and smiled towards his apprentice.
“You mean…” Di Yao suddenly understood and couldn’t help feeling pleasantly surprised.
“En,” Old Man Li nodded lightly.
“Hahaha, I knew that guy wouldn’t die so easily! Where is he now?” Di Yao laughed and asked.
“In that inn.”
“I’ll go find him then! I really want to see what kind of transformation he went through after all this time,” Di Yao said and flew out.
“Remember to bring him over, this old master has something to say to him,” The voice of Old Man Li came from behind to which Di Yao quickly responded.
After his apprentice left, Old Man Li couldn’t help showing some shock on his face as he muttered, “An entire year, did that boy really remain in the Starry Sky this whole time? How did he manage to survive?”
The dangers of the Starry Sky was something Old Man Li had also experienced firsthand, although it was a thousand years ago, even after so long, the Starry Sky was still the Starry Sky, not a place ordinary people could set foot into and return safely.
Half a year ago, Old Man Li determined that Yang Kai would probably never come back, but seeing Di Yao insistence, he had not said anything so as not to discourage his young apprentice.
In this world, it was quite rare to find a person of the same generation who could compete with Di Yao in Alchemy. His apprentice already saw that boy surnamed Yang his life’s greatest rival, regarding these thoughts, Old Man Li was very clear.
But now, Old Man Li found he himself was wrong, incredibly wrong at that!
An old master like him had his own unique vision that had been tempered by many, many years of experience, so there were very few places where his judgment would be so off the mark. Yang Kai’s miraculous return was once such instance though and it even Old Man Li the vague impression it was somehow fated so.
Slowly shaking his head, Old Man Li pondered over this for some time as he smiled temperately.
Inside the inn, the return of Yang Kai surprised Cang Yan and Fei Yu.
Over the past year, his Martial Uncle and Martial Aunt had been waiting in Floating Clouds City, and although Di Yao invited them to the City Lord’s Mansion, both of them had politely turned down his offer.
The entire reason Ao Gu was so open and welcoming to Old Man Li and Di Yao was because of Old Man Li’s status, Cang Yan and Fei Yu obviously couldn’t expect similar treatment.
If Cang Yan and Fei Yu really had gone, Ao Gu would most likely treat them no different to air.
“You little brat, you finally decided to come back!” Cang Yan laughed, putting down a big stone that had weighed on his heart.
Fei Yu’s beautiful eyes also shimmered and were slightly wet, her face dyed slightly red as she stared at Yang Kai, as if she couldn’t quite believe all of this was real.
“Martial Aunt, you’ve been drinking again,” Yang Kai obviously saw through her appearance and was speechless, of course, the strong fragrance of alcohol in the room was a dead giveaway as well so it wasn’t difficult for him to understand what was going on.
“So what if I drink a little wine? What’s it to you?” Fei Yu’s red lips pursed as she glared at Yang Kai for a moment before bursting out into a smile.
“Thank goodness you’re back! Fei Yu was worried to death about you and had constantly been drowning her sorrows in alcohol, it was really suffocating,” Cang Yan quickly complained.
“Martial Uncle Li Wan and Martial Uncle Fei Jian?” Yang Kai looked around and didn’t see the two of them, nor did he discover their auras anywhere inside the inn.
“They’ve already gone back,” Cang Yan explained, “Do you know how long you’ve been gone?”
“I know,” Yang Kai nodded.
“En, the Sect can’t be left empty for so long so they went back in advance while Fei Yu and I stayed behind. Old Man Du and Mi Na also returned to the Alchemist Guild branch in Grand Boulder City with those two. Now that you’re back though, we can also get going.”
“I’ve let Martial Uncles and Martial Aunt worry,” Yang Kai said somewhat guiltily. Even after disappearing for an entire year, there was no look of doubt or suspicion on the faces of Yang Kai’s two Seniors, only some worry about his safety and relaxation after knowing he was fine.
If it had been anyone else who was simply in a cooperative relationship with Yang Kai, they would likely have thought the latter had taken the medicinal liquid of the Thousand Year Demon Flower for himself and escaped.
But obviously, his Martial Uncle and Martial Aunt had no such thoughts.
“I was also very worried about you, Brother Yang, why are you not mentioning me as well?” Suddenly, a burst of loud laughter came from outside the room and before it had faded, Di Yao strode inside.
After looking around the room though, Di Yao scratched his head and asked, “Brother Yang? Didn’t I hear his voice a moment ago? Who is this guy?”
As he said so, he swept his eyes over Yang Kai with a puzzled look upon his face.
: /
I’ll see myself out.
Di Yao had never seen Yang Kai’s real face before, so him being confused at this moment wasn’t unwarranted.
Yang Kai smiled at this and said hello.
Hearing the sound of his voice, Di Yao immediately understood, shaking his head wryly as he commented, “It turns out that you were in disguise the whole time, you’re certainly quite vigilant.”
After saying this, Di Yao stared at Yang Kai for a moment before light flashed across his eyes and a look of shock appeared on his face, quickly asking, “Brother Yang seems somewhat different from before, did you break through to the Transcendent Realm?”
Di Yao’s eyes were quite sinister and he quickly noticed what was off.
“I was lucky,” Yang Kai smiled modestly, not bothering to conceal his breakthrough.
Both Cang Yan and Fei Yu were also shocked, it was only after Di Yao mentioned this that they too noticed Yang Kai had reached the Transcendent Realm. Just now, as they were celebrating Yang Kai’s safe return, neither of them had realized this.
This was a big pleasant surprise for them.
“You little brat, in another ten or twenty years, I’m afraid you’ll catch up with your Martial Uncle,” Cang Yan laughed, patting Yang Kai’s shoulder, a look saying Soaring Heaven Sect wasn’t lacking successors plastered on his face.
“Brother Yang, did you really stay an entire year in the Starry Sky?” Di Yao asked curiously, even though he had witnessed the strength of Yang Kai’s physique, he still found it difficult to believe Yang Kai could safely spend such a long time in the Starry Sky.
However, if this wasn’t the case, how could Yang Kai’s cultivation have broken through to the next Great Realm in such a short period of time?
“En, I ran into some trouble up there and only found my way back a few days ago,” Yang Kai admitted.
Di Yao’s face twitched as he was struck speechless.
He had persisted for three months in the Starry Sky but ultimately could not endure any longer and returned to Tong Xuan Realm through the Void Corridor, but even that had earned him great praise from his Master.
Di Yao also felt quite proud of his achievement at the time.
But now, compared with Yang Kai, the difference was simply too great!
“The Starry Sky?” Cang Yan and Fei Yu both heard what the two youths were talking about and couldn’t help showing looks of amazement and disbelief, “Did you just say Starry Sky? Did you really travel to that place?”
“Everyone sit down, I’ll explain everything,” Yang Kai smiled.
Everyone wanted to know about the mysteries of the Starry Sky, and Cang Yan and Fei Yu were no exception.
After the four of them took a seat, Yang Kai began narrating his adventures in the Starry Sky. Not only were Cang Yan and Fei Yu fascinated by this tale, even Di Yao, who had also been to the Starry Sky, was captivated.
Yang Kai had encountered far more wondrous and shocking things than he had after all.
During the three months, he had stayed in the Starry Sky, Di Yao spent most of his time beside the Void Corridor, tempering his body while constantly being ready to evacuate. Yang Kai, on the other hand, had roamed around a great distance and even encountered a devastating Starry Sky storm.
When they heard about how the Starry Sky storm had shattered hundreds of thousands of meteorites, some of which were even larger than a mountain, in a matter of breaths, all of their faces went pale.
They couldn’t even imagine how Yang Kai managed to survive that kind that kind of disaster. From what he told them, they estimated that such a Starry Sky storm would be fatal even for Saint Realm masters.
However, not only did Yang Kai survive, he even became stronger afterwards.
As for how he survived the Starry Sky storm, Yang Kai did not elaborate, only saying he had just brushed the edge of the storm and suffered some lighter injuries as a result. After all, the truth was related to the body of the Great Demon God and the Demon God’s Blood. Yang Kai did not dare disclose too much.
Next, Yang Kai took out a jade bottle containing four drops of medicinal liquid from the Thousand Year Demon Flower and handed it to Cang Yan.
Even the calm and steady Cang Yan, when accepting these four drops of medicinal liquid, could not stop his hands from trembling slightly, a look of excitement appearing on his face.
With these four drops of medicinal liquid, their four Protectors of Soaring Heaven Sect all had a great chance of breaking through to the Saint Realm!
The Saint Realm and Transcendent Realm only differed by one layer but the gap between them was much, much wider than the one between the Transcendent Realm and Immortal Ascension Boundary.
On Tong Xuan Realm, there was no shortage of Transcendents, but Saints were few and far between. Every Saint Realm master was a pillar of their Sect, a rare treasure.
Even the mighty Soaring Heaven Sect only had two Saint Realm masters. In addition to the Martial Ancestor, Chu Ling Xiao, there was another Ancestral Martial Uncle who was currently in a long term secluded retreat. Forces like Bright Thunder Spirit Religion did not have a single Saint Realm master.
“Since Little Martial Nephew is back and we’ve obtained the medicinal liquid of the Thousand Year Demon Flower, we should head back,” Fei Yu suggested. She too could not wait to return to Serene Resplendent Peak, enter retreat, and attempt the greatest breakthrough of her life.
“Indeed,” Cang Yan obviously agreed, “But before that, Little Martial Nephew, you have to go see Old Man Li. This time, if not for Old Man Li’s assistance, things would not have gone so smoothly.”
“I was thinking so too,” Yang Kai nodded. Cang Yan didn’t have to remind him to go see Old Man Li; after all, the two of them were probably the only Alchemists with Conflagrated Knowledge Seas in Tong Xuan Realm. Yang Kai felt he could learn a lot of useful knowledge from Old Man Li and wasn’t about to pass up such an opportunity.
“Master also asked me to bring you over,” Di Yao smiled, “Let’s go, we shouldn’t keep Master waiting. Do two Seniors want to come as well?”
“There’s no need,” Cang Yan shook his head, “Please give your honoured Master our sincere thanks.”
“En!” Di Yao nodded before taking Yang Kai and leaving the inn, heading off towards the City Lord’s Mansion.
A short time later, the two youths arrived at the City Lord’s Mansion, and under the leadership of Di Yao, casually strolled inside.
In front of a small house in the back courtyard of the City Lord’s Mansion, Di Yao stopped and called out respectfully, “Master, I’ve brought Brother Yang to see you.”
“Come in,” The voice of Old Man Li drifted over.
Yang Kai adjusted his expression and smoothed his robes before quickly following behind Di Yao.
After seeing the true face of Yang Kai, Old Man Li did not show much surprise, obviously, he had been aware of certain things from the start, simply smiling as he said, “Sit.”
“Many thanks for Old Man Li’s hospitality!” Yang Kai cupped his hands and bowed before taking a seat.
Di Yao personally poured tea for the two before also sitting down next to Yang Kai.
The scented tea filled the house with a calming, fragrant aroma; Old Man Li didn’t talk, and neither did Yang Kai, in front of him was an almost sage-like existence, after all, a man admired and respected by all sentient beings in the world.
Only after a long silence did Old Man Li wave his hand suddenly. Yang Kai immediately noticed that an invisible force had wrapped up the whole room and although he could still see the outside world, anyone trying to peek in from beyond this barrier would be unable to notice anything.
Seeing this, Yang Kai suddenly realized that this white-haired old man in front of him was not just a top-ranked Alchemist, but also an incredibly powerful master.
“I heard from Yao’er that little brother is a disciple of Soaring Heaven Sect, correct?” Old Man Li asked.
“Yes,” Yang Kai nodded.
“Then this old master must take the liberty to ask, has little friend been a disciple of Soaring Heaven Sect from birth or did you only join the Sect within the last few years?” Old Man Li suddenly asked a seemingly random question.
Yang Kai stared blankly at Old Man Li before replying somewhat in shock, “How did Senior know? I really only pledged allegiance to Soaring Heaven Sect recently, probably about a year and a half ago.”
“Sure enough!” Old Man Li nodded lightly, “Good, as for the specific reason I asked you this, I will explain shortly. First of all though, this old master must ask little brother something again; do you really have a Conflagrated Knowledge Sea?”
As soon as this statement came out, Di Yao’s expression was filled with shock as he turned to stare at Yang Kai in horror.
Yang Kai let out a laugh, “Senior’s vision is indeed sharp when Senior first saw this Junior, Senior had already noticed, right?”
“En, those with Conflagrated Knowledge Seas are more sensitive to others who are the same. The higher one’s strength, the stronger this induction is, so this old master was able to notice, but little brother does not need to be worried, as long as you don’t use your Conflagrated Knowledge Sea, it won’t be easy even for top-ranked Saint Realm masters to notice it.”
“Do you really have a Conflagrated Knowledge Sea?” Di Yao’s eyes bulged wide.
Yang Kai nodded.
“Why you… your luck is really quite enviable,” Di Yao said with a bitter smile. A Conflagrated Knowledge Sea was something he dreamed of possessing, because he has seen the profound mysteries of a Conflagrated Knowledge Sea from his Master. For an Alchemist, a Conflagrated Knowledge Sea and Conflagrated Divine Sense could provide significant assistance; as an Alchemist with exceptional aptitude, how could Di Yao not want one?
But this was not something one could acquire simply by desiring it. A Conflagrated Knowledge Sea was a type of rare mutation that could not be cultivated; it was basically only through luck and coincidence that one could acquire one.
Over the years, Old Man Li had done much research and put in significant effort to help Di Yao regarding this, but the latter’s Knowledge Sea had never undergone any change.
“What is little brother capable of doing with your Conflagrated Knowledge Sea now?” Old Man Li asked again.
Yang Kai scratched his cheeks awkwardly and replied in a somewhat embarrassed tone, “Sneak attacking others who are off guard.”
Old Man Li simply laughed and nodded happily to this though and said, “En, not bad, this is really one of the wondrous uses of a Conflagrated Knowledge Sea. The attack from a mutated Divine Sense is far more lethal than one from an ordinary Divine Sense, even if your opponent is stronger than you, if they don’t have a strong defense around their Knowledge Sea, you can cause them a significant loss, even possibly incinerating their Soul, something fatal to anyone. However… this is just one of its uses, do you know that a Conflagrated Knowledge Sea’s most profound use is in Alchemy or Artifact Refining?”
“Junior has speculated as such but has no idea how to go about using it so,” Yang Kai said with a sigh, adjusting his expression and respectfully asking, “Junior hopes Senior will offer him some guidance!”
Old Man Li smiled and nodded, apparently Yang Kai’s eagerness to learn made him very satisfied.
“This time, I asked you to come so I could pass on to you my experiences regarding this, let loose your Knowledge Sea’s defense,” Old Man Li said lightly.
Yang Kai eyes brightened, quickly calming his breath and lowering his Knowledge Sea’s defences.
Old Man Li’s expression also became serious as he slowly extended his finger, a burst of mystical energy gathering at its tip.
The moment Old Man Li’s finger gently touched Yang Kai’s forehead, a pure and intense Spiritual Energy filled with a massive amount of information poured into his mind.
Not daring to hesitate, Yang Kai hastily began studying this information.
This was the knowledge and experiences Old Man Li had accumulated over many years regarding his own Conflagrated Knowledge Sea including how to use it for Alchemy and other aspects.
All of these experiences and pieces of information were incomparably precious.
Yang Kai soon became completely immersed in his studies as his understanding of his Conflagrated Knowledge Sea and how to use it to perform Alchemy rapidly grew.
Wanting to sort through such a vast amount of information in a short time was impossible; after all, this was the sum total of Old Man Li’s experience for the past few hundred years. The latter had imparted all of it to Yang Kai without reservation.
The house was silent as time passed by, neither Old Man Li nor Di Yao spoke to disturb Yang Kai, both of them simply waiting quietly.
After a long silence, Yang Kai’s eyes suddenly became clear again, and with a thoughtful look upon his face, he summoned out his pill furnace while taking a few herbs from his Black Book space.
Next, his Conflagrated Divine Sense burst forth and wrapped up the herbs, quickly using his blazing hot Spiritual Energy to condense them into medicinal liquids and then depositing them into the pill furnace.
His Conflagrated Knowledge Sea then penetrated the pill furnace and manipulated the various medicinal liquids, combining and refining them in an orderly fashion.
A moment later, a fresh pill fragrance filled the air.
With a light whooshing sound, a round pill flew out of the pill furnace and Yang Kai grabbed it in his hand before carefully examining it, soon revealing a smile on his face.
A Saint Pill! It had been far simpler and straightforward to refine this pill compared to using his True Qi to do so, all while requiring less time. On top of all that though, Yang Kai felt that if he became more skilled at using his Conflagrated Divine Sense in this manner, the average quality of the pills he refined would increase as well.
Using his Conflagrated Divine Sense for Alchemy was on a completely different level than using his True Qi.
Throughout the process, Old Man Li and Di Yao were also completely engrossed.
Di Yao was thoroughly amazed. Even though he had seen his Master refine pills using his Conflagrated Knowledge Sea many times, he still couldn’t help feeling a sense of wonderment each time it was done. Regarding this unique advantage Yang Kai possessed, naturally he was quite envious.
Old Man Li also gave a firm nod, his eyes flashing brilliantly, the comprehension ability and aptitude Yang Kai just displayed made him feel that sharing his own experiences with this young boy was worthwhile.
This youth will certainly be able to thoroughly understand his many experiences and from there form his own unique opinions and insights.
“Many thanks for Old Man Li’s guidance!” Yang Kai stored away the pill and cupped his fists once more.
“Ho ho, little brother is too polite, this old master teaching you these things also comes with a condition,” Old Man Li smiled.
“Old Man Li, please name it.”
“This old master wants to ask, how did you acquire your Conflagrated Knowledge Sea? Also, I sense that the strength of your Conflagrated Knowledge Sea seems to be no worse than this old master’s. It is difficult for me to imagine, at your age, you being able to cultivate your Conflagrated Knowledge Sea to this level. If it is convenient, can you dispel this old master’s doubts?”
Yang Kai paused to organize his thoughts for a moment before replying, “En, about the first question, it was actually an unexpected accident. I once acquired a piece of Yang Crystal Jade which had given birth to a True Spirit. Hoping to enhance my own cultivation, I attempted to absorb and refine that Jade True Spirit, but I had never anticipated that during the process I would acquire a Conflagrated Knowledge Sea.”
“A Jade True Spirit?” Hearing this, Old Man Li’s expression changed greatly, “You’re courage isn’t small, actually daring to absorb such a thing.”
“At the time, I didn’t think too much of it, but looking back now, I realize just how reckless that act was,” Yang Kai grinned wryly, “Fortunately, the Jade True Spirit was not too strong, or there would be no me here today.”
Old Man Li nodded slightly and contemplated for a moment before saying, “Refining a True Spirit indeed could allow one to give birth to a Conflagrated Knowledge Sea, but this method is a bit too dangerous.”
Old Man Li asking this was obviously for Di Yao’s sake, the former very much wanted his apprentice to acquire a Conflagrated Knowledge Sea, but Yang Kai’s approach was obviously not suitable.
Even setting aside all the danger involved in refining a Jade True Spirit, at the end of the day there was no guarantee this method would allow Di Yao to acquire a Conflagrated Knowledge Sea, the fact that Yang Kai could was simply a coincidence.
“About the second question…” Yang Kai slowly said, “My Conflagrated Knowledge Sea’s intensity being comparable to Old Man Li’s is probably because I swallowed someone else’s Conflagrated Knowledge Sea rather than because of my own efforts in cultivating it.”
“Swallowed the Conflagrated Knowledge Sea of another?” Old Man Li’s brow wrinkled slightly.
“Old Man Li misunderstands, I did not rob someone of their Knowledge Sea. In a certain place, I found the sealed Conflagrated Knowledge Sea remnants of a number of cultivators. Since their Spiritual Energy had been relatively well preserved, it allowed me to swallow and refine them to enhance my own.” Yang Kai explained.
“Your opportunities really make others jealous!” Di Yao said without trying to hid his intense envy.
In this world, cultivator with mutated Divine Senses were incredibly rare, to the point it could be said that the only high-level Alchemists with Conflagrated Knowledge Sea in Tong Xuan Realm were Yang Kai and Old Man Li.
There may be others with Conflagrated Knowledge Seas, but most if not all were not proficient in Alchemy and could only use their mutated Divine Senses to fight.
“En, this old master understands,” Old Man Li nodded lightly, “Thank you, little brother, for answering this old master’s questions, the information you provided has been quite helpful.”
“Old Man Li is too polite, Junior has benefited greatly from Old Man Li already,” Yang Kai quickly said, pondering for a moment before asking, “Senior, is there anything else you wish to tell me?”
Before, Old Man Li had correctly guessed that Yang Kai had only joined Soaring Heaven Sect recently but had not revealed his reasoning behind this assumption which intrigued Yang Kai.
Someone of Old Man Li’s status would never make random guesses or say meaningless words, since he had made a point of asking this question, there was obviously something more to it.
“En, this may or may not be related to you,” Old Man Li smiled before handing over a pill to Yang Kai.
Yang Kai accepted the pill and after carefully inspecting it took asked, “Isn’t this the pill I refined?”
This pill was the one he had refined in the inn when he was competing with Di Yao, the one with Pill Veins.
“If it is convenient, could little brother portray the Spirit Arrays you used to refine this pill?” Old Man Li said, quickly adding, “Rest assure, this old master is not trying to spy on your secrets, I just have some doubts about your methods.”
“It’s not inconvenient at all,” Yang Kai smiled. Regarding people like Old Man Li, Yang Kai felt completely relieved sharing his knowledge, quickly using his True Qi to inscribe the Spirit Arrays he had used into his pill furnace.
Soon, the Spirit Arrays had been completed and Yang Kai handed over his pill furnace.
Accepting it, Old Man Li carefully inspected the Spirit Arrays, a thoughtful look appearing on his face after a moment before handing it to Di Yao and saying, “Have a look.”
Di Yao wore a confused expression but still followed his Master’s instruction, a short time later also revealing an interested look.
“How is it?” Yang Kai asked, confused by the reactions of this Master, apprentice pair.
“Interesting,” Di Yao looked at Yang Kai with a smile, “The Spirit Arrays used by Brother Yang have some subtle differences from the ones we use now, they seem more ancient.”
“En,” Old Man Li nodded lightly, “These are very old Spirit Arrays, ones that have been lost to time, and they are definitely superior to the ones we use now.”
“I learned them from a very ancient book,” Yang Kai explained, “If Old Man Li wants, I can portray all of the Spirit Arrays I have learned for you.”
Old Man Li chuckled lightly in response, “There’s no need, this old master asking you about this is not because I want to acquire your methods, but because this old master and Yao’er have encountered these Spirit Arrays before, so I thought that incident might be related to little brother.”
Yang Kai’s brow wrinkles, “I’d like to hear the details please!”
“Brother Yang, it’s like this,” Di Yao began narrating, “I have been cultivating with my Master in the mountains since birth, studying the Alchemic Way for an entire twenty years. Just a few years ago, Master decided to take me out of the mountains and experience the world. I had always thought I was invincible among my peers in the field of Alchemy, but in this Floating Clouds City, I lost to Brother Yang… And before that, I lost to another person two years ago!”
Hearing this, Yang Kai was shocked, “Is there someone out there in our generation who is superior to Brother Di in Alchemy?”
“Good, what made me feel especially depressed was that she was a young woman!” Di Yao looked at Yang Kai with a grin.
Yang Kai was stunned, but suddenly remembering something, his eyes brightened as he eagerly asked, “What kind of woman?”
“I don’t know, her face was covered with a veil but she wore a small sapphire on her forehead and her eyes were exceptionally bright and pure, she should be a great beauty with innocent and cute looks.”
Yang Kai’s breathing gradually became hurried and his voice trembled as he asked, “Was there a somewhat lewd looking old man with her?”
“Lewd?” Di Yao’s expression became bewildered, “En, there was an old man with her who had a bit of a rascally look in his eyes.”
“Was that old fogey surnamed Meng?” Yang Kai took a deep breath and asked.
“Sure enough, they really are related with little brother,” Old Man Li gently nodded, “When I saw some traces of the Spirit Array little brother used to refine this pill, this old master had some guesses, but was unsure. Now it really seems like little brother and that young miss are from the same Sect, yes? After all, the Spirit Arrays you use are identical.”
“En, she is my Senior Sister!” Yang Kai nodded repeatedly.
There could be no mistake. Two years ago, the young woman who beat Di Yao in an Alchemy competition must have been Xia Ning Chang! In this world, only Xia Ning Chang could accomplish this, of that Yang Kai was certain!
“Which insanely fierce Sect are you from?” Di Yao was dumbstruck, “That woman seemed to have some kind of special constitution that allowed her to use not only her own True Qi but the surrounding World Energy to perform Alchemy. She could even produce Pill Veins at will! I lost all three matches I had with her miserably, it was quite a heavy blow to my confidence. Then there’s you who is even more of an anomaly, you even have a Conflagrated Knowledge Sea. I can’t compare with either of you Senior Sister and Junior Brother pair.”
“She does have a special constitution, one related to Alchemy,” Yang Kai nodded, a great excitement filling his heart, after looking for so long, he had finally found a useful clue to his friend’s whereabouts.
“The Sacred Spirit Medicine Body!” Old Man Li suddenly said, “No wonder… she possess the Sacred Spirit Medicine Body! In time, her achievements will definitely surpass this old master’s. Meng Wu Ya, that old bastard, actually trying to be mysterious and refusing to disclose such an important matter to this old master.”
Yang Kai expression changed. From the way he referred to Meng Wu Ya, he could infer that Old Man Li and Treasurer Meng were old acquaintances and may even belong to the same generation of masters.
“Senior, when you met them, was there anyone else with them? I have another Senior Sister and a friend who should have been together with them.”
“Are they also proficient in Alchemy?” Di Yao asked worriedly.
“No,” Yang Kai shook his head.
“Unfortunately no, at the time, this old master only saw Meng Wu Ya accompanying that little girl surnamed Xia.”
Yang Kai’s complexion immediately became bad as his heart began to pound.
If Meng Wu Ya was with Xia Ning Chang, what about Su Yan and Old Demon? Where had the two of them gone?
Yang Kai wasn’t too worried about Old Demon; after all, the latter was originally from Tong Xuan Realm and had occupied the body of a Demon General. Except for Saint Realm masters, no one would be able to hurt him, but Su Yan was different. A young woman all alone in this world, with her weak strength and great beauty, what would become of her if she encountered some kind of danger?
What reason was there for her to separate from Meng Wu Ya, or what accident she had she encountered?
Yang Kai’s heart suddenly sank to the bottom of a valley as all kinds of negative thoughts swirled about his head.
Seeming aware of Yang Kai’s anxiety, Old Man Li quickly offered some words of comfort.
Yang Kai also understood that thinking the way he was would not help the situation, only by finding Meng Wu Ya and asking him would he be able to grasp what had actually happened.
Taking a deep breath, Yang Kai’s mood gradually settled and he asked, “Old Man Li, where did you and Brother Di meet them?”
“Blue Water City!”
“Blue Water City?” Yang Ka’s brow furrowed slightly.
“En, it’s a city a few months journey away from here, but even if you go there, you most likely won’t find them. We met them two years ago and at the time, Meng Wu Ya said they would be leaving in short order. They have likely long left Blue Water City,” Old Man Li said slightly apologetically. From the intense reaction Yang Kai had shown, it was clear that Meng Wu Ya and that little girl surnamed Xia were very important to him.
“Regardless, this is the first clue I’ve obtained about them, so even if they left long ago, I still have to go and investigate,” Yang Kai said solemnly.
“En, very well,” Old Man Li smiled and nodded, “Then I will simply wish little brother good luck.”
“I must take advantage of Old Man Li’s auspicious words!” Yang Kai cupped his fists.
Bidding farewell to Old Man Li and Di Yao, Yang Kai hurried back to the inn.
This time, in addition to a wealth of knowledge, he had obtained a valuable clue from Old Man Li about Meng Wu Ya and his Little Senior Sister’s whereabouts which was a pleasant surprise. Armed with this information, Yang Kai didn’t want to delay, so after explaining the situation to Cang Yan and Fei Yu, he immediately set off for Blue Water City.
Both Cang Yan and Fei Yu knew that Yang Kai had been looking for his two Senior Sisters. So now that he had a clue about them, although his chances of finding them were somewhat slim, they made no effort to stop him and instead volunteered to escort him to Blue Water City.
Yang Kai of course politely refused.
The Thousand Year Demon Flower’s medicinal liquid, which he had taken more than a year to bring back, was something his Martial Uncles and Martial Aunt had even sought after in their dreams as it was the key to them breaking through to the Saint Realm, how could Yang Kai delay them for his personal matters?
Yang Kai’s attitude was incredibly firm, so Cang Yan and Fei Yu eventually relented, urging him to pay attention to his safety and reminding him that if he was to suffer any grievances outside, he must return to the Sect and inform them.
Feeling the care and concern of his Martial Uncle and Martial Aunt, Yang Kai’s heart was warmed.
As for acting alone outside, it was something Yang Kai was very skilled at. For so many years, he had basically single-handedly forged his own path in the world.
Tidying up his things, Yang Kai immediately departed.
Outside Floating Clouds City, Cang Yan and Fei Yu watched him leave before turning in a different direction and flying off towards Soaring Heaven Sect, they needed to return and prepare to break through to the Saint Realm.
Inside the City Lord’s Mansion, Old Man Li and Di Yao also said their goodbyes to Ao Gu and the others before setting off on the road again.
Yang Kai couldn’t help feeling impatient and rushed ahead as swift as wind and quick as lightly the whole way.
Although he knew that after so long, there was not much hope he would be able to see them, he still tried his best to get to Blue Water City as soon as possible to see if he could obtain some useful clues about Treasurer Meng and Xia Ning Chang’s whereabouts.
Even crossing famous mountains and rivers, Yang Kai ignored everything around him and madly dashed forward.
Now that he had broken through to the Transcendent Realm, his speed had increased dramatically and when he came to uninhabited regions, Yang Kai also unfurled his Wind and Thunder Wings to further increase his pace.
Although Transcendents were by no means weak, in Tong Xuan Realm, reaching such a cultivation was still not enough to dominate the world.
Yang Kai estimated that at the very least, he would have to break through to the Saint Realm before being able to move about unobstructed here.
He had to become stronger and stronger in order to establish a real foothold in this place. Although he had become a disciple of Soaring Heaven Sect, and his Ancestral Founder and Martial Uncles were all very good to him, in the end that was not his own strength.
What Yang Kai wanted was a power that belonged to him.
As time passed, Yang Kai’s feeling of urgency gradually calmed down.
After his mood settled, Yang Kai suddenly became more and more cheerful. The self-confidence and unyielding determination he had relied on in the past seemingly returning. He felt that as long as he was given enough time, one day, he would once again stand at the top of the world and become a true hegemon.
He had the Unyielding Golden Skeleton and the Demon Eye of Annihilation,. With this legacy of the Great Demon God, as long as Yang Kai could bring out their full potential, there was no limit to how strong he could become.
On the road, Yang Kai did not idle, immersing himself in the sentiments he had obtained from the Starry Sky as well as comprehending the knowledge regarding Conflagrated Knowledge Seas that Old Man Li had taught him, integrating all of these insights into his own strength.
This change in mentality and rise in self-confidence was like a catalyst that allowed Yang Kai to comprehend and solidify his own foundation and strength.
His recently promoted Transcendent Realm cultivation was quickly stabilized as a result.
Across the endless wilderness, there were endless forest filled with ancient towering trees and vast rivers and lakes filled with pristine waters. Beautiful sighs and fresh air rich in World Energy and vitality surrounded Yang Kai. Traces of Monster Beast and Human activity could also be seen every now and then.
As Yang Kai flew past, the psychological burden he had originally felt gradually melted away.
After half a month, after passing through a vast forest and crossing over a towering mountain range, Yang Kai felt wind wash over him.
This breeze had a faint salty smell to it.
Yang Kai’s expression couldn’t help changing slightly as a feeling of familiarity came over him.
When he was still young and weak and left High Heaven Pavilion for the first time, when he arrived at Sea City, he had smelled a similar scent in the air.
Because it was the breeze coming in off the ocean, it contained the smell of salt and fish.
Looking into the distance, on the remote horizon, there was an endless expanse of sparkling blue. The wind was blowing in from that direction but it was only after Yang Kai had crossed the mountain range behind him that he had been able to realize this ocean’s existence.
[The ocean?] Yang Kai raised his eyebrows.
He hadn’t expected the so-called Blue Water City to be a coastal city and only realized now that, in his hurry, he had failed to acquire any information about this place before rushed off.
Cang Yan and Fei Yu had not informed him about this either, so when Yang Kai saw this scene, he couldn’t help reminiscing about his previous experiences.
It was as if he had suddenly returned to his former world and arrived at Sea City once again.
Remembering about the masters from the Endless Sea Island Sects and the young peacock raising girl Zhong Miao, Yang Kai couldn’t help smiling warmly, shaking his head a moment later to dispel these thoughts from his mind before flying forward once more.
The closer he got to Blue Water City, the more concentrated the Water Attribute Energy in the air became. This place was definitely a good place for Water Attribute cultivators to practice.
Three days later, Yang Kai finally arrived at Blue Water City, paid a Crystal Stone to the guards, and entered safely.
Inside Blue Water City, the atmosphere was lively. Many cultivators here wore light blue robes because they cultivated Water Attribute Secret Arts and Martial Skills so they had a special affection for this colour.
Here, Yang Kai’s True Yang Secret Art was faintly suppressed but that did not affect him too seriously.
Those like him who cultivated Yang or Fire Attribute Secret Arts would not be willing to live in a place like this, if they were to remain here for too long, not only would their Secret Art be suppressed, their strength might even degrade.
Although he already knew the chances were slim, Yang Kai still felt somewhat disappointed shortly after arriving in Blue Water City.
He had not released his Divine Sense yet, but he was certain that Meng Wu Ya was no longer here.
Treasurer Meng’s Heavenly Palace defensive artifact was still in Yang Kai’s possession, so when he arrived in Blue Water City, Yang Kai had deliberately taken it out of the Black Book space.
If Meng Wu Ya was really here, the Heavenly Palace would have shown some reaction; after all, this artifact still had Meng Wu Ya’s Soul mark on it.
Since there was no reaction though, it showed that Meng Wu Ya and Xia Ning Chang have long since left.
After a brief bout of depression, Yang Kai collected himself and began to search for information in Blue Water City.
Although Meng Wu Ya and his Little Senior Sister had already left, they might have left behind some clues Yang Kai could use to search for them.
Now that he had an official identity as an Alchemist and an Alchemist Guild Token, it was no longer necessary for him to wander about on his own to inquire about news.
After strolling around for a while, Yang Kai arrived at the Blue Water City Alchemist Guild Branch. Once he showed his Alchemist Guild Token, he easily obtained information from the other Alchemists in the branch.
Yang Kai’s Alchemist Guild Token was the one he had acquired when he first came to Grand Boulder City, so it still only showed he was a Spirit Grade Low-Rank Alchemist.
Even so, the other Alchemists of Blue Water City were still amazed. Regarding this Alchemist Guild branch, the manager was only a 100-year old Spirit Grade Top-Rank Alchemist, so Yang Kai was extremely warmly received and praised as a talent from the younger generation.
Yang Kai had to admit that having an Alchemist Guild Token really made things more convenient wherever he went.
Although this world was vast, almost every city had an Alchemist Guild branch unless the city was too small.
Of course, not every Alchemist Guild branch had a manager like Old Man Du who was a Saint Grade Alchemist. For example, Blue Water City’s highest ranked Alchemist was only Spirit Grade Top-Rank.
In other places, even Spirit Grade Mid-Rank Alchemists could be branch managers.
Yang Kai came here to inquire about information firstly because with his Alchemist status it was convenient to do so, and secondly because Xia Ning Chang was also an Alchemist, there was a chance she had interacted with the other Alchemists here.
However, after asking around, everyone here simply shook their heads. Only one person said that he had seen this old and young pair, but even he had never had any interactions with them. Moreover, his memory of the event was somewhat foggy as it had already been two years.
Yang Kai felt helpless but still thanked this man for his help.
It seemed as though the clue he had obtained from Old Man Li was a dead end, Yang Kai thought to himself with a forced smile.
Although this series of disappointments made Yang Kai feel somewhat depressed, he did not become disheartened. He firmly believed that one day he would be able to reunite with Su Yan and Xia Ning Chang and even Old Demon that old bastard.
Over the next few days, Yang Kai continued to looking for clues in Blue Water City while searching for a number of medicinal herbs.
These herbs were things he needed to refining the Saint Pill for the Ancient Demon Clan and were only produced in ocean regions, thus they were quite rare and precious.
Yang Kai believed he may be able to find them here.
Time passed by quickly yet Yang Kai did not make much progress, not only did he not find any messages or clues left behind by Meng Wu Ya, even the herbs he was searching for eluded him. The people he asked always shook their heads or gave him strange looks, claiming that these herbs were almost extinct or they had never heard of them before.
One month later, when Yang Kai was inquiring about the news in a certain medicine store, he suddenly noticed that there were several people who were clearly following him.
His brow wrinkling, Yang Kai looked back and saw a group of cultivators led by a burly middle-aged man making no attempt to hide themselves approaching him.
This group of people weren’t very strong, all of them only Immortal Ascension Boundary cultivators, but there was a large number of them and their auras were fierce, obviously they were not a peaceful bunch.
When they arrived in front of Yang Kai, the middle-aged man unscrupulously stared at him.
“Do you need something?” Yang Kai asked in a somewhat disgruntled tone.
Since this group of people weren’t giving him friendly looks, naturally Yang Kai wouldn’t treat them with courtesy. His mood at the moment was not too good, so if someone provoked him, he wouldn’t mind using them to vent his frustrations.
“Brat, I heard you’ve been asking about the whereabouts of an old guy and a little girl, right?” The middle-aged man leaned over and asked Yang Kai bluntly.
“You’ve met them?” Yang Kai’s eyes flashed.
“Does that old man have a lewd look in his eyes and the little girl wearing a veil?” The man asked.
“That’s them!” Yang Kai was overjoyed and suddenly felt that the group in front of him became somewhat adorable.
“Then we have met them,” The big man nodded lightly, “Why are you looking for them? What is your relationship with them?”
“You don’t need to know that,” Yang Kai shook his head, “As long as you can provide me with any clues about them, I can offer you appropriate compensation!”
“You’re gonna pay us?” The big man suddenly grinned wryly, “What kind of compensation are you offering?”
“Crystal Stones, pills, as long as your information is useful, I can give you anything you want.”
Hearing this, the big man couldn’t help revealing a look of surprise. From Yang Kai’s age and the way he dressed, he really didn’t expect this youth to have anything of significant worth.
“Seems your quite sensible kid,” The big man nodded slightly, “But although we’ve seen that old man and young lady you spoke of, we don’t have any specific information about their current whereabouts.”
“Then don’t waste my time,” Yang Kai’s mood suddenly sank and his expression became cold.
The big man laughed at this and continued, “Although we don’t know much about them, that doesn’t mean others don’t. If you’re interested, why not take a little trip with us?”
Yang Kai’s eyes flashed and also wore a grin, “Good, lead me to this person who knows about them.”
The big man nodded in agreement, turning around and walking off. Yang Kai hurried to keep up while the other who had accompanied the big man followed behind, silently sealing off Yang Kai’s path of retreat.
This group of people didn’t have any good intentions, of this Yang Kai was naturally aware, but it was also likely they had some information regarding Meng Wu Ya and Xia Ning Chang, otherwise, they wouldn’t have been able to describe them so accurately.
What exactly did Old Man Meng do to them? Why did this group of people seem to have a deep grudge with him?
Despite knowing he was walking into a disadvantageous situation, Yang Kai boldly followed as he had confidence in his skills. Not showing the slightest hint of anxiety, he simply followed along while secretly observing his surroundings.
He had been active in Blue Water City for an entire month now and naturally knew there were no Saint Realm masters here, so he had nothing to fear.
After following the big man for some time, Yang Kai suddenly found himself in front of a large manor.
Upon entering the manor, the big man led Yang Kai to a grand courtyard and eventually came to a tranquil garden.
In the garden, there was a young man with a sullen look sitting upon a chair. Kneeling in front of the youth were two scantily clad women who were snuggling up next to him.
These two women were not very strong, probably only True Element cultivators, but at the moment, their two snow white necks actually had collars around them. The collars were attached to some kind of rope that was being grasped by the youth.
One of the women’s bottoms curled upwards as if defying gravity and was half squatting on the ground in a seductive pose, as if she was acting like a puppy, wagging her tail and begging towards the seated young man; as for the other woman, her head was actually buried in the youth’s lap, her head moving back and forth rhythmically, each time she did a faint slurping noise could be heard.
These two women wore extremely thin dressings that did nothing to conceal their tall peaks upon their chests and the soft grasslands between their thighs.
When they arrived there, the big man and his group of followers couldn’t help breathing a little heavier, licking their lips as obscene light flashed across their eyes.
As for the young man sitting in the chair, his expression was one of absent minded indulgence.
Yang Kai face immediately went black.
He had long heard of that some young masters from wealthy families had unusual fetishes and would do all kinds of extreme and distasteful acts.
But upon seeing an example of this debauchery for the first time, it was still somewhat off-putting.
“Young Master, I’ve brought the person you were seeking,” The big man observed for a while before seemingly realizing his gaff and quickly reporting.
The young man sitting in the chair seemed to have not heard and simply continued reveling in his ‘activities’.
Suddenly, the young man’s face changed and became enraged, reaching out and grabbing the hair of the woman whose head was buried in his crotch, lifting her up and slapping her face several times, “Damn slut! How many times have I told you not to use your teeth!”
These slaps were extremely heavy and the woman’s cheeks instantly swelled up, but she did not dare to complain, hastily kowtowing at the youth’s feet, her body shivering in fear.
Seeing all this, Yang Kai’s eyes gradually narrowed and his aura became somewhat dangerous.
The young man lazily reorganized his clothes before finally turning a cold look to Yang Kai and asking in an arrogant voice, “Are you the one looking for that old guy and little girl?”
“Yes,” Yang Kai nodded, “Do you have clues about their whereabouts?”
“No, I’m also looking for them!” Young grinned menacingly, “If you have any information about them, can you tell me?”
“Are you also looking for them?” Yang Kai’s brow wrinkled, “What are you looking for them for?”
“I should be the one asking you that,” The face of the youth suddenly became hazy and unpleasant, “But since you’ve asked, I might as well tell you.”
As he spoke, the youths expression became uglier and uglier, his hand gripping the arm of his chair so tightly it cracked as his True Qi surged up, “I’m looking for them, because I want them to die! The reason this Young Master has fallen into such a state is all because of that old bastard! Brat, tell me right now, what is your relationship with them, you better think clearly before you answer though, if you are their friend or relative, I’ll let you taste the worst torture this world has to offer until the day you die!”
“That old guy actually attacked you?” Yang Kai heard this and was stunned.
What kind of identity did Meng Wu Ya posses? If there wasn’t an extremely compelling reason, it was impossible for him to use a heavy hand on a Junior.
The only explanation was that this young man had done something to enrage Meng Wu Ya.
Yang Kai immediately thought of Xia Ning Chang. Treasurer Meng regarded his Little Senior Sister as a treasure. If this young man had any ideas about Little Senior Sister, that might be enough to set Meng Wu Ya off.
Also, from what Yang Kai had seen of this young man, how he indulged in females, he had an idea of what had happened. Although his Little Senior Sister never revealed her face, anyone who laid eyes upon her could tell she was an astonishing beauty, one that with an especially innocent and cute temperament, causing anyone to unconsciously be attracted to her.
Considering all this, Yang Kai’s expression also became unpleasant.
“My Cheng Family treated that old bastard like an honoured guest yet he actually dared to harm our young master,” The big man who led Yang Kai came, explained, “Brat, what is your relationship with that old man? If you dare to lie, I, your Grandpa, will teach you a harsh lesson.”
“Why would he act against your family’s Young Master? Can you explain this to me?” Yang Kai glanced over at him, his eyes flickering a dangerous light.
The big man, as if unaware of Yang Kai’s murderous stare, openly replied, “My family’s Young Master favoured that girl and put some medicine in her food.”
“Put medicine in her food?” Yang Kai gently nodded, “I can see your Young Master doing something like that.”
Xia Ning Chang possessed the Sacred Spirit Medicine Body, trying to use drugs on her was the very definition of foolish. Although he was clear that his Little Senior Sister was never in any real danger and was perfectly safe and sound, anger still burned in Yang Kai’s heart.
“That old guy beating you was too merciful, if it was me, I wouldn’t have done just that,” Yang Kai snickered.
“Little brat, what do you say?” The big man’s expression became cold as he angrily roared.
The young man looked at Yang Kai with great interest and asked, “If it was you, what would you have done?”
“Kill!”
When everyone heard Yang Kai say this, all of them laughed and spat out words of ridicule.
“Boy, you’re certainly crazy enough. In my Cheng Family’s house, actually daring to say something so bold, I’m afraid you don’t know how to write the word ‘dead’! In this Blue Water City, my Cheng Family is…” The big man began ranting off arrogantly, but before he could finish, his words came to an abrupt end.
A faint bloody smell filled the air and the eyes of the big man bulged as his face was dyed red. At that moment, he could feel all the meridians and veins in his body constantly expanding, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t suppress this trend.
*Hong…*
Flesh and blood suddenly spattered all over the garden. No one knew what had happened, only that the big man who once stood next to them had exploded, bones and all, leaving behind only a pool of blood where a man once existed.
Those who were standing close to him were covered in fresh meat.
Being thrust into this hellish scene, everyone was stunned, standing there stupidly, unable to even react. The young man sitting in the chair was even more stunned, incapable of comprehending what had just happened.
“I’ll ask you once, do you know where that the old guy and little girl went? Anyone who tells me, I can leave with a whole corpse,” Yang Kai swept his eyes around, his gaze filled with an intense chill.
“Kill him!” The young man’s face drained of all colour, finally coming to his senses upon hearing Yang Kai’s words and quickly ordering his underlings to attack.
The remaining henchmen also woke up from their dazed state and began moving.
A burst of Wind and Thunder forces welled up, and although Yang Kai stood perfectly still, a wave of this force burst forth from his body.
Though Yang Kai did not summon his Wind and Thunder Wings, the concentrated Wind and Thunder pulse he released transformed the garden into a land of death.
All the Immortal Ascension Boundary cultivators caught in this miniature hurricane didn’t even have a chance to resist before they were cut into countless pieces, their deaths extremely miserable.
The young man sitting in the chair was dumbstruck, never had he imagined he had actually provoked such a god of disaster.
Because he heard Yang Kai was very young, he had simply sent some of his underlings to bring him back, but now it was apparent this youth possessed strength far beyond what one his age should have.
“A Transcendent? Impossible!” The youth’s eyes nearly popped out of their socket, his expression filled with terror.
Being able to kill so many Immortal Ascension cultivators without even moving, only a Transcendent Realm master would be capable of such a feat, but could there really be such a young Transcendent in this world?
Seeing the incomparably cold expression on Yang Kai’s face as he stepped towards him, the young man cried out in panic, “Don’t come over! I don’t know where those two went, don’t come over!”
“Then you can die,” Yang Kai said indifferently; after confirming that this young man was not lying, he struck out with his fist and smashed the latter’s head.
Inside the once tranquil garden, the smell of blood filled the air, and only an indifferent Yang Kai remained standing. This incident couldn’t even be called a battle, the other party daring to provoke him was simply them seeking their own deaths.
The two scantily clad women were uninjured, but they seemed to have been overwhelmed by the whole situation, both of them staring at Yang Kai absentmindedly, their tender bodies trembling lightly, not daring to move.
When Yang Kai’s eyes landed on them, his gaze softened slightly. He had no intention of finding trouble with these two.
All of sudden though, Yang Kai’s eyes became sharp again as he turned to stare in a certain direction.
From the direction he was staring, a pair of fierce auras rose and it was clear that a master was approaching.
This Cheng Family was a local overlord in Blue Water City, so it was only natural they had Transcendent Realm masters keeping watch. Feeling the True Qi fluctuations indicative of battle in the garden, this master immediately came over to investigate.
Even before these masters had arrived, one of their voices had already called out, “Who dares act dissolute in my Cheng Family?”
Yang Kai raised his eyebrows and stood still, quietly waiting, not making any attempt to escape.
The ones who were approaching were only First Order Transcendents, the same as Yang Kai, so although there were two of them, Yang Kai was not afraid.
No one in the same realm could defeat him, of this he was completely confident.
A moment later, from the left and right, two old men arrived, one of them wearing beige-coloured robes, the other wearing light blue clothes. After seeing the horrible scene in the garden, both of these old men couldn’t help feeling stunned.
On the other hand, Yang Kai’s brow furrowed because upon seeing these two old men, he noticed they were both half-crippled, both of them were missing one arm and one leg. In place of their limbs was some kind of artifacts that, although appearing lifelike, were still obviously made of some kind of metal.
“Boy, were you the one who killed these people?” The old man in the beige coloured robes loudly questioned.
Yang Kai nodded lightly, not denying the charge.
“Why did you kill my Cheng Family’s people, what injustice or enmity do you have with my Cheng Family?” The old man angrily screaming blue shirts.
“We have neither enmity nor injustice between us!”
“Then why have you wantonly murdered our people? Since when was my Cheng Family so easily bullied?” As they spoke, the two old man’s True Qi condensed, apparently preparing to exact revenge for their fallen clansmen.
Yang Kai’s calm demeanor made them realize he had some skill, but when they tried to probe him with their Divine Senses, it only felt as though they were trying to explore a dark, bottomless pit like. Unable to determine anything about this strange youth inevitably caused these two old men some unease, both of them wondering just where this inscrutable Junior had come from.
“If you don’t give us a proper confession for this, my Cheng Family will use all its might to eliminate you!” The old man in beige robes gritted his teeth and declared.
“Eliminate me?” Yang Kai sneered in a low tone, “Good, I’ll just ask my questions after I beat the two of you!”
The young man Yang Kai had just killed didn’t know where Meng Wu Ya and Xia Ning Chang went, but that didn’t mean these two old men didn’t.
As he spoke, Yang Kai sent out a burst of burning hot Spiritual Energy, instantly condensing it into an invisible ray of heat and shooting it towards the two old men.
The age of the other party was not small and the length of time they had spent cultivating was not short so obviously their Knowledge Seas’ defence was not fragile and they possessed Soul type artifacts for defense.
But the two old men’s Soul type artifacts only flashed brilliantly for an instant before shattering and they were struck with a scaling hot aura, both of their expression immediately filling with panic.
Having received the guidance of Old Man Li, Yang Kai now had a certain understanding of how to use his Conflagrated Knowledge Sea.
His Conflagrated Knowledge Sea was not only useful for Alchemy, but also for fighting.
This was Yang Kai’s first true battle after breaking through to the Transcendent Realm and his opponents were actually two veteran cultivators in the same realm, naturally he wanted to use them to test his current strength.
As such, Yang Kai did not hold back at all.
What he didn’t expect though was that these two old men’s Knowledge Sea’s defenses would be torn through so easily. If they weren’t wearing good Soul type defensive artifacts as well, this one strike from Yang Kai could have incinerated their Souls.
Also realizing this, the two old men’s foreheads immediately leaked cold sweat and they frantically raised their defences.
Yang Kai retracted his Conflagrated Divine Sense attack while simultaneously darting forward like lightning, arriving in front of the two old men in the blink of any eye.
With two palm strikes, the two old men’s defences crumbled like paper and were both sent flying, the two of them coughing up blood unceasingly.
Smashing into the ground, the two old men had yet to climb up when Yang Kai’s figure appeared right before their eyes, like a towering mountain they were unable to surmount, blocking out the sun’s rays and causing their eyes to grow dim.
[We can’t resist him!] The two old men both instinctually thought this but were unable to accept it.
Yang Kai was also somewhat dissatisfied, thinking that trying to compare against others in the same realm was something of a mistake.
As a dangerous aura enveloped the two old men, they did not dare to move recklessly, only able to lie on the ground, a chill creeping into their hearts, as if they had been tossed into a deep abyss from which there was no return.
“Who the hell are you?” The old man in the beige robes still tried to keep up appearances, enduring the fear in his heart as he tried to probe Yang Kai’s origins.
Yang Kai shook his head, “Who I am, you don’t need to know. I ask you something, you answer. If I am satisfied, I can let you go, if I am not, heh heh… by this time tomorrow your Cheng Family will no longer exist!”
The ruthless words of this youth deeply impacted the two old men, both of them immediately nodding in agreement. From the strength Yang Kai displayed when dealing with them, the two old men were convinced the former had the ability to carry out this threat.
“Two years ago, did your Cheng Family receive an old man and a veiled young woman?” Yang Kai stared directly into their eyes and asked.
As soon as this statement came out, the two old men’s faces suddenly went white, seemingly recalling something truly terrifying, their eyes filled with fear and panic.
The old man in beige robes called out, “It turns out you’re with them! Little brother, our Cheng Family was indeed in the wrong that time and we paid a heavy price for it, even the two of us were punished severely. Two years later, is there still a need to act ruthlessly?”
The blue clothes man also quickly nodded, “Our Cheng Family has learned its lesson, should we not consider this matter finished?”
Yang Kai’s brow wrinkled as ne noticed that these two old men were seemingly misunderstanding his intentions.
Narrowing his eyes slightly, Yang Kai asked, “Were your hands and legs taken off by that old man?”
Both of them nodded with strained expressions upon their faces, obviously unwilling to recall what had happened two years ago.
Yang Kai grinned slightly, his dissatisfaction with Treasurer Meng swiftly diminishing.
With Meng Wu Ya’s personality, someone daring to drug Xia Ning Chang really wouldn’t just result in breaking the legs of a young man, it seemed the two Transcendents of the Cheng Family were also punished by him.
The old man in beige quickly followed up, “That Senior seemed to have some friendship with one my Cheng Family’s ancestors, so when he came to this Blue Water City, he entered the Cheng Family for a few days and was received as an honoured guest. My Cheng Family treated him with courtesy, but we never thought… Haa… My Cheng Family’s disobedient Young Master had ideas about that Senior’s disciple and actually dared to slip drugs in her food. When that Senior discovered this, he immediately flew into a rage. At that time, if not for one of Water Spirit Temple’s Elders coming forward to sooth his anger, I’m afraid my Cheng Family would have been wiped out. Even so, we paid a heavy price. In the end, out of respect for his friendship with our Cheng Family’s ancestor, that Senior showed mercy and spared our lives!”
“Water Spirit Temple?” Yang Kai eyes lit up, “Did you say Water Spirit Temple?”
“Yes?” The old man in the beige robes was somewhat confused, not understating why Yang Kai suddenly looked a little excited.
“Did that old man and veiled woman go to Water Spirit Temple?” Yang Kai asked eagerly.
“Most likely. That Elder from Water Spirit Temple seemed to have come to Blue Water City specifically for them. On top of that, this city is under Water Spirit Temple’s jurisdiction. My Cheng Family is also one of the forces attached to Water Spirit Temple.”
Yang Kai held his chin and sunk into contemplation for a moment, his expression changing back and forth, frightening the two old men somewhat.
After a long silence, Yang Kai suddenly laughed, “So that’s it!”
At that moment, he suddenly became cheerful.
This was really a case of finding a carriage while lost on a mountain road, experiencing joy after disappointment!
“Little brother, you…” The old man in the beige robes trembled and hesitantly spoke, fearing that Yang Kai would destroy the Cheng Family after becoming angered.
“This matter has nothing to do with you anymore. Since that old guy didn’t destroy you, it means his relationship with your ancestor was not shallow, so I won’t overstep my bounds, but… I’ve already killed so many of your henchmen and even your Young Master, what do you have to say about this?”
“That disobedient waste, his death isn’t worth pitying!” The old man in beige coldly snorted, “If it wasn’t for him, how could the two of us have been reduced to this state?”
As he spoke, his expression twisted noticeably, apparently he was still quite angry about this even though two years had passed.
“Good,” Yang Kai nodded lightly, restraining his impulse to cut weeds and pull out roots here, faintly asking, “Which direction is Water Spirit Temple?”
“That way, across the sea there is a set of islands that serve as the foundation of Water Spirit Temple,” The old man in beige quickly pointed Yang Kai in the right direction.
Before the old man finished speaking, Yang Kai had already taken off and disappeared from sight.
After waiting for a long silence, confirming that Yang Kai had really left, the two old men breathed a sigh of relief, the two of them sluggishly getting up, the colour of their faces alternating between red and blue.
Losing to a little brat who still reeked of his mother’s milk, they had really lost face. Fortunately, no one was around to see this embarrassing display or they really might have to silence some witnesses.
Such misfortune!
Leaving Blue Water City, Yang Kai rushed forward, not caring about his True Qi consumption in the slightest.
Water Spirit Temple was Shui Ling’s Sect.
Since crossing the Abandoned Earth and entering the Void Corridor together with Shui Ling, arriving in Tong Xuan Realm, it had been almost three years. Before they separated at Bold Independent City, Shui Ling had also invited him to join Water Spirit Temple, but Yang Kai had refused.
If he had not rejected her offer at the time, perhaps he would have already been reunited with Meng Wu Ya and Xia Ning Chang, thinking so, Yang Kai couldn’t help feeling a bit of regret.
Yang Kai was sure that Meng Wu Ya and Xia Ning Chang went to Water Spirit Temple to find Shui Ling, and perhaps Treasurer Meng had left a message for Shui Ling to convey to himself!
After all, back in the Central Capital, Meng Wu Ya knew about Shui Ling’s origins so it wouldn’t have been odd for him to guess Yang Kai might come here, but after not being able to find any trace of the latter, he could go to Water Spirit Temple.
This was all just Yang Kai’s speculations, but it was probably close to the truth.
The words of the two Cheng Family old men also reinforced Yang Kai’s hypothesis.
An Elder from Water Spirit Temple coming to Blue Water City to greet Meng Wu Ya meant the latter had gone to Water Spirit Temple and met with Shui Ling.
After meeting with Shui Ling, Meng Wu Ya would know for certain that Yang Kai had arrived in Tong Xuan Realm!
Burning with impatience, Yang Kai shot across the sea like a bolt of lightning, all but cutting the water apart as he flew forward.
After a day and night of flight, Yang Kai spotted some traces of islands in the distance. These islands were scattered about randomly, like chess pieces on a board.
Some of these islands were large while some were small, ranging from only a dozen kilometres to several hundred or even thousands of kilometres in radius.
Yang Kai’s spirit shook as he recognized this island chain as Water Spirit Temple’s territory.
On the sea near the islands, a number of large and small vessels were sailing back and forth, transporting various materials and people for the Water Spirit Temple. The scene was grand and magnificent, highlighting the extraordinariness of Water Spirit Temple.
Dark Clouds Island was one of the islands under the direct jurisdiction of Water Spirit Temple. For some unknown reason, the sky over this particular island was always filled with clouds. On Dark Clouds Island, eight out of every ten days it would be drizzling, while the other two it would be pouring.
He Pu was only an Immortal Ascension cultivator, but he had good interpersonal skills, so although he couldn’t become a high ranking member of Water Spirit Temple, he had managed to acquire a steward’s position.
Nowadays, he managed the various business affairs of Dark Clouds Island. Today as well, the weather was bad, the rain never ceasing. He Pu silently cursed the Heavens while directing his fellow brothers to unload the goods from several recently arrived ships.
These materials were to be sent to Water Spirit Island to be used by the Sect’s Elite Disciple for cultivation and daily life.
While no one was paying attention, He Pu quietly took two Crystal Stones from one of the crates and stuffed them into his pocket before pretended nothing had happened and continuing to order the others about.
“Steward He, Steward He…” He Pu turned around quickly after being called out to, finding one of his Juniors named Cuttlefish waving towards him.
“What is it?” He Pu asked in a disgruntled tone. At that moment, he was feeling slightly guilty, so when Cuttlefish called out to him he nearly panicked.
Water Spirit Temple had strict rules. Even if he was the steward of Dark Clouds Island, if he was found to be embezzling resources, a light punishment would be expulsion from the Sect while a heavy one would be breaking his four limbs.
“Steward He, there’s a suspicious black spot over there, it looks like someone is flying over.” Cuttlefish wasn’t his real name, but due to his fish shaped face, someone had given him this nickname and now everyone called him that. However, the one in question didn’t mind and after so many years, most of his fellow brother and sister disciples couldn’t remember his real name.
“Someone flying over?” He Pu narrowed his already small eyes and stared in the direction Cuttlefish was pointing, a moment later wearing a mocking grin, “What an idiot, doesn’t he know about the mysterious power surrounding Dark Clouds Island? Well, whatever, just let him taste a little bit of the Heaven’s Wrath.”
“But… what if he dies?” Cuttlefish asked, slightly worried.
“If he dies, he died, why should I care?” He Pu coldly snorted, “Flying over like that while not even knowing about our Dark Clouds Island’s natural barrier, obviously he’s not an acquaintance; even if a thousand such people died it doesn’t matter.” Saying so, he turned his eyes up towards the sky and muttered, “This damn weather, it’s really too depressing.”
After hearing what He Pu said, Cuttlefish felt it was reasonable. Now he was no longer worried about this newcomer but instead was somewhat looking forward to his arrive, wanting to know how miserable the latter’s death would be.
As Yang Kai flew across the ocean, the first major Island he came upon was Dark Clouds Island. Looking up and seeing the dense cloud formation above this place, he faintly felt something was unusual about them, but even after pausing and spending a moment to investigate he couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary.
Shooting off again like a bolt of lightning, Yang Kai rapidly approached Dark Clouds Island.
Ahead of Yang Kai there was a crowd of people that seemed to have noticed him. Many of these people were pointing at him and calling out to him from the shore but because they were separated by too great a distance and the winds were whistling too loudly, Yang Kai wasn’t able to hear what they were saying.
A moment later, Yang Kai arrived above Dark Clouds Island. All the cultivators down below stared at him, a look of pity and sympathy flashing across their eyes.
Seeing this, Yang Kai’s brow wrinkled; although he didn’t know what was going on, he didn’t notice any hostility from these people so he didn’t pay it too much mind, but just as he was about to descend, from above his head a crackling noise erupted.
Immediately after, Yang Kai felt a blast of lightning crash down from the sky and land upon his head.
The strength of this bolt of lightning was so intense that it almost caused Yang Kai to fall into the sea.
His whole body stiffened and all his hair stood on end, but after a brief loss of control, Yang Kai couldn’t help feeling a pervasive sense of comfort.
His Wind and Thunder Wings seemed to have absorbed the majority of the Lightning Attribute Qi and stored it in his right shoulder blade.
The crowd down below all called out in alarm when the lightning bolt struck, but in the next moment, they abruptly stopped, all of them showing dumbfounded looks as they stared at Yang Kai in something of a daze.
After being struck by a bolt of lightning as this as an adult male’s arm, aside from his hair standing on end, this little brat was completely unscathed; this development was somewhat beyond their ability to understand.
The defining feature of Dark Clouds Island was not only it’s overcast skies, but also the incredible amount of Lightning Attribute energy that lingered high up in the atmosphere. Normally, the dark clouds would not release this Lightning Attribute energy, only when some unfortunately living creature strayed too close would they be struck by lightning.
As such, Dark Clouds Island was not just a territory marker on the farthest outskirts of Water Spirit Temple, or a place for trade with the outside world, but also a natural defense barrier.
If a person who was not aware of this flew over, they would end up suffering a baptism of lightning.
This kind of Heavenly Wrath was something that even the Elders of Water Spirit Temple weren’t capable of withstanding.
Every six months, the Elders of Water Spirit Temple would use some special methods to release the Lightning Qi that accumulated in the clouds to prevent a situation where too much accumulate and suddenly discharged, destroying Dark Clouds Island.
He Pu recalled that the last time the Elders drained this Lightning Qi was a few months ago. After such a long period, the Lightning Attribute Energy accumulated within the clouds should have reached a level that would force Transcendents to yield and withdraw, so why was this little brat able to all but ignore it?
As the crowd watched absent-mindedly, bolts of lightning continued to fall from the dark clouds in rapid succession like snakes striking from their burrows, all of them, without exception, striking Yang Kai.
The burst of crackling noise resounded continuously and the light given off was so bright that the onlookers soon had to shield their eyes.
He Pu squinted and circulate his True Qi, attempting to continuing watching, but he was unable to see anything in the end.
This scene lasted for some time before the Lightning Qi in the dark clouds became somewhat sparse and the intensity of the light finally decreased enough that everyone could open their eyes again and scan the skies.
Screams rang out soon after as the crowd soon found that the youth who had rashly flown into Dark Clouds Island’s airspace was still floating up in the sky. On top of that, not only was he uninjured, his face had a happy smile upon it.
“Steward He, was that kid’s brain fried by the lightning?” Cuttlefish came over and whispered.
He Pu was also dumbstruck, unable to determine what to make of this situation.
If this young man wasn’t struck stupid, the only explanation was he possessed enough strength to ignore this degree of lightning!
However, how could that be possible? The Sect’s Elders had said that even a Third Order Transcendent wouldn’t be able to escape unscathed from such Heavenly Wrath. This little brat looked to only be twenty-three or four years old, was he really that powerful?
As the crowd down below was lost in such thoughts, the young man up in the sky shook his head, revealing a look of disappointment for a moment before hurriedly putting his clothes in order and flying down to Dark Clouds Island.
Noticing this, everyone on the shore became alert and secretly began circulating their True Qi.
Aware of their vigilance, Yang Kai made a silly grin, wearing a look of someone harmless to humans and animals alike and slowly landed on the island.
“Who are you?” He Pu asked in a cold voice, sizing up Yang Kai, quickly discovering that he had really never seen him before.
Anyone who entered Water Spirit Temple’s territory from the mainland would first have to pass through Dark Clouds Island. If this youth was really an acquaintance, given his freakish performance just now, He Pu should have had some impression of him.
“Pardon me, is this Water Spirit Temple?” Yang Kai did not answer the question directly, instead, asking this question while sweeping his eyes across the crowd. Relaxing when he noticed that there was no Transcendent Realm masters on the island. Most of those present were just Immortal Ascension Boundary cultivators.
“Indeed!” He Pu nodded, “This Water Spirit Temple’s Dark Clouds Island. May I ask who your Excellency is? Why have you come to my Water Spirit Temple?”
Yang Kai’s outrageous performance just now made He Pu feel that this young man was not someone he should provoke, so he did not dare act too overbearing; however, as the island’s steward, he still had to learn the identity and purpose of the other party.
“Don’t misunderstand, I have no malicious intentions here,” Yang Kai smiled, “I’m just here to find someone.”
“Find someone?” He Pu’s brow wrinkled slightly, “Who are you looking for?”
“En, a girl named Shui Ling. If I remember correctly, she should be the daughter of your Water Spirit Temple’s Sect Master!”
“Looking for Shui… Looking for the Little Princess?” He Pu’s eyes widened, a weird expression suddenly appearing on his face as he let out a chuckle.
Everyone else also gave Yang Kai wry looks when they heard this.
“Right, I’m looking for your Little Princess!” Yang Kai nodded, “If it is convenient, can you tell me where she is? En, it would be best if you could take me to see her.”
“Kid!” He Pu smiled and said in a light tone, “Although I don’t know which force you come from, considering you have some skill, I won’t embarrass you, but you’d still best turn back, the Little Princess is not someone the likes of you can get close to.”
Saying so, He Pu waved his hand as if to shoo Yang Kai away.
Seeing everyone’s attitude, Yang Kai frowned and said, “Are you misunderstanding something?”
Thinking Yang Kai was acting reluctant, He Pu just grinned spat and continued, “Misunderstanding? Are you trying to say you’re not here to try to court our Sect’s Little Princess? I don’t have time to waste with you then. My Sect’s Little Princess is a rare beauty so you young people seeking after her is quite normal, even my fellow brothers and I have had such fantasies once or twice,” Letting out a sigh, He Pu wore a distant look and said, “But although I understand and even somewhat sympathise with you, I can’t bend the rules, if you don’t leave, don’t blame us for being polite to you.”
Yang Kai couldn’t help himself from laughing despite trying his best not too, this group of people had really misunderstood him.
Although Shui Ling was truly quite pretty, like a playful spirit, Yang Kai had never had any impure intentions towards her.
Back in the Central Capital, the two of them had started off as enemies but gradually become friends. Because of that friendship, when Yang Kai decided to travel to Tong Xuan Realm, he had brought her along with him, sublimating their relationship quite a bit.
From beginning to end though, Yang Kai had never had any feelings of love towards Shui Ling, only friendship.
After thinking about it for a moment, Yang Kai took something out from his Black Book space and handed it over, “Take a look at this.”
He Pu glanced over at him suspiciously before accepting the object. After carefully examining it for a while, he suddenly called out in surprise, “Little Princess’s token? Where did you get this?”
“Huh? Naturally your Little Princess gave it to me,” Yang Kai replied somewhat dumbfounded.
“Gave it to you?” He Pu’s eyes bulged, slapping his forehead a moment later, seemingly remembering something, “Right, you must be the person the Little Princess spoke of. Oh, please pardon my rudeness from before, Brother. If Brother had taken out this token from the start, I wouldn’t have made things so difficult for you.”
“It’s fine,” Yang Kai shook his head and curiously asked” “What did your family’s Little Princess tell you?”
“Three years ago, when the Little Princess returned, she made a point of telling me that if a Young Master holding her token appeared here one day, be sure to treat him courteously.”