It had been three years since Yang Kai parted ways with Shui Ling in Bold Independent City.
After learning that Yang Kai was Young Lord who the Little Princess had once spoken about, He Pu quickly dispensed with his previous careless attitude and immediately became enthusiastic and respectful.
He Pu was a smooth talker and spared no expense in praising Yang Kai as a talented, handsome young man with extraordinary strength.
After no longer being able to stand He Pu’s prattling, Yang Kai interrupted and asked, “I want to meet with your Sect’s Little Princess, can you take me to see her now?”
He Pu suddenly looked a little embarrassed, “Under normal circumstances, with the prior urging of the Little Princess and given the fact that brother has this token, this He Pu would have taken you to meet her right away, but… Little Princess apparently isn’t on her private island right now. Would Brother be willing to let me send some people to inquire about Little Princess’ current location before I lead you to see her?”
“Of course!” Yang Kai nodded; in any case, he had found Water Spirit Temple already, so long as he could meet with Shui Ling now, he could obtain news about Meng Wu Ya, Su Yan, and Old Demon. Since it was just a matter of time now, Yang Kai could not do anything but wait. “Then I’ll have to trouble you with this.”
“It’s no trouble at all! Brother should have a seat for now, I’ll be right back,” He Pu said hurriedly before stepping away and ordering someone to bring some refreshments and courteously entertain Yang Kai before bringing a group of people and hastily departing from Dark Clouds Island.
Dark Clouds Island was the natural barrier at the outskirts of Water Spirit Temple, a place where many goods and people flowed through, so it was quite lively.
Yang Kai waited for half a day before He Pu returned, a big smile upon his face as he laughed and said, “Brother, fortunately I did not fail my task. When I found and reported to her about brother’s arrival, Little Princess seemed quite anxious to see you as well and urged me to bring you to her right away, are you prepared to leave now?”
“En,” Yang Kai stood up and walked off with He Pu.
Usually, those who arrived or departed Water Spirit Temple via Dark Clouds Island had to take a boat, because once they left the ground and tried to fly, the Lightning Attribute Qi gathered in the clouds above the island would fall on them, but earlier today, all of this Lightning Qi had been absorbed by Yang Kai, so He Pu boldly and confidently led Yang Kai through the skies.
On the road, He Pu introduced Water Spirit Temple’s various features to Yang Kai.
In a several thousand kilometer radius, every island, large and small, all belonged to Water Spirit Temple. Many of these islands had rich World Energy and abundant spirit grasses and herbs, making them excellent environments for cultivation in.
Because there were so many islands spread out over such a large area, it was often quite troublesome to find a single individual.
As the Little Princess of Water Spirit Temple, it was natural for Shui Ling to have her own island. Her private residence was also one of the best in all of Water Spirit Temple, but today she was not on her own island but instead in a place called Cloud Wind Island.
The foundation of Water Spirit Temple was set on the sea, away from the mundane turmoil and the hustle and bustle of the mainland. This environment was pristine and filled with natural beauty, but there was one aspect that was a constant thorn in the side of Water Spirit Temple’s members.
That was the sea beasts that would, from time to time, invade and rampage across the islands.
The Monster Beasts of the sea were very different from the Monster Beasts on land. Aquatic Monster Beasts were generally large in size and proficient in the Water Attribute Qi manipulation, making them quite troublesome to deal with. If it was just some weaker Aquatic Monster Beasts causing trouble, the problem wasn’t difficult to solve, but when a powerful Monster Beast surfaced, even the elite cultivators of Water Spirit Temple would have to expend a lot of effort to repel or kill it.
At this moment, on Cloud Wind Island, Shui Ling was commanding a group of cultivators to fight off a sea beast the size of several houses.
The reefs around Cloud Wind Island had been smashed to pieces and great waves surged back and forth. The scene was extremely dangerous.
This Aquatic Monster Beast had eight long tentacles and was surprisingly nimble for its size. From its great mouth, it was constantly spitting out water arrows, each of which contained significant power.
Although there were a large number of masters under Shui Ling’s command, this sea beast’s vitality was extremely strong and it could not be defeated in a single blow so it was impossible to drive it away in short order.
When she received He Pu’s report a moment ago, Shui Ling could hardly believe her ears and her thoughts immediately became somewhat chaotic, impeding the smoothness with which she issued her commands. This cause her scattered subordinates to fall into a dangerous state, some of them nearly losing their lives as a result.
“Liu Zhuo, you take command!” Shui Ling’s heart was in a mess, how could she possible calmly direct this Monster Beast subjugation? Her beautiful eyes filled with a look of pleasant surprise and anticipation, although she remained in place, she all but stood on her tip toes as she scanned the distant skies, seemingly searching for someone.
The cultivator named Liu Zhuo’s heard Shui Ling’s order and quickly nodded, swiftly assuming command and re-establishing order amongst the faltering troop, quickly calming the chaotic battlefield.
Quietly glancing over, Liu Zhuo found that his Little Princess’ mood seemed to be fluctuating quite a bit and appeared quite happy, prompting him to ask, “Young Lady, what kind of person is the one He Pu just mentioned? Why does Young Lady seem so concerned with him?”
“He’s a friend!” In Shui Ling’s mind, Yang Kai’a appearance surfaced, but upon remembering all the rude behaviour he had shown her back in the Central Capital, she couldn’t help grinding her teeth and spitting, “A very hateful friend.”
Liu Zhuo was stunned, if he was a friend, why was he also hateful? Shaking his head, he wasn’t able to understand what the Little Princess was thinking.
However, as the Little Princess’ retainer, he knew it wasn’t his place to pry into her private affairs so he simply let the matter drop. In truth, he was somewhat curious about this person. He had been serving the Little Princess for a few years now but had never seen her show such a wide range of expressions before.
About half an hour later, two small black spots appeared on the horizon. Noticing this, Shui Ling trembled slightly and quickly looked over only to see He Pu leading someone towards her direction.
As the distance shrank, Shui Ling finally saw the person’s appearance.
Her heart clenching up, Shui Ling’s clear eyes quickly became somewhat watery.
His appearance hadn’t changed much since a few years ago, only seeming a bit more robust and mature.
Still up in the air, Yang Kai spotted Shui Ling and suddenly increased his speed, leaving He Pu behind and in the blink of an eye arriving in front of Shui Ling.
“Beautiful woman, it’s been some time since we last met,” Yang Kai gave a snarky greeting with a friendly smile upon his face.
Shui Ling could be considered as one of his few friends.
“You bastard!” Shui Ling ground her teeth as she stared at Yang Kai menacingly, rushing over in the next instant and punching and kicking him.
Liu Zhuo, who was still commanding the beast subjugation, and He Pu, who had just caught up, were both stunned by this scene.
How could they not be stunned seeing their aloof Little Princess openly flirt with a young man?
“What?” Yang Kai did not evade, letting her get in a few good hits before asking in confusion.
“Didn’t you die? How are you still alive?”
“Who said I died?” Yang Kai asked back angrily.
“That beauty from Bold Independent Union told me,” Shui Ling said in a huff, “Last time, when I went to Bold Independent Union to find her, she told me you had been abducted. Since then there had been no news from you so she said you were probably dead!”
With so many others around, Shui Ling didn’t openly say anything about the Coffin Carrying Man, obviously afraid of causing Yang Kai trouble.
“Oh, that did happen,” Yang Kai nodded, not making any attempt to deny it.
“How did you escape?” Shui Ling was shocked.
“My luck was good, he just let me go,” Yang Kai replied thoughtlessly.
“Haa… Good people really don’t live long while scourges lasts a thousand years,” Shui Ling sighed forlornly, “When that beauty told me about you, she was crying almost inconsolably; did something happen between the two of you? Or else, why would she be sad that you died? When I left, your relationship wasn’t so good, quickly tell me what all of that was about, don’t tell me, to her, you actually… em?”
Seeing Yang Kai rise from the grave, Shui Ling was particularly happy and without any pause began bombarding him with various questions.
“You little girl, why are you asking so many questions all of a sudden?” Yang Kai stared at her somewhat dumbfounded.
“Fair enough, I already know the answer anyways,” Shui Ling spat disdainfully, “You shameless bastard, wherever you go you are surrounded by women, I really shouldn’t have let her approach you back then, I really harmed her!”
“It was an accident, just an accident,” Yang Kai said awkwardly. At that time, under the influence of the Charm Monster’s Spiritual Energy toxin, he really had been helpless.
“Hmph, who would believe you?” Shui Ling snorted, suddenly wearing a solemn expression as she sincerely said, “In any case, you being alive will definitely make many people happy.”
“Are you also happy I’m alive?” Yang Kai asked, a sly look appearing on his face.
“I’m looking forward to you dying sooner!” Shui Ling pouted, her face blushing slightly.
Seeing this scene, He Pu and Liu Zhuo only became more and more surprised. From this brief interaction, it was obvious to them that the relationship between their Little Princess and this young man was not shallow. What kind of origins did this youth have that caused their Little Princess to lose all trace of her usual etiquette? It was really mysterious.
“It’s quite lively here,” Yang Kai glanced around and this sea-side region was occupied by a group of cultivators fighting against a giant Monster Beast. These cultivators weren’t weak, with a Transcendent master in command and the rest having at least reached the Immortal Ascension Boundary, but the Monster Beast they were fighting seemed to be a Seventh-Order one and was perfectly suited to fighting in the water, it’s eight long tentacles possessing incredible strength and lethality, able to summon waves and split the seas.
The group of cultivator had inflicted many large and small wounds on this Aquatic Monster Beat, but they had been unable to kill it. Blue blood flowed from wounds that were opened on its skin but after its flesh squirmed a bit, its injuries would be healed.
Yang Kai only observed for a moment before determining that this Monster Beast could not be killed by this group.
Its vitality was simply too tenacious.
“En, this bastard seems to be eyeing the spirit grasses on Cloud Wind Island and has already stolen quite a few,” Shui Ling said in a somewhat annoyed tone as she glared angrily at the Monster Beast.
“Young Lady, I’m afraid we’ll need reinforcements if we want to drive it off,” Liu Zhuo also saw that the situation was not good and quickly advised.
Shui Ling nodded in agreement.
“Why don’t you go up?” Yang Kai turned to look at Liu Zhuo blankly. This person was a First Order Transcendent, if he joined the subjugation, their group should be able to kill this sea beast, but it seemed as though he had no intention of doing so and was only standing back and issuing commands.
Liu Zhuo glanced over at Yang Kai and coldly snorted, “If I go up, who will protect the Young Lady’s safety?”
Yang Kai was stunned by this comment and no longer said anything.
It seemed like Shui Ling had yet to break through to the Transcendent Realm and was still just a Peak Immortal Ascension Boundary cultivator. In other words, her cultivation was the same as when she had separated from Yang Kai. After three years, she had still not broken through this barrier, it could be seen from this how difficult taking that single step was.
Shui Ling had a distinguished status, so of course Liu Zhuo had concerns about her safety. Knowing this, Yang Kai knew well enough not to argue any further. This was someone else’s territory, if recklessly tried to push his opinion onto them, it would only stir up the other side’s resentment.
Shui Ling on the other hand though just spit her tongue out towards Yang Kai teasingly before turning to Liu Zhuo and saying, “Go join them, that’s the fastest way to finish that guy off.”
“But Young Lady…” Liu Zhuo’s brow wrinkled, obviously somewhat unwilling, his duty was to protect Shui Ling; everything else came second.
“Since I’ve told you to go, just go, I still have some things to discuss with this bastard,” Shui Ling glanced at him and casually said, “Rest assure, I’ll remain back here. Also, with this bastard here, even if that Monster Beast rushes over, I’ll still be perfectly safe, right?”
Her last words were pointed towards Yang Kai.
In response, Yang Kai just smiled and didn’t answer.
Although this Seventh-Order Monster Beast was enormous and possessed not weak strength, if Yang Kai wanted to, he would surely be able to kill it; however, it would be a bit presumptuous for him to step forward here given that he was just a guest, he had no intention of drawing any unwanted resentment towards himself.
“Go on, what are you still doing here?” Seeing Liu Zhuo still not moving, Shui Ling couldn’t help urging him once more.
Liu Zhuo expression became cold as he shot a glare towards Yang Kai and muttered, “Little brat, you better look after the Young Lady carefully, don’t let her suffer any kind of mishap.”
“Don’t worry,” Yang Kai shrugged.
Seeing this, Liu Zhuo begrudgingly used his movement skill and shot towards the sea.
With him joining in, the situation immediately improved. Now that there were two Transcendents teaming up, supported by a group of Immortal Ascension Boundary cultivators, the Water Spirit Temple forces quickly gained the advantage and the sea beast was soon howling in pain as its eight tentacles took significant damage.
Yang Kai stood and observed the battle for a moment. After determining that there was no problem over there, he smiled slightly and said, “That guy seems quite loyal to you.”
“He’s my subordinate, of course he’s loyal to me,” Shui Ling said proudly, “You think this Young Lady is the same as she was back in the Central Capital? Let me warn you, if you dare to bully me now, I’ll let them chop you up into bits.”
“When did I ever bully you?” Yang Kai asked completely naturally.
Shui Ling snorted meaningfully, “Whether you bullied me or not, you yourself are clear in your heart! After not seeing you for a few years, you seem to have grown quite a bit, what’s your current cultivation?”
Yang Kai rubbed his nose and replied back vaguely, “Why do you want to know?”
He didn’t want to conceal something so simple from Shui Ling, but he was afraid if he said something it would depress her. When they had first met, Shui Ling was already a master at the Immortal Ascension Boundary Eighth Stage while Yang Kai was still just a Peak True Element cultivator, but now, less than five years later, Yang Kai’s cultivation had completely surpassed Shui Ling’s. The rate at which he progressed was really a bit too ridiculous.
Even if Yang Kai didn’t say anything though, Shui Ling wasn’t ignorant, smiling lightly as she said, “From what I know of your cultivation speed, I have some idea about just how far you’ve advanced. That also goes to prove my assessment of you was correct, no matter where you go, you can always stir up great storms; it’s really quite enviable. I’m different, once I left Water Spirit Temple, I couldn’t do anything.”
“Silly girl, what do you want a high cultivation for anyways?”
“Not telling! How about it, after seeing the foundations of my Water Spirit Temple, do you have any thoughts of joining? My offer still stands, if you join, I can provide you with the best cultivation environment. We have a lot of unoccupied islands, as long as you see one you like, I can give it to you as your private domain.”
Three years ago, Shui Ling had tried to win over Yang Kai. And now that she had met him again, that idea resurfaced.
This was because there had never been anyone Shui Ling had such high expectations for; only Yang Kai could make her anticipate his future achievements so much. Although this person was somewhat hateful, his ability and aptitude were truly astonishing.
“Joining this place would be the same as ruining myself,” Yang Kai smiled and rejected Shui Ling’s kindness, “The Water Attribute Qi here is so rich, how am I supposed to cultivate?”
“My Water Spirit Temple certainly has places appropriate for you to cultivate. There are several volcanic islands where the climate is burning hot all year round.”
“Even then, I’ll have to politely refuse, I have a place to stay already.”
“Where?” Shui Ling asked with great interest, “What kind of place could you have taken a liking to?”
Yang Kai spoke briefly about what happened in Soaring Heaven Sect, and after hearing that the Ancestral Founder who created High Heaven Pavilion was that Sect’s current Sect Master, Shui Ling immediately gave up any idea of recruiting Yang Kai again.
High Heaven Pavilion was Yang Kai’s home Sect, him choosing to settle in Soaring Heaven Sect was reasonable. On top of that, Soaring Heaven Sect was a great force in Tong Xuan Realm, even Shui Ling had occasionally heard about it.
In the time it took them to finish their conversation, the nearby battle had come to an end.
After Liu Zhuo joined in, the Aquatic monster Beast was quickly defeated and escaped after suffering severe wounds. Although it was regrettable they failed to kill it, repelling it while not suffering any losses on their side was still something to celebrate.
Shui Ling issued a few follow-up commands before leaving her subordinates to handle the clean up and leading Yang Kai off.
Among the thousands of islands under Water Spirit Temple’s jurisdiction, Water Spirit Island was the largest and possessed an incredibly rich World Energy aura. Shui Ling’s name also came from this island.
Usually, Shui Ling lived and cultivated on this island.
Most of the island’s inhabitants were disciples of the Water Spirit Temple along with those disciples’ families. On this island, houses were arranged in a patchwork manner and the crowds would come and go as they pleased, making for a lively environment.
Atop the highest point of the island, there was a row of palace-like buildings, one of which belonged to Shui Ling.
As soon as Shui ling led Yang Kai here, a beautiful young maidservant came out to greet them and immediately offered an assortment of delicious food and wine, crafted from the bounty of the sea, displaying the highest level of cordiality possible.
However, because of all the things weighing on his heart, Yang Kai couldn’t taste any of the food or drink.
Seemingly aware of this, Shui Ling quickly dismissed her maids and said, “I know what you are here for, and I can tell you right now that I really do have the information you’re looking for.”
Yang Kai’s breathing became a bit hurried as he stared at Shui Ling and said excitedly, “Meng Wu Ya really did leave a message with you.”
“En, two years ago, he suddenly came to the Water Spirit Temple along with your Little Senior Sister who was proficient in Alchemy. After leaving behind some words, he quickly left, hoping I would pass along his message to you. Originally I went to Bold Independent Union to find you, but when I arrived there, I heard from Yun Xuan that you had probably died,” Shui Ling sighed faintly, “Fortunately you’re alive and well. The Heavens haven’t abandoned you yet it seems.”
“What message did Treasurer Meng ask you to convey to me?” Yang Kai asked eagerly.
“He said, that old fogy Old Demon had separated from them, saying he was going to the Demon Land to develop a force in anticipation of his Young Master’s arrival,” Shui Ling grinned wryly.
“That old nut…” Yang Kai shook his head and smiled. Of course, Old Demon’s ambition really might be possible; after all, he now possessed the body of a Demon General, that along was enough to warrant his confidence. At the very least, he shouldn’t have any trouble mixing in with the Demon Race.
“What about Su Yan? Where is Su Yan?”
Shui Ling glanced over at him hesitantly before saying, “I can’t tell you where she is specifically, but I can tell you that she is alright. Senior Meng and your Little Senior Sister seemed to have something to do, so Senior Meng entrusted Su Yan to a Sect one of his old friends resides in and let her temporarily cultivate there. The location of that Sect is very suitable for Su Yan, so not only will she not encounter any danger, she will be able to obtain a lot of benefits.”
“Then why can’t you tell me where she is?” Yang Kai was puzzled.
“Because if I told you, you’d immediately go seek her out. The force she is staying with doesn’t allow any outsiders inside their territory. The people there are somewhat unreasonable and the strength they possess is actually much greater than my Water Spirit Temple. There are countless masters in that Sect. Given your temperament, if you go there and they refuse to let you see Su Yan, once you make a mess of things, you’ll probably be in danger.”
“Seriously? I’m just going there to see my Senior Sister, why would they make things difficult for me?”
“I told you, those people are unreasonable, that’s just how they think. It can’t be judged by common sense.”
Yang Kai’s brow wrinkled, sinking into thought for a moment before muttering, “Since Treasurer Meng entrusted Su Yan to that Sect before he came to Water Spirit Temple and left this message with you, that force must be quite close to here. Su Yan Senior Sister cultivates an Ice Heart Secret Art, the most suitable environment for her is one that is extremely cold… A Sect based in an icy region near your Water Spirit Temple that is also stronger than your Water Spirit Temple…”
“Stop stop!” Shui Ling’s called out helplessly, Yang Kai’s words had all but inferred Su Yan’s location so she knew trying to hide it any further was useless. Glaring at him angrily, she snorted bitterly, “You’re too smart for your own good!”
“Then tell me about it, I can’t really think of a place that matches those conditions so I have to find someone to ask about it anyways!” Yang Kai grinned, he really wasn’t too knowledgeable about this world’s forces, or else he would have already known the answer to his inquiry.
“Ice Sect!” Shui Ling said reluctantly, “Have you heard of it?”
Yang Kai shook his head.
“A few thousand kilometers west of my Water Spirit Temple, there is a glacial region. Ice Sect is based in that frozen land. They live a mostly isolated life and rarely come into contact with outsiders, so they don’t have any particularly close ties with the rest of the world. It’s only because they are located relatively close to my Water Spirit Temple that we have some interactions. Occasionally, my Water Spirit Temple will do some business with them, but whenever we make an exchange, the men, women, and even children who we meet with are as cold as ice. Your ice fairy Senior Sister entering that place was really quite appropriate.”
“Why would Treasurer Meng take Senior Sister to such a place?” Yang Kai frowned.
“It seems that Senior Meng and the Sect Master of Ice Sect have some friendship so he felt relieved entrusting Su Yan to her,” After Shui Ling finished, she looked at Yang Kai solemnly and asked, “Do you insist on going to Ice Sect?”
Yang Kai nodded.
It had already been several years since he came to this world and now that he finally had a definite piece of news about his Senior Sister, of course he had to check it out and see how Su Yan was doing. If Ice Sect really was suitable for her, letting her stay there to cultivate wouldn’t be a bad idea, but if she wanted to leave with him, Yang Kai would bring her to Soaring Heaven Sect.
Chu Ling Xiao was the Ancestral Founder of the High Heaven Pavilion, naturally that meant he was Su Yan’s Martial Ancestor as well.
“When do you plan to leave?”
“Now.”
“Do you even know where to go?” Shui Ling rolled her eyes at him, “Wait a few more days, I’ll find someone familiar with the route to guide you. You flying off on your own now will just be a waste of time.”
“Good,” Yang Kai nodded, not rejecting Shui Ling’s kindness. Having someone lead him was naturally better than him wandering around by himself.
Above the vast ocean, a massive iron boat sailed forward against the wind and waves, heading west at an extremely fast speed.
The ship was filled with cultivation resources and was crewed by disciples of Water Spirit Temple.
Yang Kai stood at the bow of the ship and stared west, his thought somewhat distracted. Since he had first become involved with Su Yan, they had never been separated for such a long time. The deep ache and longing for her he felt in his heart was like a fine wine, the longer it remained bottled up, the more potent it became.
After roughly half a month’s stay on Water Spirit Island, his opportunity finally came when this trade mission between Water Spirit Temple and Ice Sect came up, and Yang Kai didn’t hesitate to seize it.
Over the past half a month, Shui Ling had taken very good care of him and provided him with every kind of convenience he could want, making one more attempt to persuade Yang Kai to join the Water Spirit Temple. Unfortunately, Yang Kai ultimately refused.
When he finally left, Shui Ling threw something of a fit and didn’t even show up to say goodbye.
Taking advantage of this down time, with Shui Ling’s help, Yang Kai also managed to acquire a number of the herbs he needed to refine the Ancient Demon Clan’s Saint Pill.
Although these herbs could not be found in Blue Water City, for a great force like Water Spirit Temple, they weren’t too difficult to acquire.
Although the speed of the great ship was nowhere near what Yang Kai was capable of, it was definitely not slow. Obviously, it had been specially built by skilled masters and even had some characteristics in common with high grade artifacts. The several times it was attacked by Monster Beasts, it had easily shrugged them off.
The ship also had several Transcendent Realm masters aboard to prevent any accidents from happening.
He Pu of Dark Clouds Island was here too and was actually the one responsible for this trade mission with Ice Sect. Ice Sect was very powerful and had many high-level masters, each and every one of them possessing a frigid demeanor; however, because of this, they were very honest and upfront when it came to transactions. Water Spirit Temple had been cooperating with them for more than a few years now so there was a certain degree of trust built up between the two Sects. When Water Spirit Temple delivered Ice Sect various cultivation resources and supplies, they would receive a large amount of Ice Attribute spirit grasses and herbs in return.
Ice Sect was rich in Ice Attribute ores which were of great value to Water Spirit Temple.
“Young Master Yang,” He Pu smiled as he appeared next to Yang Kai, “After about half a month, we will arrive at the edge of a great glacier, from there, we have to disembark and fly the rest of the way. The people you’re looking for live in the depths of that glacial world.”
“What kind of Sect is Ice Sect?” Yang Kai turned around and asked.
“I don’t know much about them actually,” He Pu smiled awkwardly.
“You don’t know much about them? Don’t you trade with them quite often?”
“We indeed have an established relationship, but I have never been to Ice Sect itself. Every time we trade, we do so on one of the outer glaciers quite some distance from Ice Sect’s headquarters. Those Ice Sect people are really aloof and unreasonable though, every time we meet they stare at us with disgruntled expressions, as if we owe them an incredible amount of money. On top of that, they’re quite averse to outsiders; they consider Ice Sect to be a pure land and outsiders will only bring filth into their realm. If anyone dares to approach their territory, they will certainly not be polite.”
“So, what you mean to say is, you don’t actually know where Ice Sect is, do you?” Yang Kai knit his brow.
He Pu shook his head before coughing lightly, “Young Lady specifically instructed that if things did not go smoothly, Young Master Yang should return to Water Spirit Island where the Young Lady will be waiting to receive you.”
Yang Kai couldn’t help chuckling when he heard these words, “That little girl still has ideas about me.”
He Pu’s mouth twitched slightly. He had never heard anyone dare call the Young Lady ‘little girl’. The courage of this Young Master Yang was simply too big, but what was even more astonishing was his relationship with the Young Lady was good enough that she didn’t mind him speaking to her in such a manner.
“The wind outside is quite strong, let’s go inside,” He Pu quickly adjusted his expression and said with a smile, “My Junior Brothers have prepared some food and wine, I hope Young Master Yang will accept this invitation.”
“Good,” Yang Kai nodded and walked into the cabin with He Pu.
Although He Pu didn’t know the details about Yang Kai and Shui Ling’s relationship, he had a few guesses. At the very least, Shui Ling treated him differently than an ordinary guest, so naturally He Pu thought it was a good idea to make friends with him.
Yang Kai also didn’t have any kind of arrogance and soon mixed in the crew, laughing and drinking together with everyone harmoniously.
The days passed by and the air obviously became colder, it seemed like as the great boat sailed forward, it was gradually approaching a world of ice and snow.
The waves on the sea also became smaller and weaker than before, and around the ship, floating chunks of ice could be seen.
As time passed, this change in situation became even more obvious.
Yang Kai knew this meant he was getting closer and closer to the glacial world and his heart filled with endless expectation and excitement.
Half a month later, the great ship finally came to a stop as the sea in front of it was completely frozen over. Snowflakes the size of goose feathers fell from the sky and from just a quick look, it was obvious the ice on the water’s surface was several meters thick.
The ship couldn’t proceed any further.
He Pu skillfully commanded the crew to pack the ship’s supplies into a number of Universe Bags and prepare to land on the glaciers.
After a short hustle and bustle, everything was prepared.
Leaving a few people behind to look after the boat, the rest of the Water Spirit Temple team leapt off of the deck and, brazing the frigid wind and snow, continued heading west.
The temperature here is extremely low; even a cultivator like He Pu wore a lot of warm clothing, Yang Kai was the only one still a casual shirt and pants. Not only did he not feel cold, he even seemed to be enjoying the weather. This cause He Pu and the others to stare in amazement, wondering just what kind cultivation Yang Kai possessed that allowed him to treat this terrible environment as if it was nothing.
As far as the eye could see it was pure white, a frozen glacial world seemingly devoid of any impurities.
The team from Water Spirit Temple flew forward for several days before the Transcendent leading them suddenly made a gesture to stop.
The team all halted and stared towards their front.
Amidst this snowy world, there seemed to be a few vague figures dressed in pure white robes. Against the glacial background, these people were nearly impossible to detect.
Yang Kai had discovered these people’s auras some time ago, but had not said anything, choosing to sit back and observe first.
After searching the area in front of him for a while, the leader of Water Spirit Temple’s team finally confirmed his counterparts, smiled happily, and hurried forward.
A moment later, their team arrived in front of these half-hidden figures.
Obviously these people were disciples of Ice Sect. Sweeping his gaze over them quickly, Yang Kai could help narrowing his eyes.
Although these people’s expressions were aloof and indifferent, even somewhat disgruntled, giving them an unwelcoming and unreasonable aura, all of them had incredibly dense and pure True Qi, each of them giving off a chilling aura that was difficult to ignore.
The harsher the environment, the stronger the cultivator that could be honed, this was a well-known truth.
Living a life of isolation in this glacial world, Ice Sect’s disciples not being formidable would be strange.
It seemed like Treasurer Meng entrusting Su Yan to this place had by no means been out of simple convenience. With Su Yan’s temperament, this environment really was perfectly suited to her.
The two sides were obviously familiar with each other so the lead Ice Sect disciple, upon seeing the Water Spirit Temple delegation, didn’t refrain from showing some impatience as he indifferently asked, “How come you’re so late this time?”
He Pu quickly stepped forward and replied with a flattering smile, “Sorry, sorry, some matters delayed our trip here, causing us to arrive a bit later than expected.”
“It better not happen again,” The man was coldly snorted.
He Pu almost choked on his words, secretly rolling his eyes and no longer trying to exchange pleasantries, instead quickly getting his people to hand over their Universe Bags to the Ice Sect disciples so the latter could confirm the goods.
After a quick inspection, the leader of the Ice Sect group nodded, expressed his satisfaction with the materials sent by Water Spirit Temple, then handed over two Universe Bags from his sleeve to He Pu.
He Pu swiftly checked the contents of the Universe Bags before smiling and saying, “Good, this time’s exchange has been fruitful, I hope we can continue to cooperate in the future.”
Upon hearing this, without saying anything more, the Ice Sect delegation turned around and prepared to leave.
“Please wait a moment!” He Pu called out.
The lead Ice Sect disciple turned around and asked in an unhappy voice, “What?”
“Ahem, I’d like to ask you about someone,” Yang Kai stepped forward, cupped his fists, and said.
“Ask about someone? Who do you want to ask about?” The man frowned, his expression clearly impatient.
“A young woman named Su Yan, she should currently be residing in your Ice Sect.”
“Su Yan?”
“En, she should have entered your Ice Sect two years ago, if possible, I hope you can allow me to see her…”
“There’s no one with that name in my Ice Sect, you’ve come to the wrong place!” The man didn’t wait for Yang Kai to finish before waving his hand and gruffly cutting him off.
A tinge of anger welled up in Yang Kai’s heart but didn’t immediately act out, choosing instead to stand by and watch this group depart.
Soon, these people disappeared into the snowy world.
“Young Master Yang, this…” He Pu looked at Yang Kai somewhat sympathetically. Although he knew the people of Ice Sect were not easy to converse with, this group had simply been too cold, even refusing to give the other side a chance to speak.
“You go back first, give my thanks to Shui Ling for all her help and tell her I’ll come thank her in person when I get a chance.”
“But Young Lady said that if things don’t go well, we have to bring you back with us lest you suffer any injustice here,” He Pu hesitated.
“Her good intentions are something I’ll make a note of in my heart. When you go back, just tell her I insisted on staying,” Yang Kai smiled and patted He Pu’s shoulder, “This time you’ve worked hard.”
Being treated in such a friendly manner, He Pu immediately felt flattered and let out a laugh, “Young Master Yang is too polite, this Hu wishes Young Master Yang success in your coming venture. If things are truly impossible, please don’t hesitate to leave, these Ice Sect people really aren’t good to provoke.”
“En, I know, if there’s a chance, we’ll meet again in the future,” Yang Kai cupped his fists before quickly turning around and following after the Ice Sect disciples.
Looking at his disappearing back, He Pu sighed and shook his head before also turning around and leading his team back the way they came.
Yang Kai subtly released his Divine Sense and locked onto the group of Ice Sect disciples, following them from a safe distance.
He was certain this group of people knew Su Yan.
Although the man who spoke did not expose any flaws, the young woman standing behind him, trembled slightly as a look of surprise briefly appeared on her face when Yang Kai mentioned Su Yan’s name.
Although she had quickly regained her composure, Yang Kai had not missed this slight change.
Yang Kai didn’t know why they denied Su Yan’s existence, but he couldn’t feel at ease without seeing her for himself.
There was also a faint uneasiness in his heart, as if he knew something was wrong.
Su Yan had been entrusted to Ice Sect by Meng Wu Ya. Ice Sect’s Sect Master and Treasurer Meng seemed to have some kind of friendship, and that friendship definitely wasn’t shallow. If not, Meng Wu Ya would not have done this.
Yang Kai believed in Treasurer Meng!
Since that was the case, Su Yan shouldn’t have been wronged in Ice Sect, but the faint restlessness in Yang Kai’s heart still unsettled him and he vowed to find Su Yan and see for himself how she currently was.
Atop the glacier, several Ice Sect disciples in their pure white robes rushed forward. They were the ones who had just traded with He Pu.
Under the leadership of a middle-aged man, the group of people walked in a seemingly random pattern across the snowy landscape.
There were many large and small outcroppings on this vast glacier, and with their white clothing and special methods of concealing their auras, it would be almost impossible to detect them if one didn’t carefully inspect the area.
As the middle-aged man led his fellow disciples back towards the Sect, he couldn’t help wrinkling his brow. He instinctively felt like they were being tracked, but even after sweeping the surroundings with his Divine Sense repeatedly, he couldn’t detect anyone, causing him some distress.
After traveling for quite some time, not only was this group not closer to Ice Sect, they were instead getting farther and farther away.
The young woman next to him finally couldn’t help but ask, “Ni Ren Martial Uncle, why are we flying in this direction?”
The middle-aged man didn’t answer, as if he hadn’t even heard her.
The young woman didn’t give up though, her expression becoming somewhat puzzled as she asked, “Also, when that youth asked about Junior Sister Su Yan, why did you tell him that Junior Sister wasn’t in the Ice Sect? She is obviously there, I even spoke a few words to her less than a year ago.”
Ni Ren just shot a cold glance towards the young woman, scaring her and immediately causing her to stop talking.
A young man next to the woman quickly explained, “Don’t ask too much Junior Sister, Martial Uncle naturally has a good reason for doing this. Everything he does is for our protection. Outsiders are all sinister and deceitful; at first glance it was obvious that guy back there wasn’t anything good, actually wanting to intrude into our Ice Sect, who knows what kind of evil plot he has.”
“Oh… en,” The young woman simply replied; although she somewhat disagreed in her heart, she didn’t dare say any more.
Another seemingly concerned disciple sped up and approached Ni Ren, whispering, “Martial Uncle, are we being followed?”
Ni Ren frowned a moment before muttering, “I don’t know, it may just be my imagination. Among that group of people, no one should have the ability to shadow us without me noticing, but just in case we’ll take a roundabout way back.”
“Yes.”
Ni Ren’s expression did not relax though; recalling Yang Kai’s appearance though, he just shook his head and felt he was being overly cautious.
Although that young man seemed out of the ordinary, and was certainly not an average Junior, in the end, he was still nothing but a kid. It should be impossible for his cultivation to be higher than his own.
However, what Ni Ren really cared about was that he was actually looking for Su Yan.
The young woman who had suddenly entered Ice Sect two years ago!
Not long after joining, that young woman created a huge sensation, the Sect Master and all the Elders lavishly praising her, saying that one day she would certainly become a Third Order Saint!
Her performance was certainly awe inspiring. When Su Yan joined the Sect, she was still just an Immortal Ascension Boundary Eighth Stage cultivator, but in less than a year, she successfully broke through to the Transcendent Realm and continued progressing rapidly. According to Elder Qian Yue, for the past year, Su Yan had been in secluded retreat, as to what kind of realm her cultivation had reached, Ni Ren could only imagine.
On top of that, Su Yan easily mastered all of Ice Sect’s Secret Arts and Martial Skills, becoming proficient in most of them almost at first glance.
This kind of achievement was unheard of in all of Ice Sect’s history.
Her aptitude actually didn’t differ much from one who possessed the legendary Ice Crystal Jade Body special constitution. Unfortunately, the Ice Crystal Jade Body was incredibly rare and had essentially never been seen before.
Ni Ren hadn’t had much contact with Su Yan, but he had learned from Elder Qian Yue that this young woman was simply supremely suited to cultivating in Ice Sect! Originally, the Sect Master had half forcibly admitted her into the Sect against the other Elder’s objections, but after discovering her amazing talent, Elder Qian Yue’s attitude completely changed and even hoped to accept her as a direct disciple. Forget about allowing Su Yan to freely read the Sect’s Secret Arts and Martial Skills, Elder Qian Yue even allowed her to freely enter the Sect’s Sacred Ground, the Ice Cave, to cultivate.
Unfortunately, Su Yan didn’t seem willing to join Ice Sect, causing Qian Yue no small frustration, but there was really nothing she could do.
When Yang Kai mentioned Su Yan, he made Ni Ren feel quite wary.
If it was any other disciple, Ni Ren probably won’t have bothered concealing the truth, but since it was about Su Yan, Ni Ren thought he should first report the incident to Elder Qian Yue.
As these thoughts swirled about his head, Ni Ren’s feet never stopped moving, shuttling back and forth across the glacial landscape.
Yang Kai, who was a fair distance behind this group, saw this and merely snickered lightly.
The other party seemed to be faintly aware they were being tracked but were not certain, so they were eagerly trying to shake Yang Kai off.
Unfortunately for them, having been locked onto by Yang Kai’s powerful Divine Sense, everything Ni Ren tried was in vain.
Three days later, Yang Kai noticed that the group he was tracking had suddenly disappeared into an ice mountain, their life auras seemingly vanishing into thin air.
After stopping in place for a moment, Yang Kai frowned and decided to walk closer to the region they had disappeared, soon coming across a dense field of ice mountains.
Even after examining the area in front of him for some time, Yang Kai couldn’t discover anything out of place; all he knew was that these ice mountains were concealing some kind of secret.
However, his efforts weren’t completely fruitless as, to his great joy, he felt Su Yan’s aura!
Because they had cultivated the Yin-Yang Joyous Unification Art, as long as the two of them were within a certain range of each other, they could sense the other’s existence.
After they had absorbed the energy of the Yin Yang Monster Ginseng, this invisible spiritual connection had grown even stronger.
Su Yan was inside one of the ice mountains a short distance in front of him, her aura incredibly calm and peaceful, as if she was in some kind of deep sleep, but when Yang Kai tried to reach out to her, he wasn’t able to obtain the slightest response.
Yang Kai’s expression instantly became gloomy upon realizing this.
Most likely, Su Yan had encountered some kind of accident! Otherwise, after sensing his presence, she would definitely excitedly run out to see him.
In an instant, Yang Kai’s anger flared up and a murderous aura began leaking from his body, his eyes becoming sharp and dangerous.
Inside the ice mountain field lay a snowy paradise.
Ice Sect’s foundation was in this mountain range. Innumerable years ago, Ice Sect was a well-known super force in Tong Xuan Realm, but because of a certain incident, Ice Sect had abandoned its former domain and secluded itself here, no longer contacting the outside world or accepting outsiders into its territory.
Every ten years, Ice Sect’s Elders would go out and search for some disciples with excellent aptitude to inject fresh blood into the Ice Sect; these disciples would all be orphans without any other family members.
The strictness with which Ice Sect selected its disciples was incredibly harsh so each one of them was a talented elite.
There weren’t many people in Ice Sect; from the Sect Master to the youngest disciples, there were only about five hundred in total. However, there were quite a few masters including several Saints and at least twenty or thirty Transcendents. It could be seen from this alone that Ice Sect’s cultivation methods and vision were extraordinary when it came to its disciples.
At this moment, in the center of one of the ice mountains, inside an ice room, Ni Ren was reporting about the recent transaction to Elder Qian Yue.
Qian Yue was a middle-aged beauty and although she did not look old, she was already a powerful First Order Saint. Like Fei Yu, she had simply done a good job in maintaining her appearance.
After listening to Ni Ren’s report, Qian Yue nodded lightly, “Well done, you’ve worked hard, bring the disciples of your team to take some of those supplies to cultivate with.”
“Many thanks, Elder Qian Yue,” Ni Ren said, but did not immediately retreat, a look of hesitation appearing on his face.
“Is there something else?” Qian Yue stared at him with her pair of beautiful eyes, realizing something was not quite right thus taking the initiative to ask.
“It’s like this, Elder. During this time’s transaction, something happened that concerns this disciple.”
“Go on.”
“There was a young man who asked this disciple about Su Yan’s whereabouts. I don’t know where he obtained his information, but he seemed to be aware that Su Yan was in our Ice Sect!”
“He was looking for Su Yan?” Qian Yue’s pretty face dimmed, her brow wrinkling slightly “What kind of man?”
Ni Ren quickly described Yang Kai’s appearance and added, “He is not old, but there was something strange about him. Disciple is incompetent and wasn’t able to spy on his strength, but he faintly gave me a sense of oppression.”
“He gave you a sense of oppression?” Qian Yue said slightly shocked, muttering to herself, “Is he the person that old guy mentioned to the Sect Master before? How could he have come so quickly?”
When that old fogy brought Su Yan to Ice Sect and handed her over to the Sect Master, he had once said that someday a young man might come looking for her. He also made a point of saying, when that time came, the Sect Master should not shut him out. Otherwise it would very likely cause some form of heaven shaking disaster.
The Sect Master and Elder Qian Yue weren’t aware of Su Yan’s aptitude at the time, so they only reluctantly agreed, but after witnessing Su Yan’s talent first hand, neither of them wanted to let her leave. As long as Su Yan stayed in Ice Sect, given her natural ability, she would definitely one day inherit the position of Sect Master.
What made Qian Yue feel helpless though was that Su Yan had encountered an accident and currently was unable to meet with anyone.
This young man’s relationship with Su Yan must be very close, if he were to learn of Su Yan’s current state, it would likely lead to some unwanted consequences.
Qian Yue couldn’t help rubbing her forehead, feeling a slight headache coming on as she asked, “Did you lead that young man back to the Sect?”
“No,” Ni Ren shook his head, “Disciple thought it best to report the situation to Elder first, so he did not tell him the truth.”
“Good, well done,” Qian Yue nodded with satisfaction, but before she could offer a few words of praise for Ni Ren’s quick judgement, her expression suddenly changed. Releasing her Divine Sense into the surrounding area, she soon coldly snorted and said, “Ni Ren, Ni Ren, you really are incompetent! Allowing someone to follow you back to our Ice Sect, yet not even realizing it?”
“Ah?” Ni Ren was stunned, “Impossible, I lead my team to wander through the ice fields for several days outside just in case someone was following us before coming back, how could he have…”
“Hmph!” Qian Yue coldly snorted, “If I say he followed you, then he follow you. Also, that little brat seems to be very dissatisfied with our Ice Sect, the aura he’s emitting right now is quite unfriendly.”
“Please calm your anger, Elder disciple will go now and drive him away!” Ni Ren quickly said, a tinge of irritation on his face.
When he came back, he had been extremely cautious and alert, but he had still been silently follow, not even realizing after he returned to the Sect, it was really a big loss of face to him.
“Go and send him away. This little brat is obviously not the friendly type so give him a good lesson, but remember, you mustn’t endanger his life,” Qian Yue ordered. In the end, this youth was somehow related to that old fogy, if they were really to kill this young man, it would be difficult for the Sect Master to explain to that old fogy.
The Sect Master had already reprimanded Qian Yue regarding Su Yan’s accident, so she was not eager to receive another sermon.
Ni Ren hurriedly nodded before rushing out, his look cold and gloomy.
Outside the ice mountain range, Yang Kai’s face was also quite gloomy, his eyes closed as he silently continued to examine Su Yan’s condition. Although he was certain her life wasn’t in any danger, he could not understand what had happened to her that would cause her to not respond to his call. It was like she was in some kind of coma and completely unaware of his presence.
A moment later, several not weak auras suddenly appeared in Yang Kai’s perception range and rapidly flew over towards him.
Yang Kai opened his eyes and a cold light flashed across them as he stared in the direction the Ice Sect disciples were approaching from.
Not long after, this group arrived in front of Yang Kai.
“Brat, sure enough, it’s you!” Ni Ren snorted as he stared at the slightly familiar youth in front of him. Just staring at the cold, murderous look on the opposite party’s face, Ni Ren knew this brat wasn’t anything good.
Regarding this person, Ni Ren didn’t have the slightest good impression.
“You dare follow me? Your courage really isn’t small,” Ni Ren coldly snorted, saying in a disgruntled tone, “It seems I’ll have to have a talk with Water Spirit Temple, how could they have raised such an insidious villain?”
When he met Yang Kai before, the latter had been moving together with the disciples of Water Spirit Temple, so naturally he thought Yang Kai was also member of Water Spirit Temple.
“Water Spirit Temple has no relationship with me!” Yang Kai snorted.
Ni Ren frowned as he stared at Yang Kai, calmly saying, “I don’t care what Sect you belong to, this is my Ice Sect’s territory. Go back to wherever you came from, otherwise don’t blame us for being unkind.”
“Before I see the person I have to see, I’m not going anywhere,” Yang Kai glared at Ni Ren, flames of anger rising in his heart. This guy clearly knew Su Yan, but when he had asked about her before, the latter had simply cut him off before Yang Kai could finish his question. And now that Yang Kai had arrived here and confirmed Su Yan’s presence, this guy wanted to force him to leave without so much as a word of explanation.
This attitude was simply arrogant to the extreme!
Yang Kai was furious, but still didn’t act immediately. Ice Sect’s Sect Master had some kind of relationship with Meng Wu Ya. Meng Wu Ya entrusting Su Yan to this place obviously stemmed from the former’s good intentions, so if Ice Sect could give him a reasonable explanation he could accept, Yang Kai didn’t want to make a big deal out of things.
Right now, he just wanted to know what had happened to Su Yan and how she was.
However, even if Yang Kai didn’t let his anger erupt, Ni Ren did, roaring loudly, “Little brat, don’t refuse a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit, speaking such bold words to me in my Ice Sect’s territory, you are the first! If you utter any more nonsense, I’ll teach you a harsh lesson!”
“You can try!” Yang Kai sneered.
Ni Ren’s expression became indifferent as he nodded lightly, “Very well, I didn’t want to hurt you, but you’ve brought this upon yourself. A mere junior daring to act so arrogantly in front of me, your ignorance knows no bounds! Today, I’ll let you know who the master is around here!”
Saying so, Ni Ren’s eyes flashed and a burst of white light shot out from them. In this white world, it was extremely difficult to detect this light.
The light seemed to be composed of the coldest ice and cut through the air like a sword, slicing into Yang Kai’s head and ripping through his Knowledge Sea’s defence, trying to defeat him in one fell swoop.
“A Divine Sense attack…”
Yang Kai’s mouth curled into a cold sneer and slowly shook his head, “I thought your Ice Sect cultivators were supposed to be strong, but it turns out you’re nothing much. If that was all you’ve got, then I’m afraid you’re going to be disappointed.”
Although Ni Ren’s Divine Sense attack had easily penetrated into Yang Kai’s Knowledge Sea, it was quickly incinerated, causing no damage at all.
Ni Ren’s face changed dramatically upon realizing this and all the other Ice Sect disciples around also stared at Yang Kai in amazement.
Ni Ren was a First Order Transcendent master, and though he did not major in cultivating Spiritual Energy, his Divine Sense was still quite powerful. To deal with such a junior should have been a simple task, so the other party not taking with any damage and even leisurely being able to taunt them really was difficult for the Ice Sect disciples to accept.
“Junior Brother, this little brat is a little strange!” Another Transcendent beside Ni Ren quickly said.
Ni Ren nodded heavily; just now, when Elder Qian Yue told him to bring others to drive this little brat away, he had felt she was making too much of a fuss, but now he knew otherwise. Fortunately he had brought some of his fellow brothers to help or else, if he had come all alone, facing this strange kid in battle likely would have result in him suffering an embarrassing loss.
As he thought so, Ni Ren stared at Yang Kai fixedly, his expression a lot more solemn then it was before, a moment later saying, “Little brat, I see you have some skill. I won’t embarrass you any further, so leave now.”
“I said, before I see the one I need to see, I’m not leaving,” Yang Kai slowly shook his head, his attitude firm, his expression sinking as he coldly stated, “If you don’t let me see her, I’ll flatten every one of your ice mountains!”
“Bold! You think we’ll allow you to act as you please in our Ice Sect?” Ni Ren shouted furiously.
“It seems it’s useless for me to speak with someone of your status in Ice Sect. Since that’s the case, I’ll have to find someone with some real authority!” Just as Yang Kai’s voice fell, his figure flickered and he shot towards a certain ice mountain in the distance. From that mountain, he could feel a powerful Divine Sense monitoring the situation over here.
“Don’t even think about it!” Ni Ren shouted, his True Qi bursting forth, “Frozen World!”
The bone chilling wind suddenly became even colder and in a flash, Yang Kai’s body was surrounded by a mysterious energy. This energy quickly solidified into innumerable icy blades that shot towards him from every possible direction, each of these blades giving off an imposing and dangerous aura.
In an instant, Yang Kai’s figure was lost in this torrent of blades.
However, Ni Ren’s expression did not relax and instead became even more solemn.
*Xiu xiu xiu…*
The ice blades continued to fly towards Yang Kai from all around, but at the centre of this barrage a blazing inferno had erupted and was spreading outwards at incredible speed. Soon, a red hot ball of flames as dazzling as the sun formed, blinding those who tried to stare at it.
*Hong…*
When Ni Ren’s Frozen World exploded, Yang Kai stood mid-air, surrounded by his flames, radiating a scalding hot aura as he stared down at Ni Ren indifferently.
“Transcendent Realm!” Ni Ren complexion changed greatly as his eyes bulged in disbelief.
Feeling Yang Kai’s True Qi fluctuations, he finally understood what his opponent’s cultivation was.
This young man, like him, was a First Order Transcendent master! And his opponent’s True Qi was actually several times purer and denser than his own. What made Ni Ren truly unease though was that this youth’s True Qi had a potent Yang Attribute, the nemesis of his Ice Attribute Qi!
“Junior Brother, watch out!” In the instant that Ni Ren lost his composure, his Senior Brother nearby suddenly called out and hurriedly pulled him away.
*Xiu…*
A fiery red spear scratched Ni Ren’s body and sank into the ground, instantly melting the ten thousand year old ice and opening a hole dozens of meters across and at least a thousand meters deep.
Feeling the power of that spear which was purely condense of this strange youth’s True Qi caused all the Ice Sect disciples present to go pale.
All of them had broken through to the Transcendent Realm, but none of them was confident they could have withstood such an attack. If they had been hit directly with that flame spear, they would likely have vaporized as easily as the ice around them had.
*Hu hu…*
An unbearably hot True Qi aura spread out and instantly covered a several thousand meter radius. Within this scalding domain, anyone who cultivated Ice Attribute Secret Arts was suppressed to some degrees and their True Qi seemed to circulate more slowly.
Yang Kai stood mid-air, a cold chill flashing across his eyes as he stared down below and solemnly said, “I’ll ask you one last time, what happened to Su Yan?”
“Boy, we don’t know anyone named Su Yan, so how are we supposed to know what happened to her? If you want to fight, stop trying to find excuses and just fight!” Ni Ren stubbornly declared.
“Good,” Yang Kai nodded and no longer wasted his breath. Condensing a drop of Yang Liquid at his fingertips before flicking his wrist and shooting it out.
The drop of Yang Liquid exploded and transformed into thousands of tiny droplets that flew towards the Ice Sect disciples below.
“Ice Curtain!”
“Ice Lock!”
“Ice Crystal Beasts!”
Ni Ren and the others Transcendents all immediately responded to Yang Kai’s attack, each of them using their own Ice Attribute Martial Skills.
A shield of ice filled with profound chill rose up in front of the Ice Sect disciples while chains comprised of Ice Attribute Qi shot towards Yang Kai. At the same time, a series of roars rang out and a number of giant Monster Beasts appeared above the glacier, fierce looks upon their faces.
These Monster Beasts were composed entirely of Ice Attribute True Qi and had the appearance of elaborate ice sculptures; however, each of them behaved incredibly lifelike, running atop the ground and soaring through the sky as they struck towards Yang Kai.
*Chi chi chi…*
The drop of Yang Liquid which had transformed into countless tiny droplets effortlessly penetrated the Ice Curtain, causing Ni Ren and his fellow brothers’ faces to pale, all of them quickly summoning their own defensive artifacts in the next instant to protect themselves.
Simultaneously, the Ice Lock’s chains wrapped up Yang Kai, but before their summoner could celebrate, to his horror, his Martial Skill which should have been able to tie down a Second Order Transcendent was actually instantly melted by Yang Kai’s True Yang Yuan Qi, not even slowing the latter down for a single breath.
Yang Kai stepped forward leisurely and confronted the ice crystal beasts next.
After not having used this particular Martial Skill for so long, Yang Kai once again pushed forward his palms and with a great tiger roar and ox bellow, the Heaven Shaking White Tiger and Earth Splitting Divine Ox appeared, their bodies radiating a burning hot golden aura as they charged forward.
*Pa pa pa…*
All of the ice crystal beasts that charged towards Yang Kai were no match for the White Tiger and Divine Ox phantoms and were easily crushed and evaporate by the latter, disappearing in a puff of steam.
In less than three breaths, Yang Kai had crushed the Ice Sect disciple’s techniques and arrived in front of them. The True Qi fiercely overflowing from Yang Kai’s body made each of these disciples tremble unconsciously. They had never thought that a cultivator in the same realm as them could so completely overwhelm them in combat. Even though it was three against one, not only was this strange youth not showing any signs of defeat, he even appeared calm and relaxed, as if he hadn’t even used half his full strength yet.
Feeling the power surging through his body, Yang Kai truly felt carefree.
Certainly, the cultivators of Ice Sect had much higher combat power than average, the two First Order Transcendents of the Cheng Family which Yang Kai had cleaned up previously in Blue Water City weren’t even in the same league.
Even if two people had the same cultivation, depending on their comprehension of the Heavenly Way and Martial Dao, their combat power could be vastly different.
Regarding this point, Yang Kai had achieved something of a pinnacle amongst the same realm, although these Ice Sect disciples were all rare talents in this field, their achievements were still incomparable to Yang Kai’s.
After making a move, Yang Kai’s anger seemed to have been released somewhat and his emotions gradually calmed down.
He came to Ice Sect not to fight or kill, but to see Su Yan.
Thinking so, his murderous intent converged significantly but his momentum did not. Ni Ren and the other Ice Sect disciples did their best to stop Yang Kai, but not only could they not block him, they were actually teetering on the brink of total defeat.
This whole scenario made them feel quite fearful and their attitudes towards Yang Kai changed dramatically as a result.
On the outskirts of the ice mountains, the several Ice Sect Transcendent Realm masters teamed up against Yang Kai were constantly complaining in their hearts.
They had initially thought that their opponent was just a young ignorant brat, someone any one of them could easily send packing, but never had Ni Ren and his fellow brothers thought that Yang Kai’s strength would be so monstrous, completely surpassing all three of them put together, forcing them into a miserable situation.
Such a huge contrast in expectation and reality dumbfounded them.
Although the two side’s True Qi attributes mutually repelled one another, this youth’s True Qi was far more dense and pure, so every time they fought, the Ice Sect disciples Martial Skill would melt like snow under the spring sun. Even just their basic True Qi defence around their bodies was severely strained by the blazing hot aura Yang Kai was giving off.
“Anyone who dares to stop me today will die!”
All of a sudden, Yang Kai showed an impatient expression and angrily roared, his gaze becoming cold and ruthless.
Ni Ren’s heart clenched as his instincts cried out to him to retreat, immediately forcing him to put all of his strength into defending himself. Under the threat of Yang Kai murderous intent, he finally felt the situation had become untenable.
Yang Kai’s performance was completely unexpected; Ni Ren couldn’t understand how a boy so much younger than himself could completely suppress him and his fellow brothers.
“This is my Ice Sect’s domain, not somewhere you can act dissolute!” Ni Ren somehow choked down his fear, grit his teeth, and tried to act strong.
“You’ve said that once before,” Yang Kai stared at him coldly, “Not somewhere I can act dissolute? Is Ice Sect really so great? I’ll show you the meaning of dissolute!”
As he said so, a burst of wind was thunder erupted, engulfing Ni Ren and his two fellow disciples in a dense storm filled with sharp wind blades and lethal lightning bolts. A slaughtering field instantly appeared and the three Ice Sect disciples’ defensive artifacts all began to flicker rapidly under the intense bombardment, dimming quickly and soon losing their effect all together.
After that, the Ice Attribute True Qi the three Ice Sect disciples used to guard their bodies was swiftly eroded by the wind and thunder field, their clothes shredding, and dense wounds soon appearing on their bodies.
The aura of death breathed down their necks, causing Ni Ren and the others to pale with fright.
Trapped inside this strange killing field, they were unable to escape no matter what they tried.
Yang Kai slowly lifted his hand and patted towards their direction. A giant palm print appeared in the sky as he did so, shining a blinding golden light like the midday sun, falling towards the three Ice Sect disciples in the next instant, bringing with it a terrifying heat and destructive force, as if a volcano was pressing down on them.
Containing a fierce momentum, before the palm print had even hit its target, the surrounding glacier began to melt, sending a thick cloud of steam soaring up into the sky.
Ni Ren and his fellow brothers’ knees all went soft and each of them nearly collapsed to the ground, their bodies trembling violently as they stared at the huge palm print descending upon them.
“Stop!” A loud voice resounded in all of their ears as a white figure shot out from one of the ice mountains. In the blink of an eye, this figure arrived in the sky above Ni Ren and raised a jade-like palm towards Yang Kai’s attack.
*Pa…*
The golden palm print directly collapsed and Yang Kai was forced back several steps, his face paling and a trickle of blood leaking from the corner of his lips.
However, no signs of surprise appeared on his face; instead, he cracked a light smile as he stared towards the woman who had suddenly appeared.
This woman was a mature beauty clothed in a pure white dress with an enchanting figure and a cold expression. At this moment, she too was staring towards Yang Kai, an incredulous look upon her face, seemingly unable to believe that this young man could easily defeat Ni Ren’s team.
Ni Ren and his fellow brothers were all First Order Transcendent masters and their strength within Ice Sect was not low. They should have been more than enough to take care of this minor incident but had actually almost died just now, this result was something she found difficult to accept.
Since when did such an astonishing young talent appear in Tong Xuan Realm?
“You finally decided to show yourself,” Yang Kai snorted.
“Elder Qian Yue!” Ni Ren and others shouted happily, as if they had just seen their saviour, their eyes filled with pleasant surprise.
“Draw back,” Qian Yue waved her hand and easily dispersed the field of wind and thunder around Ni Ren and the other.
Yang Kai’s expression was dignified. This woman was a Saint Realm master, so her having such ability was no surprise to him. The whole reason he had made a show of killing Ni Ren was to lead this woman out.
This woman was the one who had been spying on this place from the nearby ice mountain.
Ni Ren and the others didn’t have any real authority in Ice Sect, but this person probably did.
“What force are you from? Why are you proficient in three different attributes?” Qian Yue frowned as she stared at Yang Kai solemnly, wanting to find some kind of clue from his clothes or manner, but eventually coming up empty.
“Where I’m from isn’t important, I’m only here to see someone!” Yang Kai took a deep breath, “I hope you can open your Ice Sect’s doors and allow me to see her. If she is well, I’ll lead her away from here and consider this time’s matters settled. If she is not, I’ll make your Ice Sect pay an appropriate price.”
“Foolishness,” Qian Yue slowly shook her head, a look of ridicule flashing across her beautiful face, “My Ice Sect has been in seclusion for many years and its reputation no longer resounds throughout the world, but it still not so easily bullied. The person you are looking for is not here, go back to wherever you came from, other don’t blame me for taking action against a Junior.”
“You don’t need to feign ignorance with me, you and I are both well aware that Su Yan is in your Ice Sect,” Yang Kai replied indifferently, completely undeterred by Qian Yue’s words.
“I said the person you’re looking for is not in my Ice Sect,” Qian Yue repeated, a tinge of anger welling up in her heart.
“Oh really?” Yang Kai smiled mockingly, “Would you like me to point out exactly where she is right now?”
Saying so, Yang Kai pointed his finger in a particular direction and confidently stated, “The person I’m looking for is inside a tall ice mountain fifteen kilometers in that direction and is currently in some kind of deep sleep state.”
Qian Yue beautiful face twitched as she stared at Yang Kai in amazement.
This boy was correct, and the precision with which he described Su Yan’s current state and location were extremely high. Qian Yue couldn’t figure out how he could possible know all of this.
“Anything you’d like to say?” Yang Kai glared back at the mature beauty silently for a moment before firmly declaring, “All I want is to see her and determine whether she is alright.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Qian Yue quickly adjusted her expression and doubled down on her previous statement.
“If you insist on not letting me see her, then I can only force my way in,” Yang Kai’s aura suddenly became callus as he exclaimed, “I hope your Ice Sect can afford the price.”
“If you dare act unruly here, I cannot guarantee your life!” Qian Yue grit her teeth and issued an ultimatum.
Yang Kai nodded gently and no longer spoke, immediately pushing his True Qi to its limits.
*Hua…*
Yang Kai opened his Wind and Thunder Wings directly and immediately grabbed everyone’s attention, all of them wondering what kind of profound Martial Skill or artifact composed these beautiful wings.
In that brief moment of absent-mindedness, Yang Kai disappeared from all of their sights.
Qian Yu’s face changed dramatically, her tender body flickering in the next instant as she hurriedly pursued him.
*Hong…*
A loud bang erupted from a nearby thousand meter tall ice mountain, and under a terrifying force, its upper half exploded, sending chunks of ice and snow scattering in all directions.
*Hong Hong Hong…*
A series of loud explosions continued to spread across the ice mountain range as Ni Ren and his fellow disciples looked on in a daze. None of them could grasp Yang Kai’s movements, after opening that strange pair wings, the latter’s speed had increased to an incredible degree.
They couldn’t even lock onto Yang Kai’s position after fully releasing their Divine Senses.
As a blurry figure flickered about, one ice mountain after another was struck. This intruder was like a raging fireball, smashing directly into the ice mountains, using his own body and True Qi to destroy everything in his path.
Within a few breaths of time, six thousand-meter ice mountains had been obliterated, the Ice Sect disciples who were cultivate inside them scrambling out of the debris, many of them either confused or cursing but without exception, falling unconscious moments later.
The same happened to Ni Ren and his two fellow disciples. After watching Yang Kai’s performance for a brief moment, they had all suddenly fallen to the ground unconscious.
Qian Yue didn’t notice this strange anomaly because at the moment all her attention was focused on Yang Kai, a thick look of shock plastered all over her face. Even though she was a First Order Saint and wasn’t holding back, her wanting to catch up to Yang Kai who had opened his Wind and Thunder Wings was somewhat unrealistic.
The wind was swift and the thunder was agile; the enhancement the Wind and Thunder Wings provided to Yang Kai’s speed could no longer be described in words.
Amidst the ice mountains, two figures flashed rapidly, one fleeing, the other chasing, running around and around in circles, the surrounding ice mountains breaking open and crumbling one after another.
From the very beginning, Yang Kai never intended to confront this Saint Realm master head on.
His current strength was indeed quite astonishing, allowing him to fight and defeat enemies above his own realm with ease, so dealing with Ni Ren and the other two Ice Sect Transcendents wasn’t difficult, but Yang Kai still had some self-knowledge, a Saint Realm master was not an opponent he could fight right now.
The energy flowing through Saint Realm masters was very different from that of Transcendents, so every Martial Skill and move a Saint made was incomparably stronger that one’s displayed by Transcendents.
The Saint Realm dominated above the Transcendent Realm!
If he wanted to fight against a Saint Realm master and not immediately be defeated, Yang Kai figured he had to at least become a Third Order Transcendent.
If he tried to stand and fight this beautiful woman, Yang Kai had no chance of winning, so he could only try another method to get the other party to give way.
He had to make the biggest ruckus he could!
“Little brat, stop!” Qian Yue was infuriated, she couldn’t catch up to Yang Kai so she could only shout angrily at him from behind.
“I already said, if I can’t see Su Yan, I’ll flatten all of your Ice Sect’s mountains!” Yang Kai coldly snorted, not slowing down but instead increasing his speed even further.
Wrapping his intrepid physique in blazing hot True Qi, Yang Kai hit straight towards the ice mountains in front of him. None of these mountains could withstand the force of his collision. Everywhere he went, he smashed open the landscape as easily as one would smash a plank of rotten wood.
Qian Yue’s eyes went red as she saw her beloved Ice Sect’s thousand-year-old foundation crumbling around her, a deep sense of distress and anger filling her heart.
Bumping into such a reckless and unreasonable young man really made her feel like her luck was too bad.
In the middle of their chase, Qian Yue stopped suddenly, her beautiful eyes flashing an icy cold light as she glared towards Yang Kai’s figure, shouting loudly, “Suppress!”
The surrounding World Energy suddenly twisted unnaturally, causing Yang Kai’s expression to change dramatically, hurriedly coming to a halt and turning in a different direction, but no matter what way he faced, a wall of icy energy was closing in on him, leaving him no way out.
The astonishing methods of a Saint Realm master were beyond his ability to comprehend or resist.
*Hong Hong Hong…*
The wall of frigid energy smashed into Yang Kai and sent him tumbling through the air. Fresh blood spurt from his mouth and the golden light which had been surrounding his body vanished as he fell uncontrollably towards the ground below.
Seeing that Yang Kai hit the ground, Qian Yue’s face could help relaxing somewhat.
This time she knew she was in the wrong. Denying the existence of Su Yan and refusing to let Yang Kai see her all stemmed from her own selfishness, so even if Yang Kai had ruined more than a dozen of Ice Sect’s ice peaks, she had never had any murderous intent towards him.
All she wanted was to cause enough difficulty for Yang Kai so that he would willingly retreat.
She could not hand over Su Yan so easily; after all, it was too rare to meet such an outstanding seedling. Qian Yue still had not given up on recruiting Su Yan as her disciple.
Moreover, Su Yan’s state at the moment was not good and she truly could not meet with anyone.
After injuring Yang Kai just enough, she could easily drive him away, or so Qian Yue thought, but before she could even fly over to investigate his situation, her expression changed dramatically.
Down below, Yang Kai, who should have hit the ground and been knocked unconscious, once again rushed out, his golden True Qi aura completely restored.
“Impossible!” Qian Yue’s beautiful eyes quivered fiercely. She was perfectly clear how much strength she had just used; it should have been more than enough to knock out a mere First Order Transcendent.
But at this moment, not only did the other side not seem to have taken any damage, his momentum had instead increased and his demeanor had become more violent, as if silently declaring he would not rest until he had flattened all of Ice Sect.
Just how strong was his body that he could withstand such a blow without falling unconscious?
*Hong Hong Hong…*
One ice mountain after another collapsed, causing Qian Yue to become somewhat hysterical as she cried out, “Boy, you’re seek death! If you don’t stop this instant don’t blame me for not showing any mercy!”
Yang Kai just laughed wildly in response, “If you want to kill me, you’re free to try! Let’s see what comes first, my death or your Ice Sect’s destruction! Since you refuse to let me see Su Yan, I will let all of us be buried alive here!”
“Impudence!” Qian Yue shouted, watching almost one tenth of Ice Sect’s foundation be destroyed, a sliver of killing intent finally crept into her aura.
If she couldn’t subdue this little brat, within less than an hour, Ice Sect really would have to find a place to relocate to.
Such wanton destruction had naturally alerted everyone else in Ice Sect.
One by one, masters emerged from different ice mountains and gathered together.
“Qian Yue, what happened? Where did this barbaric boy come from?” A middle-aged with a dim expression coldly shouted out.
“Big Brother, capture this little brat for me first. I’ll explain what happened later!” Qian Yue who was still pursing Yang Kai hurriedly called out.
Hearing this, the middle-aged man wrinkled his brow; although he was somewhat unwilling to personally deal with a Junior, seeing the violent destruction of Ice Sect, he also felt a deep sense of indignation and immediately complied, “Good!”
As he spoke, his figure flickered and appeared in front of Yang Kai, snorting loudly, “Boy, stop this instant or…”
Before he could finish what he was going to say though, Yang Kai shot past him wrapped in a great gust of wind.
A loud rumbling noise rang out and the ice mountain behind the middle-aged man shattered.
“Such insolence!” The middle-aged man coldly snorted, and in the blink of an eye, somehow appeared right beside Yang Kai, his palm pushing forward and landing on the opposite party’s chest.
Yang Kai’s face went white and his speed his speed and momentum noticeably dropped. At the same time, a frigid energy spread from the place he had been struck, impeding the flow of his True Qi. From an outsider’s perspective, it was like he had been caught in a mire and was having difficulty moving.
At a speed visible to the naked eye, a thin layer of frost spread across the surface of Yang Kai’s body and threatened to completely freeze him in the next instant.
A Second Order Saint!
Yang Kai’s heart clenched up as he desperately twisted his body and quickly withdrew from the middle-aged man’s reach.
At the same time, Yang Kai pushed his burning hot True Qi as hard as he could and with some effort managed to dispel the chill in his body, restoring his freedom after a brief moment.
Seeing this, a look of surprise filled the middle-aged man’s face as he couldn’t help muttering, “Such a fierce brat!”
With his Second Order Saint cultivation, even after directly injecting his own freezing energy into this boy, not only had he failed to incapacitate the latter, he had barely even slowed him down.
Given his strength and status, taking action against Yang Kai was already a great stain upon the middle-aged man’s honour, if he were to act again, he really wouldn’t have any face left.
A master like him had his own pride, and generally disdained to perform actions that could be interpreted as bullying the weak.
“Big brother, why did you stop?” Seeing the middle-aged man standing mid-air, his arms crossed behind his back, exhibiting the style of a powerful aloof master, Qian Yue couldn’t help complaining.
The middle-aged man frowned and said solemnly, “Things have already become like this. Boy, enough, as long as you stop I will not act against you again, but don’t push your luck. If you have something to discuss we can all sit down and talk about it.”
As the middle-aged man spoke, two more Saint Realm masters from Ice Sect appeared and blocked Yang Kai’s retreat. The two did not move against Yang Kai immediately but instead just stared towards him with great interest, their eyes filled with curiosity.
Four Saints!
The immensity of Ice Sect’s heritage was obvious at a glance.
Yang Kai was caught in the middle of this encirclement and he knew that against such a lineup, he could no longer act recklessly, and since he perceived that the middle-aged man was being sincere, he also came to a halt and stood calmly mid-air.
“Why should I listen to anything you have to say?” Yang Kai stared back at the middle-aged man and asked indifferently.
The middle-aged man showed a faint smile and nodded, “I am Ice Sect’s Elder, Qian Hao!”
Yang Kai turned his eyes to the middle-aged beauty and sneered, “She is also an Ice Sect Elder, how do I know you two aren’t wearing the same pair of pants?”
Qian Yue pretty face became cold and she wanted to retort, but Qian Hao cut her off and said, “The two of us are real blood brother and sister, how can we not be on the same side?”
“Big Brother!” Qian Yue glared at him bitterly.
“However, you have no choice,” Qian Hao’s expression became cold, “You’ve ruined so much of my Ice Sect’s foundation, if you don’t give me a proper explanation, do you think I will just let you go? You best have a reason I can accept for your reckless behaviour otherwise I will let you taste the world’s most painful torture from now until the day you die.”
Yang Kai sneered and took back his Wind and Thunder Wings before glancing over at Qian Yue, “I came here to find someone, but she insisted on stopping me from seeing her.”
“Find someone? Who are you looking for?” Qian Hao frowned.
“Su Yan.”
Hearing this, Qian Hao and the other two Saint Realm masters brows furrowed.
“Big Brother, this person should be the one that the old fogy mentioned before he left,” Qian Yue whispered into Qian Hao’s ear, the latter nodding slightly before wearing a disgruntled look, “Since that’s the case, why didn’t you just let him see her? Was it necessary to make such a big fuss over something so small?”
“Su Yan… had an accident,” Qian Yue replied somewhat awkwardly.
“An accident?” Qian Hao was genuinely surprised, “What happened?”
Although Qian Hao was also an Elder of Ice Sect, he had been in secluded retreat for the past few years and was thus not too familiar with the everyday occurrences in the Sect. If it weren’t for the ruckus Yang Kai had stirred up today being so earth-shaking, he wouldn’t have even appeared here.
“Haa… let’s not talk about this now, I’ll explain everything to you later. Right now, Su Yan really can’t see anyone; moreover, just look at this little brat, at first glance it’s obvious he’s cruel and vicious. How could I allow such a bad influence to get close to Su Yan?”
“The two of them already know each other,” Qian Hao sighed heavily.
“All I see is a toad lusting after swan meat,” Qian Yue coldly snorted, glaring hatefully at Yang Kai, the latter appearing more and more unpleasant with each passing moment.
Seeing his little sister’s bad impression of this kid being so entrenched, Qian Hao knew well enough not to say any more, no matter what, this time, although it was his originally his sister who was in the wrong, it was true that this little brat didn’t put Ice Sect in his eyes. Having destroyed so many ice mountains, if Qian Hao really tried to make big things small, and small things nothing, it would be difficult for him to explain to the Sect’s disciples.
Considering all this, Qian Hao coldly said, “Just because of that, you dared act so aggressively and wantonly destroyed my Ice Sect’s foundations?”
“Since I’m not happy, no one else will be either!”
“Boy, you’re certainly crazy enough, I just don’t know if you can afford the consequences! I won’t kill you, but you only have two choices, either enter my Ice Sect as a slave and work until you repay the damage you have caused this time, or cut off both of your hands, choose yourself.”
Finished speaking, he stared at Yang Kai coldly, wondering what choice this kid would make.
“I choose neither.”
Qian Hao smiled and shook his head, “That’s not something you can control. Good, since your aptitude is good, we’ll just go with the first option. Although your Secret Art is at odds with my Ice Sect, you are still a rare talent, it would be a pity to destroy you just like that.”
Saying so, an invisible energy suddenly burst forth and directly imprisoned Yang Kai.
Yang Kai didn’t make any attempt to dodge and simply allowed himself to be bound; however, he didn’t show any signs of panic either, instead a look of victory appeared on his face accompanied by a dismissive sneer.
“What are you laughing at?” Qian Hao frowned, “From now on, you will follow beside me and serve me. Don’t worry, I won’t treat you badly. Since you’ll be entering Ice Sect as a slave, there will always be an opportunity for you to see the one you want to see, of course, that is so long as you behave honestly, if not, you’ll have to suffer some pain.”
“You want me to serve you?” Yang Kai laughed loudly, “I’m afraid you won’t have the opportunity to receive such a blessing!”
Qian Hao coldly snorted, “Allowing you to serve me is because I favour your talent, but you best not test my patience.”
Another of the Saint Realm masters also shouted, “En, little brat, Qian Hao accepting you is already showing you great honour, don’t fail to appreciate his kindness.”
The last person Saint followed up, “Kid, angering Qian Hao now won’t do you any good.”
A slightly smug look crept onto Qian Hao’s face as he looked at Yang Kai with great interest, “No matter what reason you had for coming to Ice Sect, no matter what kind of grievances you have suffered, it is still a fact that you cannot act unruly here. Me not killing you immediately is already a great benevolence, as for the nonsense you spouted a moment ago, what capital do you believe you have to bargain with? Do you think that with your paltry strength, you can escape from me?”
“Take a look around you!” Yang Kai snickered as he gestured towards the ground below, a mocking smile appearing on his face.
Hearing this, the four Saint Realm masters all wore confused expression before quickly examining the situation around them.
The next moment, the calm expressions on all four of the Saints changed drastically.
From a while ago, all of them had felt that something about this situation was off, but with all of their attention focused on Yang Kai, they had failed to carefully monitor their surroundings.
But after Yang Kai’s reminder, the four of them noticed that it was far too quiet. Almost all of Ice Sect’s disciples had been forced out of the ice mountains by Yang Kai’s rampage yet none of them were making the slightest sound.
Moreover, when the four Saints looked around, they discovered that their disciples were all passed out on the ground with looks of pain and anguish upon their faces.
With just a quick glance, the four Saints discovered that more than two hundred Ice Sect disciples were in this comatose state. Regardless of their cultivation or age, each of these unconscious individuals auras was slightly unstable, even the Transcendents among them were no different.
It was impossible for so many Ice Sect disciples to be incapacitated for no apparent reason, the only explanation was that this little brat had done something to them.
However, just what kind of method did he possess that allowed him to pull this off under the noses of four Saint Realm masters? Qian Hao and the others were deeply puzzled.
“What did you do?” Qian Hao glanced over at two of the other Saint Realm masters before focusing his attention back onto Yang Kai.
“Take a guess!”
“What did you do to them? Why do they all seem to be in great pain?” Qian Hao asked again, this time with much more force.
However, in response, Yang Kai simply grinned back at him mockingly.
Simultaneously, the two masters who had received the silent instructions of Qian Hao inspected the unconscious disciples, but no matter how they examined them, they couldn’t find any external wounds or signs of poisoning.
Exchanging dismayed glances, the two Saints were completely lost.
How did all of these disciples become like this without being poisoned or injured?
Not giving up, the two Saints quickly released their Divine Senses to more closely inspect their unconscious disciples but not long after they had done so, both of their expressions paled and they cried out in shock, “What are these?”
As they shouted, the hurriedly retreated, as if something terrifying was chasing after them.
Looking at this scene, whether it was Qian Yue or Qian Hao, they felt a chill shoot up their back, causing them to shiver unconsciously.
“What happened?” Qian Yue called out worriedly.
“Stay back, whatever you do, don’t release your Divine Senses!” One of the two Saints paled and shouted as he fled, “There’s something targeting our Divine Senses, if you release your Divine Sense you’ll be targeted as well!”
At the same time, the other Saint Realm master cried out in pain, his expression twisting in agony.
Two First Order Saints had suddenly fallen into a difficult situation and even looked somewhat fearful. Qian Yue wanted to help, but had no idea where to even start.
Qian Hao stared at Yang Kai coldly as he sunk deep into through, his eyes containing a trace of unease as he quietly condensed his True Qi to defend himself.
This kid’s methods were too strange, even able to damage two First Order Saints, naturally, Qian Hao didn’t dare lower his guard.
After a brief struggle, the two Saint Realm masters gradually stabilized themselves, but the pained look upon their faces did not completely disappear and their brows remained deeply furrowed, a tinge of fear apparent in their eyes.
“Boy, what did you infect them with?” One of them turned his gaze towards Yang Kai and solemnly asked, his eyes containing none of their previous contempt as he desperately endured the pain in his Soul.
“Worthy of a Saint Realm master, you’re still able to maintain your consciousness,” Yang Kai said lightly, offering some genuine praise.
Not only could these two Saints remain awake, their combat effectiveness had essentially not decreased. In other words, the present them weren’t much different how they were a few moments ago, they simply had some additional minor concerns.
“What exactly happened?” Qian Yue asked slightly worriedly. She was naturally aware of just how strong these two Elders were, if it had been her in their place, she likely wouldn’t have been able to escape either.
“Some kind of imperceptible insects have infected the Knowledge Seas of the disciples, when we tried to inspect them with our Divine Senses we were also attacked,” One of them said, directly a hate filled glare towards Yang Kai as he explained, “Although we can temporarily suppress these strange insects, it will take us some time to completely get rid of them, but I’m afraid that none of the disciples have enough strength to do the same.”
“Strange insects?” Qian Yue beautiful face paled, “What kind of insects?”
“I don’t know, you’ll have to ask him!”
Qian Hao sighed, a look of hesitation appearing on his face for a moment before he released Yang Kai’s shackles and said, “Boy, you win, releasing you first is a show of my Ice Sect’s sincerity, now answer our questions!”
“A wise man knows when to submit to the circumstance!” Yang Kai sneered.
The faces of the four Saints all became ugly.
Four Saint Realm masters had come out to deal with a single First Order Transcendent Junior but not only did they fail to thoroughly subdue him, two of them had actually fallen into the latter’s trap and been injured, a large part of Ice Sect’s foundation had been destroyed, and several hundred of their disciples had been put into a life-threatening situation.
Although Yang Kai’s taunting angered them greatly, none of them dared show any aggression.
“What kind of insects are these?” Qian Hao asked, “As the one who released them, you should know that at least, right?”
Yang Kai gently nodded, responding in a neither rude nor polite tone, “Soul Devouring Insects, surely you’ve all heard of them, right?”
Hearing this, all four of the Saints expressions became grim.
Naturally they had heard of Soul Devouring Insects before, these Exotic Ancient Insects were so small they were practically invisible and they exclusively fed on Spiritual Energy. Once they infected a victim’s Knowledge Sea, they would multiply rapidly and were incredibly difficult to get rid of.
However, these Ancient Insects were something the four Saints had only heard of in legend, who among them could have thought they still existed?
“Boy,” One of the masters who had been infected by the Soul Devouring Insects coldly snorted, “My Ice Sect may be isolated, but we are not ignorant. Soul Devouring Insects are indeed formidable, but wanting to infect a Saint Realm cultivator’s Knowledge Sea with them is nothing but a fantasy, it’s impossible that these things are Soul Devouring Insects!”
According to what they knew, Saints should easily be able to deal with Soul Devouring Insects, not only should it be impossible for them to become infected, even if they were, with their powerful Spiritual Energy they should have easily been able to kill these Exotic Ancient Insects.
So when Yang Kai reported the name of these insects, this master’s first reaction was that the former was lying.
Yang Kai simply grinned mockingly, “I apologize, my Soul Devouring Insects are probably not the same as the ones in the legends, at the very least, they’re a bit more powerful.”
Since the time Yang Kai had explored the ancient cave mansion with Cang Yan and Fei Yu and obtained these Exotic Ancient Insects, almost two years had passed. Over the past two years, the Soul Devouring Insects had remained inside Yang Kai’s Knowledge Sea atop the five coloured island where they had received many benefits. Yang Kai could clearly feel that these Soul Devouring Insects had become much stronger than they originally were as a result.
When Yang Kai was playing cat and mouse with Qian Yue, every time he destroyed one of the ice mountains, he had release numerous Soul Devouring Insects, so when the Ice Sect disciples had emerged from the ruins, all of them, without exception, had been infected.
“You’re saying that these things are Soul Devouring Insects? Why are you safe and sound then? How did you release them?” The man asked coldly.
“You ask too many questions and I have no obligation to answer them,” Yang Kai glanced at him contemptuously, “I’ll only tell you that within the next half an hour your Ice Sect disciples won’t be in any life threatening danger, but after that, I can’t make any guarantees, these little guys aren’t all that obedient!”
“You… you court death! If my Ice Sect disciples encounter any accident, you’ll die a miserable death!”
Yang Kai laughed riotously at this threat and sneered, “Having several hundred people buried along with me doesn’t sound bad! As long as you are willing, I can make them die right now!”
The four saints suddenly became silent, each of them feeling a great headache.
There weren’t many Ice Sect disciples to begin with, about five hundred in total, if two or three hundred of them were to suddenly die, the loss would be too great. This little brat was simply a demon who would use whatever means at his disposal no matter how underhanded and dastardly to achieve his goals.
The four Saints all felt a deep hatred towards Yang Kai, but they didn’t dare act rashly here even though they had absolute confidence they could instantly kill him.
After all, once they killed him, what would they do about the Soul Devouring Insects he had released?
However, admitting defeat here was so humiliating that none of them could bring themselves to utter the words. As they all grit their teeth and dark and gloomy thoughts swirled about their heads thought, a woman’s voice suddenly lightly called out, “Little boy, is your surname Yang?”
Yang Kai’s face changed dramatically upon hearing this voice because he had failed to notice anyone approaching him, yet when he turned around and saw the source of this voice, he discovered an incredibly beautiful figure only a few steps away from him.
This woman looked quite young, at most that same age as him Yang Kai and Su Yan, but her body radiated an unfathomable aura that greatly pressured Yang Kai even though she was not actively trying to suppress him.
This kind of pressure was not something he felt from any of the other four Elders of Ice Sect.
As she stood there, this woman seemed to be integrated into this frozen world, as if within this domain she was omnipotent and omnipresent.
Third Order Saint!
Yang Kai took a deep breath, and immediately became vigilant.
Although he knew he was facing a terrifying enemy, Yang Kai couldn’t help feeling slightly strange; after listening to this woman’s words, the raging anger he felt in his heart actually weakened a lot.
Besides being incredibly pleasant to the ear, there also seemed to be some kind of magical power in this woman’s voice that gently soothed the grievances and injustices Yang Kai felt.
“Greetings, Sect Master!” Qian Hao and the other Saints also quickly adjusted their expression and respectfully bowed.
The woman smiled faintly and waved her hand, “There’s no need to be so polite. Aren’t things here a little bit too noisy?”
Although there was no meaning of blame in her tone, Qian Hao and the others couldn’t help blushing with embarrassment, all of them wishing they could find a hole to crawl into and hide.
Yang Kai’s eyes flashed and hesitantly asked, “Are you the Sect Master of Ice Sect?”
“En, I am Ice Sect’s Sect Master, Qing Ya,” The woman nodded lightly and smiled, the aura she radiated as pure as the surrounding glaciers, without the slightest impurities, giving anyone who saw her and heard her gentle voice a refreshed feeling, “Are you surnamed Yang?”
The hostility on Yang Kai’s face decreased significantly and his expression became relaxed as he nodded slightly.
“Are you the one Meng Wu Ya spoke of?”
“Yes.”
“You’re even more impressive than he described, I didn’t expect you would be able to find this place so quickly,” Qing Ya curled her lips slightly.
“I also did not expect that Ice Sect’s Sect Master would be so young and beautiful, I thought that Treasurer Meng’s friend would be a white-haired old woman, today has been an eye opening experience,” Yang Kai looked Qing Ya up and down, a look of amazement on his face, his vision limpid, only offering sincere praise without the slightest obscene or offensive light.
“Do you think so?” Qing Ya seemed to be very happy, the smile on her face showing some faint traces of enjoyment.
“Glib tongued brat!” Qian Yue pursed her lips and muttered to herself, “Really isn’t a good thing!”
“Treasurer Meng actually knows someone like you, it seems I’ve greatly underestimated him,” Yang Kai nodded seriously.
Qing Ya giggled lightly, even if it was obvious Yang Kai’s praise had traces of intentional flattery, she was still delighted to receive it.
Qian Hao and the other Ice Sect Elders couldn’t help feeling awkward in their hearts as they watched this exchange. They hadn’t seen their Sect Master laugh so care freely in a long time. None of them had expected this little brat from who knows where would actually be able to elicit such a response from their Sect Master.
[This little bastard must be an incorrigible womanizer, otherwise how could he have such a clear understanding of a woman’s heart?] The male Saints all cursed in their hearts as they wore contemptuous expression upon their faces.
Outside the ice mountains, Qing Ya, Ice Sect’s Sect Master had silently appeared but not only did she not show any dissatisfaction or hostility towards Yang Kai, she behaved in an amicable manner which made it difficult for Yang Kai to continue to make trouble.
He had originally decided to thoroughly cut off relations with Ice Sect, run amok to vent his dissatisfaction, and then take Su Yan away.
However, the attitude of the Sect Master Qing Ya made him feel somewhat incapable of following through with his plans. If he were to continue to act standoffishly when the other side had greeted him with a warm smile, it really would be a bit unreasonable.
“You came looking for Su Yan? Meng Wu Ya mentioned you would,” Qing Ya continued in the same gentle tone.
Yang Kai nodded lightly.
“I’ll be honest with you, Su Yan has had an accident.”
Yang Kai’s expression immediately became cold upon hearing this, prompting Qing Ya to hurriedly say, “But you can rest assured that her life is not in any danger, she has just entered a frozen state.”
“A frozen state?” Yang Kai’s brow wrinkled.
“Her present condition is the result of her own decisions; of course, my Ice Sect also bears some responsibility. In any case, you will understand when you see her, it’s not something a few words can explain clearly,” Qing Ya beckoned to Yang Kai.
“Sect Master…” Qian Yue shouted hastily, obviously still wanting to prevent Yang Kai from meeting Su Yan, but she immediately shut her mouth after Qing Ya shot her a single glance.
“Right, before that, can you take back the little insects from my Ice Sect disciples’ Knowledge Seas? Since they were released by you, you should have a way to remove them, yes?” Qing Ya looked at Yang Kai with a smile.
“Please excuse me, before confirming my Senior Sister’s condition, I am not prepared to take back those insects,” Yang Kai slowly shook his head. Right now, the Soul Devouring Insects which allowed him to control the fate of more than two hundred Ice Sect disciples was the only bargaining chip he had. Although he felt Qing Ya was a trustworthy person, one could never truly know what was in the heart of another person. If he were to take back his Soul Devouring Insects and the other party suddenly attacked him, facing a Third Order Saint, Yang Kai would have no ability to resist.
“You’re certainly cautious enough,” Qing Ya shook her head, “In that case, are you certain my Ice Sect’s disciples won’t have any issue?”
“I already said that within half an hour, they won’t be in any danger,” Yang Kai replied flatly.
“Very well, you come with me first. Qian Yue, you come too. Qian Hao, you look after these disciples.”
“Yes,” The elders all respectfully replied, Qian Hao then turning to Yang Kai and coldly threatening, “Little brat, don’t play any tricks, or else I’ll tidy you up.”
Yang Kai was too lazy to pay attention to him.
Qing Ya flew forward and eventually brought Yang Kai in front of the ice mountain he felt Su Yan’s aura coming from. With a wave of her jade-like hand, Qing Ya revealed a hidden door in the side of the mountain.
This door was carved from fine ice crystals and a mysterious energy flowed through it. If one looked closely, they could see faint traces of Spirit Array lines running across its surface which obviously isolated whatever was inside any Divine Sense trying to probe it.
Once inside the ice mountain, a profound chill flooded towards Yang Kai from all directions, causing him to shiver slightly before he quickly circulated his True Qi, expelling the Cold Qi from his body.
Feeling the heat radiating from Yang Kai’s body, Qian Yue showed an unhappy expression, her pretty face filling with a look of disgust.
Everyone in Ice Sect cultivated Ice Attribute Secret Arts and Martial Skill, so they were greatly averse to the type of energy Yang Kai possessed.
The interior of the ice mountain was crystal-clear and the path the trio walked along was lined with softly glowing crystals, creating an astonishingly beautiful sight and ambience.
As they proceeded deeper into the mountain, Yang Kai’s breathing gradually became heavy as he felt Su Yan’s presence getting closer and closer.
After walking for about half the time it would take to boil a cup of tea, the trio arrived at in front of a large ice door and Qing Ya looked back at Yang Kai and said, “Su Yan is here, but you must promise me, after seeing her don’t get agitated.”
“I know,” Yang Kai nodded faintly.
Qing Ya nodded in return and gently pushed open the door, revealing a large ice room, allowing Yang Kai to enter first before she followed behind with Qian Yue.
There was nothing in this ice room besides a large crystal bed carved of profound ice. Atop this ice bed lay Su Yan, her eyes closed and her body wrapped in a layer of ice, seemingly in a very deep sleep.
Yang Kai’s eyes narrowed and flames of anger erupted in his heart but he quickly suppressed these negative feelings and slowly walked toward the ice bed.
Qing Ya and Qian Yue were both staring at him, the two of them quite surprised to find that this young man who only moments ago was acting so violently and treacherously, upon seeing Su Yan’s face, actually wore such a gentle expression, the look in his eyes showing a deep care and affection.
The expression on Yang Kai’s face fluctuated rapidly between excitement, anxiety, anticipation, and concern as he slowly stepped forward.
As he approached Su Yan’s side, his expression gradually became calm.
Arriving before the ice bed, staring down at the sleeping beauty in front of him, Yang Kai’s mouth curled into a light smile.
Lying atop the ice bed, Su Yan’s vitality was strong and there was no sign her life was in any danger, it was just that her whole body was wrapped in a strange layer of ice, seemingly frozen in place and unable to respond to the arrival of Yang Kai.
Yang Kai extended his hand but was unable to touch her.
Staring at her for a moment, Yang Kai noticed that Su Yan’s look was calm, her hands resting lightly atop her flat belly; obviously she had been fully aware of what she was doing before she had been frozen in this ice and had not experienced any pain in the process.
What was odd though was at the moment, Su Yan’s True Qi was still circulating, obviously her Secret Art was still operating, and at a significantly faster rate than normal.
Knowing that Yang Kai’s mental and emotional state were currently fluctuating, Qing Ya and Qian Yue both remained silent and did not bother him.
Time passed by quickly and while Qing Ya’s expression did not change, Qian Yue’s was beginning to show some signs of impatience.
More than two hundred Ice Sect disciples were still in a precarious state outside. If Yang Kai didn’t take back his Soul Devouring Insects after the stated half an hour, these disciples would die, so Qian Yue couldn’t help urging him, “Boy, haven’t you stared at her long enough? No matter how long you stand there you can’t wake her up, not only is her body frozen, her consciousness is as well.”
Yang Kai simply glanced back at her coldly in response.
Qian Yue unconsciously shifted her eyes, seemingly feeling somewhat guilty.
“Is this some kind of Martial Skill?” Yang Kai shifted his attention to Qing Ya and asked.
Qing Ya nodded lightly, “En, it is my Ice Sect’s core inheritance Martial Skill, Frozen Body Sealed Heart! After displaying it, the body’s True Qi is condensed into a layer of ice that freezes the body and mind, causing all sensation of the outside world to be lost.”
“If that’s so, why is my Senior Sister’s Secret Art still circulating?” Yang Kai frowned.
Qing Ya smiled, “Frozen Body Sealed Heart is an auxiliary cultivation technique. When one of my Ice Sect disciples uses this Martial Skill, they can force themselves into a deep meditative state which allows them to cultivate faster. Many disciples will use the Frozen Body Sealed Heart when they enter secluded retreat. Depending on how much True Qi one uses when activating this Martial Skill, the longer they will remain in a frozen state of enlightenment.”
“How long will my Senior Sister remain in this state?” Yang Kai asked dimly.
Qing Ya complexion became somewhat gloomy as she shook her head, “I don’t know, possibly several years, possible dozens of years, possibly forever… Su Yan’s True Qi has formed a kind of cycle that is constantly maintaining the technique.”
Yang Kai’s eyes narrowed as he inquired, “Why did she freeze herself? What grievance or maltreatment did she receive in Ice Sect that forced her into this state?”
Saying so, he glared angrily towards Qian Yue.
“Brat, what are you staring at me for, I want nothing but the best for her, how could I possibly mistreat her?” Qian Yue was a little annoyed.
“You shouldn’t be too anxious little boy, Elder Qian Yue never mistreated Su Yan, in fact she wholeheartedly wanted to accept your Senior Sister as her disciple,” Qing Ya quickly consoled.
“I’m afraid she does not have such good fortune!” Yang Kai genuinely loathed Qian Yue.
“This matter truly has something to do with Elder Qian Yue though,” Qing Ya sighed softly, “Su Yan becoming like this is partly her responsibility.”
Qian Yue’s expression became pained as she said in a dispirited tone, “I didn’t anticipate this, I don’t even know when she learned the Frozen Body Sealed Heart. If I had only known earlier… I wouldn’t have been so insistent, haa…”
Saying so, she turned her eyes to Yang Kai and coldly said, “Little brat, I do not deny my role in all of this, but everything I did, I did to benefit her, I never had any intention to harm her!”
“What exactly happened?” Yang Kai’s hostility did not decrease in the slightest. Although Qian Yue had said as much, that was, after all, only her side of the story, ultimately, he had to understand what had transpired before making a judgement.
“Qian Yue, you explain,” Qing Ya rubbed her forehead lightly.
Qian Yue nodded slightly and began narrating the matters that had occurred after Su Yan entered Ice Sect.
Two years ago, Meng Wu Ya had suddenly brought Xia Ning Chang and Su Yan to Ice Sect to see Sect Master Qing Ya and entrusted the latter with Su Yan temporarily.
Ice Sect secluded itself in this glacial world and generally did not allow outsiders into its territory, but Meng Wu Ya had some friendship with Qing Ya, so after shamelessly using some soft and hard forms of persuasion, Qing Ya eventually agreed to his request.
After settling Su Yan here, Meng Wu Ya and Xia Ning Chang left.
“That old fogey said he was going handle some kind of dangerous matter with his apprentice but didn’t want to expose Su Yan to that danger so he decided to secretly leave the latter here. It was only after he left that Su Yan learned the truth, but at that point she had no choice but to stay in Ice Sect,” Qian Yue explained.
Yang Kai nodded lightly, there was truly nothing wrong with Treasurer Meng’s decisions. Him not telling Su Yan in advance he was leaving Ice Sect was because he knew Su Yan’s personality; the latter would definitely try to follow him in order to help rather than stay behind in Ice Sect.
“And then?” Yang Kai pressed.
“Sect Master handed Su Yan over to me to take care of. At first I thought nothing about her. When she first arrived here, her strength was not low but nothing remarkable; however, I soon discovered that she possessed an unparalleled aptitude, her cultivation speed was nothing short of astonishing and most importantly, her cultivation techniques lines up perfectly with my Ice Sect’s Secret Arts and Martial Skills! Thinking back about it, that old fogey probably planned all of this out before bringing Su Yan to Ice Sect.”
Yang Kai’s mouth twitched slightly as he mused that Meng Wu Ya had definitely plotted for things to turn out this way. That old fart knew many powerful masters in Tong Xuan Realm, even Chu Ling Xiao and him were old friends, but despite that, he had specifically brought Su Yan here. Obviously, he did so because he knew that Ice Sect’s heritage was the best for Su Yan.
Meng Wu Ya acting so was his way of getting Ice Sect to cultivate Su Yan for free.
If Yang Kai was in his place, he would have done the same!
After seeing Su Yan’s aptitude, Qian Yue gradually became more concerned about her and began testing her in various aspects of cultivation, but every Martial Skill and Secret Art of Ice Sect she gave her, Su Yan was immediately capable of comprehending.
Qian Yue was greatly surprised and felt like she had picked up a rare treasure. Since then, she had been carefully teaching Su Yan, even opening up Ice Sect’s Restricted Area, the Ice Cave, to allow her to cultivate at will.
After some time, Qian Yue proposed to accept Su Yan as her direct disciple, but what surprised her was that Su Yan refused, disappointing her somewhat.
However, because she so highly cherished Su Yan’s aptitude, Qian Yue did not blame her and instead maintained her attentive attitude. For this, Su Yan was very grateful, so although the two were not officially master and disciple, they were as close as any Junior and Senior pair could be.
“That child’s aptitude is incredible, and her physique is also quite special. I don’t know what kind of opportunity she encountered but her current constitution is very close to the legendary Ice Crystal Jade Body special constitution,” Qian Yue said slowly, a trace of doubt soon appearing on her face, “However, after consulting some ancient books, I found that her physique is not the Ice Crystal Jade Body.”
Yang Kai lightly snorted at this.
He had left Su Yan so much Myriad Drug Liquid and Myriad Drug Milk which the latter had taken religiously for many years; it would odd if her physique wasn’t outstanding by now.
“Moreover, when she was alone, I often noticed she would be lost in thought, a happy smile that was normally difficult to see appearing on her face,” Qian Yue glared at Yang Kai coldly, “It was as if she was reminiscing about someone or something.”
Yang Kai wore a smug grin hearing this.
Qing Ya pursed her lips and smiled as she quietly sized up Yang Kai, a few doubts crossing her mind, wondering just what kind of special place this little boy had that could so captivate Su Yan’s heart.
“My Ice Sect disciples all cultivate Ice Attribute Secret Arts that require one’s heart to be pure and free of desire in order to reach the Grand Accomplishment Stage. This child often revealing a lovesick expression is the nothing less than a scourge you’ve forced upon her!” Qian Yue said angrily, a look of hatred filling her eyes as she glared at Yang Kai, apparently she thought that he was a hindrance to Su Yan’s future achievements.
In response, Yang Kai spat disdainfully and ruthlessly countered, “You old woman, what would you know of the wonders of female love?”
“Why you…” Qian Yue’s tender body trembling fiercely as she grit her teeth and her pretty face paled, her True Qi surging up as if she couldn’t want to slap Yang Kai to death in order to sooth the hatred in her heart.
“Silly child, haven’t you said a bit too much?” Qing Ya gently rebuked Yang Kai.
Yang Kai just impatiently waved, “Fine fine, go on.”
Qian Yue bit her lip hard, her chest heaving up and down, seemingly quite enraged, her beautiful pupils flashing a hostile light that only calmed down after much comforting from Qing Ya, eventually muttering under her breath, “I’m not in the mood to say anything more.”
Yang Kai laughed victoriously before turning his attention to Qing Ya.
Ice Sect’s Sect Master let out a light sigh before slowly continuing, “I’ll explain. Su Yan’s aptitude was excellent, and the progress she showed was outstanding, causing Elder Qian Yue to want to accept her as a disciple. After being rejected though, nothing much changed, Qian Yue thought that over time, if she displayed enough sincerity, one day Su Yan would be willing to officially join my Ice Sect as a disciple.”
“Unfortunately, things did not progress smoothly,” Qing Ya frowned slightly, “A year later, Elder Qian Yue and I both discovered an issue with Su Yan.”
“What issue?” Yang Kai asked urgently.
“She seems to have cultivate more than one Secret Art. In her body, there is another Secret Art that coexists with her original Ice Attribute one,” Qing Ya slowly shook her head, “If there was no such additional Secret Art and Su Yan only cultivated a pure Ice Attribute Secret Art, there would be no hidden danger, but that unknown Secret Art seemed to be hindering the progress of her core Secret Art, impeding her progress.”
“Impeding?”
“En, although there is no problem for the time being, if the situation is allowed to continue without being resolved, Su Yan’s growth will not only stagnate, he strength could actually regress,” Qing Ya looked fixedly at Yang Kai, “You and this child are Senior Sister and Junior Brother and she obviously is quite enamoured with you, do you know what other Secret Art she is cultivating?”
“I know,” Yang Kai nodded.
“What Secret Art is it?” Qing Ya and Qian Yue both asked.
“A Dual Cultivation Secret Art,” Yang Kai said without reservation.
The two women suddenly blushed and Qian Yue loudly cursed, “You bastard, you really are the culprit who harmed Su Yan! If not for you stealing her innocence, destroying her body’s purity, how could she only have such achievements now?”
“What the hell do you know?!” Yang Kai snapped back.
Yang Kai was greatly dissatisfied with the fact that this woman was trying to push all the fault for this situation onto him.
Since he began cultivating the Joyous Unification Art together with Su Yan, not only had she not received any harm, instead she had benefitted greatly. It was not an exaggeration to say that the Joyous Unification Art was an indispensable factor in Yang Kai and Su Yan’s rapid progress.
“A Dual Cultivation Secret Art?” Qing Ya frowned, “How could you cultivate that kind of obscene Secret Art? Although Dual Cultivation Secret Arts can allow one’s strength grow rapidly, in general, their foundations will become unstable as a result and sooner or later the hidden dangers left behind will hinder one’s development.”
“Nonsense, how is the love between a man and a woman something obscene? Isn’t it just that you’re thinking is too conservative?” Yang Kai glanced over at her, “Moreover, whether Su Yan or I have unsteady foundations, you should be perfectly clear about.”
Qing Ya’s expression suddenly became pensive.
Indeed, if they had really been practicing some kind of shoddy Dual Cultivation Secret Art, it would be impossible for Su Yan to have her current foundation and cultivation. With her current strength, the hidden dangers associated with such a technique should have long ago emerged.
However, Su Yan was still near perfection in almost every aspect.
As for the little boy in front of her, him being able to use his First Order Transcendent cultivation to face off against a master like Qian Yue and not instantly lose was not something an ordinary talent could achieve.
The only explanation then was that the Dual Cultivation Technique the two of them had practiced was incredibly profound and not only didn’t cause any harm, but instead brought them mutual benefits.
There were indeed such Secret Arts in this world, but when one heard the words ‘dual cultivation’, their first thought would be of the detriments normally associated with using such a method. This was a preconceived notion, a type of bias that had come about due to the vast majority of such cultivation techniques really having these kinds of drawbacks.
“Let’s set this matter aside for now, we have never studied any Dual Cultivation Techniques after all so we aren’t in a position to debate their merits or detractors,” Qing Ya’s face was still slightly red as she quickly changed the subject, “In any case, when Elder Qian Yue discovered this issue, she hoped that Su Yan could abolish that unknown Secret Art and devote herself fully to her Ice Attribute Secret Arts. If she were to discard that Secret Art and instead cultivated my Ice Sect’s highest grade Secret Art, it would only have benefits to her without any harm.”
“My Senior Sister refused, right?” Yang Kai stared at her coldly.
“En.”
“Qian Yue and I didn’t understand why she refused so stubbornly at the time, but now it seems that this Secret Art should be something that connects the two of you, making her unwilling to discard it,” Qing Ya sighed faintly, “This child’s passion is really unreasonable.”
“It’s a pity the object of her affection is so unworthy of her!” Qian Yue took the chance to interject, her face filled with disdain.
“If you dare spout any more crap I’ll immediately kill all of your Ice Sect’s two hundred disciples!” Yang Kai coldly glared at Qian Yue, the latter gnashing her teeth as she glared back, obviously unwilling to back downs.
Ignoring them, Qing Ya simply continued, “Elder Qian Yue advised her several times regarding this matter but she never once agreed, so finally Elder Qian Yue wanted to force her to discard that Secret Art, but Su Yan seemed to be aware of this and before Qian Yue could act, she preemptively used the Ice Body Sealed Heart technique to freeze herself!”
Yang Kai grinned menacingly, “So what you mean to say is, my Senior Sister becoming like this, is all because of this woman?”
As Yang Kai spoke, his True Qi surged violently and a thick murderous intent began overflowing from him.
Qing Ya expression changed and she hastily said, “Please try to remain calm, although I also think that Qian Yue’s approach was not correct, wanting to force Su Yan without her consent, but her intentions were good. My Ice Sect’s Secret Arts are not something just anyone can cultivate, what she thought was best for Su Yan just inadvertently harmed her.”
“Such good intentions are really praiseworthy, on behalf of my Senior Sister I thank you greatly,” Yang Kai ground his teeth and coldly snorted, his voice filled with icy malice like the cries of a demon from the lowest depths of purgatory.
Unexpectedly, Qian Yue did not offer any rebuttal to Yang Kai’s sarcasm, instead just wearing a look filled with shame, her eyes flashing a pained light.
If she had continued to be unrepentant even now, Yang Kai probably would have lost it and immediately attacked her, but upon seeing her regretful appearance, Yang Kai’s murderous intent dissipated significantly.
Although he found this woman abhorrent, it seemed like she really did care deeply about Su Yan.
This along was enough for Yang Kai to not pester her any further.
Taking a deep breath and depressing his rampaging emotions, Yang Kai slowly said, “How this situation came about, I now understand.”
Qing Ya knit her brow and said softly, “In fact, this is not necessarily a bad thing. The Ice Body Sealed Heart technique is not harmful to Su Yan, and as long as she maintains this state her cultivation will improve rapidly, when she next awakens, her strength will have noticeably increased.”
“When she next awakens?” Yang Kai sneered, “When will she wake up? Ten years, twenty years, even longer?”
Qing Ya and Qian Yue both stayed silent.
Yang Kai’s question was the crux of the matter and they had no answer to give him.
No Ice Sect disciple has ever used the Ice Body Sealed Heart so thoroughly, whether Su Yan would ever wake up was questionable. If they couldn’t find a way to solve this issue, it was possible she would sleep forever.
“We have explained things to you as promised, now about my Ice Sect’s two hundred disciples…” Qing Ya asked, “As the Sect Master of Ice Sect, I guarantee you that as long as the danger to my disciples is relieved, no one will embarrassed you again.”
Yang Kai stared at her deeply for a moment before nodding lightly.
After walking outside with Qing Ya and Qian Yue, Yang Kai spread out his Divine Sense and summoned back all the Soul Devouring Insects he had previously released, taking them back into his Knowledge Sea.
The only exceptions were the two Ice Sect’s Saint Realm Elders, who refused Yang Kai’s assistance and instead returned to their own private residences to enter secluded retreat.
The two of them were confident that using their own powerful cultivations and Spiritual Energy they could purge these Exotic Ancient Insects from their Knowledge Sea which would allow them to avoid owing Yang Kai a favour.
Qian Yue and the others then carefully examined the disciples and confirmed they were no longer in any danger before finally relaxing.
For the past half a month, Yang Kai remained in Ice Sect, spending the entire time beside Su Yan’s bedside.
Meanwhile, in another ice room, Ice Sect’s Sect Master and the four Saint Realm Elders gathered together and were in the midst of a fierce argument. The four Elders each had their own opinions and were vigorously debating their point while the Sect Master, Qing Ya, sat silently upon her crystal ice chair.
One of the Saint Realm masters who had previously had his Knowledge Sea invaded by Yang Kai’s Soul Devouring Insects loudly shouted, “That boy is detrimental to us! We have no idea what kind of underhanded method he used to control those Exotic Ancient Insects and ruthlessly attack our Ice Sect’s disciples. We should expel such a vicious and cruel person as quickly as possible.”
The other Saint Realm master who had suffered a loss at Yang Kai’s hand nodded in agreement, “That is my opinion as well.”
Saying so, they turned to look at Qian Hao and asked, “What do Brother and Sister Qian think?”
“He must leave!” Qian Hao hesitated for a moment before declaring, “Our Ice Sect is a pure land, yet he wantonly intruded and stirred up such a mess. Such a scourge cannot be allowed to remain.”
Qian Yue didn’t say a word, but from the look on her face, it was obviously she wanted Yang Kai out of Ice Sect as soon as possible.
“Sect Master!” Qian Hao turned to look at Qing Ya, “Isn’t it time we asked him to leave? Him remaining in Ice Sect is highly improper.”
Qing Ya smiled faintly, “Why are all of you so anxious to force him out? Although his previous methods were indeed a bit too aggressive, from his perspective, he had no other choice, and even though he did threaten us by taking advantage of our disciples, in the end, none of their Souls were damaged and they only needed a few day of meditation to recover. We cannot simply dismantle the bridge after crossing it.”
Her beautiful eyes then flashes before she continued, “Moreover, he came here to find his Senior Sister, but now Su Yan is in a deep sleep that we have no idea when or even if she will wake up. If we now insist on driving him away, I am afraid it will only provoke a violent response from him, possibly even leading to him releasing those Exotic Ancient Insects again.”
“Then what are we to do? Are we supposed to just allow him to stay in our Ice Sect indefinitely?”
“We should just allow him to take Su Yan away!” Qian Hao suggested, “When that old fogey came here, he said that if someone came to find Su Yan, we should not block or embarrass him. Why not just drop this matter and let him leave with Su Yan?”
To this proposal though, Qian Yue couldn’t help frowning, “Big Brother, with Su Yan in that state, I don’t feel comfortable letting that little brat take her away.”
Although she hated Yang Kai, Qian Yue was still very fond of Su Yan; naturally she didn’t want to do anything to endanger the latter further and decisively shook her head, “I can’t agree to that.”
“Good,” Qing Ya waved her hand, “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. From what I’ve seen, that boy is someone who deeply treasures his personal relationships; as evidence, this entire time he has not left Su Yan’s ice room. I’ll go speak with him first to determine what he plans to do next; perhaps he already plans to leave Ice Sect of his own accord.”
Hearing this, the four Elder could only nod.
The three male Elders quickly left while Qian Yue stayed behind, quickly saying, “Sect Master, I’ll accompany you.”
Qing Ya gently nodded as the two of them got up and headed towards the ice mountain where Su Yan was.
A short time later, the pair came to the ice room and knocked on the door gently. Although they received no response, Qing Ya could feel some unusual energy fluctuations inside and couldn’t help wrinkling her brow, pushing the door open in the next instant.
At this moment, inside the ice room, not only was there a bone chilling cold, but also a burning hot energy flowing about. Looking around for a moment, Qing Ya couldn’t help covering her mouth in shock.
Both of Yang Kai’s hands were actually placed on Su Yan’s ice covered body as his True Qi madly surged.
“You fool, what are you doing!?” Qian Yue shouted, immediately rushing forward, raising her hand as if to slap Yang Kai away.
Yang Kai made no attempt to resist and instead simply turned his head to stare at her coldly.
Qian Yue’s heart jumped when she saw this, her hand stopping only millimeters away from Yang Kai’s body, grinding her teeth as she asked once more, “What are you doing?”
“None of your damn business!” Yang Kai snorted.
Qing Ya also hurried over and worriedly said, “Don’t do this, you’ll only injure Su Yan.”
“I know what I’m doing,” Yang Kai said faintly.
He was the one who least wanted to hurt Su Yan. Every time he tried something he did so with the utmost caution so there would be no unexpected accidents.
“Are you trying to communicate with Su Yan?” Qing Ya asked pensively.
Yang Kai nodded.
He and Su Yan both cultivated the Yin-Yang Joyous Unification Art and the Joyous Unification Art had a total of three stages. At the first stage, the two of them needed physical intimacy in order to dual cultivate, but once they reached the second stage, there was no longer any need for physical contact, they only had to be within a certain proximity to each other in order to form a cycle with their two True Qis, allowing them to purify and sublimate once another. Whether they were cultivating or fighting, this connected state was of great benefit to both Yang Kai and Su Yan.
Currently, Su Yan’s body was encased in a thick layer of ice, so obviously using the methods associated with the Joyous Unification Art’s first stage was impossible; this ice was condensed from the sum total of Su Yan’s True Qi, Yang Kai didn’t want to break it lest it cause unwanted backlash to her.
His only hope then was that by initiating the second stage’s dual cultivation method he could somehow communicate directly with Su Yan’s unconscious mind.
However, after trying for so long, he had not made any progress, Su Yan’s True Qi never responded to his own and so the two were unable to blend together.
“You don’t need to plow the air, I don’t know what kind of cultivation technique your Dual Cultivation Secret Art is, but the Ice Body Sealed Heart is one of my Ice Sect’s most profound core inheritance Martial Skills, once one displays it, they lose all sensation of the outside world. I doubt your Dual Cultivation Technique is comparable to the Ice Body Sealed Heart!” Qian Yue calmly declared, as if to throw cold water onto Yang Kai’s efforts.
Yang Kai of course turned a deaf ear to her and simply wrinkled his brow.
His efforts over the past half a month had yielded no results so now it seems his only hope was to try to initiate the Joyous Unification Art’s third stage method. If even that didn’t work, Yang Kai would have no choice but to give up and simply wait for Su Yan to wake up on her own.
He did not feel it was worth the risk to forcibly wake Su Yan up now. The Ice Body Sealed Heart’s frozen state wasn’t harmful to Su Yan and was instead actually benefiting her, so there was no need to act recklessly at this stage.
Yang Kai just wanted to be able to communicate with her and understand what she was thinking and feeling right now.
After experiencing all of this, if Su Yan didn’t want to stay in Ice Sect, Yang Kai would immediately take her away. On the other hand, if she told him she wished to remain, Yang Kai would respect her wishes. Ice Sect was a cultivation paradise for Su Yan and despite Tong Xuan Realm being so vast, it was still difficult to find an environment so perfectly suited to her Secret Art.
Seeing him sink into contemplation, Qian Yue just coldly snorted and no longer tried to irritate him.
Qing Ya sighed softly and said, “Yang Kai, there is a saying that the haste makes waste, you should not be too anxious.”
Yang Kai smiled, looked up at her and asked, “Since this is your Ice Sect’s Martial Skill, do you really have no way to lift it?”
Qing Ya shook her head helplessly, “Unless the one who used the technique voluntarily lifts it, there is no way for an outsider to interfere. It is precisely because the Ice Body Sealed Heart seals all consciousness it can provide such assistance to my Ice Sect disciple’s cultivation.”
“I understand,” Yang Kai nodded lightly.
“Yang Kai, I have something to ask you,” Qing Ya expression became somewhat awkward as she hesitantly spoke.
“You want to ask when I’ll be leaving?” Yang Kai revealed a playful smile, cutting directly to the point.
Qing Ya was slightly startled, not having expected this youth’s mind to be so sharp, quickly saying, “I don’t want to drive you away, but my Ice Sect usually does not accept outsiders. Su Yan is one thing, but your presence here really infringes on my Ice Sect’s customs.”
“Don’t worry, I have no intention of remaining here much longer, this frozen environment suppresses my Secret Art quite severely after all,” Yang Kai curled his lips, “But for the time being I don’t plan on going anywhere. I wish to retreat here for just a few more days and I hope that no one will disturb me.”
“Retreat here?” Qing Ya quickly picked up on his meaning and asked, “Do you want to try reaching out to Su Yan’s consciousness still?”
“Brat, I advise you to give up and leave,” Qian Yue said, making no attempt to hide her dislike of Yang Kai, “No one can get in touch with someone who has displayed the Ice Body Sealed Heart. Stop wasting your time, just leave Su Yan here, whether she chooses to enter my Ice Sect or not I’ll still take care of her, there’s no need for you to interfere!”
“There’s no need for you to take care of her,” Yang Kai glanced over coldly at Qian Yue before turning to Qing Ya again, “Sect Master, please accept this Junior’s request!”
“Very well,” Qing Ya nodded helplessly, “I will allow you to retreat for some time in my Ice Sect, but only this once. When you exit your seclusion, regardless of what Su Yan’s condition is at that time, you will have to leave. Whether you take Su Yan with you when you go or leave her here, my Ice Sect won’t interfere.”
“Many thanks, Sect Master Qian!” Yang Kai nodded slightly. Qing Ya was much easier to speak with than Qian Yue, on top of that, she was young and beautiful with a voice that was both warm and gentle, Yang Kai simply couldn’t imagine her being one of Treasurer Meng’s old friends.
Just imagining her and that perverted old man Meng Wu Ya standing together, Yang Kai couldn’t help feeling a sense of pity, like watching a fresh flower being planted in cow dung.
Thinking so, his expression became somewhat weird.
Seeing Yang Kai’s strange look, Qing Ya wrinkled her brow but didn’t ask anything, quickly taking Qian Yue and leaving.
After they left, Yang Kai took a deep breath and returned his gaze to the icy beauty sleeping in front of him, his eyes slowly softening.
After watching her for a moment, Yang Kai closed his eyes and laid his hands on the ice covering Su Yan’s body before fully releasing his Divine Sense.
The Joyous Unification Art’s third stage, the Union of Heart and Soul’s ultimate method was the blending of the two’s Souls.
In the past, Yang Kai and Su Yan had actually reached the Union of Heart and Soul stage, but they had never actually tried to blend their Souls in order to dual cultivate.
But now, Yang Kai could only use this method to try and relate to Su Yan.
While sitting directly in front of Su Yan, Yang Kai continuously called out to her with his Divine Sense, pouring his True Qi into the thick layer of ice surrounding her body, quickly penetrating it and reaching her meridians.
However, Su Yan remained completely unresponsive. Not only was there no physical response from her, even her consciousness showed no reaction at all.
At this moment, she seemed like a sleeping ice doll.
Yang Kai wasn’t discouraged though and continued again and again to try to contact Su Yan using this method.
He believed that the deep bond between Su Yan and himself had a high chance of overcoming the impediment of the Ice Body Sealed Heart and allowing their consciousness to resonate with one another.
Time flew by and Ice Sect was restored to its original tranquil state. Although the Saint Realm Elders could clearly feel a hint of blazing hot aura emanating from a certain ice mountain, under the strict orders of Qing Ya, no one went to disturb that place.
Ten days, one month, two months… The burning aura never once subsided, only flaring up from time to time before returning to a steady state.
Although the various Saints did not have a good impression of Yang Kai, the perseverance he showed still impressed them somewhat.
From time to time, Qing Ya and Qian Yue would stare in the direction of the ice mountain Su Yan slept within and sigh.
Inside the ice room of the ice mountain, Yang Kai acted as if he was possessed, repeating the same movements and motions over and over again, sending his True Qi and Divine Sense unceasingly towards Su Yan.
At first he didn’t receive any response, but over time, he gradually felt some unusual fluctuations which seemed to be weak threads of Divine Sense that seemingly wanted to respond to him but were unable to form a coherent message.
When he realized this, Yang Kai was ecstatic and immediately redoubled his efforts.
He lost all track of time and only felt a deep sense of exhaustion.
Suddenly, Divine Sense felt as if it had sunk into a dark, bottomless abyss and become lost.
A bone chilling cold seeped into his Soul, and Yang Kai couldn’t help opening his eyes and gazing around, but everywhere he looked, there was nothing but darkness. The only clear sensation he had was the profound cold that seemed to grip his heart.
This strange empty place exuded a feeling of solitude and loneliness but amidst that, Yang Kai faintly heard someone calling out to him.
His heart trembling, Yang Kai suddenly realized that this was Su Yan’s spiritual world.
Having displayed the Ice Body Sealed Heart, Su Yan was sealed, so her spiritual world being a void was understandable; however, there was still a tiny part of her subconscious that was trying to respond to Yang Kai, but like it had fallen into a nightmare, it couldn’t break free from this dark prison.
Yang Kai frantically searched for the source of the voice calling out to him, his feet never stopping, but the path he traveled seemed to be without end.
Releasing his Divine Sense as far as he could, Yang Kai explored this dark space while spreading his presence all around.
Eventually, from a certain place, Yang Kai received some unusual feedback and paused in place, closing his eyes and carefully examining it.
A moment later, he slowly opened his eyes and a light blossomed in the darkness in front of him.
Yang Kai smiled happily and his Soul Avatar quickly sprinting towards the light. As he approached it, he felt a familiar aura radiating from it; it was Su Yan’s Spiritual Energy.
The light grew brighter and brighter until eventually Yang Kai passed through it and the endless darkness that had surrounded him gave way a bright landscape.
Looking around, Yang Kai couldn’t help gawking slightly.
Because the place he found himself in was very familiar.
High Heaven Pavilion!
Sweeping the area with his Divine Sense, Yang Kai quickly found the small house he used to live in, the room Su Yan had stayed in, the Contribution Hall Treasurer Meng used to tend to, and many other familiar buildings, even the various paths and plants were exactly as he remembered them.
The only difference from the High Heaven Pavilion Yang Kai knew was that this one was devoid of people. It was incredibly peaceful, with ice and snow everywhere.
This was Su Yan’s true spiritual world, everything here appeared in accordance with her will, similar to how inside Yang Kai’s Knowledge Sea, the Five Coloured Soul Warming Lotus had transformed into a five coloured island.
Su Yan’s spiritual world taking on the appearance of High Heaven Pavilion most likely meant that she missed the time she had spent back in the Sect and had subconsciously arranged her spiritual world to reflect it.
This scene wasn’t something Su Yan had deliberately created, Yang Kai clearly understood this.
Unfortunately, even after arriving here, Yang Kai still didn’t notice any trace of Su Yan.
Standing in place and thinking about it, Yang Kai soon realised where Su Yan was and smiled.
His Soul Avatar quickly set off along a path he had not traveled in a long time, passing through various places in the Sect until he reached the Coiling Dragon Stream.
At the edge of the Coiling Dragon Stream, there were still a few fruit trees that swayed in the wind, a number of red fruits handing from their branches. These fruit trees had been planted by Yang Kai many years ago and had actually been destroyed when the Demon Lord escaped from his prison, but now they had actually reappeared in Su Yan’s spiritual world.
Standing beneath the fruit trees, Yang Kai reminisced silently for a moment before leaping down into the chasm.
Falling a short distance, Yang Kai quickly came to a stop before shooting into a small cave in the side of the Coiling Dragon Stream.
This was Yang Kai’s secluded home. When he had been young and weak, it had taken him a lot of work to carve out this secluded cave with his miniscule True Qi.
The secluded cave was not big and only had two rooms. The outside one was where Yang Kai had usually meditated, while the inner one had a stone bed where he had slept.
His Little Senior Sister, Xia Ning Chang, had often slept atop this stone bed too.
Passing through the outer room and arriving at the inner one, Yang Kai saw a familiar figure lying down atop the stone bed.
Even inside her spiritual world, Su Yan was sleeping. Apparently after displaying Ice Sect’s Ice Body Sealed Heart, even her Soul had been put into a deep sleep. If it had not been she would have long ago responded to Yang Kai’s presence.
Slowly walking over, Yang Kai stopped at the stone bed’s side and squatted down, gazing at the sleeping beauty in front of him, his face filled with tender affection.
Seeming sensing the arrival of an outsider, Su Yan’s eyelashes fluttered lightly and her brow furrowed gently; finally, a moment later, her mouth curled into a faint smile.
Su Yan’s eyes suddenly opened and she gazed towards Yang Kai who was kneeling down next to her bedside.
Yang Kai froze in place.
When their four eyes suddenly met, all of Yang Kai’s thoughts came to a halt.
Su Yan pursed her lips and giggled lightly at this sight. As she smiled, the chill in the air quickly began to dissipate.
“Su Yan, you…” Yang Kai stared dumbfounded.
“Without permission, forcefully breaking into another’s Knowledge Sea, Junior Brother, your courage is not small,” Su Yan gently rebuked Yang Kai, a slight teasing meaning in her tone.
“How… how did you wake up?” Yang Kai asked excitedly, “Didn’t you display the Ice Body Sealed Heart?”
Su Yan sat up slowly and smiled, “En, but when I did so, I also put in place a special seal.”
“What kind of seal?” Yang Kai asked.
“A seal to alert me. If your Divine Sense entered my Knowledge Sea, it would automatically awaken my consciousness.”
“Awaken your consciousness?” Yang Kai frowned.
“En,” Su Yan gently nodded, “Only my Soul and consciousness is awake; my body is still in the Ice Body Sealed Heart’s frozen state. I believe this is something even Elder Qian Yue didn’t know.”
Su Yan had thoroughly comprehended the Ice Body Sealed Heart technique while Qian Yue only thought Su Yan had a superficial understanding of it and was unaware that the latter could manipulate it to such an extent.
“Why did you do this?” Yang Kai asked in confusion.
“I can cultivate faster in this state,” Su Yan looked over Yang Kai gently, “You become stronger so quickly, if I don’t cultivate diligently, wouldn’t I end up being a burden to you?”
Yang Kai laughed in spite of trying not to after understanding Su Yan’s motivations for taken such extreme measures.
“What if someone else had broken into your Knowledge Sea?” Yang Kai suddenly thought of a terrible possibility. Su Yan was in a deep sleep in the material world and knew nothing of the outside, if someone had harboured ill intentions towards her, there would be nothing she could do to resist.
“No one else could achieve this, only you could. Although, perhaps some extremely powerful master would be capable of breaking my Knowledge Sea’s defences, but if that were to happen, I could only go all out with them so as not to let them take advantage of me,” Su Yan declared firmly.
“You’re deliberately making trouble!” Yang Kai grumbled, unable to stop himself from chiding her.
Su Yan ignored his protest and instead extended her hand to stroke his cheek, softly comforting, “It seems you’ve endured a lot of hardship.”
Yang Kai slowly shook his head in response, “I haven’t endured any hardship, in fact, many have taken good care of me all this time.”
“If so then that’s good; how much time has passed on the outside?”
“Since you fell asleep, it’s only been about a year.”
“A year… you arrived here quite quickly…” Su Yan’s face was filled with a sweet and happy smile.
“En, so Senior Sister should reward me for my efforts,” Yang Kai smiled meaningfully.
“What kind of reward do you want?”
“What do you think?”
Su Yan blushed bright red from her neck to her face, and her pair of beautiful eyes began to spin slightly.
“We’ve never tried the Joyous Unification Art’s third stage cultivation method,” Yang Kai stared at Su Yan, a burning aggression filling his eyes.
“Junior Brother…” Su Yan couldn’t help feeling shy.
The third stage’s cultivation method was the blending of their Souls. Su Yan naturally understood this; and although she had already come to accept her husband and wife relationship with Yang Kai, she still felt somewhat nervous about blending their Souls.
Blended Souls meant that all of their secrets would be known to one another, there would be nothing left to conceal.
“Su Yan…” Yang Kai unceremoniously grabbed Su Yan’s jade-like hand and caressed it, his eyes gleaming like a starved wolf that had at last found its prey.
Su Yan put up some symbolic resistance but she never once tried to break away, biting her thin red lips as she sat atop the stone bed silently, her face a deep shade of crimson.
Seeing her appearance, Yang Kai no longer had any scruples, pouncing upon her and pushing her down onto the stone bed, his hands wandering all over Su Yan’s heavenly body, the victorious grin of a conqueror plastered all over his face.
The blending of Souls was something Yang Kai had only heard rumors and never attempted, but it was said that the pleasure one felt from such a union was far greater than a purely physical one, and once you tried it, it was impossible to not become addicted.
“Let’s start!” Yang Kai declared seriously.
Su Yan nodded lightly.
At the same time, the two of them began to circulate the Joyous Unification Art, and in the next instant, their two Soul Avatars transformed into dazzling burst of light that flooded the stone room with a brilliant radiance. The two glowing lights began entangling with one another, chasing and blending with one another as they slowly merged into a single entity, a glorious sound resounding between the Heavens and Earth as they did so.
Yang Kai felt as if he was drunk, drowning in the sweetest nectar one could imagine, almost unable to extricate himself. The comfort and joy he felt from the very core of his being blew away all his thoughts and all he wanted to do was indulge in this indescribable sensation.
Although there was no intimate contact between their flesh, the please the two of them received was every bit as overwhelming as the legends described.
Yang Kai could feel Su Yan’s Soul wrapping around his own, and every time they blended together, a new surge of joy would overcome them, leaving both of them somewhat incapable of controlling themselves.
The two of them had completely opened their Souls to each other but neither of them bothered to spy on the other’s secrets, simply allowing their emotions and consciousnesses to freely flow between them.
Anyone who experienced this blending of Souls would be completely taken in by this overwhelming sensation that was completely detached from the pleasures of the flesh.
As their two Souls blended, both Su Yan and Yang Kai’s Soul were slowly undergoing some subtle changes.
The Yin-Yang Joyous Unification Art’s dual cultivation methods not only allowed a man and woman’s True Qis to blend together, thus purifying and enhancing one another, it even allowed their Divine Senses to do so as well.
Su Yan felt a rush of Spiritual Energy and profound enlightenment flood her Soul as she entangled with Yang Kai.
Yang Kai’s thoughts and insights into the Heavenly Way and Martial Dao were being shared with her.
Su Yan didn’t dare to resist, open her heart and mind to accept all of it, imprinting these valuable treasures onto her very Soul.
Yang Kai’s Soul also benefited greatly in this process. Although Su Yan’s sentiments and insights weren’t of much use to him, as the two of them continued to dual cultivate, he could clearly feel his Soul becoming stronger and his purity of his Spiritual Energy increase.
Inside the ice room, the pair’s Souls blended as the True Qi inside their bodies burst out involuntarily, harmonizing with one another, flowing together as they circulated their Yin-Yang Joyous Unification Art.
With each cycle the pair completed, their True Qi would become all the more pure.
The benefits Su Yang and Yang Kai gained from this time’s dual cultivation were simply unimaginable.
Suddenly, behind Yang Kai, the phantom image of a dragon appeared while simultaneously a phoenix phantom similarly emerged from Su Yan’s body.
The two phantoms absorbed the True Qi the pair were releasing and rapidly grew in size, a moment later filling the entire ice room.
A resounding dragon’s roar rang out along with a piercing phoenix cry. The two sounds echoed throughout the ice mountains, causing the entire glacial region to tremble as snow and ice were blasted out.
With a great bang, two completely opposite energies shot out of one of the ice mountains and rushed into the sky.
Everyone in Ice Sect, from Sect Master Qing Ya down to the Common Disciples, were greatly alarmed by this sudden development, all of them rushing out of their secluded rooms to see just what had happened.
Qian Yue was also shocked. She had been quietly meditating in her own private ice cave when she all of a sudden felt the two unusual energy fluctuations. Naturally, she rushed outside to investigate the situation.
Glancing around, she quickly discovered the other three Elders of Ice Sect standing mid-air, staring up into the sky with dignified expressions.
Even Sect Master Qing Ya’s pretty face wore a solemn look.
“Sect Master!” Qian Yue hurriedly approached them and shouted but did not receive any response. Turning her gaze in the direction they were looking for, Qian Yue’s beautiful eyes shot open.
Floating high up in the sky was a dragon more than a hundred meters in length, a flaming aura pulsing from its body as it swayed back and forth, a magnificent and bizarre scene to behold. In addition to the dragon, there was a similarly enormous Ice Phoenix, seemingly cared from the most beautiful crystal, flapping its wings gently as if flew out.
The dragon and phoenix chased after one another playfully, both of them releasing a colossal momentum that weighed heavy on all who saw them.
From the dragon and the phoenix, everyone felt a blistering heat and a profound chill respectively; these two extreme auras couldn’t be ignored by anyone present.
What shocked Qing Ya and the others the most though was that the two auras pulsing from the Golden Dragon and Ice Phoenix were familiar to them.
Naturally they were the auras of Yang Kai and Su Yan!
As all of them stood there in shock, the dragon and phoenix who were chasing one another around suddenly came to a halt, turned around, and flew straight towards Qing Ya and the Ice Sect Elders.
The several Saint Realm Elders all trembled slightly and silently began condensing their True Qi.
The Golden Dragon and Ice Phoenix flew to within a few meters of these five Saints before coming to a stop, the dragon in front with the phoenix one step behind, the two of them leaning towards one another intimately, just like a couple.
The Golden Dragon’s two giant eyes then turned to stare at Qing Ya and the other Saints fixedly, a distinctly human light flashing across them. Being stared at like this made each of the Ice Sect Elders somewhat nervous; for some inexplicable reason, this gaze made them feel small and weak, as if they were at the opposite party’s mercy.
Especially Qian Yue, she felt that the Golden Dragon’s gaze contained a thick meaning of warning when it landed on her.
Qing Ya frowned and quickly circulated her True Qi to resist the oppression emanating from the dragon and phoenix before hesitantly asking, “Yang Kai?”
The eyes of the Golden Dragon flickered slightly before turning away, soaring off into the distance together with the Ice Phoenix.
With another great dragon roar and phoenix cry, the Golden Dragon and Ice Phoenix flew away and quickly disappeared across the horizon.
It wasn’t until after they confirmed the two giant phantoms had left that the members of Ice Sect finally breathed a sigh of relief, each of them only then aware of the cold sweat drenching their backs.
Staring off in the direction the dragon and phoenix disappeared, Qing Ya pondered thoughtfully.
She indistinctly felt that they weren’t really leaving but instead were simply going out to play amongst the glacial world.
Sure enough, a moment later, she heard a gentle rumbling off in the distance; apparently that dragon and the phoenix pair were frolicking somewhere nearby.
Shaking her head somewhat helplessly, Qing Ya turned to the other Ice Sect Elders, waved and smiled gently, “Everything is alright, go back.”
“Sect Master, was… was the Golden Dragon that little brat?” Qian Hao frowned and asked indefinitely. The dragon and phoenix had originally appeared in the sky above the ice mountain where Yang Kai and Su Yan were located, but how could two Juniors create such a huge momentum?
“Most likely,” Qing Ya smiled, “They’ll come back soon.”
“They’re coming back?” Qian Hao’s expression stiffened slightly.
“Didn’t you notice? The Souls and consciousness of those two children were blended together with that dragon and phoenix while their True Qi was what comprised those giant bodies, which means their true bodies are still here in Ice Sect. How can they not come back?”
“Does that mean, he managed to awaken Su Yan?” Qian Yue asked hurriedly, a hint of joy in her voice.
“I don’t know, we’ll have to wait until they come back to ask,” Qing Ya smiled gently.
“That rotten brat, he’s too much! Making such a fuss, was he trying to warn me and Ice Sect to not mistreat Su Yan?” Qian Yue ground her teeth as she thought back on the meaningful glare the Golden Dragon had directed specifically towards her.
“But Sect Master, with the cultivation of those two, how could they possess enough True Qi to create such grand and dense phantoms?” Qian Hao ask with a puzzled expression. If what Qing Ya said was true, then the giant dragon and phoenix avatars had been forged from Yang Kai and Su Yan’s True Qi. But how could two First Order Transcendents possibly store enough True Qi in their bodies to create phantom forms that could even cause Saint Realm masters like them to feel pressure?
Su Yan cultivated a profound Ice Attribute Secret Art, so if there wasn’t enough True Qi in her body, she could probably use the ambient Ice Attribute energy to supplement her consumption.
But how did Yang Kai do it?
Unable to understand, Qian Hao could only shake his head.
Off in the distance, the dragon and phoenix phantoms continued their game of tag while Yang Kai and Su Yan’s consciousnesses constantly communicated.
Before now, when they dual cultivated, there would often be times when the dragon and phoenix tattoos on their bodies would come alive and swim across their skin, but Yang Kai and Su Yan had never imagined that their Souls could actually assume the form of a dragon and phoenix.
But this time, because the two of them advanced to the point where their Souls blended together, they managed to achieve this feat.
Also, because of this phenomenon, the two of them made an unintentional discovery. At the moment their Souls assumed this form, Yang Kai and Su Yan realized that the dragon and phoenix tattoos on their backs weren’t just tattoos, but were separate entities that contained a massive amount of energy, far more than they themselves actually possessed and could even allow them to transform into their current, extremely powerful Soul Skill form.
Yang Kai deliberately making a display in front of Ice Sect’s Elders was indeed for the reason Qian Yue had guessed, he wanted to warn Ice Sect not to meddle in Su Yan’s affairs in the future, lest they bring about consequences they couldn’t afford.
Regarding this, Su Yan seemed to be somewhat unwilling, and even softly rebuked Yang Kai, saying he shouldn’t act like that.
While the two flew across the snowy landscape, they continued communicating with one another.
In their current dragon and the phoenix incarnations, the entire world appeared quite different. It was as if they were two sovereigns reigning over this world, a mysterious feeling that allowed their states of mind to undergo a kind of profound sublimation.
Some time later, Yang Kai suddenly came to a stop above one of the many icebergs. He felt that there was something inside this iceberg that contained a great amount of energy.
Under normal circumstances, even with his greatly strengthened Divine Sense, it would have been impossible for Yang Kai to have discovered this, but right now, with his Soul blended together with the Golden Dragon, his senses had become particularly sharp.
Su Yan had apparently also noticed this anomaly and had stopped next to Yang Kai, communicating to him with her Soul, “I heard that these ancient icebergs can sometimes produce Ice Attribute Precious Treasures. Sect Master and Elders Qian Hao and Qian Yue have found some such treasures in the past. Perhaps this iceberg contains one such Precious Treasure?”
“What do you think it is?” Yang Kai asked.
“Frozen Ice Jade Crystal, a Saint Grade material, it is of great use to anyone who cultivates an Ice Attribute Secret Art.”
Yang Kai’s spirit was roused hearing this, “We’ll find out once we obtain it.”
As he spoke, a golden light shot out from his Golden Dragon avatar towards the iceberg, emitting a scorching heat that seemed capable of melting anything in its path.
*Hong…*
The iceberg shook violently and the incredibly ancient ice which it was comprised of cracked, soon appearing like a great spider web which spread across the entire surface.
Although the iceberg was damaged, the ice it was comprised of had withstood thousands of years of time and was much stronger than Yang Kai had imagined, not collapsing.
Su Yan said nothing and simply stood beside Yang Kai, their four eyes meeting briefly, the two of them immediately understanding the intentions of the other.
In the next moment, the two of them took action together, the Golden Dragon and Ice Phoenix both shooting forward like bolts of lightning.
The two of them acting as one unleashed a destructive force several times greater than what Yang Kai alone had just produced.
Without so much as a single sound, Yang Kai and Su Yan passed through the iceberg and emerged on the other side.
After a brief moment of silence, a great rumbling rang out and the giant iceberg collapsed.
At the same time the iceberg was broken, the energy fluctuations that Yang Kai felt before became much clearer.
However, before he could look for it, he felt the scene before his eyes sway and a deep sense of exhaustion overcame his Soul.
Not only did Yang Kai experience this sense of fatigue, Su Yan did too, their Golden Dragon and Ice Phoenix forms fading significantly, as if they were on the verge of collapse.
“Junior Brother, I’m quite tired!”
“Let’s go back first,” Yang Kai said hurriedly. This was the first time the two of them had merged their Souls into these dragon and phoenix bodies, so it was inevitable they could not remain in this form for long. At this time, they had to hurry to return to their real bodies and recuperate so as to avoid damaging their Souls.
Hearing this, Su Yan nodded gently and together with Yang Kai quickly returned the way they came.
After only a brief moment of peace, Ice Sect once again welcomed a great commotion as the two huge energy fluctuations which had just left approached once more. Soon after, the giant Golden Dragon Ice Phoenix appeared in the sky above Ice Sect briefly before disappearing into one of the ice mountains.
Looking at where the pair disappeared, Qing Ya shook her head and smiled bitterly, “It really was those two children… Qian Yue, come with me, let’s go see them.”
“En,” Qian Yue quickly nodded.
Back inside the ice room, Yang Kai and Su Yan’s Souls returned to their respective bodies and Su Yan once again entered into a deep sleep.
Having spoken at length with Su Yan, Yang Kai finally put down the burden weighing on his heart. Apparently she would remain in the Ice Body Sealed Heart’s frozen state until she broke through the next minor realm, that is, until she became a Second Order Transcendent, after which she would automatically wake up.
This was something she had set up in advance before she entered her deep sleep.
After knowing the truth, Yang Kai was no longer worried and also didn’t intend to take Su Yan away from Ice Sect. The environment here truly was very suitable for her cultivation, so leaving her here would benefit her more.
Moreover, Ice Sect’s Sect Master Qing Ya and Elder Qian Yue really were quite good to her; although Yang Kai held a small grudge against Qian Yue. Also, after Su Yan put in many good words for Qian Yue, Yang Kai decided to no longer hold it against that woman.
After carefully cultivating for a short time, the exhaustion Yang Kai felt from his Soul gradually faded.
Sensing two familiar auras outside the ice room, Yang Kai got up and opened the door.
Sure enough, Qing Ya and Qian Yue were standing outside. After seeing Yang Kai, the two women’s beautiful eyes flashed a slightly complex light.
“Did Su Yan wake up?” Qian Yue took a look around and asked somewhat hurriedly.
“She did wake up for a while but she’s fallen asleep again,” Yang Kai explained lightly.
Qian Yue turned her eyes towards Yang Kai and her brow wrinkled slightly; she found that this little brat no longer displayed much hostility towards her and couldn’t help wondering what had happened.
“Did you have a good talk with her?” Qing Ya asked softly.
Yang Kai gently nodded, “I did.”
“So what did the two of you decide?”
“Su Yan wants to say here, so I must ask several Seniors to take care of her.”
Qing Ya smiled gently and nodded, “Don’t worry, although Ice Sect does not accept outsiders, but even just considering Meng Wu Ya’s face, I wouldn’t treat her poorly.”
“Many thanks, Sect Maser Qing!” Yang Kai said.
“Good, I never thought someone could actually awaken another who had performed the Ice Body Sealed Heart, you’ve really surprised me. I suppose that also proves that the relationship between you and Su Yan is not ordinary,” Qing Ya’s pretty face showed a hint of admiration.
Yang Kai smiled and didn’t explain any further. Although part of the reason he had succeeded was his own efforts, the most fundamental reason was that Su Yan had made early preparations!
If it weren’t for her setting it up so, Yang Kai figured he would never have been able to contact her Soul, much less break into her spiritual world.
“I have something to ask you now,” Qing Ya suddenly said with a serious face.
“Hm?” Seeing her solemn expression, Yang Kai couldn’t help nodding, “What does Sect Master Qing want to know?”
“What kind of Dual Cultivation Secret Art do you and Su Yan cultivate?”
“Why do you ask?” Yang Kai couldn’t help feeling a bit strange. Ice Sect’s disciples cultivated Ice Attribute Secret Arts which stressed maintaining one’s purity, almost the exact opposite of dual cultivation, so Yang Kai didn’t understand why Qing Ya suddenly became interested in this.
Even if she knew what Secret Art Su Yan and Yang Kai were cultivating, and Yang Kai taught it to her, she didn’t have a partner with which to practice it so there would be no point.
“No need to be so vigilant, I’m not trying to inquire about your Secret Art, but there is something about it that bothers me,” Qing Ya frowned slightly, sinking into contemplation for a moment before slowly continuing, “A long time ago, Tong Xuan Realm had a number of famous forces.”
“Oh? What was so famous about them?”
“They were forces powerful enough to shake the realm!” Qing Ya quickly said, “These forces were the strongest in Tong Xuan Realm. When they reigned, the Demon Race and Monster Race didn’t dare act arrogantly. During that era, most of the Demon Land and Monster Domain actually belonged to our Human Territory.”
“There were such forces?” Yang Kai was extremely surprised.
“En,” Qing Ya nodded lightly, “It’s just that at some point, something happened, and all of these powerful forces suffered grave losses, some of them even losing their core inheritances. With their foundations crippled, these great forces inevitably declined and gradually became weak. Of course, such powerful forces, even after suffering sharp declines in strength, did not necessarily disappear, most of them still surviving until today just in a weakened state!”
Yang Kai expression changed, “Is Ice Sect one of those forces?”
Qing Ya was slightly surprised by his sharp insight but quickly smiled and nodded, “En, my Ice Sect is indeed one of those forces. At the height of its power, my Ice Sect had tens of thousands of disciple and occupied a vast territory, but after experiencing that disaster, my Ice Sect’s surviving Ancestors moved the Sect to this place to live a life of seclusion, isolated from the outside world.”
Yang Kai was thoroughly shocked, “What kind of cataclysm happened to cause so many great forces to suddenly collapse?”
Qing Ya shook her head, “I don’t know, it happened so long ago that no clear records remain of that event.”
“Why is Sect Master Qing telling me all this?” Yang Kai wondered, this kind of ancient history didn’t seem to have anything to do with him.
“Because I remember one of those ancient great forces seemed to practice a very profound kind of Dual Cultivation Secret Art and the top masters of that force were known as the Dragon Emperor and Phoenix Empress! These two masters cultivated their force’s most core inheritance and it was said that when they joined forces to fight, they were nearly invincible. Also, when they fought… they could assume the form of a great dragon and phoenix!” Saying so, Qing Ya stared fixedly at Yang Kai.
Yang Kai’s look changed greatly, “Sect Master Qing’s meaning is…”
Qing Ya smiled softly, “I am just speculating and am not certain, but ordinary Dual Cultivation Secret Arts are detrimental. Those who cultivate them in general have impure True Qi and very rarely possess noteworthy accomplishments, but you and Su Yan are different. The Dual Cultivation technique the two of you cultivate is obviously extraordinary, and after witnessing the grand vision you showed earlier today, I could not help wondering if that legendary force has something to do with you!”
“I don’t know,” Yang Kai’s expression became awkward.
Qing Ya looked at him with a smile and didn’t ask any more. Regarding such matters, she only intended to inform Yang Kai of her thoughts; if she were to continue asking him questions, it would be akin to prying into his secrets, a taboo amongst cultivators.
“Sect Master Qing, do you remember what that force is called?”
“If I recall correctly, it seems to have been called Dragon Phoenix Heaven! It should still exist even now, if you search for it, it should not be difficult to find them.”
Yang Kai nodded lightly, pondering for a moment before suddenly remembering something, asking curiously, “Wait, Sect Master Qing, I heard that long ago, the first master under Heaven was the Demon Race’s Great Demon God? How could there be so many Human Race Sects dominating Tong Xuan Realm then?”
Qing Ya giggled lightly as his question, “The Great Demon God is also a character out of legend, but his time was actually further into the past, the era I spoke to you about came after the Great Demon God disappeared.”
“So it’s like that,” Yang Kai nodded, a few speculations arising in his heart.
With the disappearance of the Great Demon God and the Ancient Demon Clan being sealed away, the Demon Race would have been severely weakened and would obviously not be the Human Race’s opponent.
Tong Xuan Realm’s history was long and rich in legends, obviously a few different eras and rulers had come and gone.
“Sect Master Qing, I’ll be going out for a bit to run a small errand, I’ll leave Ice Sect shortly after I get back from it,” Yang Kai informed Qing Ya before leaving the ice room.
Looking at his disappearing back, Qing Ya slowly shook her head, “I wasn’t trying to chase you away just now.”
“The sooner he’s gone the better!” Qian Yue grumbled under her breath before turning around and rushing into the ice room to check up on Su Yan’s condition, only feeling relieved after she confirmed that the latter was in a stable state.
Inside the ice, Su Yan wore a happy smile.
Yang Kai rushed forward, following the route he had taken together with Su Yan just before, heading towards the location of the destroyed iceberg.
Half a day later, the collapsed iceberg finally came into view.
Without even having to release his Divine Sense, Yang Kai could clearly feel a powerful energy fluctuation coming from beneath the rubble.
Smiling happily, Yang Kai rushed over to it.
A short time later, after breaking through some layers of ice, Yang Kai found a longan sized crystal clear gem.
The energy fluctuations were being emitted from this ice crystal.
[Was this the Frozen Ice Jade Crystal that Su Yan had mentioned?] Yang Kai pinched it between his fingers as he examined it, soon discovering that the energy contained within this small crystal was actually extraordinarily pure and rich.
What made his feel strange though was that at this things core, there seemed to be a thick, transparent liquid.
This liquid exuded a chill so profound that Yang Kai’s Divine Sense was nearly frozen by it when he tried to probe it.
Yang Kai felt somewhat amazed at this, his Divine Sense was by no means ordinary, having evolved into a Conflagrated Divine Sense, but even so he couldn’t withstand the cold energy contained within this tiny ice crystal.
Giving up on trying to probing it further, Yang Kai stored the ice crystal into his Black Book space. When he was preparing to return to Ice Sect though, something nearby caught his attention and upon investigating, he couldn’t help feeling shocked.
Buried in the ice, there was actually a jet black skeleton.
On this skeleton’s bones there were many vein patterns that resembled meridians but there was not a trace of flesh, it was a truly ominous image.
[Could it be some disciple of Ice Sect encountered an accident here?] Yang Kai wondered in his heart. This iceberg had produced a suspected piece of Frozen Ice Jade Crystal, so perhaps someone had been here before treasure hunting only to end up being frozen here after suffering some kind of disaster.
However, what made Yang Kai somewhat uncertain was that this person’s meridians had remained, yet their flesh had not.
Yang Kai very much wanted to ignore this situation, but after thinking about it for a moment, he reached out and extracted the black skeleton from the ice before hefting it over his shoulder and flying back to Ice Sect.
Regardless of anything else, Su Yan would be in the care of Qing Ya and Ice Sect for the foreseeable future. If this person really was an Ice Sect disciple, the least Yang Kai could do was take him back to Ice Sect so he could be properly buried.
One day after he left, Yang Kai returned to Ice Sect.
Upon arriving at the ice mountain range, Yang Kai was met by Ice Sect’s Elder Qian Hao.
The middle aged man frowned slightly as he stared coldly at Yang Kai, inquiring in a somewhat dissatisfied tone, “Boy, why are you still in my Ice Sect?”
“I’ll be leaving shortly,” Yang Kai didn’t have a good impression on Qian Hao either, so he simply tossed over the skeleton from his shoulder and bluntly stated, “By the way, I found someone who might have been your Ice Sect’s disciple out there, it looks like they suffered some kind of accident.”
Qian Hao frowned hearing this and took a look, in the next instant his expression changing dramatically, his eyes quivering fiercely, seemingly having seen something terrifying, immediately dropping the frozen skeleton from his hands towards the icy ground below.
*Hong…*
The frozen skeleton hit the ice with a loud bang causing Yang Kai, who was still standing mid-air, to frown towards Qian Hao, wondering why this Second Order Saint was showing such a frightened expression.
Floating over Ice Sect, Qian Hao’s look changed and became especially complicated. Yang Kai stood by and watched, frowning deeply as he did.
“Boy, where did you find this thing?” Suddenly, Qian Hao looked up and solemnly asked Yang Kai.
“About half a day away from this place, inside an iceberg,” Yang Kai replied casually, “Why, what’s wrong?”
Qian Hao didn’t answer, his expression instead becoming even more dignified. Suddenly, he turned around and let out a loud shout, a clear meaning of warning apparent in his tone.
Yang Kai’s gaze flickered as he realized he had probably made some kind of mistake in judgement and had inadvertently struck upon one of Ice Sect’s secrets.
[Whose frozen bones were these? Why did Qian Hao look like he had seen a fierce enemy the moment he laid eyes upon it?] Yang Kai wondered as he locked his Divine Sense onto the black skeleton but was unable to notice anything unusual.
Hearing Qian Hao’s shout, Ice Sect immediately became active, the Transcendent Realm and above masters quickly appearing, following the lead of Sect Master Qing Ya.
“What happened?” Qing Ya hurriedly asked.
If it wasn’t an extremely important matter, Qian Hao would never have issued such an alarm, so Qing Ya immediately realized a serious problem had occurred.
“Come with me!” Qian Hao said, quickly flying down as he quietly circulated his True Qi, ready to act at a moment’s notice.
Yang Kai’s expression dimmed as he quickly followed after the masters of Ice Sect.
Down on the ground, the Ice Sect masters tightly surrounded the frozen black skeleton, many of them frowning suspiciously, obviously many here also just as lost about it as Yang Kai was, but when Qing Ya and the other Saint Realm Elders saw these jet black bones, all of them went pale.
“All of you fall back!” Qing Ya quickly ordered.
The Transcendent Realm masters all look around at each other in confusion, but didn’t ask anything in the end and obediently followed Qing Ya’s orders to withdraw.
Soon, only Qing Ya, the four Saint Realm Elders, and Yang Kai remained.
“Where did you obtain it?” Qing Ya asked, her pretty face filled with a stern solemnity.
“This boy brought it here,” Qian Hao pointed to Yang Kai.
“Yang Kai, where did you find this? How did you find it?” Qing Ya quickly asked.
Seeing a seriousness he had never witnessed before on Qing Ya’s face, Yang Kai fully realized the gravity of the situation and quickly explained what had happened. As the five Saints listened to his tale, their expressions became even heavier.
“What’s wrong? Is he not a disciple of Ice Sect?” Yang Kai frowned and asked, he had brought this skeleton back out of good intentions but now it seems he had actually caused trouble for Ice Sect, naturally he felt a bit embarrassed.
“How could such an ominous creature be one of my Ice Sect’s disciple?” Qian Hao coldly snorted, a look of anger and even hatred flashing across his face.
“Ominous creature?” Yang Kai was thoroughly shocked this time, “I had no idea there was some kind of grievance between him and your Ice Sect, I only thought he was one of your disciples who had gone missing. Since that’s the case, I’ll just return him to where I found him.”
“Don’t touch him!” Qing Ya quickly stopped Yang Kai, shaking her head slowly.
Seeing her violent reaction, Yang Kai couldn’t help smiling dumbly, “Aren’t you all making too much of a fuss over nothing? No matter what kind of evil this guy committed in life, he’s dead now, what reason is there to be so wary of him?”
“Who said he’s dead?” Qian Hao coldly snorted.
The smile on Yang Kai’s face suddenly converged as a deep wrinkle appeared on his brow, “What do you mean?”
“Exactly what it sounds like, he’s not dead, he’s still alive!” Qian Yue muttered, her pretty face still somewhat pale.
Yang Kai was dumbfounded, sweeping his eyes over the other Saints in doubt but finding that none of them showed any meaning of refuting, obviously they all agreed with Qian Yue’s assessment.
“He’s not dead? But this person doesn’t have any flesh, he’s just a skeleton with meridians, how could…”
Qing Ya softly sighed, interrupting Yang Kai’s words to explain, “There are many strange life forms in this world which you have never heard of. No one knows how they were born, but these strange life forms normally possess strong vitality and odd physiques that grant them more powerful strength than mere flesh and blood.”
Hearing her explanation, Yang Kai couldn’t help remembering the Jade True Spirit!
That Jade True Spirit was also a sentient creature that lacked flesh, blood, and even bones; however, if it had been allowed to fully mature, its destructive power would have reached an earth shattering height.
Therefore, although what Qing Ya said was somewhat difficult for him to comprehend, he still quickly accepted it.
“But you don’t need to be nervous, this one doesn’t appear to be too strong,” Qing Ya smiled slightly. Hearing her words, Qian Hao and the other Saints also relaxed.
“Yang Kai, since you brought this thing here, you’ll have to help us deal with it,” Qing Ya turned to Yang Kai again.
“Good, please grant this Junior instructions!”
“Incinerate him,” Qing Ya pointed to frozen skeleton in front of them.
Yang Kai said nothing and pushed his True Qi directly, wrapping up the frozen skeleton in a ball of scorching flames.
The ice melted at a rate visible to the naked eye, soon revealing the jet black skeleton within.
Just as Yang Kai wanted to increase his True Qi output to burn it down in one fell swoop, a violent aura pulsed outwards from the black skeleton.
Yang Kai was stunned, his expression hanging greatly as he saw the two empty eye sockets suddenly fill with two green flames, akin to human eyes, revealing a dangerous light as the skeleton began to move.
It seemed to be struggling.
Qing Ya pretty face darkened as she quickly waved her hand, sending a few energy spikes into the skeleton, nailing it to the ground.
Seeing this, Yang Kai immediately pushed his True Qi to its limit.
Suddenly, a screeching howl filled the air, penetrating the ears of everyone present. This howl was filled with cruel and violent impulses that seemed to be trying to warp the minds of any who heard it.
Ice Sect’s Saint Realm masters were obviously able to ignore this, but surprisingly, even Yang Kai wore an indifferent expression.
This fact was not lost on Qing Ya, who had secretly been paying attention to him. She had originally thought Yang Kai would be at least somewhat affected by this Soul attack, so she was quite surprised when she saw him could completely disregard it.
The piercing wails ringing in all of their ears grew even shriller and soon took on a desperate feeling.
Gradually, the tragic howls weakened and eventually disappeared.
*Hu…*
The black skeleton finally succumbed to the flames and was quickly reduced to ashes, completely disappearing into the wind.
Seeing this bizarre scene, Yang Kai was having trouble associating it with reality.
He had never imagined before that a skeleton without any flesh or blood could actually remain alive and retain its consciousness.
“Sect Master Qing, can you explain now? What was that?” Yang Kai frowned towards Qing Ya, not knowing anything made him feel particularly uncomfortable.
“What point is there in asking so many questions?” Qian Hao coldly snapped.
However, Qing Ya waved her hand and softly replied, “There’s not much I can tell you, in truth, even we don’t know much about these beings. I simply heard from my Ice Sect Seniors that he is a member of the Bone Race.”
“Bone Race?” Yang Kai’s brow furrowed.
“En, they don’t innately possess flesh and blood, only a skeleton and meridians, but among them there are masters of exceedingly high strength. The reason my Ice Sect became so weak is directly related with them.”
“No one can say clearly where this race came from. In addition to the Bone Race, it seems that long ago many strange life forms suddenly appeared on Tong Xuan Realm. Remember how I told you before that because of a certain event, many of the world’s greatest forces were nearly destroyed? That event is related with these strange races. One of the reasons my Ice Sect has taken up residence here is because of those races. My Seniors said that apparently, in the past, some of the Bone Race’s masters escaped; we are here to seek them out and guard against them. Over the millennia, we have discovered a number of frozen Bone Race members and killed them, but since I assumed the position of Sect Master, this is the first time one has been discovered. Apparently we have still let some fish slip through our net.”
“That’s an interesting story,” Yang Kai said, a strange expression upon his face.
“How is it interesting? What you found this time is only a very weak Bone Race clansman, if it had been one of the stronger existences, our Ice Sect would probably have suffered greatly!” Qian Hao said coldly.
“Then why do you insist on remaining here?” Yang Kai was stunned.
“The Bone Race indeed has powerful masters, but not all of them are so strong, also… we are not weak, us guarding this place is to ensure they don’t have a chance to resurface and wreak havoc,” Qing Ya smiled lightly.
Yang Kai trembled slightly hearing this, “So what you mean to say is, you live in this secluded place in order to protect the world in secret?”
“Hehe, it’s nothing so grand, we are just following the wishes of our Ancestors. Besides, the outside world is a bit too noisy for us, after staying here for so long we simply don’t want to leave,” Qing Ya replied casually.
Yang Kai suddenly felt a profound sense of respect for these silent guardians.
“Elders, I must trouble you to take a careful inspect the area to see if there are any other Bone Race survivors,” Qing Ya turned to four Saint Realm Elders and ordered.
“Yes!” The four Elders answered in unison before turning around to organize the Transcendents behind them and setting off to survey the region.
Yang Kai stood in place, pondering for a long time before finally asking hesitantly, “Will Su Yan be in any danger here?”
“Don’t worry,” Qing Ya turned her eyes towards the sky, “As long as I am here, she won’t encounter any harm. Even if there are any Bone Race survivors lurking about, they can’t stir up any trouble here!”
Hearing this, Yang Kai felt a lot more at ease, quickly took out the ice crystal from the Black Book space, and handed it to Qing Ya, “This is something I found in that same iceberg, Su Yan said that it was useful for those who cultivate Ice Attribute Secret Arts.”
“Frozen Ice Jade Crystal?” Qing Ya was mildly surprised, but after staring at it for a moment she called out in shock, “No, this is… Frozen Ice Jade Marrow?”
“What’s that?”
“This crystal’s outer layer is comprised of Frozen Ice Jade Crystal while the liquid inside it is an even purer substance known as Frozen Ice Jade Marrow. You’re luck is really good, even being able to find such a treasure,” Qing Ya looked at him with amazement, “With this to assist her, Su Yan’s strength will increase even faster, it’s nothing less than an ultimate treasure for those who cultivate Ice Attribute Secret Arts.”
Saying so, she directed a smile towards Yang Kai and asked, “Giving this to me, aren’t you worried I might take it for myself? It also has great use for me!”
Yang Kai smiled and said, “Even if Sect Master Qing uses it, it doesn’t matter, you can think of it as a gift from me for taking care of Su Yan from now on.”
“Hmph, your tongue really is glib!” Qing Ya teased lightly, “Don’t worry, when Su Yan wakes up, I will help her refine this. I’m not so desperate as to steal something from a Junior!”
“In any case, I’ll thank Sect Master Qing in advance for looking after Su Yan,” Yang Kai smiled brightly and cupped his fists.
Seemingly realizing something, Qing Ya asked, “Are you not going to see her again before you leave?”
“There’s no need, I know she’s fine now,” Yang Kai shook his head, “Junior will take his leave now.”
Saying so, Yang Kai turned around decisively and left.
“If you see Meng Wu Ya, give him a message from me, tell him the favour he owes me, I’ll collect sooner or later!” Qing Ya’s voice came from behind.
Without turning around, Yang Kai waved his hand and soared off into the distance.
Atop the ocean, an iceberg the size of a small room drifted along with the waves. Atop this iceberg, Yang Kai sat comfortably cross-legged.
After having found Su Yan and learning that Meng Wu Ya and Little Senior Sister were safe and sound, he felt a lot easier.
Although he had not taken Su Yan away with him and instead left her in Ice Sect, with the help of Qing Ya, Su Yan would only grow stronger. The next time they met, Yang Kai figured Su Yan’s strength would have noticeably increased.
Feeling happy, Yang Kai didn’t hurry along and simply let the iceberg drift wherever it wanted to, pushing his True Qi only enough to make sure it stayed upright.
Now that he had no immediate worries, Yang Kai figured he should return to Soaring Heaven Sect and quickly improve his Alchemy proficiency so he could refine the Saint Pill needed to free the Ancient Demon Clan before finally returning to Coffin Slave Senior’s hiding place in the Snow Mountain Range.
After receiving guidance from Old Man Li, Yang Kai’s understandings and insights into the Alchemic Way had improved notably. He also fully realized the superiority of using his Conflagrated Knowledge Sea to perform Alchemy rather than his True Qi.
On top of that, after having dual cultivated with Su Yan, his Soul had undergone a kind of sublimation, coupled with the various experiences he had absorbed thanks to the Demon Eye of Annihilation, Yang Kai had gained some new and significant insights.
Sitting atop the iceberg, Yang Kai immersed himself in comprehending the Heavenly Way and Martial Dao, various thoughts and ideas flitting across his consciousness.
As these thoughts intertwined and combined together with his own experiences, Yang Kai’s expression and mood gradually became reflective.
The sea was vast and boundless, and Yang Kai did not encounter any interruptions, so he gradually forgot the passage of time and even where he was or where he was going and became immersed in his own thoughts.
Beneath the iceberg, gigantic marine animals would swim by now and then, but Yang Kai had completely concealed his aura so all these beasts could sense was a small floating chunk of ice; naturally they didn’t cause him any trouble.
In the sky up above, scattered clouds drifted about, down below, the ocean waves undulated rhythmically. This was the first time since arriving in Tong Xuan Realm that Yang Kai truly felt content and connected with this world.
After a month or two, Yang Kai slowly opened his eyes and let out a long breath, a big smile upon his face.
This period of enlightenment had brought him an improvement to his strength that was not small, while also allowing him to realize just how difficult it was to break through to the next Order of the Transcendent Realm.
It could be said that every Transcendent Realm master had experienced all kinds of hardships and struggled on the edge of life and death. Only after overcoming all of these challenges had they achieved a cultivation level that separated them from mere mortals.
Those who had failed to surpass these challenges had either been forever unable to break through that barrier or had died trying.
Among the new improvements Yang Kai had achieved this time was the various magical uses of his Conflagrated Knowledge Sea.
His Conflagrated Knowledge Sea was a type of mutation or evolution of an ordinary Knowledge Sea and was superior in almost every way, whether it was regarding offense, defense, or even investigating and deceiving others.
Yang Kai’s Spiritual Energy was powerful enough that once he covered his body in it, he could fool outsiders who tried to investigate him regarding his strength, thus causing them to underestimate or ignore him. This ability was an unexpected harvest that made Yang Kai pleasantly surprised.
After a little experimentation, Yang Kai found that this new ability was quite convenient to use, he only needed to restrain the flow of his True Qi and then use his Spiritual Energy to create some illusionary auras to deceive others.
However, Yang Kai estimated that this method would only be effective against those with weaker Spiritual Energy than him, those who had significantly more powerful Divine Senses would be able to see through this camouflage.
Still, Yang Kai was quite satisfied with his newfound ability.
Standing up atop the iceberg, Yang Kai stretched lazily before sweeping his eyes over the surrounding ocean.
Seeing nothing in every direction he looked, his expression immediately became grim as he cursed silently.
Although he had unconsciously avoided the dangers from sea beasts while he was in his state of enlightenment, Yang Kai had also been so completely absorbed in his contemplations that he had lost track of where he was.
Originally, his intention was to go back to Water Spirit Temple and see Shui Ling. This time, Shui Ling had helped him a great deal, and as one of Yang Kai’s few friends in this world, he had intended to thank her personally.
Afterwards, Yang Kai had planned to use Water Spirit Temple as a transit point on his journey back to Soaring Heaven Sect.
But now, he obviously couldn’t use that plan anymore.
Standing on the iceberg, after venting his annoyance for a while, Yang Kai eventually regained his composure and calmed down.
As long as he came across someone and obtained directions from them, he could understand where he was and where he needed to go. Considering this point, Yang Kai simply sat down, made himself comfortable, and stared out across the rolling sea.
The schools of fish swimming beneath the surface seemed full of vigor and vitality.
Yang Kai also spotted some colourful coral clusters as he swept his eyes around.
Three days later, as Yang Kai was staring lazily up at the clouds, he suddenly detected some life auras at the extreme range of his released Divine Sense.
Immediately perking up, Yang Kai stood up and stared off in the direction he had sensed the auras.
On the far horizon, a small black spot several kilometers away seemed to be slowly traveling forward.
Naturally, this black spot was a grand sea ship and even though it was far off, Yang Kai could still see the extraordinariness of it.
This grand ship was not solely comprised of wood and metal; instead, it also seemed to be refined from many precious ores in a manner similar to that of an artifact and obviously had impressive offensive and defensive abilities. Only such a vessel could withstand the violent attacks of giant sea beasts.
Yang Kai had seen many such boats back at Water Spirit Temple.
However, this particular ship was the most magnificent one Yang Kai had seen yet, its bow like a great dragon head that rose above the rough seas, breaking through the waves as it sailed forward at incredible speed.
Atop the big ship, many brightly colored flags fluttered in the wind.
Yang Kai estimated the speed and direction of the ship as well as that of the iceberg beneath his feet, soon figuring that the two would soon pass within a dozen kilometers of each other at this rate.
Increasing the output of his True Qi, Yang Kai sped his iceberg up in order to intercept the ship.
A moment later, Yang Kai took back his Divine Sense. Although he didn’t dare probe too much, he had basically confirmed that there were no Saint Realm masters on board the ship, there were however several Transcendents including a few Third Order masters.
With his Soul Devouring Insects in hand, Yang Kai stood atop his iceberg without any fear, calling out to the approaching ship, trying to attract the attention of the other party.
Sure enough, a short time later, a few figures appeared at the bow of the ship, staring and pointing in his direction, apparently having noticed Yang Kai’s presence.
However, from their indifferent demeanors, it was apparent they did not intend to pay Yang Kai any mind nor alter the speed or course of the ship they were riding.
Yang Kai’s brow wrinkled and watched as the big ship passed by him. Of course, he did not give up so easily. He was now lost at sea so he really had to find someone to ask directions from.
Hesitating for only a moment, Yang Kai made his decision and pushed his True Qi once more, rapidly increasing the speed of his iceberg and charging straight towards the ship.
The people on the ship’s deck immediately reacted, calling out in alarm.
Atop the big ship, the crew who were alerted by these calls ran up on deck to see what the matter was, including a Transcendent Realm powerhouse.
After learning what was going on, the Transcendent master angrily shouted, “A mere brat from who knows where acting so recklessly. Destroy the iceberg under his feet this instant! Actually daring to have ideas about my Holy Land’s ship? He really must not know the immensity of Heaven and Earth! En, don’t kill him yet, capture him so we can interrogate him first!”
With the order of the Transcendent Realm master being given, the disciples also struck out with righteous indignation, several of them standing at the ship’s bow immediately displaying their Martial Skills and artifacts.
*Shua Shua Shua* Several beams of light shot from the ship’s bow in the next instant.
Yang Kai was stunned, never having expected the other party to react so violently, quickly leaping off his iceberg to avoid the barrage.
With a loud bang, the iceberg that had carried Yang Kai across the sea for the past two months was reduced to dust.
As they watched small chunks of ice scatter across the surface of the sea, all the people onboard the boat looked around carefully for Yang Kai’s figure, but no matter where they looked they saw nothing put blue ocean.
“Where did he go?” The Transcendent Realm master also lost track of Yang Kai at that moment and unable to immediately find where he had disappeared, his expression became ugly.
Everyone else on the deck also shook their heads.
One of the disciples spoke up, “Wasn’t he killed in that explosion? From what I could see, he looked quite young and probably wasn’t very strong.”
“Nonsense!” The Transcendent shouted, “Since he dared to wander the sea alone, he must at least have an Immortal Ascension Boundary cultivation. On top of that, if he was really killed, why is there no blood on the surface? That brat is hiding somewhere, look more carefully.”
“There’s no need for that,” A slightly annoyed voice suddenly came from the side of the ship, and in the next moment, a wet Yang Kai jumped up onto the deck, frowning unhappily at the people on the boat as he muttered, “There is no enmity or grudge between us, so why did you suddenly attack me?”
“We didn’t attack you, we simply destroyed the iceberg you were floating on!” The Transcendent Realm master coldly snorted, “If we really wanted to harm you, do you think you’d still be able to stand here safely?”
Yang Kai frowned and didn’t say anything.
The few attacks a moment ago, he had seen clearly, so he knew they really weren’t aimed at him and possessed not killing intent. Perhaps it was his actions had been misunderstood by these people resulting in this situation.
Of course, Yang Kai never intended to hit their ship with his iceberg.
But there was also no use in explaining this now, so Yang Kai simply didn’t bother saying anything.
“Brat, I’ll ask you a few questions, you answer honestly, if you dare to deceive me, I’ll throw you overboard to feed the fish,” The Transcendent Realm cultivator quickly said.
Yang Kai nodded, circulating his True Qi slightly to dry his clothes before trying to make himself appear as docile as possible.
“Who are you, why are you floating on an iceberg above the sea?”
“This Junior is just a nameless person, I accidentally lost my way at sea and had no choice but the settle down on that iceberg or else it would have drowned long ago.”
“Hmph!” The man coldly snorted, Yang Kai not replying to his question directly obviously made him feel somewhat unsatisfied.
“Then why did you seeking out my Holy Land’s vessel just now?”
“I had no choice; I have been drifting for many days so when I saw your ship, I wanted to ask for directions. En, actually, if it is convenient, could you possibly let me sail along with you until we reach dry land?”
“Rest assured, I can pay you for your troubles,” Yang Kai quickly added.
The cultivators who stood on the deck all looked like they had heard some kind of joke and couldn’t help laughing, all of them turning interested and dismissive looks towards Yang Kai.
Even the Transcendent Realm master couldn’t help grinning, nodding as he asked, “Brat, what kind of compensation can you pay?”
“Is ten Crystal Stones good? That’s all I can afford right now,” Yang Kai cocked his head to the side, perfectly portraying the look of a countryside hick who knew nothing of the world. He had already noticed that whoever owned this ship was fabulously wealthy and naturally wouldn’t care about any reward he could pay them.
Seeing this, the people on the deck laughed even harder.
The Transcendent Realm cultivator nodded lightly at this, “Who would have thought, a brat like you actually has some spare cash on him. However, you should keep those ten Crystal Stones for your own use.”
Saying so, he turned to a nearby cultivator and said, “Give him a boat and make him get the hell out!”
Yang Kai’s previous answers to his questions had made him feel wary. Although Yang Kai’s strength wasn’t high, he was not prepared to have the latter remain onboard; the safest thing to do was to send him away as quickly as possible.
“That’s also fine,” Yang Kai didn’t make a fuss, “Can you also give me some directions then, it doesn’t matter where to, as long as you point me in the direction of land it’d be fine.”
“What use is there in giving you directions?” The other side quipped, “With your cultivation, there’s no way you can reach land, you should just pray to the sea for mercy. In fact, you should already be thanking your luck that you met my Nine Heavens Holy Land, if it had been a vessel from some other force, I’m afraid you’d already be fish food.”
“Nine Heavens Holy Land?” Yang Kai expression became slightly dignified.
Daring to use the words ‘Holy Land’, this force was obviously no small matter. Since coming to Tong Xuan Realm, Yang Kai had seen a variety of forces, large and small, such as Bold Independent Union, Water Spirit Temple, Bright Thunder Spirit Religion, Soaring Heaven Sect, etc.
Among them, Bold Independent Union and Bright Thunder Spirit Religion could be considered weak, Water Spirit Temple’s strength ranked somewhere in the middle, and Soaring Heaven Sect was the strongest; however, Yang Kai estimated that this Nine Heavens Holy Land was even stronger than Soaring Heaven Sect!
As these thoughts flashed across his mind, a few cultivators carrying a small boat came over and began lowering it over the side of the big ship, one of them calling out, “Uncle Qian, the boat is ready.”
The Transcendent Realm cultivator, apparently called Uncle Qian, was just about to nod when his brow suddenly wrinkled, quickly turning around and immediately bowed, “Young Lady, why have you come out?”
The other cultivators standing on the deck also hurriedly bowed, each of them displaying a completely respectful attitude.
Yang Kai also turned around to see who they were looking at, his eyes flashing in the next instant.
From the ship’s cabin, a woman dressed in a pale blue dress had emerged. This woman was quite young and incredibly beautiful. Her skin was like fine white jade and her black brows curled at just the right angle. Her eyes were filled with a nimble light and her figure was nothing less than exquisite. She carried herself with an uncommon gracefulness that contrasted greatly with her well alluring figure, instantly causing anyone who saw her to have a pleasant yet reserved impression.
Seemingly aware of Yang Kai’s fixed gaze which was very different from the others around her, the woman couldn’t help frowning slightly towards him.
Noticing this, Uncle Qian turned back and roared angrily at Yang Kai, a thick flavour of warning apparent in his tone.
Yang Kai, of course, ignored him.
“I was a little bored and heard some noise from outside, so I came to see what the matter was,” The woman replied lightly, her voice crisp and sweet, glancing around the deck as she asked, “What happened here?”
Uncle Qian quickly reported what had just transpired, concealing nothing from this young woman.
After hearing the explanation, the young woman turned to look at Yang Kai and nodded lightly, indicating she understood.
“I didn’t expect this little thing to disturb the Young Lady, it is really my grave sin!” Uncle Qian said quite forcefully.
“Uncle Qian is too serious,” The woman slowly shook her head before staring deeply towards Yang Kai, a moment later smiling slightly as she confidently stated, “However, his story really is a lie!”
Yang Kai stared back at this young woman curiously, wondering why she was so confident in her analysis.
“En, he is far too suspicious, so I thought it best to send him away,” Uncle Qian shot a bad look towards Yang Kai.
“There’s no need to drive him away. With his Immortal Ascension cultivation, if we force him to leave, he won’t survive. Although he lied about his origins, he doesn’t have any malicious intent towards us, his circumstances are probably just difficult to talk about. In any case, let him stay with us until we reach our next port before making him leave!”
“Since Young Lady commands so, subordinate will obey!” Uncle Qian replied respectfully.
“I’ll go back first, carry on,” The young woman issued her commands and then turned around and left.
After the young woman left, Uncle Qian turned to Yang Kai and said coldly, “Young Lady is very compassionate, not ordering me to chase you out, so you’d best behave. If you dare try to pull anything, I’ll let you know the meaning of regret!”
Yang Kai grinned sheepishly and nodded, “Rest assured, I won’t make a fuss, I only want to return to land.”
“You’d better!” Uncle Qian nodded firmly before signaling to a nearby Peak Immortal Ascension cultivation, “Cheng Fei, take care of him, don’t let him stir up any trouble!”
“Yes!” A big burly man quickly responded.
After issuing this command, Uncle Qian went back to his own business.
The man called Cheng Fei walked over to Yang Kai and looked him over once, his eyes filled with disdain.
Yang Kai was currently only revealing an Immortal Ascension Boundary Seventh Stage cultivation, and unless a Saint Realm master came and intentionally probed him, no one could see through his real strength.
Such a cultivation at such an age was incredibly common in Tong Xuan Realm and wouldn’t arouse any suspicions.
This Cheng Fei had a Peak Immortal Ascension cultivation so he naturally felt superior.
“Little brat, this Sir doesn’t have time to waste looking after you, so you better not cause any problems or Grandpa Cheng here will break your legs!”
“Yes, yes, I’ll behave,” Yang Kai nodded repeated.
Every one of these Nine Heavens Holy Land cultivators had a sense of arrogance that had seeped into their very bones, probably as a result of their Sect’s supreme status among Tong Xuan Realm’s forces.
It was similar to that other side, where the disciples of the Eight Great Families would feel a sense of superiority, as if no one in the world was worthy to be mentioned in the same sentence as them.
Yang Kai had seen more than his fair share of this and didn’t pay it any mind.
“Come with me, I’ll arrange a place for you to live!” Cheng Fei smiled deviously as he waved to Yang Kai.
Yang Kai quickly followed after him, asking as they walked, “Friend, who was that girl just now? How come all of you seemed so respectful towards her?”
“Little brat, your curiosity is somewhat heavy!” Cheng Fei sneered towards Yang Kai, coldly snorting as he asked, “Why do you want to know?”
“No reason, I just thought she was quite beautiful,” Yang Kai revealed a gentlemanly expression as he offered some words of praise.
“Heh, our Nine Heavens’ Saintess is naturally beautiful,” Cheng Fei said, a hint of fanaticism on his face, obviously quite infatuated with this ‘Saintess’, quickly recovering in the next instant and angrily snorting, “Brat, if you dare to look upon Her Highness the Saintess with such impure eyes again, this Sir will dig out your eyes! You think a mere toad can eat goose meat? You really don’t know the immensity of Heaven and Earth! Saintess is so pure and gentle, someone who deserves to be joined with her has simply not been born yet! Her sparing you a single glance is already the result of all the blessings your ancestors left behind for you!”
This big man continued to berate Yang Kai about this subject for a while, seemingly never running out of insults he could levy.
Yang Kai simply rolled his eyes continuously, thinking that although he couldn’t match Di Yao, that little gigolo, his appearance was also extraordinary and heroic. How could he be described as such a wretched person?
However, he had no interest in arguing here so he simply lowered his head and followed behind Cheng Fei.
But that young woman actually being the Saintess of Nine Heavens Holy Land made Yang Kai feel quite surprised.
From what little he knew, a Saintess was supposed to be a noble and sacred existence that under normal circumstances, would never appear in public, so why would Nine Heavens Holy Land’s Saintess be aboard a ship roaming the seas?
Soon, Cheng Fei brought Yang Kai in front of a room at the bottom of the ship.
With a somewhat mocking grin he said, “Get inside. Before we arrive at our destination, you’ll stay here and you’re not to leave without permission. Naturally, meals will be sent to you three times a day. If you dare go out without our explicit consent, we’ll toss you overboard then and there!”
Looking at the small space cramped up beside the ship’s hull, Yang Kai couldn’t help but frown.
However, he didn’t intend to stir up trouble here and simply went inside without saying a word. Seeing Yang Kai’s obedient and docile attitude, Cheng Fei was very content, immediately closing the door after the former had gone in and walking away.
This room wasn’t a room at all; it was probably just a small storage space a few meters across that was filled with a slightly strange smell.
Helpless, Yang Kai could only put up with these conditions. Since there was no furniture in the room to speak of, he simply sat down cross legged and opened the small window behind him, allowing the crisp sea breeze to blow in.
This at least cleaned up the musty air.
The big ship continued sailing on steadily and Yang Kai did not look for trouble. He didn’t even spy on the movements of the people on the ship, instead just sitting in meditation and cultivating in his cabin all day long, waiting for this Nine Heavens Holy Land ship to finally reach land.
During this period, Cheng Fei sent three meals a day to him, all of which were casually made from some kind of fish. Yang Kai ate it but had only one comment. [It is impressive how one can make a fish taste like nothing.]
The Transcendent Realm Uncle Qian occasionally inquired about Yang Kai as well, and seeing Yang Kai honestly remain in his assigned room he was quite satisfied.
Occasionally, some sea beasts stirred up trouble but the masters aboard the ship would always quickly dispatch them.
After spectating several battles, Yang Kai was secretly surprised by the heritage of Nine Heavens Holy Land.
From what he could tell, there were at least six Transcendent Realm masters aboard this ship, two of which were Third Order, Uncle Qian being one of them, and the remaining four were all Second Order.
However, what made Yang Kai slightly confused was that there really was no Saint Realm master aboard. The status of the so called Saintess should be very important, so it would be reasonable for a Saint to be accompanying her when she set out to sea in case something unexpected occurred.
Unable to understand this point, Yang Kai didn’t think too deeply about it.
Inside a giant room, the Saintess of Nine Heavens Holy Land gently rested her head on her hand as she stared out the window, lost in thought.
This room was hundreds of times better than the one Yang Kai was staying in. It was well laid out, illuminated, and filled with a pleasant fragrance, giving it a sense of warmth as well as a kind of noble quality.
Do note. They are called Saints in real life. Please read this and come back to me thanking me or my team for alerting you when you get an A for your English Exams XD
“What is Young Lady thinking about?” A maidservant standing next to the Saintess saw her listless expression and couldn’t help asking.
“I wasn’t thinking about anything,” The Saintess slowly shook her head, a faint trace of sorrow apparent between her brows.
“Was Young Lady wondering if we would successfully find the next Holy Master this time?” The maidservant, Bei’er, grinned and asked.
“I don’t want to find any nonsense Holy Master!” Saintess sighed slightly exasperatedly.
“But that is Young Lady’s most important responsibility,” Bei’er’s expression dampened noticeably.
“I know, and I am looking, but he has yet to appear, so there’s nothing more I can do.”
“It would be best if he didn’t appear for a lifetime, then Young Lady wouldn’t have anything to worry about.”
“Shh!” The Saintess quickly lifted a jade finger to her mouth before turning her eyes to the room’s door, quietly whispering, “Saying such things to me is fine, but you mustn’t let anyone else hear them, especially not Uncle Qian or there’ll be problems.”
“I know,” Bei’er spat out her tongue playfully, “But Young Lady doesn’t have to worry too much, there are four Saintesses of Nine Heavens Holy Land, perhaps one of the other three who are out searching right now will find an appropriate candidate.”
“It’s no good no matter which of us find him,” The Saintess sighed slightly before standing up suddenly, “Enough sitting around, I’m going out to get some fresh air.”
“En,” Bei’er nodded quickly.
Exiting her cabin and strolling around the deck for a while, the Saintess’ mood improved noticeably. As she walked about, she suddenly recalled the disturbance Yang Kai’s appearance had caused and casually asked one of the nearby disciples about him.
Upon learning that since his arrival, Yang Kai had actually not left his assigned cabin, the Saintess couldn’t help frowning slightly.
Because of some special reasons, she could basically see through other’s true thoughts, so when she first saw Yang Kai she knew he had no hostile or malicious intent, but she also felt that he was a bit strange, as if he was shrouded in a layer of fog that caused even her, who excelled at reading others, to fail to completely understand him.
But learning that he was not causing any fuss and had essentially faded into the background, the Saintess didn’t see any reason to intentionally associate with him, so after strolling around for a while longer, she simply returned to her room.
The days passed by and before Yang Kai knew it, he had been sailing aboard the grand ship for an entire month. All of a sudden, one day, when he was immersed in his meditation, Yang Kai smelt a nostalgic fragrance waft through the air.
Naturally it was the smell of land.
Quickly turning around and looking out his window, he saw some scattered islands appear on the distant horizon.
His spirit rousing, Yang Kai swiftly got up.
Staying in this cramped cabin for the past month had been quite stifling so now that Yang Kai could see land and knew he would finally be able to escape from this place, he inevitably felt happy.
Half a day later, the big ship docked at one of the island’s ports and soon after, Yang Kai heard footsteps outside his door. A moment later, the big man named Cheng Fei pushed his way inside and bluntly said, “Brat, we’ve arrived at our destination, get out!”
Yang Kai nodded lightly and stepped out of his room.
Up on the deck, the disciples of Nine Heavens Holy Land were disembarking in an orderly fashion while down on the docks, some cultivators who seemed to be local big-shots were respectfully welcoming the former, big flattering grins pasted all over their faces.
Yang Kai saw the Nine Heavens Holy Land Saintess on the deck and after thinking about it for a moment, walked over to her directly.
His movements immediately caught the attention of many of the cultivators around and even Uncle Qian began pushing his True Qi and staring towards Yang Kai with a grim expression.
It seemed like he was preparing to butcher Yang Kai the moment the latter made any kind of inappropriate move.
As if he was completely unaware of the malicious eyes gathered on him, Yang Kai simply walked over to a spot not far away from the Saintess, cupped his fists and said, “Many thanks for rescuing me, Young Lady, I will remember this kindness in my heart. I wish Young Lady good health and longevity!”
The Saintess’ eyes flashed before wearing a quaint smile, Yang Kai’s words and actions were somewhat different from those she had encountered before and surprised her slightly, nodded lightly as she replied, “No need to be so polite, from now on you should be careful not to fall into the sea again.”
“Many thanks for Young Lady’s concern. I’ll take my leave!”
Saying so, Yang Kai turned around and quickly left the ship.
“Glib tongued brat!” Uncle Qian didn’t seem to like Yang Kai very much and couldn’t help muttering under his breath and coldly snorted.
“I actually think he’s quite sincere,” The Saintess stared at Yang Kai’s disappearing back as she pursed her lips and giggled.
Around the ship, all the gathered cultivators, both young and old, were instantly drawn to this smile, many of them becoming absent minded for a while until Uncle Qian snorted heavily, shaking them out of their daze, many of them blushing as the awkwardly went back to their assigned tasks.
After Yang Kai got off the big ship, he leisurely strolled around the island.
There were many cultivators on this island, coming and going in droves, but the World Energy Aura here seemed a bit thin, at least, not nearly as rich as the islands occupied by Water Spirit Temple.
Moreover, there seemed to be no real masters on this island. Among the local leaders who had come to greet the Nine Heavens Holy Land ship at the dock, the strongest was only a Second Order Transcendent, and he was an old man with long snow-white hair.
Evidently, this island chain was not a particularly good piece of land and was only occupied by some small forces, none of which was even in the same league as Water Spirit Temple.
Having observing the crowd, Yang Kai could faintly determine that, unlike at Water Spirit Temple, there seemed to be a lot of outsiders wandering around here.
After walking around the island for a while, Yang Kai strolled into a local inn, chose a seat by the window, sat down and ordered some food and drink from one of the waiters.
The young waiter took his order and, a moment later, returned with an exquisite spread of dishes, but just as he was about to leave, Yang Kai called out to him to stay.
“What orders does honoured customer have?” The waiter asked with a smile.
Yang Kai said nothing and simply placed two Crystal Stones on the table.
The waiter’s eyes lit up and immediately wore a flattering smile as he respectfully said, “Honoured guest, these dishes are hardly worth two Crystal Stone.”
“I want to ask you some things, if your answers satisfy me, whatever is leftover is yours!”
“Whatever honoured guest wishes to know, feel free to ask, this humble one will certainly not conceal anything!”
Yang Kai nodded, pausing for a moment to arrange his thoughts before continuing, “First off, where is this place?”
The waiter directed a stunned look towards Yang Kai for a moment before asking with a smile, “Honoured guest doesn’t even know where here is? Then how did honoured guest come to…”
However, before he could finish, the waiter saw a flash of impatience in Yang Kai’s eyes and quickly explained, “This is Azure Sea Island…”
“What notable forces are established in this region?”
“Around the local island chain there are the Cheng Family, Wang Family, Hai Family…” The waiter listed off several forces one by one.
After listening to his remarks, Yang Kai realized that the nearby islands were essentially controlled by a group known as the Seven Family Alliance.
There were twenty or thirty islands in the nearby chain and these seven families were the strongest forces present. These families weren’t very powerful, and Yang Kai had already seen most of their strongest masters back at the dock. Each of them had at most a Second Order Transcendent as their leader as well as another three to five other Transcendents serving as Elders.
When Yang Kai asked about how far this place was from Water Spirit Temple, the waiters answer stunned him.
It seemed that Water Spirit Temple was in the opposite direction he had gone while aboard the Nine Heavens Holy Land’s great ship and was at least a few ten thousand kilometers away.
Knowing this, Yang Kai could only shake his head helplessly, it seems he had to put aside his plans to return to Water Spirit Temple and thank Shui Ling personally for now.
The closest port on the mainland was also about a month’s distance by boat from this place!
“Is there an Alchemist Guild branch here?” Yang Kai asked.
The waiter shook his head.
[This really is a backwater place!] Yang Kai thought to himself. There wasn’t even an Alchemist Guild branch here, which showed just how remote this Azure Sea Island was.
“Is honoured guest an Alchemist?” The waiter was a sharp person and instantly became aware of something after hearing Yang Kai’s question.
“Why do you ask?” Yang Kai glanced over at him curiously.
“The Seven Family Alliance is aggressively recruiting Alchemists and are offering extremely lucrative rewards. If honoured guest wants to make some money, you may want to try visiting them.”
Yang Kai silently snickered in his heart, obviously not interested in such an idea.
He didn’t care about what kind of rewards he could obtain, he only wanted to improve his Alchemy skills, but from what he had just heard about the Seven Family Alliance, it was obvious they didn’t have a large supply or rare herbs he could use to practice with.
“Right, why are there so many guests around here? Why are they all dressed up and puffing out their chests like they’re trying to show themselves off?” Yang Kai smoothly changed the topic.
Since he came to the island, he had noticed something odd. Essentially, every young man he came across was dressed up in his finest. Not only that, they seemed to be paying great attention to the way they spoke and acted, as if they were trying to appear like noble, educated scholars.
In fact, it wasn’t just the young, even the middle-aged men appeared to be on their best behaviour, as if they were under the scrutiny of an invisible pair of eyes.
This puzzled Yang Kai greatly and made him wonder if this was some kind of strange local custom.
“Doesn’t honoured guest already know?” Listening to Yang Kai’s question, the waiter showed a sly smile, his expression somewhat ambiguous.
“Should I?” Yang Kai glanced over at him unkindly and reached for the two Crystal Stones on the table, he was somewhat annoyed at this waiter speaking so much nonsense.
However, the waiter acted faster, swiftly snapping up the Crystal Stones and offering his thanks before leaning over and whispering into Yang Kai’s ear, “The Nine Heavens Holy Land’s Saintess is supposed to arrive here today, so everyone is deliberately trying to show themselves off.”
Yang Kai frowned upon hearing this, “That Saintess coming here, what the hell does that have to do with them?”
“It has everything to do with them!” Seeing that Yang Kai really was ignorant of the situation, the waiter felt slightly surprised but quickly proceeded to explain, “The Saintess going out is a sign that Nine Heavens Holy Land is seeking its next Holy Master. If someone can catch her Highness the Saintess’ attention, he’ll be able to leap over the dragon gate and soar into the sky in a single bound!”
“You mean them?” Yang Kai swept his eyes around and could only see a crowd of worthless idiots putting on airs and posturing to the point he felt nauseous, smiling disdainfully as he said, “Only if that Saintess is totally blind will she have a liking for any of these fools.”
“Sh…” The waiter quickly gestured to Yang Kai before vigilantly glancing around and whispering, “Honoured guest cannot say such things out loud or you’ll draw public anger. Besides, who the Saintess will ultimately choose, no one can say. Every time the Nine Heavens Holy Land Saintess goes out like this it creates a similar storm. Six months ago, when Nine Heavens Holy Land spread the word that their Saintesses would be going out, the entire world shook and countless young heroes began secretly preparing. Since half a month ago, this Azure Sea Island became incredibly lively because word that the Saintess would be stopping here came out. Otherwise, how could there be so many outsiders here in such a remote place right now?”
Although Yang Kai had come to Tong Xuan Realm nearly four years ago, he was still relatively ignorant about its various traditions.
After listening to the waiter, he finally realized that the Nine Heavens Holy Land Saintess journeying out into the world was actually a big event!
Also, he learned that the Saintess he met from Nine Heavens Holy Land did was not the only one!
There were, in fact, a total of four Saintesses, each of whom had sailed off in a different direction on a voyage that would take them across the entire Human Territory.
These Saintesses had grown up in Nine Heavens Holy Land since birth and after twenty or so years of dedicate cultivation, after undergoing a strict selection based on their innate talent and beauty, they would be groomed to become Saintesses of Nine Heavens Holy Land, training in a special Secret Art.
The purpose of their voyage was to find the next Holy Master of Nine Heavens Holy Land!
The current Holy Master of Nine Heavens Holy Land had grown old and would likely pass on soon, so these four Saintesses had gone out in a grand fashion.
As for what method they used to find the next Holy Master, the world’s populace didn’t know. Only each Holy Master of Nine Heavens Holy Land and his Saintesses knew.
According to historical records though, the first nine generations of Holy Master, before being found by the Saintesses, came from a diverse background.
Some of them were famous youngsters while others had just been ordinary traders, some of them even had below average aptitude but once they had been found by a Saintess and entered Nine Heavens Holy Land, they had all undergone a dramatic transformation!
These nine people ranged in age from their early teens to over sixty years old when they had been discovered!
It seemed the Saintesses had some kind of unique vision which let them find these individuals amongst the crowd of people.
It was for this reason that when a Saintess of Nine Heavens Holy Land arrived, those who had dreams of ascending to the top of this world put on their best and carefully displayed themselves. After all, if they were really to be selected by one of the Saintesses, it would simply be the ultimate blessings of their nine generations of ancestors.
As such, there were so many shameless people now on the island deliberately trying to promote themselves.
None of them knew how the Saintess would choose the next Holy Master or when the Saintess or the masters next to her were even watching, so the only thing they could do was to act to the best of their ability at all times so as not to miss this opportunity.
Hearing all this, Yang Kai was dumbstruck, never had he imagined something so bizarre could actually be possible.
“Brother seems to know a great deal about this matter,” Yang Kai commented.
The waiter grinned meaningfully and replied, “I only know what everyone else knows, on this island, honoured guest is probably the only one who doesn’t.”
“Then you have no hopes regarding this matter?” Yang Kai turned to stare at him. According to this waiter, before he previous Holy Masters were found, many of them had been no better than average civilians, even an ordinary restaurant waiter should have a chance.
“Of course I do, why shouldn’t I?” The waiter nodded frankly, “But regarding someone like the Saintess, I naturally know I have no qualifications to attract her attention. If she happens to take notice of me, then it is this humble one’s blessing, if not, then that’s all there is to it. Given then, I might as well go about my business as usual rather than putting on a useless act.”
“Admirable!” This waiter’s composed and casual attitude really garnered a favourable impression from Yang Kai, the latter cupping his fists and nodding, “En, then I should wish brother waiter here good luck.”
“Then I’ll take advantage of honoured guest’s auspicious words!” The waiter smiled before attending to his work.
After eating and drinking his fill at the inn, and acquiring some useful information, Yang Kai left.
Now that he had nothing urgent to do, he wasn’t about to rush off again. The Nine Heavens Holy Land Saintess looking for a new Holy Master was something he was also somewhat curious about, wondering just what kind of person that woman would take a liking to.
So Yang Kai decided to stick around for a while to watch the excitement.
The nearby twenty or thirty islands were all quite lively. Since the arrival of the Saintess, all the young men behaved like they had been fed some kind of stimulant and were shamelessly parading themselves around.
Yang Kai spent the next ten days touring around the entire island chain, experiencing the local customs while purchasing a large number of herbs, unfortunately he never found anything he needed or was particularly interested in.
After the Saintess arrived here, it was as if she had gone into hiding, much less searching for a new Holy Master.
Just as Yang Kai was finishing up his tour around the archipelago, in a grand palace atop one of the islands, the Third Order Transcendent Uncle Qian walked over to the Saintess in a respectful manner and hesitantly asked, “Young Lady, is there still no response?”
The Saintess slowly shook her head.
Uncle Qian sighed slightly and muttered, “This is already the eighth place we have visited but it seems the new Holy Master is not here either! After a few days, let us proceed to the next place.”
The Saintess nodded slightly and did not refute. From an early age, she knew what kind of responsibility she was shouldering and worked diligently towards that end. Between her and her three sisters, one of them would eventually find that chosen person among the boundless crowd who would become the next Holy Master.
“Uncle Qian, I have not left the palace since we arrived here, I’d like to go out today with Bei’er to see the scenery, is that alright?” The Saintess asked suddenly.
Uncle Qian paused for a moment before nodding, “Very well! But Young Lady has to disguise herself well!”
“Don’t worry, I know!” With Uncle Qian’s affirmative answer, the Saintess’ mood visibly improved.
After putting on a disguise, the two young women happily left the palace, two Second Order Transcendent masters quietly tailing behind them to guard against any kind of accident.
On one of the local islands, Yang Kai was searching for rare herbs in a medicine shop when he suddenly felt a powerful energy fluctuation sweep towards him from a distant place. A moment later, with a great bang, the entire island seemed to shake from a profound impact.
The faces of everyone on the islands changed greatly, none of them knowing what had happened. Yang Kai also furrowed his brow and quickly left the medicine shop, soaring into the air to see what the source of the disturbance was.
What he saw when he first flew up was a giant column of water shooting towards the Heavens before slowly falling back down, as if something incredible had emerged at the bottom of the sea.
Many people were also rushing over towards that side, each of them curious about what exactly was going on.
At the same time, Yang Kai suddenly noticed an aura that made him feel very comfortable!
A strong Yang Attribute aura! Obviously this aura had appeared as a result of whatever accident had occurred at the bottom of the sea.
His interest immediately being roused, Yang Kai also flew towards.
Above the sea, there would normally be a thick Water Attribute aura, so in general it was impossible for a strong Yang Attribute energy to be present, so whatever was generating this aura was definitely an extraordinary treasure.
Yang Kai very much wanted to know what kind of object was capable of emitting such energy.
However, before he could approach the area in question, he was stopped by a number of people. These people should be cultivators from the Seven Family Alliance, obviously this local overlord had formed a blockade around the area to stop anyone from getting to close.
Although there were a great many foreign cultivators present right now, no one took the initiative to stir up trouble so although the atmosphere was somewhat tense, no full scale battles erupted, most people choosing to stop somewhere close by and observe the situation before deciding how to proceed.
Yang Kai listened to the random chatter around him for a while but didn’t hear any useful information, only that whatever was happening was something completely unexpected.
Soon, a large group of masters appeared.
Yang Kai had seen these people before; they were the group that had been at the dock to welcome the Saintess when the big ship from Nine Heavens Holy Land ad arrived, the masters from the Seven Family Alliance.
This group huddled together and began whispering back and forth, all of them wearing dignified expressions as they occasionally shot glances at the surrounding crowds gathered nearby.
Yang Kai, who had chosen to take a wait and see approach, only noticed that the Yang Attribute energy aura coming from the depths of the ocean was becoming more and more intense, further stimulating his curiosity.
After waiting for half a day, while Yang Kai was debating whether or not to sneak into the depths when night came around, the Seven Family Alliance’s masters seemingly came to a decision.
A yellow faced Transcendent Realm masters emerged from their group and walked towards the crowd of foreign cultivators that had by now congregated together in one spot not far away and lightly coughed, “All of you gathered here now must be aware of the incident that took place earlier today, some of you probably even witnessed the fallout from it. My Seven Family Alliance does not intend to conceal anything here and hopes that, together with our foreign guests, we can work together in a cooperative manner. As such, I am here to inform you that down below, an Ancient Ruins has appeared!”
Cries of shock immediately burst out!
Yang Kai’s expression also changed greatly.
Ancient Ruins, these two words were like resounding thunder in everyone’s ears, dazing all of them.
The yellow-faced old man glanced around at the crowd’s reaction and nodded with satisfaction, smiling as he continued, “There’s no need for suspicion, there are truly Ancient Ruins down below. For some time now, my Seven Family Alliance has been aware of these ruins and has frequently been sending people to investigate the situation down below. The great disturbance earlier was a result of one of our investigation teams triggering some kind of restriction, this has been confirmed by the disciples who returned afterwards.”
“Old man, what kind of scheme are you plotting, do you want use to go down and help you explore the road so your Seven Family Alliance can reap the benefits while we face all the danger?” Immediately, some smarter individuals began to call out.
Listening to these voices, the crowd of foreign cultivators all became slightly wary, many of them turning vigilant looks towards the yellow-faced old man.
The Seven Family Alliance wouldn’t be telling them about such a big treasure trove without some ulterior motive reason, it was quite likely they were trying to temp these outsiders into exploring these Ancient Ruins so they could treat them as pathfinders and reduce the risk their Seven Family Alliance had to face.
The yellow-faced old man however smiled and unexpectedly nodded, “We indeed had such an idea, but that is not main reason we are telling you all this! My Seven Family Alliance knows its own strength, we know well enough that we cannot block all of you from exploring the situation here for long!”
“Old man, you indeed have some self-awareness!” Some people laughed.
Because of the appearance of the Saintess, there were currently many more outsiders here than normal, and although most of them weren’t that strong, it was really impossible for the Seven Family Alliance to blockade all of them.
Perhaps while they were seeking for treasures in front of them, someone would be sneaking up behind them.
The yellow-faced old man so frankly admitting everything had won a favourable impression from many of the foreign cultivators present.
“After some lengthy negotiations, my Seven Family Alliance has decided to make you all a proposal, I hope each of you will listen and consider it seriously!”
“Old man, if you have anything to say, hurry up and say it!”
“My Seven Family Alliance will coordinate an exploration of the Ancient Ruins down below. If any of you wish to join us, we will hold a registration and organize you into teams. If we discover any benefits down there, my Seven Family Alliance and all those who participate in the exploration will share them equally. This proposal has advantages for both sides and can also avoid any unpleasant results from us acting in an adversarial manner.” The yellow-faced old man then let out a snort as his tone grew colder, “But this old master must first remind you that the situation inside these Ancient Ruins is unknown. Where there are benefits, there are also risks, those friends who want to work together with my Seven Family Alliance should be aware of this point. If any of you suffers injuries or dies, that will be solely your responsibility!”
The yellow faced old man finished speaking and stared out across the crowd, stroking his long beard as he waited quietly.
Although they knew they couldn’t fully believe his words, the mere mention of an Ancient Ruin still managed to firmly grab everyone’s attention.
If there really was an Ancient Ruin down there, then there would definitely be treasures as well and whether they fought or cooperated with one another, it was ultimately for those unseen benefits. As such, all the foreign cultivators gathered on the shore were inevitably tempted.
What’s more, the great movement when the Ancient Ruin’s barrier was disturbed had already been noticed by all of them, making the yellow-faced old man’s story seem more credible.
Many of these outsiders gathered together frowning and deliberating, while others, like Yang Kai, stood alone, observing the situation vigilantly.
The Seven Family Alliance was definitely forced to make this decision, but they were also likely trying to take advantage of the situation to reduce their own losses by roping in all these outsiders to serve as pathfinders.
From this, it could be easily understood that although they knew something about the Ancient Ruins down below, it likely wasn’t much.
Yang Kai’s thoughts turned quickly in his mind as he quickly evaluated the options before him.
Should he join the exploration team?
Going down there definitely carried risks, but the source of that rich Yang Attribute aura was something Yang Kai was interested in.
Now that he had reached the Transcendent Realm, he had no decent artifacts on hand. His Bone Shield had been destroyed during his trip to the Starry Sky so the only usable artifact he had at the moment was the small sword currently floating in his Knowledge Sea.
However, that soul type artifact was only Heaven Grade Top-Rank. While it had some value back in the Central Capital, it wasn’t of much use to Yang Kai anymore.
If it was a powerful artifact exuding that potent Yang Attribute aura, it would be a perfectly fit for Yang Kai; after acquiring it, his combat strength would increase dramatically.
Even if it wasn’t an artifact and was instead just some precious material, it would still be incredibly useful to him.
Considering all this, Yang Kai quickly made a decision.
At the same time, there were many other outsiders who had come to the same decision as him. After the yellow-faced old man finished speaking, it wasn’t long before someone stepped out of the crowd and flew over to the registration place the Seven Family Alliance had set up.
Soon, some scattered cultivators began coming forward, including Yang Kai; however, the majority were still standing by, looking suspicious and uncertain.
Seeing this scene, the yellow-faced old man who has been silent for some time now suddenly said, “Right, there is one more thing I must tell all of you. Although my Seven Family Alliance is willing to cooperate with all of you, it is impossible for us to allow each and every one of you to participate. En, each of our Families will only recruit thirty outsiders to join their respective exploration teams. Naturally, the higher your strength the better. Those who have not yet broken through to the Immortal Ascension Boundary need not bother applying to join.”
“Hey, old man, why didn’t you say something so important sooner?!” A series of dissatisfied roars erupted from the crowd and many of those who had still been hesitating broke out into a sprint, rushing to register with the Seven Family Alliance lest all the available spots be taken up.
The yellow faced old man simply continued stroking his beard in response, his mouth curled into a slight smirk, a triumphant look upon his face.
All of the Seven Family Alliance’s teams stood apart from one another and any cultivator who wanted to join in the undersea exploration could choose which one they wanted to work with.
Soon, seven big groups had formed with a little less than two thousand people in total.
Yang Kai was among the first to sign up and after casually reporting his name, he displayed an Immortal Ascension Boundary Seventh Stage cultivation, intentionally disguising himself but still easily qualifying and being directed to a waiting zone.
Time passed by slowly as all of the gathered outside cultivators applied to the Seven Family Alliance’s masters. Most of these foreigners were rejected because their strength was too low but still others, like Yang Kai, passed the screening relatively easily.
After an hour or so, the teams had been finalized.
However, the number of cultivators who had passed the Seven Family Alliance’s scrutiny was greater than the yellow-faced old man’s expectations. There were nearly three hundred foreign cultivators, the weakest of which was still an Immortal Ascension Boundary Seventh Stage maser, remained. There was also a not small number of Transcendent, making up nearly a tenth of the population.
The Seven Family Alliance powerhouses gathered again to hold a discussion, the same yellow-faced old man soon emerging and announcing, “This old master has felt the enthusiasm of all of you, so all of you who have passed my Seven Family Alliance’s test will be allowed to join us. As for the rest of these friends, please remain on the coast line, if you dare not listen to my advice, don’t blame my Seven Family Alliance’s disciples for not being merciful!”
The remaining foreign cultivators didn’t possess very high strength to begin with, so with the unquestionably unfriendly words the yellow-faced old man delivered, none of them had any thoughts of stirring up trouble; this was, after all, still the Seven Family Alliance’s territory.
Seeing the yellow-faced old man’s attitude go from friendly to menacing so quickly, the cultivators who were excluded could only utter a few curses under their breath.
After finishing this brief episode up, the masters from the Seven Family Alliance came together and seemed to be making some final preparations.
Yang Kai stood in a remote corner, indifferently observing the strength of the people around him. Most of the others gathered here were doing the same, each of them apparently seeing all the others as competitors rather than allies.
Perceiving this, Yang Kai couldn’t help chuckling. They hadn’t even found any treasures yet, but the tension was already so thick. If they really were to find something good down there, Yang Kai figured that a big fight would immediately break out, likely resulting in a large number of casualties.
The Seven Family Alliance really had some sinister methods!
They knew they couldn’t stop all these outsiders from diving into the sea to treasure hunt, so they adopted what, on the surface, appeared to be a compromise strategy. On its face, this arrangement shared the secrets of the Ancient Ruins with outsiders but in actual fact, even if the Seven Family Alliance brought a large number of foreigners down with them to explore the ruins, these individuals were by no means united and would instead mutually constrain each other. Such a group of loose sand wouldn’t be able to stir up much trouble down in the Ancient Ruins and when the time came, the Seven Family Alliance cultivators only needed to sit atop the mountain and watch the tigers fight before reaping the fishermen’s benefits. Everything was set up for the Seven Family Alliance to gain the most profit while exerting the least amount of effort!
Yang Kai secretly shook his head in admiration.
As he was observing his surrounding ‘allies’ though, a whiff of fragrance suddenly drifted over from his side, its aroma somewhat familiar to him.
Wrinkling his brow slightly, Yang Kai turned his head to discover a woman standing next to him with a light smile on her face
After staring at this seemingly unfamiliar woman for a moment, Yang Kai’s expression suddenly changed as he called out in amazement, “You…”
“Shh…” The woman quickly placed a jade finger on her lips and silenced Yang Kai.
Yang Kai’s eyes flickered before quietly releasing his Divine Sense and scanning the area around them. After confirming no one was listening in on them, he turned to the somewhat delicate featured woman with a strange smile and whispered, “Girl, how come you’re here?”
“Why are you so sure it’s me?” The woman smiled faintly, a touch of surprise apparent in her eyes.
Yang Kai laughed slyly and shook his head before replying, “There’s a saying that to know a woman you must know her scent! Every woman has a unique fragrance so although you’ve changed your appearance… En, and by some method I can’t quite understand, even covered up your original aura, you still can’t disguise your scent!”
“Dog nosed bastard!” The woman’s face blushed bright red as she glared half mad half embarrassed towards Yang Kai, “You seem like quite the expert in this field, you must have hooked up with a lot of women, right?”
“Nonsense,” Yang Kai shook his head in a serious manner, “I have always been a pure and incorruptible paragon, I would never do such shameless things.”
The woman pursed her lips and trembled slightly, trying to stop herself from giggling out loud before flatly stating, “I don’t believe you.”
Yang Kai squinted towards her for a moment before directing his eyes towards two Second Order Transcendent masters who were flying over from the distance. These two men were releasing their Divine Senses unscrupulously, seemingly anxiously looking for someone; however, after sweeping this area and apparently not finding anything, they turned around a left in a clearly exasperated state.
“Isn’t this bad? Regardless of anything else, you are a Saintess, what exactly are you doing here?” Yang Kai quietly glanced in the direction the two masters were leaving, “Those two seem to be looking for you.”
“Don’t look at them directly! They’re quite alert, if will really be bad if I’m discovered by them,” The woman quickly pulled on Yang Kai’s sleeve.
Yang Kai was really shocked when he realized the true identity of this woman.
She was actually the one he had met back on that big ship, the Nine Heavens Holy Land’s Saintess!
Yang Kai didn’t know what kind of strange technique she had used to conceal her aura but it had apparently also allowed her to disguise her appearance.
If she hadn’t taken the initiative to approach him, Yang Kai estimated he wouldn’t have even noticed her.
This Nine Heavens Holy Land’s Saintess’ skills were really profound! No wonder she was able to escape the detection of those two Second Order Transcendents and secretly hide here.
“You still haven’t told me, what are you doing here?” Yang Kai wrinkled his brow.
“Of course I came here to join the excitement.”
“This excitement isn’t something good to join, if you’re not careful the price will be your life!” Yang Kai muttered as he directed a stern glance towards her.
The Saintess immediately became annoyed at his words though, “Do you think I’m someone ignorant who would just die in vain? Hmph, even you with your Immortal Ascension Boundary Seventh Stage cultivation can go, so why can’t I? My true strength is a lot higher than yours.”
“You know, like this, you don’t have any of the etiquette or demeanor of someone raised as a Saintess,” Yang Kai couldn’t help commenting. The woman in front of him right now was very different from the gentle and quiet Saintess he had witnessed before, and it seemed this was her real temperament.
“What’s it to you? I won’t be choosing you as a Holy Master anyways!” The woman sneered.
“I don’t want to be any nonsense Holy Master!” Yang Kai spat disdainfully.
The woman’s expression suddenly became somewhat pleading, “Don’t expose me… please… I believed in you. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have approached you.”
“Rest assured, I don’t have a hobby of meddling in other people’s business,” Yang Kai nodded, but soon became somewhat confused, “You’re an honoured Saintess, so why are you bothering to approach a nameless junior like me?”
The Saintess’ long eyelashes fluttered lightly as she smiled, “How should I put this, I feel like there is something unusual about you. It’s like everything about you is covered in a mysterious barrier that I can’t fully comprehend. I have a strong sense of curiosity towards the unknown.”
Yang Kai’s expression dimmed as he snickered back, “I could say the same about you.”
What kind of cultivation did this woman have? Yang Kai couldn’t tell! Even though the two of them were close enough he could smell the scent of her hair, it seemed like some kind of mystifying force surrounded prevented him from probing her.
“Your laugh looks a bit evil,” The Saintess commented as she stared back at Yang Kai, “I grew up in the Holy Land since I was a child. This is actually the first time I have left, but no matter where I go, there are always people following me, watching me, restricting my movements. All of this is boring me to death! I figured that in this backwater place I can take care of myself so I decided to ditch my escorts and have a little fun.”
“You don’t need to explain it to me,” Yang Kai said lightly, “I have no interest in hearing the sob story of some stranger. En, after we arrive at the Ancient Ruins, don’t pester me, if you encounter any danger, do your best, don’t expect anyone to come save you!”
Seeing Yang Kai’s attitude suddenly become so off-putting, the Saintess couldn’t help grumbling, “I never expected you to come save me! You should just worry about yourself!”
After saying so, obviously somewhat annoyed, she was not willing to keep talking with Yang Kai.
Seeing her like this, Yang Kai breathed a sigh of relief.
During this exploration, he didn’t know what would happen; perhaps there would be great danger. If this Saintess was to latch on to him, it would severely restrict his movements. He preferred to act alone without having to concern himself with other people’s wellbeing.
Although this woman had indeed granted Yang Kai passage on her ship, they were essentially still strangers, so Yang Kai felt no obligation to protect her safety.
In Yang Kai’s opinion, she was just another flower that had grown up in a greenhouse who thought she could prove her ability by showing off a bit of her skill. Once she suffered some real pain, she would come to realize the world was not such a friendly place.
After waiting for what seemed like a long time, the Seven Family Alliance’s cultivators finally finished their preparations and selected outsiders gathered into seven teams under the directions of the yellow-faced old man.
When Yang Kai was signing up before, he had simply chosen one of the seven families at random and it wasn’t until now that he learned he had joined the Hai Family’s team which was actually led by the yellow-faced old man.
There were roughly forty people in this team, each of whom looked like they were not weak, one or two of them having even reached the Transcendent Realm. As for the Nine Heavens Holy Land Saintess, she was with a different family’s team.
The yellow faced old man came forward and cleared his throat before addressing the crowd gathered before him, “This old man is Hai Wang Gu, a Protector from the Hai Family of the Seven Family Alliance. For this time’s expedition to the bottom of the sea, this old man will be leading you. Once we enter the Ancient Ruins, I hope you will all obey this old man’s orders and not act on your own so as to avoid unnecessary accidents! En, in addition to all of you, my Hai Family will be sending more than a dozen masters. Let us all act together. Since you’ve chosen to accompany my Hai Family, this old man will try his best to maintain each of your safety, but I will say this up front, if any of you does anything to disrupt the harmony of the group, don’t blame this old man for acting ruthless.”
Saying so, he swept his eyes over the crowd coldly, but received no challenge from any of the foreign cultivators.
Hai Wang Gu nodded with satisfaction, “That being the case… may the Heavens bestow good fortune on us, let’s go!”
Finishing his speech, Hai Wang Gu immediately took off, the forty or so foreign cultivators and the Hai Family’s masters following soon after, all of them flying over to the sea.
At the same time, the other six families began moving as well.
As they sped along, Yang Kai secretly spied on the number and strength of the people the Hai Family had dispatched. There were only a dozen or so of them, but in addition to Hai Wang Gu, there were actually two other Transcendents while the rest were all at the Peak Immortal Ascension Boundary, which meant that although their numbers were smaller, their overall strength was actually greater than the outsiders.
Obviously the Hai Family had sent all of its elites and were in full control of the situation.
The other six teams also had a similar configuration.
After a short time, everyone arrived above the ocean and Hai Wang Gu tookout a disc-shaped artifact. This artifact gave off a glittering silver radiance and emitted a strong energy fluctuation. It was at least a high quality Spirit Grade artifact.
“Gather around, this old man will use this to bring us to the seabed,” Hai Wang Gu beckoned to the crowd.
Everyone obediently moved towards him.
Hai Wang Gu then poured his True Qi into the disc-shaped artifact, and suddenly, a silver light curtain roughly ten meters in diameter appeared and wrapped everyone up. Soon after, the silver bubble began sinking into the sea.
Seeing him reveal such a method, many people’s expression became solemn.
Although Hai Wang Gu had not used too power an artifact or Martial Skill, simply being able to lead a few dozen people into the depths of the sea was still quite impressive.
Watching the changes in everyone’s mood, Hai Wang Gu couldn’t help showing a somewhat smug look on his face.
Surrounded by the blue ocean, the deeper they dove, the darker it became. This deep darkness gave many people a creepy feeling, most of the cultivators here had never dove into the sea before after all so they were understandably somewhat nervous, some of them even quietly shuffling closer to Hai Wang Gu, as if looking for some sense of security.
Yang Kai swept his eyes around the area and quickly spotted size other bright lights in the water, obviously the other six families were using their own means to rush to descend to the bottom of the sea.
The silver light barrier created by Hai Wang Gu was extremely tough, not allowing a single drop of sea water from the outside to penetrate it. Staring outside the light shield, the cultivators could see various colourful fish swimming about, adding a slight bit of brightness to the otherwise dreary scenery.
As they continued to dive, the expression on Hai Wang Gu’s face gradually became somewhat strained.
The sea in this area was unfathomable deep and the lower they went the higher the pressure became. Even though he was a Transcendent Realm master, using an artifact to maintain such a large-scale barrier required a massive amount of his True Qi.
The silver light curtain seemed to be under a great deal of stress and slowly began to deform, becoming less rounded than before as the space inside even started to shrink somewhat.
The cultivator who perceived this couldn’t help turning towards Hai Wang Gu and wrinkling their brows, wondering whether this old man would be able to insist until they reached their destination.
After diving for a while, Hai Wang Gu suddenly said, “Everyone, the old man must ask for your help, contribute some of your True Qi to help this old man maintain the operation of the artifact or we may not be able to reach the bottom of the sea.”
Hearing his request, many people silently cursed in their hearts.
This old fox clearly had plenty of spare capacity and was simply acting as if he was having a difficult time. Clearly he didn’t want to use too much of his own True Qi so he could maintain his peak state and had thus asked everyone else instead.
Seeing the silvery light barrier continue to shrink towards them though, even if they knew the old man was lying, the gathered cultivators didn’t have any choice and quickly began pushing their True Qi towards Hai Wang Gu’s artifact.
Hai Wang Gu smiled and nodded, quickly guiding this influx of True Qi into his the appropriate spirit arrays inside his artifact.
Yang Kai also contributed, supply a stream of True Qi reasonable for someone at the Immortal Ascension Seventh Stage, secretly sneering in his heart as he did so. Everyone here had the same idea about preserving their True Qi and were only willing to contribute the minimum necessary, hoping that others would pick up the slack so they could gain an advantage in the coming exploration.
Before they even reached the bottom of the sea, everyone was already playing such games, so when they got there, it could only be imagined how chaotic things would become.
After accepting everyone’s True Qi, the silver light curtain really did stabilize and expand back out.
But after a while, Hai Wang Gu once again made a similar request.
This process repeated itself several times yet there was still no sign of the so-called Ancient Ruins. Everyone had burned through a large amount of True Qi and were slowly becoming impatient, some of them even opening complaining.
Hai Wang Gu however just stated calmly, “There’s no need to become anxious, we’ll be there soon, the depth of the seabed here is not something you can imagine.”
This continued for another stick of incense worth of time before someone suddenly pointed below and shouted excitedly, “Look, it’s the bottom!”
Everyone quickly turned their eyes in the direction this man was pointing and suddenly felt their spirits rise. Down below them, there were a number of colourful lights shimmering, and amongst these lights was a massive set of ruins.
“Ancient Ruins!” Everyone could not help but exclaim.
“It looks like we’ve finally arrived,” Hai Wang Gu smiled slightly, increasing the silver light curtain’s rate of descent.
A short time later, the group arrived at the periphery of the Ancient Ruins. Even from the outside, it was obvious to all that these Ancient Ruins occupied a vast expanse of land, at least several dozen kilometers in each direction. Amidst the ruins were several deserted palace-like structures as well as numerous houses arranged in neat rows; of course, many of these buildings had already collapsed, leaving behind only the wreckage.
Most impressively, around the outer perimeter of this huge Ancient Ruin was a transparent barrier that, even though they were on the seabed, kept the inside ruins perfectly dry.
Outside this barrier, countless pieces of coral grew and swayed in the flowing sea water, many of them giving off a soft glow, providing a kind of eerie illumination.
Seeing all of this, everyone couldn’t help feeling somewhat nervous, wondering what kind of dangers lay inside.
Hai Wang Gu actually had a leisurely expression as he continuing to maintain the operation of his artifact and directly led everyone into the ruins.
The outer barrier which was blocking the sea actually didn’t provide any resistance to their intrusion and the group of several dozen people easily passed it and entered the Ancient Ruins.
Hai Wang Gu took back his artifact and let out a light breath before lifting his old face, his eyes flickering with anticipation.
“Since we’ve arrived, we should move quickly, the other six groups should also be here by now!” Hai Wang Gu said.
Everyone’s expression turned black as they stared at his calm and relaxed appearance, all of them realizing this old fox had really been using them before.
In order to maintain the operation of the artifact, most of the people had experienced fairly heavy consumption, but Hai Wang Gu was still bursting with energy.
Proposing they immediately move out was obviously because he didn’t want to give them any time to restore themselves.
As he spoke, from positions not far away, the other six groups also arrived.
Without even enough time to curse, the foreign cultivators all took out some restorative pills and swallowed them down, quickly following after Hai Wang Gu while circulating their Secret Arts to supplement their consumption of True Qi.
In order to avoid other people’s suspicions, Yang Kai also followed suit, casually tossing a pill into his mouth.
After entering this Ancient Ruin, Yang Kai felt that a rich flow of Yang Attribute energy coming from a certain direction. This abundant Yang Attribute energy seemed to flood the entire ruin, causing the ambient temperature to actually be somewhat warm.
However, he did not immediately leave the team and head in that direction. This Ancient Ruin was filled with unknown dangers so he planned to follow along with this group to first explore the situation before setting off on his own.
The crowd was dazzled as they walked forward.
At first glance, it was obvious the age of these ruins was quite old, at least several thousand years. Who knows what kind of great force this once was that, for some unknown reason, had wound up being sunk into the depths of the ocean.
Everyone was paying close attention to their surroundings, fully releasing their Divine Senses, searching for any place there might be hidden treasures.
As Hai Wang Gu was walking at the front of the crowd, he suddenly said, “If anyone discovers anything, please first hand it over to this old master. Don’t worry, after leaving these ruins and returning to the surface, this old master will ensure that everyone gets their fair share, my Hai Family absolutely won’t take everything here for ourselves. Of course, the more you contribute, the more benefits you will get in the end. This policy also applies to my Hai Family!”
He spoke righteous words and made solemn vows, but after eating a big loss at this old fox’s hands, no one here was willing to believe him again.
As the group walked forward, a few people rushed towards a couple of rows of collapsed houses. This sudden burst of movement obviously caught everyone’s attention and they all realized that there must be something in these houses as they could feel slight energy fluctuations coming from them.
Hai Wang Gu lifted his hand to indicate everyone to stop and wait.
Those that continued to move were all Hai Family’s cultivators. Naturally, this being the area they stake their claim to, none of the outside cultivators dared to act as they pleased.
If it turned out that there was something good here, allowing the Hai Family to eat the meat while collecting some soup afterwards wasn’t a problem, and if there was any danger, allowing the Hai Family to test the waters was also good; everyone here had such thoughts.
A short time later, the Hai Family’s cultivators quickly returned. The two who had gone to search the left row of houses both had downcast looks and were shaking their heads, apparently not having found anything.
The pair that had searched the right set of houses however had faces filled with smiles, the two of them quickly handing a small object over to Hai Wang Gu.
Everyone’s eyes lit up as they stared towards this object.
Hai Wang Gu accepted the object and carefully wiped the dust off of it before using his Divine Sense to investigate. A moment later, his brow loosened as he nodded, “Good, it’s an artifact, unfortunately it seems to have degraded to the point where it can only display a Mysterious Grade Low-Rank prestige! Truly unfortunate, if it were in good condition, it would probably at least be a Spirit Grade Top-Rank artifact!”
Listening to his words, everyone couldn’t help showing a look of regret.
What Hai Wang Gu said was the truth, everyone here had their eyes on the artifact and were probing it with their Divine Senses, so him lying would be pointless.
However, finding an artifact so soon after arriving could be considered a good start, raising everyone’s expectations even higher.
“This artifact will be taken care of by this old master for now. After we return to the surface, I will find an Artifact Refiner to repair it, perhaps some of its former strength can be restored, increasing its grade,” Hai Wang Gu said frankly before storing the artifact in his Universe Bag.
From the start, Hai Wang Gu had said that all treasures their group found would be kept by him and only after the exploration was over would they be distributed according to everyone’s individual contributions; since this artifact was found by his Hai Family cultivators, no one expected him to share it even after they got back.
Having already gained some small benefits, everyone became more passionate in their search.
In order to expand the scope of their search, Hai Wang Gu divided everyone up into three small teams, each of them led by a Hai Family Transcendent Realm master, and sent them off in three different directions.
Yang Kai was still following behind Hai Wang Gu. The small team he was part of now consisted of only twenty or so people and with the exception of Hai Wang Gu, only Yang Kai had reached the Transcendent Realm. Everyone else was an Immortal Ascension Boundary cultivator.
Amongst the many ruined houses on either side of the road they were traveling, people would occasionally find something of value. Most of these things were artifacts, but there were occasionally Secret Arts and Martial Skills as well. However, these Secret Arts and Martial Skills generally weren’t well preserved, and the moment they were touched, they crumbled into dust, depressing a great many.
There were also some pills, but because of the long passage of time, their medicinal efficacies had completely passed, leaving behind only some worthless dregs.
After half a day, Yang Kai’s group had only managed to harvest some damaged artifacts, causing most of them to feel somewhat unsatisfied as these gains were far from what they had been expecting.
Yang Kai stayed at the back of the group, neither showcasing nor hiding himself, only working as hard as an average Immortal Ascension Boundary Seventh Stage cultivator should, not attracting anyone’s attention.
Among the couple dozen artifacts that had been found, he had also made some contributions, but nothing of noticeable significance.
Silently though, Yang Kai felt somewhat doubtful. This Ancient Ruin should be the remains of a large Sect from long ago. Such a Sect should have a lot of internal barriers and restrictions guarding their more valuable locations, this point could easily be inferred from the barrier that was blocking the sea from flooding this place. But until now, their group had yet to encounter any such barriers, much less any kind of danger.
This instead made Yang Kai even more vigilant.
As they were walking, a man with a thin frame suddenly approached Yang Kai, causing the latter to frown as he glanced over curiously. Yang Kai immediately noticed that this thin man was grinning towards him silently.
“Do you need something?” Yang Kai asked.
“Boy, you seem like a smart one!” The man whispered, glancing over towards Hai Wang Gu who was leading the way, making sure that the latter wasn’t paying attention to them.
“Is that so?” Yang Kai suddenly felt things were becoming interesting. This guy was also a foreign cultivator who had joined Hai Wang Gu.’s group. He had a Peak Immortal Ascension cultivation and didn’t seem very old, only in his early thirties. His pair of small and narrow eyes resembled those of a poisonous snake, always revealing a somewhat sinister light.
Him suddenly calling out for no reason made Yang Kai somewhat curious, wondering what the former was plotting.
“Of course, I saw all of it!” The man replied lightly, “While you basically kept silent, your eyes were constantly flickering. It was quite a shrewd performance; you’re trying to hide your true strength in order to snag something big, aren’t you?”
“No, you’re thinking too much,” Yang Kai slowly shook his head.
“You don’t have to deny it, everyone is thinking this way anyways,” The thin man sneered, “That old guy keeps putting everything into his Universe Bag, who here can’t see what he’s trying to do? After all of this is over, he’ll probably give us nothing, or maybe he’ll give us some petty profits just to shut us up, this is his Seven Family Alliance’s site after all, we simply don’t have any say in the matter!”
“They eat meat, I drink soup!” Yang Kai smiled, “I’m content with just that.”
“You don’t look like someone so easily satisfied!” The thin man spat disdainfully, lowering his voice even further, “How about it? Any interest in teaming up with me?”
“Teaming up, what for?”
The thin man stared at Yang Kai like he was staring at an idiot before saying, “There’s no danger in this place, we just need to find a way to sneak off and search for treasure on our own, why should we bother staying with them?”
“Oh? Not a bad idea!” Yang Kai’s expression became bright, a look of interest appearing on his face.
“Isn’t it?” The thin man saw the look on Yang Kai’s face and quickly struck while the iron was hot, “If we really find anything good, we can split it between the two of us, fifty-fifty, I’m a person who believes in being fair!”
“Although your suggestion is tempting, I’d still rather follow the group, there’s safety in numbers after all,” Yang Kai seemed to hesitate, slowly shaking his head.
The thin man hurriedly comforted his worries though and continued his sales pitch.
However, Yang Kai wasn’t buying, so the other side couldn’t help but swear, “You dumbass, if you keep following them blindly you’ll suffer a big loss sooner or later!”
Yang Kai was too lazy to care about him though.
At first glance it was obvious this guy wasn’t anything good, him trying so hard to rope Yang Kai in was clearly because the latter didn’t have enough confidence to go it alone and wanted to find someone to help explore the way for him. When they really encountered any danger, it would be easier to deal with if there were two of them.
But once they obtained something of value, with his Peak Immortal Ascension Boundary strength, dealing with the young and weak Yang Kai should be easy.
Or at least the thin man thought so!
[Since when did I become such an easy mark to prey upon?] Yang Kai coldly snorted in his heart.
“There’s a few houses in front, some of you go check them out!” Hai Wang Gu suddenly stopped and pointed towards a cluster of houses.
Everyone nodded, and the team quickly dispatched a couple of people to search the houses.
Yang Kai also went this time, walking towards one of the houses on the right.
There were a total of five people in Yang Kai’s group and while three of them stayed outside and rummaged around, Yang Kai stealthily used his Divine Sense to confirm there was nothing of worth outside before walking into one of the houses. But before he could enter the house, a shadow quickly appeared next to him and the thin man who had just spoken to Yang Kai entered one step ahead of him.
Yang Kai simply shook his head, didn’t pay him any mind, and casually walked into the house.
Most of the items inside had already been reduced to dust but in a corner of one of the rooms there were a few jade bottles scattered on the ground.
By the time Yang Kai arrived, the thin man was already picking his way through the jade bottles, a look of helplessness on his face as he opened them at random.
This type of jade bottle was incredibly common and was usually used to hold pills; however, since arriving in the Ancient Ruins, due to the long passage of time, nothing but useless dregs had been found in such bottles.
However, all of a sudden, the thin man’s expression changed greatly as a look of excitement flashed across his eyes.
“Find something good?” Yang Kai asked curiously.
The thin man suddenly remembered that there was someone else inside with him and nodded towards Yang Kai, “See for yourself!”
As he spoke, he handed over the jade bottle.
Yang Kai took it and looked inside, but upon seeing the pill at the bottom of the jade bottle, he too couldn’t help feeling shocked.
This pill was very different from an ordinary pill, there was a thick layer of mist gently billowing across its surface, like a dense cloud. This cloud was composed of pure World Energy and formed a kind of translucent protective film that enveloped the entire pill.
Although Yang Kai didn’t know how many years had passed since this pill had been refined, he instantly knew that its medicinal efficacies had not only not been lost, but had instead become significantly more intense.
The aroma that wafted from this pill was incredibly rich and fresh.
After only sniffing it slightly, Yang Kai knew it was a Saint Grade pill!
However, the pill’s grade was only a secondary concern, what was truly shocking was the cloud-like layer surrounding it!
“Pill Cloud?!” Yang Kai exclaimed.
Yang Kai could already be considered an excellent Alchemist and when he refined pills, a good number of them would form meridian like patterns on their surface, commonly known as Pill Veins.
Once Pill Veins appeared on any pill, its value would be multiplied several times over, and no matter how many years it was saved for, as long as it was preserved in reasonable conditions, its efficacy would never fade!
Every outstanding Alchemist pursued the refinement of Pill Veins, trying their best to allow Pill Veins to appear. Unfortunately, there was no effective way to ensure that every pill one refined would give birth to Pill Veins.
In the end, the appearance of Pill Veins involved a lot of luck.
Above Pill Veins was the legendary Pill Cloud!
Pill Veins would frequently appear when Yang Kai performed Alchemy, but until now he had never once produced a pill with a Pill Cloud.
Today was actually the first time he had ever seen a pill with a Pill Cloud!
According to legend, when a pill gave birth to a Pill Cloud, not only were the effects of the pill strengthened several times over and its medicinal efficacies would never weaken, the Pill Cloud would automatically gather the surrounding World Energy to nourish the pill.
It could be said that the longer a pill with a Pill Cloud was stored, the greater is efficacy would become, and the higher its value will be!
As for Omni-Magician and WeChat, those two novels are kinda kinks I guess. They are also hosted on this website but they require a particular taste to enjoy.
It was impossible to know how long the Saint Pill in the jade bottle had been stored here, but suffice it to say, the Pill Cloud had been gathering World Energy and nourishing this pill for countless years.
Such a pill could no longer be considered a mere Saint Pill! Its value now is simply incalculable!
Especially for an Alchemist like Yang Kai, it had immense research value. If he was able to comprehend even a fraction of the mysteries of this Pill Cloud, Yang Kai would also have a greater chance of one day refining a similar pill.
All kinds of thoughts quickly intertwined in Yang Kai’s head and his expression rapidly changed back and forth.
Inside the jade bottle, the Pill Cloud seemed to exude a subtle attraction, drawing the surrounding World Energy into the pill.
Yang Kai lifted his eyes from the pill reluctantly and stared at the thin man solemnly.
The other party was also scrutinizing Yang Kai, and the moment their eyes met once again, a green light flashed from the thin man’s hand and in the blink of an eye, the room was filled with a poisonous mist.
“Heh heh, you dumb brat, don’t blame me for being ruthless, blame your own stupidity for being so naive,” The thin man sneered as he watched Yang Kai’s figure become wrapped up in poisonous mist.
As he spoke these words, the thin man’s True Qi surged as he summoned a dagger into his other hand and thrust it straight towards Yang Kai’s chest.
In this instant, the thin man had brought out his full strength to kill Yang Kai!
A Saint Pill with a Pill Cloud that had been stored for several millennia, such a treasure wasn’t something just anyone could just simply take. Both Yang Kai and the thin man were aware of this fact and had to act.
As long as Yang Kai could obtain this Saint Pill, this trip to the bottom of the sea could be considered a resounding success, there wouldn’t even be a need to keep searching for other treasures and could simply leave right now.
Shrouded in the green poisonous mist, the thin man wore a half-crazed expression.
“Clank”
Yang Kai didn’t move and as the dagger struck him, a spark erupted from his chest, but that was all, even his skin wasn’t broken as he stared back at the thin man coldly.
The smile on the thin man’s face quickly converged as his eyes filled with surprise which soon turned to horror as his expression warped.
He had not held anything back when he attacked, yet not only did he fail to kill Yang Kai, his own hand had instead been bloodied from the recoil. When he stabbed Yang Kai, it was as if he had been trying to stab a wall of steel. This strange youth’s body was incomprehensibly hard.
“Idiot!” Yang Kai brushed his chest and smoothed out the wrinkles on his clothes before turning his eyes to the thin man, “If you hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t have had a reason to kill you. You brought this upon yourself, friend!”
“Impossible, how did you… Even a Transcendent shouldn’t be able to resist the effects of my poison, how are you completely unaffected!?” The thin man trembled fiercely, a sense of fear and terror filling his heart.
“Nothing is impossible,” Yang Kai smiled lightly, his figure flickering just as the thin man was about to make a run for it, blocking the latter’s path of retreat as he swiped his hand towards the other side’s throat.
The thin man’s eyes bulged as his hands quickly tried to cover his neck, his voice failing to escape from his throat. After stumbling a few steps backwards he fell to the ground dead!
A Peak Immortal Ascension Boundary cultivator was no more difficult to kill than an ant for the current Yang Kai.
After the thin man died, Yang Kai swiftly collected the remaining jade bottles, hurriedly opening them to see if there were no other pills with Pill Clouds before quickly moving towards the exit.
“What happened? What the hell happened?” The three cultivators who had been rummaging around outside the house all rushed inside, almost colliding with the stumbling Yang Kai and hurriedly asked.
Although the confrontation between Yang Kai and the thin man had taken place out of sight, the sudden burst of True Qi just now had not been missed by them, so they naturally had come to investigate.
“Run, a trap was triggered!” Yang Kai shouted, his face turning slightly blue.
The three men glanced behind Yang Kai quickly and when they saw the green poisonous fog billowing towards them, they couldn’t help feeling stunned. None of them dared stay any longer, all of them hurriedly running out with Yang Kai following close behind.
“What happened inside?” Hai Wang Gu saw the four people run out in a hurry, each of them with a shaken look upon their face, and hurriedly asked.
“There was a seal inside one of the rooms and when my friend was inspecting it, he accidentally set off some kind of trap,” Yang Kai quickly explained, his face now a slightly unhealthy shade of green.
“What happened to him?” Hai Wang Gu’s expression changed greatly.
“He’s dead!”
“Dead?” The group of cultivators suddenly became noisy.
After arriving here, they had been treasuring hunting for more than half a day yet had not once encountered any kind of danger, so many of them had thought that this Ancient Ruin was extremely safe, but now that one of them had inexplicably died, they couldn’t help feeling slightly uneasy.
“How come you’re alright?” Hai Wang Gu eyes flashed as he stared towards Yang Kai questioningly.
“I was farther away from the trap when it went off but it seems I was still poisoned…” Yang Kai coughed, the shade of green on his face quickly growing darker as he did so.
As soon as everyone heard him say so, they hurriedly backed away, most of them showing fearful looks as if they were afraid being near Yang Kai would also implicate them.
Yang Kai observed all this and secretly breathed a sigh of relief!
A moment ago the thin man had released a cloud of poisonous mist, probably thinking it was a good strategy. When someone outside asked what happened, he would just give the same explanation Yang Kai currently was.
So Yang Kai just borrowed the thin man’s plan to explain his cause of death.
The house was still filled with poisonous mist so no one would go in to investigate it carefully. Yang Kai even deliberately inhaled a little of the poisonous mist to make his story more convincing.
“There was a trap set up inside…” Hai Wang Gu muttered, suddenly turning a suspicious look towards Yang Kai, “What did you find inside that house?”
“Only these jade bottles, I quickly grabbed them before running out,” Yang Kai said, quickly handing over the jade bottles to Hai Wang Gu.
Everyone showed a disappointed look upon seeing this.
They had already found too many jade bottles throughout the ruins but none of them ever had any useful pills inside.
Hai Wang Gu’s expression was also not very good as he glared towards Yang Kai distrustfully.
They hadn’t encountered any seals of barriers so far yet now they had suddenly come across one, which seemed to indicate that there must be something particularly valuable inside; otherwise, why would the original owner of the house bother setting up such a trap?
“You aren’t hiding something, are you?” Hai Wang Gu stared at Yang Kai and interrogated.
Yang Kai’s face immediately wore a dumbfounded expression, “I don’t have a Universe Bag, where would I hide something?”
Hai Wang Gu’s Divine Sense swept Yang Kai and confirmed that there was nothing else on him before nodding lightly.
Although the Universe Bag was a convenient storage artifact, it was not something everyone in Tong Xuan Realm could possess.
Back when he was in Bold Independent Union, of the people that Yang Kai met, only the captains of Bold Independent Union’s teams possessed their own Universe Bags. For this time’s exploration, most of the foreign cultivators didn’t possess any kind of storage artifact.
“Doesn’t Senior trust me?” Yang Kai stared up at Hai Wang Gu blankly.
Hai Wang Gu hurriedly explained, “Just a routine inquiry, little brother need not pay it any mind!”
Saying so, he no longer paid any attention to Yang Kai and instead helplessly opened the jade bottles.
Originally, he had not expected to find anything in these jade bottles, but upon inspecting their contents, Hai Wang Gu couldn’t help widening his eyes, seemingly having discovered something impossible.
At the same time, everyone smelled a pleasant medicinal fragrance!
“Hm?” Hai Wang Gu was amazed, pouring the contents of the jade bottle onto his palm. More than a dozen round objects came out, most of which were mere scraps, but mixed in with these dregs were two distinctly different pills.
These two pills had Pill Veins, and as a result, had not suffered any degradation even after so many years at passed.
“Spirit Grade Pills!” Hai Wang Gu called out excitedly!
Everyone else in the group also wore excited expressions as they stared towards Hai Wang Gu’s palm, a touch of envy flashing across their eyes.
These two pills were not just Spirit Grade pills, but pills that had given birth to Pill Veins, making them several times more valuable than ordinary pills.
Yang Kai stood to the side, indifferently observing the expressions of the crowd.
He had also checked these jade bottles and knew what was inside, but he intentionally didn’t take them away.
For him, these Pill Vein pills were of little value, he could refine any number of them himself, only the Saint Pill with a Pill Cloud was worth him striving for.
By throwing these jade bottles to the crowd, he had successfully attracted everyone’s attention away from himself.
Hai Wang Gu quickly opened the other jade bottles and sure enough, was not disappointed, finding several other pills with Pill Veins.
There were various Spirit Grade and Mysterious Grade pills, all of which were perfectly preserved!
“There really were some good things in that house,” Hai Wang Gu kept nodding and laughing, their Seven Family Alliance was a small force and couldn’t afford to hire any powerful Alchemists, so they naturally couldn’t obtain pills with Pill Veins easily. Suddenly acquiring several Spirit Grade pills with Pill Veins had made him quite satisfied.
“If you find any jade bottles later, you can’t turn a blind eye to them, there may be other such pills inside them!” Hai Wang Gu swiftly stored these gains away before calling out to everyone in his group.
Everyone nodded in response, none of them had considered this aspect before and only now remembered about the legendary Pill Veins.
“Little brother has contributed a great merit!” One of the foreign cultivators patted Yang Kai’s shoulder intimately and applauded.
No one bothered mentioning the thin man who had died.
Everyone had only just met each other, so even if one of them had died a miserable death, no one was going to shed any tears for him.
Yang Kai kept coughing, his face showing a pained expression as he murmured, “It’s a pity that my friend who went inside with me didn’t come out…”
Hai Wang Gu turned to look at him, and although he didn’t actually think so in his heart, still opened his mouth to say, “Little brother can rest assured, after going back, we’ll make sure there’s something in it for your friend. If we can find any of his friends or relatives, this Hai will definitely send some of this time’s benefits to them. For now though, let’s set this matter aside. Here, take this detoxification pill, it was personally refined by my Hai Family’s chief Alchemist, it should help stabilize your condition!”
Having obtains some unexpected gains, Hai Wang Gu no longer doubted Yang Kai’s story, and instead showed the minimal amount of concern necessary to maintain a good public image, handing over a pill to the latter.
“Many thanks!” Yang Kai took it. He inspected it slightly to determine it really was just a detoxification pill and that nothing sinister had been added to it before throwing it directly into his mouth, sitting down cross-legged as if he was circulating a healing art and said, “All of you can go on ahead, don’t let me hold you back. I’ll catch up soon.”
With his current strength, Yang Kai really didn’t need to put the people who had come to explore these Ancient Ruins in his eye. With his Soul Devouring Insects in hand, anyone below the Saint Realm was not his opponent.
However, because it was useful to have more people to explore the Ancient Ruin’s situation, Yang Kai had kept himself hidden and simply followed the crowd.
Now that he had a decent idea of this place’s dangers, Yang Kai intended to leave the group and act on his own.
He was very curious about the source of the Yang Attribute aura and wanted to check it out as soon as possible.
And now, his opportunity had come!
Yang Kai felt that Hai Wang Gu wouldn’t care about the life or death of an insignificant character like him.
However, to his disappointment, Hai Wang Gu actually shook his head firmly and said, “No no, how could we just abandon you here alone?”
It seemed like because Yang Kai had contributed a significant merit, Hai Wang Gu wanted to make a good impression to the crowd by showing some concern, quickly signaling to a nearby Hai Family cultivator, “Fourth Brother, you stay here and take care of him, after his condition stabilizes, catch up with us.”
The cultivator who was called out to quickly nodded and then stood next to Yang Kai, assuming a protective posture.
Yang Kai could only smile and nod, “Many thanks for Senior’s good intentions.”
Hai Wang Gu gently nodded, “Good, you heal up as soon as possible and then join the rest of us with Fourth Brother. We’ll be waiting for you two up ahead.”
Saying so, Hai Wang Gu turned around and led the others off.
Yang Kai was helpless and could only pretend to circulate a healing art as the Hai Family’s ‘Fourth Brother’ stood like a wooden stake a few meters away from him.
After half an hour or so, Yang Kai stood up again.
“How are you?” Fourth Brother bluntly asked.
“Moving about shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Then let’s go,” Fourth Brother quickly said, his face showing some slight signs of annoyance.
And so the two of them rushed forward, following the path Hai Wang Gu’s left behind and after about as long as it would take to burn a stick of incense, they caught up.
However, when Yang Kai saw the situation of the team, he couldn’t help feeling surprised.
There were originally about twenty people in this small exploration group, but right now, there were actually only thirteen, and each of their expressions was somewhat grave.
During the short time Yang Kai was ‘healing’, this team had obviously suffered from unexpected dangers. As for the seven or people who were missing, it was obvious what their fate was.
[I must be more careful… this Ancient Ruin is a sitting death trap!]
When he saw Yang Kai and the cultivator called Fourth Brother return, Hai Wang Gu simply nodded to them with a slightly ugly expression, not saying anything more.
“What happened just now?” The one called Fourth Brother walked over to another Hai Family cultivator and asked.
The latter, with a touch of fear still lingering on his face, whispered back, “There seems to be a lot of barriers and traps around this area, one of which was accidentally triggered, causing several of our group to die instantly!”
Fourth Brother paled and didn’t dare ask any more.
As they were speaking, a loud cry rang out from the distance.
Hai Wang Gu, who was sitting cross legged nearby, quickly opened his eyes and stared suspiciously in the direction it originated, muttering under his breath, “The Cheng Family’s signal?”
Saying so, he hurriedly stood up and waved, “Everyone come with me, it seems someone has made some kind of discovery!”
After a few minutes of hurrying along, Hai Wang Gu and his team came across a large group of people that had apparently gathered here upon hearing the previous signal.
And under the leadership of the Seven Family Alliance’s master, more groups were constantly appearing.
After they arrived here and saw the scene in front of them, everyone wore a shocked and excited expression.
Before everyone’s eyes was a large transparent ball of light which was constantly emitting a powerful energy fluctuation. It was impossible from this distance to tell what kind of material this ball of light was comprised of, but from the intensity of the energy it gave off, it was clearly a powerful artifact.
What’s more, it was still completely intact!
However, there was an invisible barrier separating blocking everyone’s way, so all the cultivators who were nearly salivating at the sight of the light sphere could only stare greedily at it.
One cultivator after another tried to approach the artifact but all of them were pushed back without exception, none of them even able to step within arm’s reach of the light sphere.
When Hai Wang Gu led Yang Kai and the others over, the scene was already incredibly lively, with at least several dozen people gathered around.
Upon seeing the light sphere, Yang Kai also became interested and secretly raised his alertness.
A familiar aura sudden emerged from the crowd, and upon sensing it, Yang Kai couldn’t help rolling his eyes.
The origin of this aura was none other than the Nine Heavens Holy Land’s Saintess, who was currently pursing her lips and staring towards him strangely.
Yang Kai quickly put his vision aside and pretended to not see her.
Not having suffered any harm along this dangerous path, Yang Kai noted that she had some skill. She still had a carefree expression upon her face and her beautiful eyes flashed with excitement and anticipation, apparently quite happy at the moment. It seemed that this adventure to the bottom of the sea had allowed her to experience a kind of enjoyment she had never felt before.
[This silly girl!] Yang Kai silently thought to himself.
“Brother Cheng, what’s going on here?” Hai Wang Gu stepped forward and asked another Second Order Transcendent old man.
The loud signal just now had been sent out by this person. The Seven Family Alliance had long resided on the nearby island chain and had developed some special methods to contact one another, so Hai Wang Gu knew exactly who was calling for help the moment he had heard the previous shrill alarm.
There were a lot of people gathered around who had the same questions as Hai Wang Gu and all the other Transcendents nearby Old Man Cheng were repeatedly raising their voices.
“Hold on for a moment, when everyone has gathered, I’ll explain,” Old Man Cheng spoke.
The crowd hesitated a moment before nodding, settling down and waiting.
Time passed by quickly and more teams arrived one after another. Apparently, all the groups who had been exploring nearby had heard the signal and were converging here.
As more and more teams gathered, the group quickly swelled to over a hundred in number.
After waiting for a while and seeing no one else arriving, Old Man Cheng finally spoke, “Good, it seems no one else will be coming.”
“Brother Cheng, can you explain what’s going on now, why did you suddenly call all of us here?”
“Of course! It’s for that artifact!” Old Man Cheng smiled and pointed towards the light sphere not far away, “This artifact’s power cannot be measured, and its function is also completely unknown. When my team first arrived here, we discovered that there was an invisible barrier preventing anyone from approaching it. About this, all of you must have already clearly seen. With just the strength of my Cheng Family’s team, we are unable to break this barrier though, so I decided to ask everyone nearby to assist us!”
Hai Wang Gu’s brow wrinkled before smiling wryly, “Brother Cheng, there is no problem with us working together, but there is only one artifact after we break this barrier, who gets to keep the artifact?”
“Everything is open for discussion!” Old Man Cheng did not respond directly and instead pointed back to the light sphere, “Behind this light sphere is a grand palace, if my guess is correct, this place should be of significant importance to the ancient Sect which once stood here. Otherwise, an artifact of this grade would not have been placed here. As long as we break the barrier in front of us, there will definitely be gains for all of us. Who knows, perhaps there will be even better and more powerful artifacts stored deeper inside.”
“All of that is just your speculations!” Hai Wang Gu frowned.
“But there is definitely value in trying!” Some people agreed with Old Man Cheng.
The many masters gathered quickly entered into discussions and soon reached a consensus.
Hai Wang Gu had raised some doubts just now, but it was undeniable that the attraction of this artifact was quite big.
After reaching an agreement, everyone quickly made preparations.
Each of the Transcendents here was leading a team of between ten to twenty cultivators.
Hai Wang Gu returned to Yang Kai and the others with the resolution the Seven Family Alliance masters had come to just now.
“Everyone needs to contribute their strength to see if we can break this barrier. If we can break it, not only can we harvest that mysterious light sphere artifact, but we will also be able to search the palace behind it. There will definitely be many benefits inside so each of you must not hold back.”
“Rest assured Old Hai, we’ll do our best to live up to your expectations!” Someone immediately shouted out excitedly.
Hai Wang Gu nodded with satisfaction.
A moment later, everyone had been arranged into their positions.
More than one hundred people stood not far from the invisible barrier, each of them holding their breath, secretly preparing.
Old Man Cheng stepped forward and called out, “Everyone must act according to my commands. This defence barrier is somewhat strange, it seems that unless we use all our strength to instantly break it open, it will simply recover and we will have to start all over again.”
Everyone nodded.
Old Man Cheng swept his eyes over the crowd once before slowly raising his hand, his expression solemn. Everyone gathered around all began to condense their True Qi, preparing to attack.
A moment later, Old Man Cheng lowered his hand towards the barrier.
As soon as he waved his hand, a barrage of powerful Martial Skills and artifact attacks flew towards the barrier.
*Hong long long…*
The entire Ancient Ruin shook.
There were only a few Transcendents among the cultivators gathered here, less than ten in total, while the rest were all at least Immortal Ascension Boundary Seventh Stage masters. However, with so many powerful attacks being launched at once, the power that erupted was quite substantial and literally shook the earth around them.
Countless attacks landed on the invisible barrier simultaneously, creating a myriad of ripples on its surface, like a thousand stones had been tossed all at once into a calm lake.
The invisible barrier seemed to be extremely flexible thought, so even after being struck by so many attacks, although it distorted quite fiercely, it did not break.
After everything calmed down again, expressions expression became dignified.
The wave of attacks just now obviously was not enough to break this mysterious barrier.
Old Man Cheng clapped lightly to gather everyone’s attention before shouting, “One more time. Please don’t hold back, it is to everyone’s advantage to break this barrier. None of you want to waste time here, right?”
He saw that though the previous attack was indeed powerful, most of the cultivators gathered here had not really used their full strength; obviously, these people had underestimated the strength of this barrier.
Hearing Old Man Cheng’s words, the cultivators that had held back just now didn’t dare repeat their mistake in hopes of getting lucky and prepared to give their all in the next strike.
After waiting for everyone to prepare again, Old Man Cheng once more raised his hand before sweeping his eyes across the crowd pointedly, everyone he stared at fully condensing their True Qi in response.
After giving everyone ample time to prepare, Old Man Cheng swung his hand down again.
A thunderous sound rang out as the violent energy of countless attacks bombarded the mysterious barrier. In order to break this barrier and enter the palace behind it, everyone had done their utmost this time, not concealing their strength. Even Yang Kai used some of his true ability.
If this barrier was in good condition, it would have been impossible for this ragtag group to break open.
But these Ancient Ruins had been around for too long and all the barriers here had weakened significantly, such was the case with the barrier in front of them as well.
As this second wave of attacks landed, the invisible barrier distorted greatly and this time seemed to have reached its limits.
*Kacha…*
Many tiny cracks appeared mid-air and soon began to spread out at a speed visible to the naked eye. Soon, the entire barrier was covered in fissures.
Everyone held their breath, their entire attention focused on the barrier, their eyes filled with expectation.
A crackling sound, like a piece of glass being shattered, rang out, and the invisible barrier suddenly broke open.
The moment the barrier was broken, all the cultivators on the scene seemed to come alive and before the Transcendent Realm masters could even issue any orders, everyone had used their movement skills and rushed forward.
At the same time, the foreign Transcendents and the masters from the Seven Family Alliance all stared towards the light sphere greedily, each of them instantly sticking their hands out towards it, wanting to snatch it up before anyone else could.
In an instant, the group of people who had just been working together, suddenly turned on one another and began a violent struggle.
True Qi surged up as everyone pushed and shoved everyone else, afraid of falling behind.
Yang Kai didn’t move, simply standing in place while coldly observing the situation. The Saintess from Nine Heavens Holy Land also stood in place. In addition, a number of more cautious cultivators stood back and watched.
Perhaps they were aware that their strength wasn’t sufficient and they had no chance to obtain the mysterious light sphere artifact, or perhaps they instinctively thought that there would be other dangers lurking about this place. Either way, none of them dared to act rashly and instead allowed the more eager members here to explore the situation first.
Sure enough, before anyone could actually even reach the light sphere, a burst of white light containing a mysterious energy wave spread out from it as fast as lightning.
The expressions of the cultivators rushing forward all changed dramatically as they were completely caught off guard by this light pulse.
Before anyone could react, they were struck head-on by the light pulse and instantly wrapped up in a stark white glow.
In the blink of an eye, those who had been struck went stiff, their eyes bulging before they fell to the ground, unable to mount even the slightest bit of resistance.
Seeing this, Yang Kai also paled and retreated without the slightest hesitation.
The moment the light halo pulse swept past the now unconscious cultivators, Yang Kai had felt like something had been drawn out of them and was absorbed by the nearby light sphere.
However, even with Yang Kai’s current speed, he still couldn’t escape from the ever-expanding light pulse and before he could go far he had already been shrouded by it.
His Soul shook and the inside of his Knowledge Sea stirred. In that instant, Yang Kai felt as if he had been struck by a mountain and that his Soul was being pulled from his body.
Not daring to neglect, Yang Kai quickly steadied himself and tried to stabilize his trembling Soul.
As he did so, he swept his eyes over the surrounding and, to his surprise, noticed that none of the cultivators who had not participated in the earlier struggle had managed to escape; all of them had fallen to the ground, including Hai Wang Gu.
Even the Nine Heavens Holy Land Saintess had fallen to her knees.
However, she was still putting up some stubborn resistance and before she completely collapsed, she shot a glance over towards Yang Kai, her lips trembling slightly, trying to say something yet failing to vocalize the words.
[Help!] Yang Kai’s mind filled in those missing words. But how could Yang Kai pay her any mind? Right now, he was having difficulty just trying to keep himself upright. After being covered by that strange light pulse, Yang Kai felt as if his Soul had been caught by a big, invisible hand that was trying to extract his consciousness.
Facing this kind of crisis, Yang Kai didn’t have time to contemplate what kind of mysterious heritage this artifact represented, instead quickly immersing his consciousness into his Knowledge Sea.
There, Yang Kai opened his Demon Eye of Annihilation, but even then, he wasn’t able to avoid his fate.
After less than ten breaths of time, Yang Kai collapsed, his Soul leaving his Knowledge Sea and entering into a world fill with white.
Staring around, Yang Kai saw many figures in front of him, each of them wearing fearful and uneasy expressions, shocked by what had just happened to them and desperately looking around, trying to understand their current situation.
All of these figures were the Soul Avatars of the cultivators who had been gathered outside, more than a hundred of them in total.
“Hey!” Hearing a shout from the side, Yang Kai vigilantly turned around and found the Nine Heavens Holy Land Saintess beckoning to him from a somewhat remote corner of the space.
Yang Kai wrinkled his brow and only after several urgings did he walk over to her.
She too was now just a Soul Avatar and seemed somewhat illusory. Without access to her physical body and True Qi, she had also reverted to her original appearance.
“Do you know where this is?” The Nine Heavens Holy Land Saintess looked around while quietly inquiring.
“How would I know that?” Yang Kai frowned, and although he had some guesses in his heart, he truly wasn’t sure.
“I saw how you resisted… whatever this is. You manage to resist longer than anyone else, is your real cultivation actually much higher than Immortal Ascension Boundary Seventh Stage?” The Saintess frowned, looking Yang Kai over, her eyes suddenly flashing with fright, “Ah, how come your Soul Avatar…”
As she got closer to Yang Kai, she felt a scorching hot aura radiating from his Avatar.
Yang Kai shot her a cold glance.
The Saintess smiled back at him, “Don’t worry, I don’t have a habit of leaking other’s secrets. Do you cultivate some kind of special Soul Skill?”
“En,” Yang Kai nodded lightly, not bothering to explain any further. Ordinarily, he could easily hide the secret of his Conflagrated Knowledge Sea, even if he used his Divine Sense to attack someone, he could still conceal it so long as he didn’t add any Fire Attribute Spiritual Energy; however, in his Soul Avatar form, separated from his Knowledge Sea, some trace signs would inevitably appear.
As the two spoke, Yang Kai took the opportunity to scrutinize the Saintess in front of him, feeling slightly shocked at what he discovered.
This Saintess’ had a mysterious power that allowed her to conceal everything about her from Yang Kai’s Divine Sense in the physical world, so before now Yang Kai had no idea about her true strength, but now that two were only Soul Avatars, Yang Kai could see through her cultivation at a glance.
First Order Transcendent!
Her age was similar to his own, yet she had already reached such a realm. Nine Heavens Holy Land was truly a force to be reckoned with!
“I think we’ll be safer if we both take care of each other here, what do you say?” The Saintess suddenly suggested. When she first started this little escapade of hers, she had been together with a large group of people so she thought, even if she dove to the bottom of the sea, she wouldn’t be in any great danger. However, along the way, after witnessing various unexpected events, she realized that this Ancient Ruin was not someplace she could casually stroll about.
Now that even her Soul had been pulled out of her body and trapped in this strange space, she naturally wanted to find someone she could depend on for some security.
“I don’t want to drag along an unnecessary burden,” Yang Kai glanced at her and slowly shook his head.
The Saintess curled her lips defiantly and retorted, “You’re quite the arrogant one. You haven’t even seen me take action yet so how can you say for certain I’ll be a burden to you? When the time comes, perhaps you’ll be the one who needs to depend on me?”
“Then why don’t you let me experience your methods,” Yang Kai smiled lightly, his expression still indifferent, “After I see them, I’ll consider whether I want to cooperate with you!”
The Saintess’ pretty face darkened noticeably, snorting coldly as she turned away, apparently not willing to talk to Yang Kai any more.
From childhood until now, although she had not had much contact with males of her generation, she had never thought that there were actually people as hateful and arrogant as Yang Kai.
It was as if he thought he was the world’s fiercest person and everyone else wasn’t even worth looking at.
He was really a repugnant fellow.
As the two of them argued, the Seven Family Alliance and foreign cultivators all gathered together and began discussing the current situation.
“Look at that!” Suddenly, an exclamation came out, and everyone who heard it looked towards the direction the man who had called out was pointing.
High up in the sky, a few golden characters emerged from the white void, giving off a dazzling radiance.
Soul Battle Hall!
Each of the words was written in a vigorous and powerful style, revealing an indescribable charm. These words were not portrayed through ordinary means and were instead written by a profound master’s Spiritual Energy.
Even after countless years, the deep majesty that was revealed from these three words had not faded, startling all who saw them. Everyone quickly looked away, as if they were afraid if they stared too long their Souls would be destroyed.
“Soul Battle Hall? Should we interpret these words to mean this is a place where one fights with their Divine Sense?”
“So, that light sphere was a Soul type artifact?”
“Were all of our Soul Avatars pulled into this place so we could fight one another?”
Everyone began chattering, quickly discovering some clues about their current situation, coming to conclusions similar to the ones Yang Kai had thought of.
Hai Wang Gu waved his hand and gestured to everyone, calling out loudly, “If this is really the interior of that artifact, and our Souls were forcefully pulled into this space, if we want to leave, we must first find an exit. None of us can just sit back and wait, everyone should start exploring this place to uncover its mysteries!”
Hearing his words, everyone quickly took the initiative to split up.
This white space was truly a void, and seemed to go on forever in all directions; however, everyone quickly discovered that something was odd.
No matter how far someone walked, they couldn’t go more than a few kilometres before they found themselves back where they started.
After exploring around for some time yet not discovering anything suspicious or even remotely worth their attention, everyone began to feel somewhat disheartened.
The Seven Family Alliance’s Transcendent Realm masters were also participating in this search, extending their powerful Divine Senses in all direction, but no matter how they probed this white space, they could not discover anything, it was like this space was a completely sealed prison with no way out.
“Did you find anything?” The Nine Heavens Holy Land Saintess suddenly came over to Yang Kai and asked, as if she had already completely forgotten the unpleasantness of their previous conversation.