The strange Floating Continent was filled with beautiful scenery and extreme rich World Energy.
The entire continent was blanketed in a thin layer of mist that was actually condensed World Energy.
Clear springs flowed from all the mountain peaks, carrying with them a sweet and clear scent. The water in these springs had an incredible nourishing effect, as if it wasn’t ordinary water but instead a potent elixir.
The Purple Star and Sword Union forces had a total of more than a hundred cultivators between them, and now that their battle had been forcefully stopped, each side began searching for quiet places to meditate and recover.
Soon, they were surprised to find that on this Floating Continent, the speed at which they could restore themselves was several times faster than usual because the World Energy aura was incredibly rich. This discovery greatly lifted their spirits, coupled with the fact that they had just survived a number of life or death crises, they began to unconsciously relax and greedily absorb this dense World Energy.
Only the inexplicable seven coloured sky that surrounded the Floating Continent gave them an uneasy feeling.
All day long, all that was visible when they looked up was this seven coloured sky. There was no sun, moon, or stars in this place. It was completely different from where these cultivators used to live. This kind of unchanging scenery made them feel somewhat lost.
A day later, most of the cultivators had finished restoring themselves. They had carried a lot of healing pills on them before entering this place, and with the rich World Energy aura here, all minor injuries could be rapidly healed.
Lu Gui Chen of Purple Star suddenly flew over to Sword Union’s side, calmly walking over to Yue Xi under the hostile glares of the Sword Union cultivators.
When she noticed his footsteps, Yue Xi slowly opened her eyes, turned to him, and asked, “What is it?”
Lu Gui Chen gestured towards the tallest mountain in the distance and asked, “Aren’t you curious about the identity of that Senior?”
“So what if I’m curious?” Yue Xi replied indifferently, not showing much interest.
How could she not be curious? She had been thinking hard during this past day about the identity of this old man, but she was still no closer to figuring out who he was. She believed that Lu Gui Chen was also considering the same problem and him showing up now was proof of that.
“That dark flag used by that Senior shouldn’t be a nameless treasure, but no matter how I think about it, I can’t think of a single master in the past thousand years who used a similar artifact. What do you think?”
“I also don’t recognize what the big flag is,” Yue Xi shook her head.
“Sure enough… how about the two of us cooperate to inquire about the situation?”
“Collaborate with you?” Yue Xi disdainfully sneered, “Isn’t that like asking a tiger for his skin?”
“Don’t say that,” Lu Gui Chen didn’t mind her tone, “Now your Sword Union people and my Purple Star people are stranded here. With that extremely powerful Senior also here, according to custom, we should pay him our respects.”
“Do you think he will meet us?”
“I don’t know, but we have to start somewhere. At the very least, I need to inquire about his intentions. This shouldn’t have any downside to your Sword Union’s people,” Lu Gui Chen persuaded.
Yue Xi frowned and hesitated.
She knew that what Lu Gui Chen was saying was right, but she was subconsciously repulsed by the idea of allying together with this enemy of hers.
However, compelled by the current situation, she really couldn’t refuse Lu Gui Chen’s proposal, so after a moment of silence, she gently nodded, “Good, I’ll accompany you to visit that Senior.”
“Rest assured, this time I won’t try to act against you, we’ve both seen the strength of that Senior, there’s no way I’d act unreasonably here,” Lu Gui Chen smiled bitterly. This strange Senior was on the same level as a Star Master, even if there were ten of him, Lu Gui Chen was certain he wouldn’t be the other side’s match.
Yue Xi issued a few instructions to the Sword Union survivors before getting up and setting out together with Lu Gui Chen for the mountain where the old man lived.
After the two of them left, the He Zao He Miao sisters exchanged a glance and quickly got up before silently heading towards where Yang Kai was.
What happened yesterday had made them feel quite guilty so they wanted to apologize to Yang Kai while at the same time reassure him that if he just waited a few more days, Yue Xi would help lift the seal on his strength.
However, He Zao was keenly aware that her master didn’t trust Yang Kai, so she did not try to make contact with him while she was around, lest her Master’s impression of him worsen.
It was only now that she the right opportunity.
Just as they had started to leave though, the cultivator named Wei Wu suddenly appeared in front of them and asked with a smile, “Where are Junior Sisters going?”
He Zao frowned, “To take a walk.”
Wei Wu smiled and said, “Then Senior Brother will accompany you.”
“No need!” He Zao frowned unhappily and decisively refused.
Wei Wu however just shook his head, “Junior Sister, Master just said a moment ago for us not to act arbitrarily, because no one knows what kind of dangers are hidden here. Master sees the two of you as her own daughters. If anything were to happen to you, who will be able to take responsibility? Let Senior Brother accompany you, and if anything happens, Senior Brother can at the very least buy time for you to escape.”
As he said these words, Wei Wu held his head up high and stuck out his chest, trying to make himself look as heroic and reliable as possible in front of He Zao and He Miao.
“Didn’t that Senior yesterday say there wasn’t any danger here?” He Miao blinked innocently.
“Who knows whether that Senior was speaking the truth or not? His strength is incredible, so this place very well might not have anything that he considers dangerous, but we are different. It’s because we don’t understand the situation of this place that Master is going with Lu Gui Chen to inquire about it.”
“Senior Brother, tell me the truth, does Master have some kind of doubts about Yang Kai’s origins and identity?” He Zao narrowed her beautiful eyes and directly asked Wei Wu.
“Why would Junior Sister say that?” Wei Wu looked surprised.
“Because yesterday, Master gave me the feeling that she didn’t want us to have too much contact with Yang Kai, and when we brought him over yesterday… Master seems to have offended him somehow,” He Zao spoke without reservation as she recalled the frightened and angry appearance Yang Kai had at that time.
If their Master hadn’t secretly tried to do something to him, he would certainly not have been so angry.
Wei Wu chuckled, “Junior Sister is being too sensitive, how could Master care about such a small character? Besides, everything Master has done is to protect us disciples, but enough idle chatter, if two Junior Sister wish to go out for a walk, let Senior Brother accompany you, I’d also like to take a look at our surroundings.”
“No need for that, we don’t want to anymore,” He Zao shook her head before bringing He Miao back to where they were originally sitting and sat back down.
Wei Wu scratched his nose but was helpless to do anything about this so he simply found a place nearby to sit down and meditate.
Yang Kai had not missed this little incident. Although he was safe for the time being, right now he was all along so he had to keep his guard up.
Especially against that slut Bi Ya from Purple Star as she had constantly been eyeing him. If not for the deterrence of the mysterious old man, it was likely she would already have attacked him.
So he had constantly been paying attention to the movements inside the two groups of cultivators. He had seen Lu Gui Chen and Yue Xi leave together. He had also seen He Zao and He Miao attempt to come see him but get stopped by that male cultivator.
Although he wasn’t completely clear about the details, he could vaguely guess what the situation was.
Suddenly, from nearby, a strange sound rang out, causing Yang Kai to turn towards its source, a strange expression appearing on his face as he slowly walked over to it.
A moment later, arriving near a bush, he called out, “Shen Tu?”
Shen Tu’s head popped out and glanced around before he beckoned to Yang Kai and hurriedly withdrew into the bush.
Yang Kai laughed helplessly before strolling forward, arriving in front of Shen Tu and asking, “What are you doing?”
“Hiding from those people,” Shen Tu replied in a low voice before grinning. “Brother, it’s good to see you. I really thought we were dead this time, but unexpectedly we both survived. It seems we haven’t used up all our luck yet.”
After saying so, he began gasping for breath as his face paled.
Yang Kai quickly noticed that this guy had suffered a lot more damage in the disaster yesterday compared to himself; his chest was dyed red with blood and his clothes were shredded. It was obvious something had impaled him and he had later pulled it out. His expression was quite gloomy as a deep frown appeared on his forehead, giving him a fierce look.
“Seems you’re quite miserable!” Yang Kai squatted down and said.
Shen Tu’s face turned bitter as he muttered, “Fuck, I didn’t think it was that bad, but hearing you say that really makes me feel a bit miserable, why are you completely unharmed?”
“My luck was good, how did you wind up like this?” Yang Kai shrugged his shoulders.
“How would I know? When the Starship was destroyed, I immediately passed out, and when I woke up, I found myself here. Fortunately, the Starship pieces didn’t pierce anything vital, otherwise, you’d be collecting my corpse for me right now,” Shen Tu groaned, grimacing in pain as some cold sweat leaked down his forehead.
“Haven’t you taken a healing pill yet?” Yang Kai asked as he stared dumbfounded towards Shen Tu, it was as if the latter hadn’t even attempted to restore himself yet.
“All my possessions were seized by those Purple Star dogs, what kind of pills would I possibly have? Even my artifacts were seized. If I had my artifacts, I wouldn’t have been reduced to this miserable state,” Shen Tu said indignantly, “Brother, do you have any spare healing pills?”
Yang Kai nodded and pretended to take something out from the Space Ring on his hand. In fact, he had actually taken out a Saint Grade healing pill from the Demon Mystic Tome.
“En, a Saint Pill with Pill Veins?” Shen Tu’s eyes lit up, quickly accepting the Saint Pill. It seems that such a pill was quite a treasure even for him, so without hesitation, he swallowed it and let out a sigh, “Give me some time, I should be able to restore myself.”
“You meditate, I’ll stand guard,” Yang Kai offered casually.
Right now, he and Shen Tu were allies, so there was no harm in helping him with such a small matter.
“Shouldn’t we move a little farther away?” Shen Tu looked worriedly towards the distance, “If we’re discovered by those Purple Star or Sword Union people…”
“Rest assured, they won’t dare find trouble with us right now.”
“What do you mean?” Shen Tu asked in confusion.
He seemed to know nothing about the old man who appeared yesterday. It was likely he was still unconscious when that incident took place.
Yang Kai explained briefly about the old man and as Shen Tu listened to his story, his expression changed greatly and he muttered, “Then, could that old guy be an Origin Returning Realm master? No, that’s wrong, perhaps he’s reached an even higher realm.”
As he muttered to himself, his expression became especially awkward.
10 + 4
Happy 1000!!!
Happy New Year!!
Happy Xmas!!
And one extra to just make it two per day for the week 😛
“Origin Returning Realm?” Yang Kai asked in astonishment.
“The Origin Returning Realm is above the Saint King Realm while the Origin King Realm is above the Origin Returning Realm… I told you that any Cultivation Star has a Star Master, right? Every Star Master is an Origin King Realm Master! What is the highest realm a cultivator can achieve in the place you come from?”
“Third-Order Saint…”
“It really is a lower world, a true backwater in the Star Field!” Shen Tu curled his lips and said disdainfully, “However, there are indeed many such worlds in the Star Field, many of them don’t even have the ability to explore the Star Field. Generation after generation they can only remain trapped in their own world without ever being able to see the splendours of the Star Field.”
These words resonated greatly with Yang Kai, recalling the cultivators on Tong Xuan Realm and thinking they truly were like this.
“If things are really as you said, then there’s no need for me to hide, none of them would dare act against us,” Shen Tu, after knowing the situation, suddenly put down his worries and relaxed. Sitting down cross-legged, he began refining the healing effects of the Saint Pill.
While he was healing, he asked Yang Kai a few questions to get himself caught up on the current situation.
He seemed particularly concerned about the strange old man and would constantly ask about the other party’s situation.
“That old fogey… *ahem*, what does that respected Senior want with all that Starship debris?” Shen Tu frowned, unable to understand the old man’s intentions.
“You’d have to ask him.”
“Hey, Yang Kai… If we could obtain the shelter of that Senior, wouldn’t we no longer need to fear those Purple Star and Sword Union people anymore?”
“Do you have anything that could win such a powerful master’s favour?”
“Everything depends on one’s own effort!” Shen Tu smiled mysteriously, “Just wait until I finish restoring myself then I’ll see if I can help you lift the seal on your body, things must be too inconvenient for you right now.”
Yang Kai gently nodded, although he didn’t have much hope of success, he was still grateful for Shen Tu’s good intentions.
Both of them went silent and Shen Tu began to concentrate on restoring himself while Yang Kai could only sit by and stand watch.
After about two hours, Lu Gui Chen and Yue Xi returned, their expressions somewhat helpless. It seems that things hadn’t gone well so they decided to return to their respective camps.
“Master, what did that Senior say?” Wei Wu stepped forward and asked anxiously.
Yue Xi bitterly shook her head, “We didn’t even see him.”
“Ah!”
“Lu Gui Chen and I approached to within fifty kilometres of the mountain and repeatedly sent out Divine Sense Messages requesting an audience, but we received no response, we don’t even know if he was there or not,” Yue Xi sighed.
Dealing with such a mysterious and powerful master was a truly painstaking task. They didn’t know his identity or his origins, they didn’t even know his exact cultivation, so whether it was Yue Xi or Lu Gui Chen, when they had gone to meet him this time, they felt as if they were treading on thin ice.
The results of their efforts were disappointing.
The only thing that was fortunate was that despite this strange old man appearing quite fierce and violent, possessed extraordinary strength, and clearly had an evil disposition, he didn’t appear interested in randomly killing them; if he had, there would have been nowhere on this Floating Continent for them to hide.
“We plan to visit him again tomorrow, and so on for the time being,” Yue Xi shook her head and prepared to rest when He Miao suddenly gasped, “Master.”
“What is it?” Yue Xi turned her head to look at her.
He Miao pointed at the distant sky, and with a terrified look on her pretty face stuttered, “That Senior seems to be coming.”
Yue Xi’s tender body shook and she hurriedly turned in the direction He Miao was pointing, quickly discovering that the mysterious old man was indeed rapidly approaching, causing her to immediately become nervous. Shouting for the Sword Union disciples to settle down, Yue Xi steeled herself and waited.
Lu Gui Chen of Purple Star had apparently also noticed and had rushed over, standing side by side with Yue Xi.
The two of them had unconsciously formed a temporary alliance; after all, the pressure they felt when facing this old man on their own was simply too great.
In the blink of an eye, the old man fell in front of Yue Xi and Lu Gui Chen.
“Senior!” Lu Gui Chen immediately cupped their fists and wore the best smiles they could manage on their faces, “Just now we had gone to send greetings to Senior, but it appears you were not in the mountain!”
“Does this old master need to inform you of his whereabouts?” The old man glanced over at Lu Gui Chen.
“Certainly not!” Lu Gui Chen’s face paled as he hurriedly kept quiet.
“En, I’m here to ask you for a little something. Although this place is rich in World Energy and rare herbs, the only annoying aspect is that it contains almost no precious ores!” The old man said as if thinking aloud.
Lu Gui Chen blinked for a moment before quickly asking, “What kind of ores does Senior need? If it’s convenient, please inform us, we might have them.”
Yue Xi also eagerly looked towards old man and echoed, “Senior does not need to be polite with us.”
“Of course I won’t be polite with you!” The old man snorted and said, “Space Spirit Crystals, do you have any?”
Lu Gui Chen and Yue Xi, who were both looking forward to an opportunity to establish good relations with this old man, couldn’t help wearing pained expression when they heard him request Space Spirit Crystals.
Lu Gui Chen said, “Senior, if it was anything else, we may have it, but Space Spirit Crystals…they are too rare, so we don’t carry supplies of them on us. If Senior does not mind, you might as well accompany us back to my Purple Star’s primary Cultivation Star, there will be rich supplies of Space Spirit Crystals there.”
“My Sword Union’s star is the same,” Yue Xi hurriedly spoke.
“Do you want to win me over?” The old man squinted towards them, a strange smile slowly creeping on his face.
“Senior misunderstands, this Junior simply wishes to invite Senior to be a guest on my Purple Star’s main star for a few days,” Lu Gui Chen hurriedly explained.
“I have no objections to being your guest; in fact, there’s nothing more this old master would like to do than to go out for a walk,” The old man said in a friendly tone, a look of longing appearing on his face, but in the next moment, his expression suddenly became cold as he severely shouted, “If this old master could leave this damned place, why would he bother asking you for Space Spirit Crystals in the first place? Are you both idiots?!”
Lu Gui Chen and Yue Xi both wore stunned looks, not understanding why this old man had suddenly become enraged but neither of them daring to respond.
“What is Space Spirit Crystal?” Not far away, Yang Kai heard the old man’s words and asked Shen Tu.
“A precious crystal ore that has a very low supply in the Star Field. It’s extremely expensive,” Shen Tu explained casually, “The Space Ring on your hand is made primarily from Space Spirit Crystal.”
“Space Rings are refined using Space Spirit Crystal?” Yang Kai was surprised, finally understanding why he felt that this ring was very different from the Demon Mystic Tome. It turns out they were two entirely different materials.
“Strange, what does this old Senior want Space Spirit Crystals?” Shen Tu frowned, “And listening to the words he just shouted, he seems to have been trapped here for many years.”
Nearby, the old man continued to shout and berate Lu Gui Chen and Yue Xi, seemingly never running out of abuses to hurl, but these two could only bear with it silently as bitterness filled their hearts.
“Forget it, if you don’t have Space Spirit Crystal then just give me the Space Rings on your fingers,” The old man arbitrarily ordered.
When these words came out, the faces of all the Purple Star and Sword Union cultivators sank.
“Rest assured, I don’t want the garbage in your rings, I just need the Space Spirit Crystal!” The old man added.
Lu Gui Chen and Yue Xi glanced at each other, not knowing what to do.
“Give them to me or die!” The old man said impatiently, “Although this old master doesn’t want to kill you, I don’t want anyone to disobey me even more!”
Realizing this old man’s temper was quite short, Lu Gui Chen wore a forced smile and waved his smile towards the Purple Star cultivator, signalling for them to hand over their Space Rings. When Yue Xi saw Lu Gui Chen compromise, she had no choice but to compromise as well.
Once all the Space Rings were collected by Lu Gui Chen and Yue Xi, they handed them over to the old man.
After a few moments, the old man had gathered just over a hundred Space Rings.
With a wave of his hand, the old man emptied out all the things stored in these hundred Space Rings.
A giant hill of items appeared in front of him.
In that hill, there were countless Saint Crystals, bottles of pills, some precious spirit grasses and spirit medicines, rare ores, Martial Skills, Secret Arts…
All kinds of things giving off a dazzling radiance for all to see.
With such a large fortune placed in front of them, everyone’s eyes became hot.
The old man just swept those things once before looking away, clearly uninterested, muttering in the next moment, “Collect what’s yours, don’t try anything funny either, if anyone dares snatch something that’s not their own, this old master will mete out an appropriate punishment!”
“We will obey Senior’s command!” Lu Gui Chen quickly took a stand.
“Oh, you still have one Space Ring?” The old man looked around for a while, his cold eyes suddenly landing on Yue Xi’s hand as he let out a sneer, “Woman, you want to die?”
Yue Xi covered the Space Ring on her hand, her expression cramping up as she asked, “Senior, can you leave me just one for us to use?”
“Over here, you cannot use Space Rings,” The old man said, reaching out and grasping towards Yue Xi. Under the old man’s grasp, Yue Xi was unable to use the slightest bit of her Saint King Realm strength, she couldn’t even summon the will to resist and the ring on her hand was quickly taken away.
Her look was bitter to the extreme.
The old man waved his hand and dumped out the things inside her ring, his eyes sweeping over them and immediately becoming attracted to a small token.
Reaching out and picking up this token, he observed it for a while before a look of shock appeared on his face, “Star Sect Command? No wonder you didn’t want to hand over your ring, you actually have a Star Sect Command!”
“A Star Sect Command!” Lu Gui Chen involuntarily snorted, his mocking gaze quickly transforming into one filled with greed and desire as he stared at the token in the old man’s hand.
All of the surrounding cultivators also couldn’t help directly burning looks towards this so-called Star Sect Command.
“Senior, this token…” Yue Xi licked her dry lips, her voice filled with entreaty as she begged.
The old man said nothing thought and simply stuffed the Star Sect Command into his pocket. It seemed that this token was quite valuable even to him.
Yue Xi’s words came to an abrupt end. She knew that since the token had landed in the old man’s hand, it was impossible for it to return to hers, causing her mood to plummet.
Atop the Floating Continent, after the old man left, the Purple Star and Sword Union groups stood in place, feeling depressed.
Especially the people from Sword Union. It was like their parents had just been killed, their expression filled with grief and anger. Even Yue Xi’s beautiful face appeared quite gloomy as she glared towards the direction the old man had left, feeling intense indignation but not daring to voice it out.
Lu Gui Chen shot her a look and couldn’t stop himself from smirking, “This turned out quite interesting, all of us trying to snatch that thing from each other only for it to end up as someone else’s prize. It seems everything was in vain.”
“You dare to say it?!” Yue Xi turned around and glared at him as she ground her teeth audibly, “If it wasn’t for you Purple Star dogs chasing after my two disciples, they’d had already returned to Sword Star with that Star Sect Command. They wouldn’t have entered the Chaotic Abyss and wouldn’t have been stranded here. No matter how you look at it; this is all your fault!”
Lu Gui Chen’s face went cold and snapped back, “I think you’re making a mistake here, the place where your two disciples found that Star Sect Command was inside my Purple Star’s territory, thus it was my Purple Star’s property. You’re nothing but thieves yet now you’re trying to claim you’re the victims here?”
“Lu Gui Chen, you mark my words, if one day I can get out of here, I’ll make you die a miserable death!” Yue Xi shouted bitterly, placing all the blame for the Star Sect Command being snatched from her on Purple Star’s leader.
“Talk to me again once you escape from here,” Lu Gui Chen snorted, not caring at all about her threat, waving to the other Purple Star cultivators and saying, “Come up and collect our property, don’t let anything of ours get stolen.”
With that said, the several dozen Purple Star cultivators began pouring through the small mountain of items.
Yue Xi tender body shivered as she also ordered the Sword Union cultivators to start sifting through things.
Suddenly, more than one hundred people got together and began looking for their property.
“A Star Sect Command, an actual Star Sect Command, Heavens! A real Star Sect Command!” Shen Tu kept repeating over and over, his face filled with excitement he was unable to contain.
Since the old man had taken out that Star Sect Command, Shen Tu had begun acting this way and had yet to calm down.
Yang Kai, who was sitting next to Shen Tu silently, waited for the latter to finally settle down before asking, “What was that thing, why does everyone seem so desperate to obtain it?”
“Of course everyone wants it!” Shen Tu shouted, “That’s Star Sect Command! When the Star Sect Command appears, the Star Field submits, it’s an unparalleled symbol of authority! If I could obtain that thing…”
Muttering to himself, his eyes began shining like a hungry wolf’s, his mind clearly imaging some kind of fantastical scenario where he had managed to obtain that Star Sect Command.
“I finally understand. No wonder Purple Star’s people didn’t hesitate to enter the Chaotic Abyss to pursue Sword Union, it turns out it was for a Star Sect Command. Ha, it makes sense actually, a Star Sect Command more than enough for them to take such a risk,” Shen Tu mused, “It’s a pity that it actually ended up in that old man’s hands. En, now that it’s in his possession, there’s really no chance of ever getting it back.”
Saying so, he let out a long sigh, as if the Star Sect Command had belonged to him.
Yang Kai was about to inquire about what exactly made this Star Sect Command so special, but he suddenly found that the Yue Xi was actually walking over towards them and couldn’t help frowning, secretly raising his vigilance.
Yang Kai didn’t feel relieved around this woman.
Seemingly because of what she had just experienced, Yue Xi appeared quite angry at the moment.
Walking straight up to Yang Kai, she tried to say something but hesitated.
“Do you need anything?” Yang Kai frowned.
“Can you return that Space Ring to me? You also saw what just happened, that Senior took away all of our Space Rings, without an artifact to store things, our situation is quite inconvenient,” Yue Xi asked awkwardly.
Her attitude towards Yang Kai wasn’t very good yesterday, and now she was asking to take back something she had supposedly gifted him, of course, she was feel awkward.
She wouldn’t do this if she wasn’t forced to do so.
Making her request, she quietly stared at Yang Kai and waited for his reply.
“If I remember correctly, this ring was given to me yesterday, so it is already my thing,” Yang Kai commented.
“Yes,” Yue Xi nodded, “But we need this ring now, so I want to take it back. Rest assured, as long as we leave here, I will give you a satisfactory reward, how about it?”
“Am I allowed to refuse?” Yang Kai smiled lightly.
“You can certainly refuse,” Yue Xi said indifferently, “In this place, I can’t do anything to you even if you reject me.”
“What you mean to say is, after we leave here, things will be different?” Yang Kai instantly understood what she meant.
Yue Xi didn’t acknowledge or deny the charge, simply stating, “I can help you unlock the seal on your body now, allowing you to recover the use of your strength so you can move about more conveniently.”
“No need,” Yang Kai shook his head decisively, after what happened yesterday, there was no way he would allow Yue Xi to get too close again.
Saying so, he quickly emptied out the thousand pieces of Saint Crystal from the ring on his finger before taking it off and tossing it over to Yue Xi, “I just want to tell you, I gave He Zao and He Miao those resource not for some reward, but since I’ve received these thousand pieces of Saint Crystal, we no longer owe each other anything.”
Yue Xi looked at the ring in her hand and her expression became weird, as if she was somewhat unwilling to look at it, lightly whispering, “Besides me, there is no one else here who can remove the seal Lu Gui Chen placed on you.”
“Don’t bother!”
Yue Xi elegant face sank as she coldly snorted, “Can’t appreciate kindness!”
She didn’t expect that her good intentions would actually be rejected by Yang Kai, her offering to help him should have been gratefully accepted by this young man; after all, in this strange, unknown continent, no one would want to be unable to use their strength.
This made her become somewhat angry out of shame, feeling like the hand she had extended was slapped away.
Before now, considering her status, how could she be willing to talk directly to an insignificant person like Yang Kai?
But after arriving in this place, she had no choice but to lower herself to his level.
Not wanting to speak with Yang Kai any further, she took the Space Ring and left.
“Brother, do you have some kind of grudge with that woman?” After Yue Xi left, Shen Tu quietly asked, “How did you manage to provoke her?”
“I didn’t provoke her, she’s just too suspicious of me,” Yang Kai shook his head, not bothering with the subject further.
“But she’s right, without her help, there’s no way to remove the seal Lu Gui Chen placed on you, even if I completely restore myself, I can’t help you,” Shen Tu admitted reluctantly.
“I’ll find a solution on my own.”
“Fine, let’s just forget about this, no point getting upset. In any case, how do you want to deal with these thousand Saint Crystals? You don’t plan on just leaving them here, right?”
“I have this,” Yang Kai said, suddenly pulled a number of small bags, tossing two over to Shen Tu before stuffing one of the nearby Saint Crystals into one of his own.
The glittering fist sized Saint Crystal was swallowed up by the bag and disappeared. Seeing this, Shen Tu was stunned and couldn’t help but ask, “What is this thing? Some kind of storage artifact?”
“It’s called a Universe Bag, the standard storage artifact from my homeland,” Yang Kai explained casually. These Universe Bags were part of the spoils he had collected over the years. He had tossed them into his Demon Mystic Tome at some point and forgotten about them but now they actually came in handy.
The strange old man had seized all the Space Spirit Crystals he could find, so Yang Kai didn’t want to expose his Demon Mystic Tome if possible, if he wasn’t careful, the Demon Mystic Tome might be snatched by him.
Right now, he could only try to deceive others by exposing these Universe Bags.
Shen Tu was genuinely surprised; and copying Yang Kai’s motions, stuffed piece of Saint Crystal into the Universe Bag and smiled, “En, your low-level world was actually able to develop this kind of artifact, the only issue is that its internal space is a bit small.”
He seemed to be very interested in the Universe Bag, and after filling the two he had received, he tucked them into his sleeve and said, “I’ll hold onto these Saint Crystals for now and return them to you later.”
“En,” Yang Kai nodded indifferently.
Purple Star and Sword Union’s cultivators continued sorting through the mountain of materials while Shen Tu took out a piece of Saint Crystal from the Universe Bags and started to restore himself.
Yang Kai sat next to him, trying to mobilize the Saint Qi in his body, but it was like all his meridians were blocked, so he was unable to create any kind of flow, making him feel helpless.
With no ideas on how to proceed, Yang Kai decided to immerse his consciousness into his Knowledge Sea for now.
He was going to absorb those Spiritual Energy remnants first.
Several dozen large and small Soul remnants floated gently above his Knowledge Sea, these all belonged to cultivators who fell nearby Yang Kai in the previous disaster.
They were basically all from Saints while one of them actually belonged to a Saint King Realm master.
Yang Kai observed these things for a while before bringing them together and activating his Demon Eye of Annihilation’s power.
This dazzling golden light was one of Great Demon God’s Divine Abilities and could instantly extinguish any kind of Soul.
With a great whoosh, the numerous remnant Souls seemed to boil, giving off black smoke for a moment as they were being purified by the golden light.
This black smoke was the leftover memories of the deceased, as well as their lifetime worth of experiences.
Yang Kai couldn’t absorb these, or rather, didn’t dare to absorb them; otherwise, he would confuse them with his own memories, causing him to be unable to even remember who he was.
In the blink of an eye, the several dozen Spiritual Energy masses were cleansed, leaving behind only these cultivator’s unique insights into the Heavenly Way and Martial Dao.
One of these energy masses though was a bit different from the others and was actually able to resist the golden light of the Demon Eye of Annihilation for a moment before it was purified.
Naturally, it was the mass which belonged to the Saint King master.
Yang Kai couldn’t help feeling excited!
Carefully examining this particular remnant Soul, Yang Kai discovered that it contained far larger and more potent energy than the others, making him excited.
Not wasting any time, Yang Kai immediately started to refine these purified Souls, transforming them into his own strength.
Time passed by slow and after an unknown period, Yang Kai and cleanly refined all of the Spiritual Energy masses.
Once he finished, Yang Kai actually discovered some interesting points.
These cultivators’ perceptions of the Heavenly Way and Martial Dao were much deeper than those of the Tong Xuan Realm’s cultivators, and their understanding of how to use and manipulate their strength was significantly higher.
This also meant that the combat power of these cultivators was stronger than those from Tong Xuan Realm, most due to the better-comprehended use of their strength.
After absorbing these purified Soul remnants, Yang Kai’s own understanding of the Saint Realm had drastically improved and the control he could exert over his strength had grown substantially.
The benefits he obtained though went far beyond this, because every time he absorbed other cultivator’s Soul remnants, his own Soul’s strength would improve and his Spiritual Energy would be enhanced. Although this increase in strength was quite small, piling up many grains of sand would eventually create a mountain. Over time, by repeating this process again and again, Yang Kai’s Soul had already become several times more powerful than other cultivators in the same realm.
The flames that filled his Knowledge Sea had seemingly become hotter and more intense.
Please with these gains, Yang Kai quickly devoured the last few Soul remnants.
However, when he began absorbing one of these masses of Spiritual Energy, Yang Kai’s expression suddenly became weird and he quickly stopped his movements.
In front of his Soul Avatar was a not so powerful Soul remnant. In fact, this one was weaker than all the rest, only belonging to the level of a Third Order Transcendent.
This was clearly the Soul remnant left behind by the Chart Master named Wu Suo!
Yang Kai understood this clearly because unlike most of the others, he had actually witnessed Wu Suo’s body burst into a bloody fog and his bones ground into dust. At the time, Wu Suo was the only Transcendent Realm cultivator in the Starship power room, everyone else was at least a Saint.
The Spiritual Energy mass that Wu Suo left behind after his death though seemed to be different somehow.
While it was truly only on the level of a Third Order Transcendent, weaker than the others, there seemed to be something hidden inside of it, something out of the ordinary.
Yang Kai concentrated his Divine Sense and began to investigate.
Suddenly, it was as if he had left his Knowledge Sea and been immersed in the Starry Sky, surrounded by stars. Some of these stars exuded a glamorous and dazzling light, some exuded rich vitality, some were blanketed in heavy Death Qi, and so on.
Yang Kai felt as if he had suddenly become omnipotent and was standing above the Starry Sky, overlooking the entire Heng Luo Star Field.
Nothing could escape from his eyes.
All the stars in front of him seemed to be driven by some kind of mysterious force, rotating in a complicated and regular pattern that Yang Kai failed to comprehend.
Yang Kai then saw a place in the exact centre of the entire Star Field.
Some of the stars in this location seemed to be particularly bright, some were red like flame, some were white like frost, some stars gave off incredible amounts of pure energy, some seemed like enormous ancient trees…
It was the Chaotic Abyss!
Yang Kai’s spirit visibly shook.
He immediately realized that this distinctive sector of the Starry Sky he was looking at was the Chaotic Abyss he had been lost in for so long, the dazzling stars and rich energy aura were all too familiar to him.
The first place he had arrived at in the Star Field was the Chaotic Abyss, and its appearance that had long ago been carved into the depths of his soul was identical to the one he was looking at right now.
The only difference was that it had been reduced in size countless times over.
Wu Suo’s Soul remnant actually hid a profound Star Chart.
And it was a Star Chart of the entire Heng Luo Star Field!
Yang Kai stared dumbfounded at this for quite a while, not understanding why this was.
As Yang Kai continued examining this Star Chart with his Divine Sense, the water in his Knowledge Sea rapidly began to evaporate and dry up, his Spiritual Energy being consumed at an incredible speed.
A tearing pain spread from Yang Kai’s Knowledge Sea, shocking him and forcing him to quickly withdraw his Divine Sense from the Star Chart, only then discovering the changes in his Knowledge Sea.
In this brief period of time, he had actually used up nearly half of the Spiritual Energy in his Knowledge Sea.
The splitting pain he felt was a sign that his Spiritual Energy was being over-consumed and the reason for this was no doubt the mysterious Star Chart, clearly it contained hidden secrets!
Yang Kai took a deep breath and didn’t dare to act recklessly, quickly withdrawing his consciousness from his Knowledge Sea.
Returning his senses to his body, Yang Kai felt a cold wind brush against him, causing him to shiver and notice that he was covered in sweat, his every muscle stretched taut.
Shen Tu, who was sitting nearby, stared at him with a stunned look.
Seeing Yang Kai in such a miserable state, he couldn’t help speaking a few words of persuasion, “Yang Kai, calm down, don’t get anxious, that’s the seal of a Saint King Realm master, no matter what, you won’t be able to unlock it for a while.”
Obviously, he thought that Yang Kai was trying to break open Lu Gui Chen’s seal.
“I know, don’t worry about me,” Yang Kai spoke thoughtlessly before quietly taking out a Spiritual Energy restoring Saint Pill from the Demon Mystic Tome and popping it into his mouth, adjusting his Soul while contemplating what just happened.
According to what Shen Tu had told him, Wu Suo was one of the top-ranking Chart Masters in all of Purple Star, qualifying him to assume responsibility for setting the course of Purple Star’s Starships.
Such a top-level Chart Master would obviously have his own unique insights into the makeup of the Star Field. In addition to spending a small amount of time on his personal cultivation, the rest of his life must have been spent on studying and producing Star Charts.
However, that simply couldn’t explain why that mysterious Star Chart would remain even after being exposed to the purifying Golden Light.
The Golden Light was capable of erasing all the memories and life experiences of a cultivator, leaving behind only a mass of pure energy.
This was why Yang Kai had always been able to obtain the insights these fallen cultivators possessed about the Heavenly Way and Martial Dao, but never any of their Secret Arts or Martial Skills.
The knowledge Wu Suo had obtained about Star Charts across the course of his life should have been erased.
However, it all remained intact.
This phenomenon was very strange and had never happened before.
Yang Kai thought about it for a while and eventually arrived at a certain possibility.
The Star Chart which had been left behind wasn’t part of Wu Suo’s knowledge but was actually some kind of fortuitous encounter he had obtained.
It didn’t originally belong to Wu Suo, therefore it wasn’t purified, and on top of that, it was a higher level treasure than the Demon Eye of Annihilation!
Only this possibility could explain the current situation.
The more he considered it, the more Yang Kai felt his guess was correct.
Suddenly opening his eyes, he turned to Shen Tu and said, “I have something I need to ask.”
“Oh? What?” Shen Tu looked back at him.
“How much do you know about that Chart Master called Wu Suo?”
“How come you suddenly want to know about him?” Shen Tu wore a confused look, “He seems to have already died as I haven’t seen him here. What’s wrong? Did you know anything about him before?”
“I didn’t, I’m just curious.”
Shen Tu chuckled, “He’s not a beautiful woman, so I don’t know much about him, but Wu Suo was indeed a top-level Chart Master, so it’s not like I know nothing. En, it’s said that he came from a rather small force that had fallen into decline. He didn’t have extraordinary talent in cultivation and was more or less a drifter. At two hundred years old, he had only been able to cultivate to the Transcendent Realm. A two-hundred-year-old Transcendent is really no different from a waste…”
Despite saying otherwise, Shen Tu knew a lot, his mouth continuing to move for quite some time.
Yang Kai didn’t interrupt him and simply listened to these pieces of trivial information indifferently.
“Right, how he became a Chart Master is actually quite an interesting tale, nearly legendary actually. Before reaching the Transcendent Realm, he was a small character that no one had ever heard of, but after breaking through to the Transcendent Realm, he suddenly displayed incredible talent in the field of Star Chart design. The Star Charts he created were incredibly precise and were capable of avoiding many potential dangers in the Star Field. He originally came from a star under Purple Star’s jurisdiction, so after his rise to fame, he was recruited by Purple Star.”
“After reaching the Transcendent Realm, he became a Chart Master?” Yang Kai expression changed.
“En, it’s strange, isn’t it? Some people have investigated this but no one was able to find much information about it. Basically, everyone thinks that he should have been taught in secret by a very powerful Chart Master, which was why his cultivation had advanced so slowly. His advancement was delayed because he spent all of his effort studying Star Charts. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to become a top-level Chart Master in such a short period of time. Chart Masters are too rare and take too much time to train. Training them also consumed a massive amount of resources. Every big force in the Star Field has its own Chart Master training organization, but Chart Masters who emerge from these institutes and are actually of use are still rare,” Shen Tu smiled and explained, “All of those so-called Chart Masters are capable of drawing a Star Chart from one star to a neighbouring star, but once the distance increases, those same Chart Masters become useless. The Star Charts they draw are inaccurate and can’t provide the least bit of safety.”
“Got it, thanks,” Yang Kai had obtained the information he needed, so he didn’t see a reason to continue discussing this topic any longer and quickly closed his eyes.
“Hey, you haven’t told me why you suddenly became interested in Wu Suo. Could it be you want to become a Chart Master?” Shen Tu asked before letting out a laugh, “I strongly advise you against that. Without dozens of years of immersion and research into the field of Star Charts, it’s absolutely impossible to become a Chart Master, the amount of information one needs to know is simply too immense.”
Yang Kai didn’t bother replying to him, causing Shen Tu to feel somewhat bored, so he too closed eyes and silently began circulating his healing art.
Yang Kai’s Soul Avatar once again appeared inside his Knowledge Sea. After his talk with Shen Tu, he had basically confirmed his previous hypothesis.
Wu Suo really became a Chart Master because of some fortuitous encounter where he managed to somehow obtain this Star Chart hidden in his Soul.
With such a Star Chart, anyone could become a Chart Master!
The reason why he didn’t achieve fame until he broke through to the Transcendent Realm was likely because of the amount of Spiritual Energy required to examine this Star Chart was too great.
About this point, Yang Kai had firsthand experience!
Just now, he had only examined the mysterious Star Chart for an incense stick worth of time, yet half of his Spiritual Energy had been consumed. If it was a cultivator at Wu Suo’s level, after at most a tea sip worth of time, they would become completely exhausted.
Yang Kai didn’t have much interest in the Chart Master profession, but he was very interested in the makeup of the Star Field and the distribution of its various stars.
There were many potential dangers in the Star Field, some that could even threaten Saint King Realm masters. It was the Chart Masters who were responsible for detecting and avoiding these dangers in a timely manner.
If he could refine this Star Chart for himself, Yang Kai felt that he would never have to worry about becoming lost in this Star Field again.
He had suffered a lot in the Chaotic Abyss and had taken this experience to heart, so he had decided to refine the Star Chart. Wu Suo’s treasure had fallen into his hands now; so naturally he wasn’t going to just give it up.
On the Floating Continent, the cultivators of Sword Union and Purple Star lived in peace with one another. It had been more than ten days since the mysterious old man had snatched all of their space rings. No one knew what he wanted with those Space Rings, nor why he had collected those broken bits of Starship debris.
Yang Kai and Shen Tu, the only independent group, kept their distance from both forces.
After such a long period, Shen Tu had finally finished recovering, all of the injuries he had suffered basically having been restored.
Because Yang Kai was still sitting in meditation though, he didn’t dare to run around.
The cultivators from the two great forces, on the other hand, had begun to investigate this strange continent’s situation, and after some initial probing, they found that there was indeed nothing dangerous here, just as the mysterious old man had said before.
They didn’t find any other living creatures here. It seemed like before they arrived, the only living, breathing entity in this place was the mysterious old man.
While they deeply dreaded this old man, they also felt some sympathy for him.
Living alone in such a place, without anyone to even converse with, it would indeed be quite taxing on one’s spirit.
Lu Gui Chen and Yue Xi also used their Star Shuttles to soar up into the sky in an attempt to leave this strange place, return to the Star Field, and escape from under the grip of this terrifying old man.
However, what made them depressed was that no matter how high nor how far they flew, they could never see the stars; all that ever lay before them was the seven coloured sky, like a cage trapping them all on this continent.
As time passed, everyone’s mood became somewhat impetuous, and if not for the old man’s previous threats, the two sides would likely have already started fighting again.
Inside his Knowledge Sea, Yang Kai used his burning hot Spiritual Energy to wrap up Wu Suo’s remnant Soul and refine it.
He had been continuing this process for ten days now, but he was still unable to completely refine the strange Star Chart.
Apparently, he had underestimated the worth of this Star Chart.
However, he saw hope.
Wu Suo’s remnant Spiritual Energy had disappeared, leaving behind a glittering ball of starlight, the embodiment of the strange Star Chart.
Yang Kai continually fed it his Spiritual Energy in order to leave behind his Soul Brand and engrave his life aura on it.
The entire process was similar to refining an artifact.
Suddenly, the Star Chart began to become unstable and gradually expand, almost as if it would explode at any time.
Seeing this, Yang Kai couldn’t help feeling slightly uneasy, moving his Soul Avatar to the six coloured island before continuing to push his Spiritual Energy to refine the Star Chart.
A quiet snap suddenly resounded from the Star Chart, as if it had cracked ever so slightly, but in the next moment, Yang Kai felt his Spiritual Energy being madly drawn into the Star Chart. The ocean-like water in his Knowledge Sea rapidly drained as a result.
Colourful rays of light bursts inside his Knowledge Sea and a myriad of twinkling stars shot out in all directions, causing Yang Kai’s Knowledge Sea to become turbulent and chaotic and his consciousness to become blurry.
An uncountable number of stars flooded into Yang Kai’s Knowledge Sea before quickly rising up into its empty sky, filling it with light.
Slowly, the blank sky above Yang Kai’s Knowledge Sea sky was filled with colour, like a tiny invisible hand was painting a picture on it.
Yang Kai was dazed, his Soul Avatar standing atop the six coloured island staring at the scene in front of him, his eyes growing brighter and brighter.
The scenery in his Knowledge Sea was undergoing a tremendous change at an extremely fast pace.
After about the time it would take to make a cup of tea, Yang Kai’s turbulent Knowledge Sea finally stabilized.
Now, the view inside his Knowledge Sea was very different from before.
The six coloured island still floated dead centre in the ocean, the Demon Eye of Annihilation was also quietly floating above it, but the sky, which had previously been empty, was now filled with a beautiful starry night.
This wasn’t something Yang Kai had condensed from his Spiritual Energy, but an actual existence.
It was the result of Yang Kai successfully refining and integrating the Star Chart into himself!
Yang Kai was overjoyed and grinned broadly as he stood atop the six coloured island.
Eager to experiment, Yang Kai stared at a certain place in this starry sky and the stars in that sector suddenly became clear to him.
These stars were slowly turning under the influence of some miraculous force, maintaining their relative position with the stars around them which were also being moved by this force.
Yang Kai’s Divine Sense swam through this sea of stars and witnessed many of the magical and mysterious elements of the Star Field, his Spiritual Energy draining rapidly as he went.
Although it took a lot of Spiritual Energy to spy on the Star Chart, Yang Kai was still very satisfied.
With such a Star Chart inside his Knowledge Sea, he no longer had to worry about losing his way, he could accurately find any destination he wanted to and could even instantly become an outstanding Chart Master.
Restraining his thoughts, Yang Kai began to search for where he was.
In the mysterious Star Chart, Yang Kai soon found a white spot of light that was continually flashing, and when he focused his Divine Sense there, the white point gave off a subtle fluctuation that allowed him to understand that it represented his current position.
Realizing this, Yang Kai’s expression became weird.
Because he found that according to the Star Chart, the white dot that showed his current whereabouts was actually inside the black hole that had swallowed everyone at the centre of the Chaotic Abyss.
Whether this Star Chart was truly accurate or not, Yang Kai wasn’t completely clear, but he would have to wait until later to verify it.
Unable to learn anything more for the moment, Yang Kai decided to stop wasting his Spiritual Energy and ended his exploration.
Slowly opening his eyes, Yang Kai suddenly heard an excited shout coming from nearby.
Glancing over to the source of the sound, a short distance away, Yang Kai discovered to his surprise that in the Purple Star camp, Liu Shan and Bi Ya were holding some medicinal herbs excitedly rushing over to Lu Gui Chen to say something.
Lu Gui Chen’s expression gradually became more and more excited as his eyes flashed brilliantly, accepting the herb from them and beginning to examine it.
“What happened?” Yang Kai asked.
“Those people from Purple Star seem to have found something incredible,” Shen Tu had also been paying attention to the movements there and although he didn’t hear exactly what they said, he was able to make an educated guess.
“What thing?”
“A Saint King Grade herb!” Shen Tu said solemnly.
Yang Kai’s eyes lit up hearing this.
“They discovered it when they were out exploring this continent, and apparently there was far more than just one!”
“That old man did say that the aura here was rich and there were abundant resources…” Yang Kai wrinkled his brow as he thoughtfully said, “He also said that the only thing it lacked was rare ores!”
Shen Tu suddenly glanced over at him and said, “No rare ores here, but rich in materials… Does that mean there are many precious medicinal herbs here?”
“It’s possible!” Yang Kai gently nodded.
“Purple Star’s people won’t just sit still after learning about it,” Shen Tu muttered again, and as Yang Kai turned to look over there, he truly found that all of Purple Star’s cultivators were soaring off in all directions.
A short time later, Yue Xi of Sword Union also summoned all her subordinates and after speaking a few words to them, the people of Sword Union also set out.
He Zao glanced over at Yang Kai before leaving and nodded to him apologetically.
Yang Kai smiled faintly in response.
These days, Yang Kai had noticed He Zao and He Miao several times wanting to talk to him, but each time they were stopped by a male cultivator from Sword Union.
Yang Kai understood that this was all because of Yue Xi’s instructions, so he didn’t pay it any heed.
“Yang Kai, we should also go out and have a look!” Shen Tu said restlessly, “There’s nothing to do here anyway, and with such a rich World Energy aura, the quality of the herbs produced here are definitely not low.”
“Good,” Yang Kai hesitated for a moment before nodding in agreement, “It’s a good opportunity to collect some herbs to perform Alchemy!”
“You’re also versed in Alchemy?” Shen Tu shot him a look of surprise.
“En, I have some small experience in the field. If I can find the right materials, I might be able to refine the Seal Breaking Pill and unlock the seal placed on me!” Yang Kai declared.
“Then what are we waiting for? Instead of asking others for help it’s always better to help yourself; let’s go, I’ll help you out!” Shen Tu said while circulating his Saint Qi, covering Yang Kai with it, picking a direction, and soaring out.
Sword Union and Purple Star’s cultivators were now spread out all over the continent, and as Shen Tu and Yang Kai flew along, every now and then they would hear someone call out loudly.
“Saint King Grade High-Rank Blue Blood Grass, such a big piece, hahaha, I’m rich!”
“Saint King Grade Mid-Rank Refreshing Spirits Flower…”
“Come quick, there’s a Dark Moon Spirit Mushroom here!”
“Saint Grade High-Rank Earth Emperor Fruit, better than nothing I guess…”
It seemed like the abundance of high-grade herbs produced here had caused the visions of these cultivators to rise significantly. In the past, a Saint Grade High-Rank spirit grass or spirit herb would seem like a rare treasure to them; but now, the Sword Union and Purple Star cultivators were essentially ignoring any herb which was not at least Saint King Grade.
Shen Tu’s face filled with bitterness as he listened to the joyful cries around him, it was as if these cries were grating against his heart, causing him to increase his speed out of fear all the herbs on the continent would be swept away.
“Damn it, without a Star Shuttle, there’s no way to keep up with them,” Shen Tu flew for more than an hour but couldn’t find a suitable place to begin searching; everywhere so far had already been picked clean by the other cultivators.
“Fly over there!” Yang Kai stared towards a certain direction where he vaguely saw a lush jungle.
Jungles had always been a place rich in herbs.
“How come no one discovered that this continent was so rich in herbs until now?” As they flew forward, Yang Kai asked suspiciously. It had been almost half a month since they arrived here, so logically they should have noticed this point before now.
“Everyone was too frightened of that old man and didn’t dare act before. It was only a few days ago when people began to explore the surrounding area and investigate the sky. It was during those explorations that they started finding these rare herbs,” Shen Tu explained casually, his eyes suddenly becoming bright, “The jungle up ahead seems to be untouched, let’s go in and see.”
“En.”
The two people’s figures flew through the air and rushed into the jungle.
Just after they entered this jungle, both of their spirits shook because the World Energy aura here was actually more intense than where they had been resting before.
Glancing at each other, the two of them knew they had come to the right place.
The denser the aura, the higher quality of herbs would be bred.
Simultaneously releasing their Divine Senses, it only took a moment before Yang Kai pointed to a certain spot, “There’s something over there.”
Shen Tu shot him a curious look, “Are you sure?”
“Absolutely! Because there’s a strong medicinal fragrance wafting from that direction.”
“Don’t tell me you really are an Alchemist?” Shen Tu was stunned.
Inside the jungle, Yang Kai and Shen Tu moved as swiftly as the wind, collecting one spirit herb after another.
The herbs produced here were at least Saint Grade, most of them Saint King Grade.
Shen Tu was so happy he couldn’t stop grinning.
He had never imagined that this continent would be filled with so many spirit herbs. Almost every hundred steps they took, there would be a spirit herb just growing wild, waiting for him and Yang Kai to collect.
The spirit grasses and spirit medicines on this Floating Continent were ten times more abundant than any Medicine Star in the Star Field. On top of that, each of these herbs was many years old and completely untouched.
The mysterious old man’s cultivation was extraordinary and wouldn’t even care about the herbs here so he hadn’t bothered collecting any of them, allowing the spirit grasses and spirit medicines ample time to grow.
Shen Tu didn’t know much about spirit herbs as he usually only handled already refined pills, but even so, just seeing the dazzling array of resources in front of him made it difficult to not be exciting.
Under Yang Kai’s careful guidance, Shen Tu swept away all the mature herbs.
“Hey Yang Kai, take a look at this…” Shen Tu suddenly called out excitedly, his voice trembling slightly, seemingly having found something incredible.
Yang Kai hurried over to and upon arriving at Shen Tu’s side, he saw a strange orchid. This orchid’s white petals overflowed with a soft radiance and exuded a delicate scent that relaxed one’s spirit with even the lightest of sniffs, it was clearly not ordinary.
Yang Kai’s eyes shrank as he shouted, “Seven Coloured Thousand Knot Orchid?”
The spirit grasses and spirit medicines that were produced on this continent were basically the same as those found in Tong Xuan Realm, the only difference being that their grades were extremely high. Of course, there were many herbs here that even Yang Kai couldn’t name. These were naturally herbs not native to Tong Xuan Realm.
This Seven Coloured Thousand Knot Orchid also grew in Tong Xuan Realm, but there it was only capable growing to the Saint Grade Mid-Rank; however, the orchid in front of Yang Kai right now was giving off an amazing energy fluctuation as well as a medicinal fragrance far beyond what a Saint Grade Mid-Rank herb was capable of.
“Yang Kai, what grade is this, why does it feel so different?” Shen Tu muttered hesitantly as he stared at the Seven Coloured Thousand Knot Orchid in front of him.
“According to the division of the Star Field’s cultivators, this should be an Origin Grade herb,” Yang Kai said solemnly.
Shen Tu drew a sharp breath, his expression fluctuating quick quickly as he whispered to himself, “There are Origin Grade herbs here? Heavens, there are actually Origin Grade herbs here!”
Even when taking the entire Star Field into consideration, Origin Grade herbs were extremely valuable, yet Yang Kai and Shen Tu had barely begun exploring this place and had already found one, it was easy to imagine from this point alone just how abundant the resources of this continent were.
Yang Kai carefully collected the Seven Coloured Thousand Knot Orchid and placed it in his Universe Bag, also quite excited deep in his heart.
Exchanging a knowing glance, he and Shen Tu then continued their search.
The Floating Continent was truly rich in herbs. Stimulated by the great wealth in front of them, both Purple Star and Sword Union’s cultivators seemingly forgot all about the awkward situation they were in and instead crazily scoured the land for spirit grasses and spirit medicines.
Whether they were able to leave this place or not, these herbs would have a huge impact on their future cultivation.
Yang Kai and Shen Tu also reaped a huge harvest. The size of this continent wasn’t small, and there were only about a hundred cultivators in total from Purple Star and Sword Union here, so after scattering in all direction, it was actually quite rare to run into others.
As such, they were able to search for herbs in a safe and secure way.
After a dozen days, Yang Kai suddenly paused.
“What’s wrong?” Shen Tu was still in high spirits as he searched around, but upon noticing Yang Kai stop, he couldn’t help asking.
“I’ve collected enough herbs, for now. I’m going to start performing Alchemy.”
“You’re going to refine a pill to break that seal?” Shen Tu asked.
“En.”
“But you can’t use your Saint Qi right now, how are you planning on performing Alchemy?” Shen Tu asked in confusion.
“I have a way. In any case, you keep searching for herbs by yourself. There’s a small cave over that way, I’ll be staying there for a while. You can find me there,” Yang Kai pointed back towards a spot the two had just come from. As they were searching for herbs, Yang Kai had discovered a cave there and felt it was a good place to settle down temporarily.
“Good,” Shen Tu didn’t object. He knew how eager Yang Kai was to regain the ability to use his Saint Qi, “Then you be careful, I’ll continue searching for now.”
Saying so, he quickly ran off.
Yang Kai took a quick look around his surroundings before heading back towards the cave he found earlier.
A short time later, Yang Kai arrived in front of the cave and, after inspecting it with his Divine Sense to confirm there was no danger inside, he walked in.
This cave should have been formed naturally as there were many stalactites hanging from its ceiling. From the tip of these stalactites, droplets of milky water would occasionally drop.
Catching and drinking a few of these drops, Yang Kai immediately felt refreshed.
The water in the mountains here was not ordinary water, each drop contained a massive amount of World Energy; in fact, it was almost as if this water was liquefied World Energy. Anyone who drank it would receive great benefits. It even had similar effects to the Myriad Drug Liquid, such as the ability to improve one’s physique and enhance their strength.
Of course, the effect was far less potent than the Myriad Drug Liquid.
Yang Kai went all the way to the innermost part of the cave, searched for a dry spot, then sat down cross-legged.
The total area of this cave wasn’t large, perhaps a few houses in size at most; on top of that, the light was dim, but this environment was perfect for Yang Kai’s needs.
While he wasn’t able to use his Saint Qi, his Spiritual Energy had not been sealed!
Since long ago, Yang Kai had not needed to use his Qi to perform Alchemy. With his Conflagrated Spiritual Energy, he could refine any pill he wanted to far faster and more efficiently than using with his Saint Qi.
After calming his breathing, Yang Kai began organizing some Saint Grade herbs and prepared to refine several Saint Pills.
Taking out his small pill furnace, he placed it in front of himself.
Yang Kai wrapped up the herbs in his Divine Sense, using his Conflagrated Spiritual Energy to condense them into medicinal liquids.
A moment later, the several Saint Grade herbs were purified, leaving behind only several drops of fragrant medicinal liquid.
Quickly portraying all sorts of Spirit Arrays used in Alchemy inside his pill furnace, Yang Kai then inserted the drops of medicinal liquid and began to control the heat.
Yang Kai handled this familiar task easily and methodically.
Even though he had not performed Alchemy in quite some time, the various processes had already become ingrained in his instincts.
Yang Kai completed each step in the refinement with impeccable precision, not making a single mistake along the way.
The mountain cave soon began to fill with a rich pill fragrance.
When the medicinal fragrance in the air reached a certain density, Yang Kai took back his Conflagrated Spiritual Energy and waited a moment before tapping his pill furnace with his fingers.
As he did so, a perfectly round medicinal pill flew out and was quickly pinched between his fingertips.
There were no Pill Veins on this pill which was a bit disappointing, but it was still a genuine Saint Grade Mid-Rank pill.
Gently nodding, Yang Kai was very satisfied, storing the pill into the Demon Mystic Tome before closing his eyes to restore himself.
Refining a Saint Pill required him to consume some Spiritual Energy, and although the quantity wasn’t great, Yang Kai couldn’t just squander his Spiritual Energy thoughtlessly here, so he intended to maintain his peak condition at all times.
After the time it would take to burn a stick of incense, Yang Kai continued.
Even back in Tong Xuan Realm, Yang Kai was already able to refine Saint Grade High-Rank pills. Nine Heavens Holy Land had gathered an incredible amount of herbs and wealth before he had left, allowing him to upgrade his Alchemy proficiency as he wished.
However, a Saint Grade High-Rank pill was unlikely to be sufficient to break the seal Lu Gui Chen had placed on him.
Lu Gui Chen was a Saint King Realm master, so only a Saint King Grade pill would be able to break his technique.
As such, Yang Kai’s priority now was to quickly use the vast amount of resources he had gathered here to improve his Alchemy skills.
When he left Tong Xuan Realm, he had brought many resources with him, and on this Floating Continent, he and Shen Tu had collected many Saint King Grade and Origin Grade herbs.
Therefore, he wasn’t worried about the materials at all.
Time flowed by and Yang Kai immersed himself in the world of Alchemy, living alone in the cave, filling the air with a thick pill fragrance while the Floating Continent was filled with activity as the cultivators from Purple Star and Sword Union continued their rich harvest.
However, Lu Gui Chen was a bit disgruntled.
Because he didn’t have a storage artifact on hand!
Without proper storage artifacts, even if they collected all these herbs, they had no place to put them. This was just a minor matter though. The more serious problem was that after these herbs were picked, without being properly stored, their efficacies would quickly fade.
This made Lu Gui Chen feel extremely distressed as he watched these Saint King Grade and Origin Grade herbs slowly but surely lose their potency.
He even wished he could go find the mysterious old man and snatch back his own Space Ring.
However, he only dared imagine this in his head. Facing that old man, Lu Gui Chen couldn’t even summon the will to resist.
……
Atop a great mountain peak, the mysterious old man stared fixedly at a large flat piece of land. On this flat land, there were many extremely high-grade Saint Crystals arranged into a large array.
At the centre of this array was something which resembled a door erected on the ground.
The door was refined from the debris of the two broken Starships and seemingly led nowhere.
The two broken Starships were giant Saint King Grade High-Rank artifacts, and the material used in their hulls was also extremely precious, the surviving pieces of which were used by the old man to refine the door.
There were no precious ores on this continent, so the old man had been unable to find the right materials to refine this most critical door for a very long time.
It was difficult to describe just how excited he was when he saw the Starship shards fall from the air and descend on this continent!
On the door’s frame as well as the base surrounding it were many extremely high-grade Saint Crystals, giving it a beautiful appearance.
A strange energy fluctuation radiated from this door, causing even a character like the mysterious old man to not dare approach it recklessly, as if it contained a great hidden danger.
The look on the old man’s face became wild with anticipation as he paced back and forth nearby, muttering to himself, “Soon, very soon!”
The mad light flashing across his eyes would cause anyone who met them to shudder.
After inspecting his arrangement for a while, he suddenly came to a halt and spread his Divine Sense across the entire continent.
Instantly, the movements of all the people who were scurrying about the continent clearly appeared in his mind.
Grinning fiendishly, he snickered, “Heh heh, everyone is quite active, good, good, good. This old master most hates this place’s suffocating silence. This old master has been alone here for two thousand years and can no longer bear such torture. If they didn’t have any energy at all, this old master would have had a headache… Oh, this little brat is a bit interesting.”
The mysterious old man’s cultivation was extraordinary, and as long as he wished to know something, there was no way anyone on this continent could hide anything from him.
As such, he had quickly discovered the unusualness of Yang Kai.
That old man focused his Divine Sense towards the cave Yang Kai was in.
Inside the cave, Yang Kai, who was trying to refine a Saint King Grade pill suddenly, went stiff, his eyes shooting open and quickly scanning his surroundings, his expression dignified.
Just now, he had felt like there was an invisible eye spying on his movements, causing him to feel nervous.
However, after careful investigation, Yang Kai couldn’t discover anything wrong, so he shook his head wryly, thinking he was just being overcautious.
Having interrupted his focus, the Saint King Grade pill he had been refining had instantly failed and a burnt smell began leaking from his pill furnace. The medicinal liquids he had worked so hard to purify and blend now could no longer be used.
Yang Kai let out a faint sigh and removed the burnt slag from his pill furnace, recalling his Conflagrated Spiritual Energy and closing his eyes to steady his mind.
Seeing this scene, the mysterious old man, who was nearly ten thousand kilometres away, took back his own Divine Sense and muttered suspiciously, “Are his senses so keen?”
He was confident that given his means, it would have been impossible for this little brat to detect his Divine Sense probing. It was more likely that due to being in a heightened state of vigilance, this boy had vaguely sensed danger and responded accordingly.
Shaking his head, the old man no longer paid any attention to Yang Kai and focused on his own matters instead.
The old man really didn’t care much about a little brat like Yang Kai.
Inside the cave, Yang Kai secluded himself and continued refining pills.
Although Yang Kai didn’t know how much time has passed, he had refined several hundred Saint Grade Mid-Rank and Saint Grade High-Rank pills. Among these pills, there were many that had given birth to Pill Veins.
His Alchemy proficiency had also greatly improved, and he was now even capable of refining Saint King Grade pills.
On a certain day, Yang Kai carefully pulled out some herbs from his Demon Mystic Tome, each one of them Saint King Grade containing vast amounts of energy.
He was going to start refining the Seal Breaking Pill!
Yang Kai was quite familiar with the Seal Breaking Pill’s pill recipe, as it was one of the recipes from Tong Xuan Realm. The grade of Seal Breaking Pill produced would depend entirely on the grade of herbs used.
Today, Yang Kai had chosen Saint King Grade herbs, so naturally the Seal Breaking Pill he would refine would be Saint King Grade as well.
Although he was lacking a few of the specific herbs in the recipe, he had found appropriate substitutes.
Yang Kai was already an excellent Alchemist, so it wasn’t difficult for him to make minor adjustments to a pill recipe.
Calming himself, Yang Kai adjusted his condition to its peak before beginning the refinement.
His movements were smooth and precise as his mood remained steady, not anxious, as if he was refining any ordinary pill.
Because he had full confidence in refining this pill!
He had no doubt he would succeed.
His confidence was not unfounded and two hours later, Yang Kai completed a perfectly round, pale yellow, Seal Breaking Pill filled with energy.
Taking this pill out of his pill furnace, Yang Kai pinched it between his fingers and silently examined it, shaking his head slowly a moment later.
This pill was a genuine Saint King Pill.
However, according to his observations, it should only be Saint King Grade Low-Rank.
He didn’t know if such a pill could break the seal placed on him. If Lu Gui Chen’s strength was also only at this level, there wouldn’t be any suspense, but Yang Kai estimated that Lu Gui Chen was at least a Second-Order Saint King or possible even a Third Order one.
Therefore, he couldn’t be certain.
Frowning in thought for a while, Yang Kai eventually stuffed the pill into his mouth and swallowed it.
Closing his eyes, Yang Kai sat cross-legged and waited for the medicinal energies to take effect.
A short time later, Yang Kai’s face warped with pain. He felt a wave of heat spread from his lower abdomen, like a torrent of lightning that had suddenly exploded outwards in all directions.
His blocked meridians stretched and a tearing pain spread throughout his body.
Yang Kai clenched his teeth and remained still, using his Divine Sense to observe his condition as the medicinal efficacies progressed.
He clearly saw an illusory set of bindings in his body loosen as the effects spread; these shackles contained Lu Gui Chen’s aura and were naturally the seal he had placed on him.
The Seal Breaking Pill’s medicinal energies were like a dragon and Yang Kai’s body was its battlefield, fighting a desperate struggle against these shackles.
The entire process brought him unimaginable pain.
Although the Seal Breaking Pill’s effects were good, it was obviously not enough to smash open the shackles and restore Yang Kai’s freedom. Every time the medicinal energies tried to move forward, they would lose a great deal of strength while the shackles themselves remained intact, sealing Yang Kai’s Saint Qi and meridians.
Half a day later, Yang Kai opened her eyes weakly, a helpless look upon his face.
A Saint King Grade Low-Rank Seal Breaking Pill really wasn’t sufficient.
However, with his current means, this was the highest grade of pill Yang Kai could refine.
It wasn’t a matter of material, nor was it because of his lack of skill, but because of his cultivation.
Yang Kai was only a First Order Saint, being able to successfully refine a pill an entire Great Realm higher than his own cultivation was already an incredible feat, if he wanted to refine higher grade pills, he would need to enhance his cultivation first.
However, Yang Kai wasn’t disheartened but instead filled with hope.
Just because a normal Saint King Grade Low-Rank Seal Breaking Pill wouldn’t work, didn’t mean a Seal Breaking Pill with Pill Veins would be the same.
Once a pill formed Pill Veins, its medicinal effects would at least double in potency.
As long as he could refine a Seal Breaking Pill that formed Pill Veins, Yang Kai was confident he could break this seal.
He didn’t concern himself with his failure just now and instead used a drop of Myriad Drug Liquid to quickly restore himself and start again.
During this time, Shen Tu had collected a lot of herbs, enough for Yang Kai to refine four or five Seal Breaking Pills.
Yang Kai busied himself and after another two hours, he removed a second Seal Breaking Pill from his furnace.
It was an ordinary pill again, without Pill Veins.
Apparently, it was much more difficult to refine Saint King Grade pills that formed Pill Veins.
Yang Kai wasn’t rushed though, his state of mind remaining stable, unaffected by any failure because even if these materials were exhausted, he could simply collect more and try again. In this place, herbs were essentially inexhaustible.
Reminding himself of this point, Yang Kai felt that even if he failed a few more times, it wouldn’t be an issue.
When the fifth Seal Breaking Pill was taken out of the pill furnace, Yang Kai’s eyes lit up and his mood lifted.
This pill had formed human-like meridians across its surface, and the medicinal energies which were contained within it were clearly stronger than before.
[Success!] Looking at this pill, Yang Kai, who had dedicated much thought and effort into its refinement, couldn’t help smiling.
It had been a few months since Lu Gui Chen had placed this seal on him, and there was no one here he could rely upon for assistance with it. Although he had made friends with Shen Tu, the latter was powerless to help him break this seal.
Yang Kai had to rely on himself.
Now, with this Seal Breaking Pill in his hand, a strong sense of excitement and pride rose in his chest.
Yang Kai wasn’t in a hurry to take this pill but instead chose to restore himself first.
Half a day later, Yang Kai popped the pill into his mouth while looking forward to its effects.
Worthy of a pill that had formed Pill Veins, the moment Yang Kai swallowed it, a violent torrent of heat burst forth from his abdomen, one that as several times stronger than last time.
Yang Kai’s face turned red and his blood began flowing rapidly, seemingly on fire as it coursed through his veins. Enduring the unimaginable pain, his expression contorted but Yang Kai’s eyes remained bright.
He noticed that the shackles in his body were slowly being broken.
The meridians that had been sealed for the past few months finally became free and the Saint Qi which had been stagnant this whole time once again showed signs of flowing.
*Kakaka…*
The sound of the shackles breaking was transmitted directly to the depths of Yang Kai’s soul and as his Saint Qi began flowing faster and faster, his strength was slowly recovered.
According to this situation, in time than it would take to make a cup of tea, the seal would be completely broken.
But at that moment, Yang Kai’s expression suddenly dimmed and he spread out his Divine Sense.
He had noticed that someone had entered his vicinity and couldn’t help raising his vigilance slightly.
While he had been performing Alchemy, there would occasionally be one or two cultivators that passed by and noticed his life aura, but none of them had come to disturb him.
This was obviously because no one dared to make trouble in the old man’s site.
But this time seemed to be a bit different. After the cultivator outside the cave noticed Yang Kai’s existence, not only did he not leave, but instead walked straight in.
Yang Kai’s brow wrinkled and his expression became disgruntled.
Although he wasn’t worried about this person seeking trouble with him, it was still very uncomfortable to be disturbed at such a critical juncture.
Stimulating the movement of the medicinal efficacies, Yang Kai sped up the rate at which they were breaking through the seal while on the surface he wore a calm and undisturbed look.
A moment later, a bright light appeared in front of Yang Kai, and a figure emerged.
The light was being emitted by a strange stone and was quite soft, capable of illuminating a wide area. The cultivator trail holding this strange stone came walked in front of Yang Kai who was sitting on the ground and grinned, “I was wondering who was hiding here, it turns out it was you.”
Between his words, the light from the strange stone revealed this person’s gloomy expression.
“You’re He Zao and He Miao’s Senior Brother?” Yang Kai looked at him indifferently.
He recognized this guy. Every time He Zao and He Miao tried to come find him, they had been intercepted by this person. If Yang Kai recalled correctly, Yue Xi had called him Wei Wu.
“Indeed,” Wei Wu nodded, “Why are you hiding here little brat? There doesn’t seem to be anything good here.”
“No reason, it’s dangerous outside.”
“It really is dangerous out there, especially for you,” Wei Wu said, taking pleasure in his misfortune, “Your strength was sealed by Lu Gui Chen, right? What a pity, all alone with no one to depend on, only capable of living on by hiding from others’ sight, you must feel miserable!”
From the cynical tone of his voice, it seemed he was quite happy to see Yang Kai in such dire straits.
Yang Kai said nothing.
“Little brat, how about I show you the right path out of this?” Wei Wu suddenly squatted down in front of Yang Kai.
“What right path?” Yang Kai frowned.
“You should be able to tell. In this unfamiliar place, without anyone to rely on, with your strength sealed, once you fall into any kind of danger, you’ll have no way to fight back. For example, when someone approaches you with ill intentions!” Saying so, he smiled coldly while staring meaningfully towards Yang Kai.
Inside the cave, Wei Wu stared towards Yang Kai, his expression, illuminated by the strange light stone, becoming more and more sinister.
Yang Kai continued staring back at him, his face as indifferent as before.
Wei Wu’s face twitched a few times, seemingly annoyed that Yang Kai didn’t show even a trace of fear, suddenly feeling his little game was boring and snorting, “I can convince Master to lift the seal on you, but in return you must hand over your Soul Brand and serve me from now on.”
After a pause, he added, “Here, you are unable to use your strength, and there is crisis all around, but as long as you surrender your Soul Brand, I will naturally protect your safety in the future and ensure you will not suffer a loss. Who knows, if you’re lucky, perhaps in the future you can also join Sword Union!”
“Are you finished yet?” Yang Kai interrupted him impatiently.
Wei Wu was stunned and stopped talking.
“If you’re finished then please leave,” Yang Kai waved his hand and said.
Wei Wu’s face sank in that instant, slowly standing up with a cold smirk on his face, “Little brat, don’t refuse a toast only to be forced to drink a loss. You’d best reconsider your answer or else you may regret it.”
Yang Kai slowly shook his head, “I don’t know what you want my Soul Brand for, but it’s absolutely impossible for me to hand control of my life over to another; moreover, you’re not qualified to even ask.”
“You’ve got guts little brat!” Wei Wu laughed, seemingly having heard something quite funny, his voice filling with a threatening tone, “Tell me, if I were to kill you here, who would know?”
Yang Kai expression sank as he stared back at Wei Wu.
Although the mysterious old man had said before that no one was allowed to make trouble here, who knew if he would actually protect everyone’s safety?
Did he have any reason to go that far?
“Your two Junior Sisters owe me graciousness. For a simple misunderstanding, you actually want to kill me?” Yang Kai asked coldly, his murderous intent slowly rising.
“It is precisely because you showed them graciousness that you should be damned. If you had just minded your own business, they would have already died …” Wei Wu snarled, speaking halfway before suddenly realizing that he had said too much and quickly stopping.
In the dark, the two men’s four eyes met.
Yang Kai had thought Wei Wu hated him because he was interested in He Zao or He Miao and was worried Yang Kai would become a potential rival, but now it seems things were more complicated than that.
On the contrary, it was as if Wei Wu was quite eager to see He Zao and He Miao die.
[What kind of hidden secrets does this involved?] Yang Kai thought but had no concrete answers. Though, he had some guesses. [It must likely be due to some kind of internal dispute within Sword Union].
Guessing this much, Yang Kai was disinclined to think about it further.
However, because Wei Wu had let slip a few words too many, the temperature inside the cave had dropped significantly.
“Little brat, if you want to live, you’d best forget everything that just happened now. Otherwise, I’ll rip your corpse into ten thousand pieces!” Wei Wu coldly threatened after a long silence before turning to leave.
However, just as he turned around, a wisp of light shot out from his sleeve, like a cold snake that accurately sliced through the darkness towards Yang Kai’s position and swiftly wrapped around his neck.
“Heh, only dead people won’t reveal secrets!” Wei Wu chuckled flicking his wrist, collecting the cold string of light back.
Unexpectedly, it was an incredibly sharp soft sword.
Turning back, Wei Wu prepared to deal with Yang Kai’s body in order to ensure there were no clues left behind.
But just as he turned back, he saw a figure crash towards him. Under the soft light of his illumination stone, Wei Wu clearly saw Yang Kai’s face distorted in rage, a fresh wound circling his neck out of which a copious amount of golden blood flowed.
Wei Wu called out unconsciously, unable to understand why Yang Kai hadn’t died!
This youth had his strength sealed and was hit by the sneak attack of a Third Order Saint, there shouldn’t have been any possibility of failure.
Wei Wu showed a panic-stricken look as if he had just seen a ghost.
His reaction was quick though, realizing the situation he was in and quickly condensing his strength, the soft sword in his hand suddenly bursting out with a dazzling cold light that shrouded Yang Kai’s figure.
Yang Kai on-the-other-hand gave off a thick malevolent aura, his entire temperament undergoing a drastic change from a moment ago. Now, he most closely resembled a wild beast that had suddenly awoken from a long slumber, completely ignoring the shroud of light that was approaching him as he ploughed straight through it towards Wei Wu while lifting clenched fist.
*Hong…*
Yang Kai’s fist landed square on Wei Wu’s face, the latter only hearing the sound of bone breaking as his nose collapsed inward and his mouth filled with the taste of blood. Dazed by this blow, Wei Wu was knocked backwards.
When he was hit by this fist, Wei Wu was shocked to find that his Saint Qi did not play any protective role, as if it hadn’t existed at all. This punch’s fierce power had directly crossed his protective Saint Qi and penetrated his bones, shattering them in the process.
He was sent flying by this punch.
Wei Wu’s body bounced a few times before slamming into the cave wall, causing stone debris to fly about as he finally came to a halt, sprawled out on the ground.
Not daring to delay, he quickly climbed back up, but before he could get his bearings, a big hand reached out from in front of him and gripped his neck before slamming him back down to the ground.
Yang Kai gasped for breath, his eyes becoming dark and filled with bloodthirst, the malevolent energies stored within his Unyielding Golden Skeleton erupting like a volcano and rushing towards Wei Wu.
He had been unbearably provoked by Wei Wu.
Yang Kai still remembered the overbearing threat the mysterious old man had issued all those days ago.
And because he was in the final moments of breaking the seal, Yang Kai had not had any spare attention for other things and had simply thought that Wei Wu wouldn’t dare to attack him.
The moment he was sneak attacked, Yang Kai wasn’t able to react until he felt the pain coming from his neck, at which point he hurriedly tried to resist!
Even so, his neck had been severely wounded.
He had almost been beheaded!
If it weren’t for his physique being so intrepid, and if the seal on his cultivation hadn’t been completely broken at that very moment, allowing him to regain control of his strength, the consequences would have been unimaginable.
Yang Kai couldn’t control his anger and his killing intent was fully revealed.
“You…how did you…” Wei Wu’s eyes widened in horror as he stared towards Yang Kai. He couldn’t understand how this youth, whose strength should have been sealed, was able to launch such a powerful attack. At this moment, this youth’s body was overflowing with evil energy, how was this anything like someone whose strength had been sealed?
The evil aura Yang Kai released seemed to engulf the entire world, making one feel like they had fallen into a hellish purgatory, chilling their guts and grinding away their courage. Wei Wu couldn’t help feeling intense fear at this moment, his entire body shivering uncontrollably.
Wei Wu suddenly felt like he wasn’t facing a First-Order Saint, but rather an unfathomable demon.
“You were right about one thing,” Yang Kai’s eyes overflowed with coldness, his voice containing no emotion as he spoke, “If I kill you here, who would know?”
A thick malevolent aura surged up and madly poured into Wei Wu’s body, causing his figure to rapidly inflate and flood to spew out from the wound on his nose, sprinkling down on Yang Kai’s face, adding a layer of fierceness to his already terrifying appearance.
Perceiving the call of death, Wei Wu began madly struggling; using every means he had at his disposal but still failing to escape from Yang Kai’s grip.
Yang Kai continued stubbornly holding him down, unmoving, allowing him to thoroughly taste despair and fear before he died.
After a few breaths of time, accompanied by Wei Wu’s screams, his body exploded, his flesh, blood, five viscera, and six organs scattering about.
An invisible suction force suddenly emerged from Yang Kai’s left eye and Wei Wu’s Soul was inhaled.
Yang Kai closed his eyes and sank his consciousness into his Knowledge Sea. Atop the rolling waves, Yang Kai began burning down Wei Wu’s Soul with his Conflagrated Spiritual Energy.
Yang Kai started off very measured, suppressing the burning power of his Knowledge Sea to a minimum so as not to instantly incinerate Wei Wu’s Soul. He wanted to torture Wei Wu and force him to suffer before completely erasing him, while also reminding himself that he must always remain alert and never treat any uncertain situation lightly.
Cries of fear and despair that seemed to last forever echoed throughout Yang Kai’s Knowledge Sea.
At the same moment Wei Wu’s physical body was destroyed, a few ten thousand kilometres away from the cave, Sword Union’s Yue Xi was bringing He Zao and He Miao to collect spirit herbs.
Suddenly, Yue Xi’s tender body shook and her face became ugly, hurriedly stretching out her hand and summoning a mirror-like artifact atop her palm.
“Master? What happened?” He Zao saw her take out this small mirror and her pretty face also sank, hurriedly asking what the matter was.
Because ordinarily, this mirror played no role, it was only when someone who was close to their Master fell into great danger would she take it out to investigate.
Maser taking this Soul Mirror out at this time was obviously because someone had an accident.
“Something happened to Wei Wu!” Yue Xi replied with a frown.
“What happened to Senior Brother Wu?” He Miao also rushed over and asked with concern.
Yue Xi shook her head, bit her fingertip, and extracted a drop of blood before dripping it onto the Soul Mirror.
The mirror-like surface suddenly rippled like a lake and from its depths a strange, seven coloured fish swam up. This strange fish was extremely fast, and in the blink of an eye leapt out of the mirror and burst open mid-air.
The next moment, the seven coloured rays from the Soul Mirror formed into a clear picture that was projected in front of the trio.
This picture was the last scene Wei Wu saw before he died.
It seemed to be inside a dark cave, and a face twisted with rage appeared on the mirror, a thick murderous intent overflowing from its eyes. This murderous intent was so heavy that it seemed to cross over the mirror and cover the three women.
Under this gaze, the three of them couldn’t help feeling a chill shoot up their spines.
“Such terrifying murderous intent!” Yue Xi gasped, her beautiful eyes flashing with anger, “This boy killed Wei Wu!”
“Him?” He Zao wore a weird expression. When she saw this face, she could hardly believe her eyes, because it appeared very different from the one she had seen before, almost as if they were two different people.
“How could it be Yang Kai?” He Miao also called out hesitantly, naively saying, “Is it possible it wasn’t him? His strength has been sealed and even if he were to recover it, with his cultivation it’s impossible for him to be Senior Brother Wei Wu’s opponent.”
The Yue Xi master and disciple trio all stared towards the angry face they saw in the Soul Mirror with expression of confusion.
Because just as He Miao said, Yang Kai’s strength had been sealed by Lu Gui Chen, something he couldn’t possibly remove with his strength and means. On the entire Floating Continent, there were only two people capable of breaking this seal.
One was Yue Xi, whose strength was comparable to Lu Gui Chen, and the other was the mysterious old man.
Although the mysterious old man’s strength was exceedingly high, his behaviour was eccentric and likely wouldn’t offer his help for such a trivial matter. Similarly, Yue Xi had not helped Yang Kai break this seal.
Then how did he recover his strength?
And even if he managed to restore his strength to its peak state, he would still be just a First-Order Saint. How could he be Wei Wu, a Third Order Saint’s opponent?
“No matter what, Wei Wu was definitely harmed by this boy!” Yue Xi pretty face filled with anger, “Daring to kill my Sword Union’s person, I’ll make him pay the price!”
“Master, we need to verify the truth of this matter first,” He Zao quickly persuaded.
Yue Xi turned her eyes towards He Zao and lightly said, “I know that he has a grace to both of you and your sisters, and there have been some misunderstandings between us, but this boy is too strange. You don’t need to interfere in this matter, I will handle it myself. “
Recognizing the determination in her Master’s voice, He Zao and He Miao both wore bitter expressions.
Neither of them had much affection for Wei Wu despite the fact that he was their Senior Brother. The two of them even thought he was quite repugnant, so even if he died, they didn’t care much.
However, if Yang Kai was involved in this somehow and brought trouble upon him as a result, they had to be worried. Unfortunately, neither of them could think of a way to handle this situation, causing them to let out a sigh.
Inside the cave. Yang Kai was died red all over, his appearance truly horrifying to see. He stood in the same place, adjusted his state, and converged his malevolent aura while rejoicing in the thrill of restoring his strength.
Recovering the use of his strength gave him the illusion of being reborn.
An ache transmitted to him from the wound on his neck as his flesh seemed to squirm, but under the powerful restorative strength of the Demon God Golden Blood, this wound quickly healed.
With a single wipe, Yang Kai cleaned away the blood from his neck, leaving behind his unblemished skin, as if he had never been wounded in the first place.
Just as he stared down at the body of Wei Wu and was preparing to burn it to ash, wicked laughter suddenly echoed from his side.
Yang Kai’s face went pale as he quickly turned around to see the figure of a man standing quietly in the darkness beside him.
The glowing stone that Wei Wu had held before had fallen at the foot of this figure, clearly illuminating his face.
Seeing this face, the strength Yang Kai had just unconsciously gathered was instantly dispersed, his expression becoming extremely dignified as his heart filled with bitterness.
Facing this person, he couldn’t even muster the will to resist.
Because the one who stood before him was none other than the mysterious old man who originally lived on this continent!
This old man could easily suppress Lu Gui Chen and Yue Xi, so he was at least a master at the Origin Returning Realm; Yang Kai, as a First Order Saint, was no different from an ant in front of him.
“Senior…” Yang Kai frowned and began to speak.
Yang Kai didn’t know when this old man arrived, it was almost as if he had been standing here the whole time. He was like a ghost, a gloomy aura pulsing from his body that caused those around him to feel uncomfortable, filling the entire cave with a thick Yin Qi.
“Cruel and merciless, good good!” The old man smirked, his eyes flashing a hint of appreciation as he stared at Yang Kai with great interest, “With only a First-Order Saint Realm cultivation, you can easily kill a Third Order Saint in a frontal fight. Were you borrowing some kind of external force?”
Listening to him ask this, Yang Kai suddenly realized that he had not seen the full conflict between him and Wei Wu, otherwise there would have been no reason to ask in the first place.
“Yes!” Yang Kai gently nodded, not intending to hide it.
“Little brat, it seems you’ve had many interesting fortuitous encounters. No wonder you were to reach such a cultivation at such a young age,” The old man swept his eyes over Yang Kai and nodded with satisfaction, “Good, truly good, a physique far stronger than what one in your cultivation realm should posses, almost equivalent to that of a Saint King Realm master. On top of that, there are two or three different attributes of strength inside your body, yet they are actually able to coexist perfectly.”
The old man calmly and easily exposed Yang Kai’s secrets, his eyes seemingly able to penetrate through everything and identify everything Yang Kai was trying to hide.
Yang Kai shuddered and couldn’t help going a bit pale.
The old man suddenly grinned, revealing his white fang-like teeth, “Rest assured, I have no interest in your things, none of them will have any effect on this old master, but…”
As soon as the conversation reached this point, the old man’s expression became gloomy, “Didn’t this old master make himself clear before? No one may stir up trouble here, in my site, all of your pitiful lives belong to me, whoever dares deprive me of them will pay the price!”
“He was the one who acted first!” Yang Kai argued.
“I don’t care who moved first!” The old man coldly snorted, a jet black evil energy filled with a violent and cruel aura suddenly emerged from his body and shot towards Yang Kai, swiftly engulfing him.
In that instant, Yang Kai was completely shrouded by this evil energy, his whole being felt like it had been plunged into an abyssal darkness.
A desperate aura spread out from him.
Yang Kai’s whole body trembled and felt as if it was being gnawed at by this darkness, like it was consuming his body and draining his strength.
Tightly gritting his teeth, refusing to utter a word, Yang Kai desperately resisted this black mist.
The old man’s strange laughter rang in his ear, “Ten breaths! If you can survive the ten breaths, I’ll spare your life! Otherwise, I’ll reduce you to a corpse!”
Once this voice reached his ear, Yang Kai’s spirit rose as he could once again see hope.
With the conditions having been laid out, Yang Kai quickly mobilized his own strength to resist the evil energy that was invading his body.
Time passed by slowly, and as he quietly watched Yang Kai, the old man’s eyes grew somewhat brighter as some surprise appeared on his face.
He hadn’t thought that not only was Yang Kai’s physique out of the ordinary, but so too was his mental strengths.
Even masters like Lu Gui Chen and Yue Xi, once invaded by these spectres, may not have been able to resist for ten breaths of time. There was a good chance they would lose consciousness and be driven mad by the rich evil aura they gave off. Subsequently, their flesh and blood bodies would be eaten away by the specters until nothing of them remained.
However, this young man, who was only a First-Order Saint, had stubbornly been resisting, focusing on keeping his consciousness clear, refusing to be corrupted by any external forces.
After the tenth breath, the old man waved his hand and the spectres that had invaded Yang Kai’s body retreated, flying back into the old man shadow and disappearing.
Yang Kai collapsed to the ground like a pile of mud, covered in sweat, his face completely pale, but still staring towards the old man with a firm look and haltingly said, “I hope Senior will not go back on his word!”
The old man was startled for a moment before suddenly letting out a burst of creepy laughter than echoed throughout the cave.
“Little brat, although the Yang Attribute energy in your body makes this old master very disgusted, the other strength you possess is very much to my taste. Heh heh, it looks like you’ve also explored the same path as this old master quite thoroughly. En, good, since you were able to survive, you may live. This old master means what he says.”
Yang Kai exhaled a heavy breath.
“You refined a pill to break the seal placed on you?” The old man suddenly asked, seemingly without reason.
“Yes!” Yang Kai sat down on the floor cross-legged, took out a pill, and popped it into his mouth to start restoring himself.
“What grade of pill can you refine?” The old man seemed to become somewhat interested in this.
“With my current strength, Saint King Grade Low-Rank pills are my limit.”
“Evidently you not only possess great talent in the Martial Dao, but also have a high degree of accomplishment in Alchemy,” The old man wore a genuinely impressed look, but soon snickered, “But little brat, diverting your attention to two paths will limit your future achievements in both, either concentrate on the Martial Dao or concentrate on the Alchemy Way; otherwise you’ll deeply regret it when you fall short of the peak of both in the future.”
“Many thanks for Senior’s guidance; I only study Alchemy as an auxiliary to my pursuit of the Martial Dao.”
“Your future matters not to this old master, this old master was just speaking randomly, but enough of that. Come with this old master!” Saying so, the old man waved his sleeve and a film-like force wrapped up Yang Kai.
The next moment, Yang Kai felt himself moving as swift as the wind.
Such speed was far faster than his Star Shuttle was capable of, causing Yang Kai to go pale one more, really wondering just how profound this mysterious old man’s cultivation was.
A moment later, the old man suddenly came to a stop, threw Yang Kai down, and said, “Wait here, don’t go running off!”
Yang Kai looked around and saw that this place was actually the mountaintop where the old man lived.
There was a large flat land on this mountaintop and in the middle of it were many intricately arranged rows of Saint Crystals, forming some kind of complex Spirit Array.
In the very centre of this Spirit Array was a metal door, its frame and base inlaid with many extremely high-grade Saint Crystals.
The entire mountainside was filled with rich World Energy, condensed into a kind of fog, making the place appear like a fairyland.
The incredibly gloomy old man and the beautiful scenery here seemed completely mismatched.
Yang Kai remained silent and stood in place while carefully observing his surroundings.
He didn’t know what the old man brought him here for, but facing such a powerful and eccentric master, Yang Kai didn’t dare make any unnecessary moves, lest he inadvertently create some kind of misunderstanding.
The old man busied himself adjusting this complex spirit Array, adjusting the position of the Saint Crystals and its overall layout from time to time.
After waiting for a while, azure lights began flying over from all directions.
Natural these lights were the Purple Star and Sword Union cultivators using their Star Shuttles to approach this place.
Everyone had seemingly reached some kind of tacit agreement and gathered at this flat ground atop this mountain, each of them setting down the big bags they were carrying while assembling into various groups, whispering amongst themselves.
They had all apparently come here because of the old man’s summons, but from the vacant and distressed looks on their faces, it was obviously they didn’t know why the old man had called for them.
Soon after, the three figures of Yue Xi, He Zao, and He Maio appeared.
When Yue Xi arrived, her pair of sharp eyes glanced around and instantly settled on Yang Kai, her pretty face filling with anger as she quickly walked towards him.
Yue Xi walked straight up to Yang Kai, her eyes blazing with anger as she glared coldly towards him, her pretty face filled with ill intent.
Yang Kai frowned, not understanding why this woman’s attitude towards him had changed so dramatically, even if she had some misunderstandings towards him before, she wasn’t openly hostile.
However, now it was as if she couldn’t wait to kill him with her own hands.
This made Yang Kai feel very confused, wondering just what he had done to offend her this time.
“Did you kill Wei Wu?” Yue Xi suddenly asked.
“What did you say?” Yang Kai wore a confused look and feigned ignorance.
“Do you think I don’t know?” Yue Xi sneered, “Wei Wu died by your hand less than half an hour ago!”
Yang Kai was stunned, but quickly realized that this beautiful woman must have had some special method to investigate what had just happened, or Wei Wu had managed to send her a message somehow just before he died.
However, Yang Kai didn’t see Wei Wu use any kind of communication artifact before he died, so the former possibility was more likely.
Yang Kai immediately understood why Yue Xi was now acting so hostile towards him.
“Why did you kill him and what kind of underhanded plot did you use to do it?” Yue Xi asked sharply.
“He came to me looking for trouble, he just got what he deserved!” Yang Kai replied lightly.
“Why would he look for trouble with you?” Yue Xi continued to interrogate, “You and him don’t have any resentment between you.”
“You might as well ask him, I’d also like to know.”
“Good, just you wait, if one day we are able to leave here, I’ll make you pay for this!” Yue Xi clenched her teeth and threatened, her tender body trembling, fully illustrating her intense anger. Apparently, she thought that Yang Kai had somehow caught Wei Wei unprepared with a sneak attack, otherwise with Wei Wu’s strength he could easily have defeated Yang Kai.
Her disciple dying such a tragic death naturally meant that Yue Xi, as Wei Wu’s Master, had to seek vengeance for him.
“Those who threaten me never have good ends!” Yang Kai suddenly became annoyed and snapped back.
From the start, he could have mixed in together with Sword Union’s group; after all, he had saved both He Zao and He Miao’s lives. As long as Yue Xi had even the slightest bit of gratitude towards him for this grace, she wouldn’t have made things so difficult for him.
However, the first time Yang Kai contacted this beautiful woman, she had tried to spy on his Knowledge Sea, and although she may have just wanted to exercise an abundance of caution in case Yang Kai was a spy from Purple Star, her attitude had still made Yang Kai feel disrespected.
The subsequent events had caused the relationship between the two sides to deteriorate until now it had become irreparable.
Yang Kai had killed Wei Wu, no matter what reason he had for this, Yue Xi would certainly not forgive him.
“I’d like to see just what kind of end I’ll have,” Yue Xi grit her teeth and replied mockingly, “I hope you won’t let me down!”
Yang Kai suddenly broke out into a sinister smile, “The best fate for a beautiful woman like you is to be toyed with until death!”
Yue Xi’s pretty face went cold and her body trembled even more fiercely, her sharp eyes filling with murderous intent.
She seemed almost unable to suppress her anger and was on the verge of attacking Yang Kai.
“What? Haven’t you had the taste of a man before?” Yang Kai didn’t miss the change in her mood and grinned even more wretchedly, continuing to viciously provoke her, “Good, I’ll make up for all your regrets and let you become a real woman before you die!”
Yang Kai’s appearance right now could only be described as a wicked, shameless lecher.
Yue Xi’s murderous intent became more and more intense, her face twisting with rage as her strength began to surge up, but suddenly she clenched her fists tightly and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath to calm her anger.
She knew that if she were to stir up trouble now, the mysterious old man wouldn’t let her off. Before she killed Yang Kai, she might very well be the one to die.
“Did you want to provoke me into attacking you?” Yue Xi opened her eyes again, still clenching her teeth hard as she shouted, “Boy, I’ll make you pay for this disgrace!”
She had never been so humiliated by any man ever before, especially a man she knew next to nothing about and who was far younger than her. The anger in Yue Xi’s heart could hardly be suppressed.
Fortunately, she had realized what Yang Kai’s intentions were at the last moment and did not let his plot succeed.
Having said what she needed to, Yue Xi turned around and left, no longer wanting to even see Yang Kai’s ugly face, worried she would be unable to control herself and really attack him.
Staring at the receding back of Yue Xi, Yang Kai audibly whistled while letting his eyes wantonly wandering over her figure, staring at her swaying hips and rounded bottom.
Being stared at with this kind of gaze caused Yue Xi’s skin to crawl and the anger she had just pressed down forcefully to rise up once more, her determination to butcher Yang Kai grown even stronger.
Only after she had gone far away did Yang Kai’s gaze became indifferent again, a hint of regret flashing across his eyes.
Just now he really had wanted to provoke Yue Xi into attacking him. In any case, the grudge had reached a life or death level, so the first one to strike would hold the advantage, but to his disappointment, Yue Xi had actually managed to endure her anger.
Now, she was patiently biding her time, waiting for the right opportunity, at which point, she would only act more violently than just now.
Yang Kai sighed and felt a slight headache.
The conflict between them had not been missed by the others in the surrounding.
Lu Gui Chen of Purple Star had been standing nearby and, after Yue Xi left, he actually shot Yang Kai a grin and a thumbs-up, expressing his approval and admiration.
Bi Ya also covered her mouth and tittered, throwing Yang Ki a coquettish look as she said, “Surprisingly you’re quite the hoodlum. Elder Sister suddenly has a bit more interest in you.”
“I’m also quite interested in you too,” Yang Kai grinned back at her.
Bi Ya suddenly shivered and snorted, “Liar, only a fool would believe you!”
“Master, are you okay?” On the other hand, He Zao saw the look on Yue Xi’s face and couldn’t help asking worriedly.
“I’m fine,” Yue Xi took a deep breath, her rich chest heaving up and down once before she solemnly said, “I’ve clearly seen that boy’s ugliness. Don’t approach him again in the future, but if there’s a chance, kill him to exact revenge for your Senior Brother!”
He Zao pursed her lips and nodded cleverly, “Yes!”
He Miao frowned, the look she directed at Yang Kai changing subtly.
She was completely convinced of her Master’s words, thinking that this was Yang Kai’s true face. In public, daring to shame her Master, and even openly flirting with that slut Bi Ya from Purple Star, He Miao was thoroughly disgusted.
She secretly thought she had been too naive before, believing that Yang Kai was actually a good person.
The fallout from this small storm quickly subsided, and as time went by, more and more cultivators began arriving.
After another hour or so, Shen Tu appeared.
Looking around for a while, he quickly spotted Yang Kai and noticed the energy fluctuations coming from his body, calling out in surprise, “Were you successful?”
“En,” Yang Kai nodded.
“Congratulations! I didn’t expect you would actually succeed. It seems I looked down on your, brother!” Shen Tu sincerely congratulated, very happy that Yang Kai had managed to recover his strength.
“My luck was just good, what about you? How were your gains during this time?”
“My harvest was huge,” Shen Tu’s eyes lit up, a big smile appearing on his face as he patted the Universe Bag on his belt, “I collected many Saint King and Origin Grade herbs, I even managed to obtain a few Origin King Grade herbs. You can’t possibly comprehend how rich the materials in this damned place are; those scraps we collected previous were nothing but trash in comparison.”
Yang Kai’s brow couldn’t help rising, “Origin King Grade?”
“The highest grade of spirit herb!” Shen Tu laughed, “I’ve really struck it rich now. If I can find and Alchemist to refine these things into pills, at the very least I won’t have to worry about having enough pills before through to the Saint King Realm.”
Saying so, his look suddenly became somewhat bitter, “If on my own, I was able to gain so much, those Purple Star and Sword Union people must have obtained many times more. Fuck, it really makes me want to kill and rob them all.”
His expression was filled with anger and indignation, as if these people had snatched the good things that belonged to him.
“Right, brother, you arrived here earlier than me. Do you know why that old Senior called us?” Shen Tu suddenly asked.
“I don’t know,” Yang Kai shook his head. After getting along with Shen Tu for a while, he had gotten used to the endless chatter of the other party, so when he spoke, Yang Kai made a habit of not interrupting him, only replying when he was asked a question, such as now. “Were you summoned by him too?”
“En, I was looking for herbs when the voice of that old Senior suddenly rang in my ears. If that weren’t the case, how would I dare come here?” Shen Tu said, his face suddenly becoming heavy, “The people here were scattered across this entire continent, yet he was able to communicate to all of them with his Divine Sense. It seems there’s no doubt he is a master at the Origin King Realm. I wonder just what kind of background he has.”
Origin King Realm masters were rare existences in the Heng Luo Star Field, and all of them were powerful Seniors on the same level as Star Masters, many of them living in seclusion while holding honoured positions.
“Not only am I curious about this, the people from Sword Union and Purple Star are as well. I suppose if we just wait we’ll find out eventually though.”
The two immediately stopped talking and looked around.
At this moment, most people’s eyes were focused on the old man, watching him busily adjust the position of the various Saint Crystals, most of them confused about just what he was trying to do.
Even Lu Gui Chen and Yue Xi couldn’t recognize what the function of this Spirit Array was, the complexity of it beyond their level of understanding.
However, they could tell that the door-like arch was made from the scattered debris of their Starships.
After nearly an entire day, the old man suddenly stopped moving his hands and released his Divine Sense to inspect the entire Spirit Array in front of him, releasing a wild laugh towards the Heavens in the next moment, “Finished, hahaha, it’s finally finished!”
His laughter was so thunderous that it deafened everyone present, causing their vitality to roll and their faces to pale.
The old man’s mood was very good, his face filled with joy and excitement.
After a moment, he stopped laughing and turned his eyes towards the crowd gathered nearby.
“Good, you’ve been here for some time now and I know you have many questions. This old master had no time to care about you earlier but now I can answer some of your doubts. Who wants to ask something?” Saying so, he swept his eyes over everyone’s face.
“Senior, may I ask, where is this place?” Lu Gui Chen cupped his fists respectfully and spoke.
“This old master isn’t quite sure, I only know that this place is a Dark Star, a Dark Star hidden inside the Chaotic Abyss!”
“Dark Star?” Many people heard these words and couldn’t help calling out in alarm, as if this so-called Dark Star had an unparalleled appeal to them, making them feel excited.
On the flat ground atop the mountain, everyone’s eyes filled with the light of excitement.
“What’s a Dark Star?” Yang Kai turned and asked.
“Generally the term refers to stars that have yet to be discovered and have not been developed!” Shen Tu said with a bright expression, quickly explaining, “The entire Heng Luo Star Field is currently divided up between several big forces, but there are still some places that no one has visited before, and places no one dares to visit. In these unexplored regions, there may be special stars, these stars are Dark Stars. Each Dark Star means an unclaimed territory, perhaps containing amazing wealth and supplies. Over the years, the major forces have all dedicated significant resources to discovering and developing Dark Stars, hoping to find some that are out of the ordinary. Strictly speaking, the stars in the Chaotic Abyss also barely qualify as Dark Stars.”
Yang Kai nodded indicating he understood.
“But from this Senior’s words, doesn’t it seem we’re still in the Chaotic Abyss?”
“Apparently,” Yang Kai had already confirmed this point through the mysterious Star Chart in his Knowledge Sea, so he wasn’t all that surprised.
“Didn’t you all notice that the World Energy in this place is even richer than the Chaotic Abyss?” The old man continued, “This is naturally because the energy in the Chaotic Abyss all gathers towards this place. However, this place is a cage. None of the World Energy aura that comes in ever escapes, so over the years it eventually reached such a concentration. If not for that fact, this old master wouldn’t mind living here; this place is a cultivation paradise after all.”
“Senior, you said that this place is a cage? Could it be that you’re also trapped here?” Lu Gui Chen’s face changed.
Both he and Yue Xi had used their Star Shuttles to explore the sky some time ago, but no matter how far they flew, they were unable to see the sun, moon, stars, or any of the typical scenery that should belong to the Starry Sky. They were only capable of flying around the Floating Continent.
They knew that they were trapped here by the seven coloured sky shrouding the entire Floating Continent, but they had simply thought this was some kind of profound barrier the old man had set up.
But now, it seems that was not the case at all.
Lu Gui Chen’s words seemed to poke at the old man’s sore spot, causing the latter’s face to become gloomy and a thick malevolent aura to burst from his body as he ferociously shouted, “Yes, this old master is indeed trapped here! Moreover, I’ve been trapped here for almost two thousand years!”
“Two thousand years?!” The sound of everyone taking in a sharp breath sounded as all eyes stared towards the old man.
“When this old master was first trapped here, he was but a minor character who had just broken through to the Saint King Realm, but now… heh heh…” He laughed, his expression filled with an unyielding spirit, as if he didn’t put anyone in his eyes.
Everyone here understood what he wanted to say, causing them to involuntarily gulp.
The mysterious old man in front of them was definitely a character comparable to a Star Master!
“May I ask for Senior’s honoured name?” Yue Xi asked politely. In front of a master like this, she didn’t dare act dissolute, lowering her stance greatly.
The old man frowned and fell into contemplation, it seems he had not reported his name for a long time and for a while was unable to even recall it, a moment later simply saying, “Don’t bother asking for my name, none of you will recognize it anyways.”
Obviously he was reluctant to reveal his name.
But when everyone thought about it, they agreed with his sentiments. If he was trapped here two thousand years ago, and was just a Saint King at the time, he really wouldn’t be known to them.
“How should we address Senior then?” Lu Gui Chen asked, although he and Yue Xi were enemies, but when they spoke with this old man, the two of them coordinated with one another quite well.
“Gui Zu! From now on, you may call this old master Gui Zu !”
“Gui Zu…” The crowd was struck speechless.
“Senior Gui Zu, after being trapped here for two thousand years, could it be you couldn’t find a way out?” Lu Gui Chen summoned his courage and asked, if even this old man who called himself Gui Zu couldn’t find a way to escape, they didn’t need to bother thinking about it.
This was a prison that could even trap an Origin King.
Gui Zu shook his head, “Space here is very strange and lies at the centre of the Chaotic Abyss, covered by all its chaotic energy domains. Ordinarily, it cannot be found or even seen; only under a very special set of circumstances will this place open itself to the outside.”
“Special circumstances?” Lu Gui Chen asked in surprise.
“What happened when all of you came in here, this old master doesn’t need to explain.”
Everyone suddenly recalled the domain eruption in the Chaotic Abyss and the scene of the giant black hole devouring their Starships, sending a wave of fear washing over them.
“However, that moment is far too short, even if this old master wanted to take that opportunity to escape from this place; it’s simply not possible…” Gui Zu sighed, apparently when the last group of people had come to this floating continent, he had also noticed the appearance of the black hole, but by that point, it was already too late to try to leave.
“This old master has been stranded here for two thousand years. Some people accidentally came here during that time; strictly speaking, you are the third group, and also the largest. There were only a handful of people in the last two groups.”
“What happened to them?” Yue Xi inquired, but immediately realized she had asked the wrong question, her pretty face immediately became pale.
What end those people suffered, there was no need to think about it.
Either they were unable to withstand the endless isolation and loneliness here, or they were killed off by Gui Zu!
He didn’t exactly seem like someone easy to get along with.
This might also be the end of the nearly one hundred of them here.
Gui Zu continued, “For the first millennia this old master was trapped here, he dedicated himself to cultivating and enhancing his own strength while the second thousand years were spent looking for ways to escape. And now, finally, after all this time, this old master thought of a way!”
As he spoke, he became more and more excited, a tinge of smugness even appearing on his face.
Lu Gui Chen and Yue Xi’s eyes both suddenly brightened as they felt equal parts nervous and excited.
If Gui Zu had a way to escape from here, there was a chance they could convince him to take them with him, Gui Zu’s words had given them hope.
“Senior Gui Zu, if it is convenient, could you bring us Juniors along…” Lu Gui Chen hurriedly asked, fearing that Yue Xi would take the lead.
“I know what you want to say,” Gui Zu sneered, “Good, this old master also had such intentions.”
The earnest and hopeful looks on Lu Gui Chen and Yue Xi’s faces both transformed into ones of shock as a bad feeling suddenly welled up from the bottom of their hearts.
If Gui Zu had refused, they wouldn’t have thought much about it, but him so easily agreeing actually made them feel somewhat suspicious.
Both Lu Gui Chen and Yue Xi secretly felt that Gui Zu was plotting something.
They became a little uneasy and quickly swallowed down whatever words they were planning to say, instead choosing to wait for Gui Zu to continue.
“This old master’s method is only something he thought up but has yet to verify; whether or not it is effective, even this old master can’t guarantee, which is why I need all of your help. If it is successful, this old master will bring all of you out with him, but if it fails, you can only blame the Heavens for being unfair. What do you think?”
Gui Zu asked with a smile.
Lu Gui Chen and Yue Xi exchanged a glance, a look of helplessness flashing across their faces before the former nodded, “We will comply with Senior’s commands!”
With their arms twisted behind their backs, they knew there was no option to reject Gui Zu’s proposal, so they readily agreed.
“My Sword Union also has no objections, we will obey Senior’s orders,” Yue Xi felt bitter in her heart and reluctantly agreed.
“Good, good, very good, you’re all very obedient, that pleases this old master, let’s not waste any more time!” Gui Zu grinned, revealing his white fangs, forming a series of complex hand seals while sending some energy pulses into the ground.
The Saint Crystals which were arranged in the giant formation began glowing one by one. From these Saint Crystals, a strange fluctuation began spreading out, one that caused everyone present to feel uncomfortable. These energy fluctuations overlapped with one another and grew in intensity until they reached a terrifying level.
The rich World Energy aura began resonating with these energy fluctuations and in an instant, the atmosphere around the entire continent underwent a startling change.
The scenery in front of everyone’s eyes suddenly became distorted, as if the space around them could collapse at any time.
The cultivators present were all thoroughly shocked as they stared towards Gui Zu, wondering just what it was he was trying to do.
Yang Kai stared fixedly at the door like structure that stood in the middle of the giant Spirit Array, feeling an unusual aura gathering inside it.
The aura belonged to the turbulent flow of space, and indeed, the space around the door was more distorted than anywhere else. Yang Kai had no doubt that if this continued much longer; the space there would really collapse.
His prediction soon came true, and the energy fluctuations from the giant array all gathered towards the door forged from Starship debris. Gui Zu’s gaze became extremely fanatical at this moment as he stared at the door with excitement.
*Kacha…*
A shattering sound rang out and the space framed by the door suddenly began to crack, dense spider web-like pattern spreading out rapidly in all directions.
The shattering sound attracted everyone’s attention, and when they turned to see what had caused it, they all shivered involuntarily.
*Kacha…*
The space which now resembled a broken mirror suddenly exploded.
The space had collapsed!
At the same time, inside the door frame, a pitch-black hole that pulsed with terrifying energy appeared. Staring into the dark abyss, no one could tell what lay on the other side.
“A Void Corridor!” Yang Kai muttered under his breath.
He had encountered countless Void Corridors in Tong Xuan Realm, but he had never seen the creation of a Void Corridor until now.
“A Space Array!” Yue Xi of Sword Union suddenly screamed, her beautiful eyes trembling fiercely.
“Senior, do you understand how to construct Space Arrays?” Lu Gui Chen’s expression also changed drastically.
The massive Spirit Array filled with Saint Crystals in front of them, although clearly a bit rough, was no doubt a Space Array, a legendary Space Array!
Gui Zu nodded, “Somewhat, but I’m not very proficient at it. This is the result of a thousand years of painstaking research. En, this old master seems a bit unsuited to comprehending the Dao of Space. Although I spent an entire millennium studying it, I am still unable to understand the mysteries of space. It truly makes one feel helpless.”
The Spirit Array that was built from countless Saint Crystals was actually a Spatial Array and the door which was made from the pieces of Starship debris at its centre was actually covered in a thin layer of Space Spirit Crystal!
This layer of Space Spirit Crystal was the key to maintaining the Void Corridor and had been fabricated from over one hundred Space Rings.
This was the reason Gui Zu had previously robbed everyone of their Space Rings. It was to obtain the Space Spirit Crystals used to manufacture them.
Only now did Lu Gui Chen and Yue Xi understand how Gui Zu planned to escape from here. He wanted to use this Spatial Array to send himself away.
All sorts of doubts, all sorts of confusion, all of it was made clear when they saw this Void Corridor.
Everyone present could also see that the Void Corridor created by this Spatial Array was incredibly unstable and might break down at any moment. Could such a thing actually be used? And even if it could successfully transport someone, it was impossible to know where they would end up. If this thing were to send someone into The Void, it would frankly be better to remain trapped on this continent. At least here the aura was rich and the materials were abundant.
For a moment, everyone fell silent.
Gui Zu grinned and said, “It’s time for you to help me!”
As soon as this statement came out, everyone’s heart sank.
He seemed to want others to go in and scout out the situation…
Realizing this old man’s intentions, everyone’s face paled.
“Senior, is this really appropriate?” Yue Xi asked anxiously, wanting to somehow talk Gui Zu out of this.
“Hm? What’s wrong?” Gui Zu turned to stare at her coldly, causing a frigid aura to engulf Yue Xi like a cloak, rendering her unable to speak.
“You think that this old master forbid all of you to kill each other and allowed you all to collect the materials of this place for no reason? Hmph, if you lot didn’t have some use, this old master would have slaughtered all of you and fed your Souls to my Ghost Flag rather than allow you to insolently saunter about here!” Gui Zu shouted forcefully, his cruel nature on full display, the gentle temperament he had shown a moment ago suddenly becoming bloodthirsty, “Whoever dares utter a single objection again; this old master will make you suffer brutally!”
With this threat looming over their heads, no one dared speak any nonsense.
With Gui Zu’s strength, even if all of them tried to resist, it would serve no purpose, so all of them became obedient.
Gui Zu nodded with satisfaction, his sharp eyes sweeping over the crowd, causing everyone to lower their heads, all of them afraid to meet eyes with him for fear they would be chosen.
“Fuck, don’t look at me, don’t look at me…” Shen Tu’s eyes also dropped as he chanted repeatedly, like he was reciting some kind of spell to change the direction of the old man’s glare.
“You! Little brat, come up and help this old master!” Gui Zu suddenly pointed.
Everyone looked towards the direction Gui Zu pointed and after seeing who the unlucky one be selected was, their nerves suddenly relaxed, many of them even taking pleasure in this person’s misfortune.
“Shit!” Shen Tu’s face went black as her cursed, letting out a hollow laugh in an attempt to deceive himself, “Is Senior referring to me? No no, not me right?”
At this moment, Shen Tu felt his heart die and secretly decided that if Gui Zu really chose him to test this Spatial Array, he would rather die than cooperate.
“The one next to you!” Gui Zu turned his eyes to Yang Kai.
“Me?” This time it was Yang Kai’s turn to gawk, pointing to himself as he shouted, “Why choose me? There are so many people here, why choose me specifically?”
He was really depressed. There were nearly one hundred cultivators here from both Sword Union and Purple Star, yet this Gui Zu had singled him out, he really didn’t know if his luck was just that poor.
Gui Zu coldly snorted, “You don’t look very law-abiding.”
“Is that the reason?” Yang Kai frowned and hurriedly said, “Senior, please spare me, in the future I will be more obedient.”
“In the future? There is no future!” Gui Zu said impatiently.
“Senior is wise!” Yue Xi sneered greatly and offered her praise as she shot Yang Kai a sly look, happiness filling her expression.
Just now, Yang Kai had humiliated her, yet now he was being forced into a dead-end. Retribution for evil had come about swiftly. Yue Xi couldn’t help feeling grateful to this old man suddenly as she looked forward to seeing Yang Kai squirm, soothing the hatred in her heart while obtaining revenge for her slain disciples.
Yang Kai’s face went cold as he glared back at Yue Xi, grinding his teeth as he shouted, “Cheap slut, I’ll remember this!”
Yue Xi simply laughed, brushing off this threat as she sneered, “Say that again after living past today.”
“Senior is indeed wise, my Purple Star will unconditionally obey Senior’s arrangements!” Lu Gui Chen followed up.
As long as this Gui Zu didn’t elect their people, Lu Gui Chen and Yue Xi wouldn’t care.
“You’re quite popular here little brat, don’t decline any further!” Gui Zu laughed before stretching out his hand, creating an irresistible suction force, and dragging Yang Kai over towards him. Arriving in front of Gui Zu, Yang Kai was unable to even attempt to resist.
Staring at the Void Corridor opened by the Spatial Array, Yang Kai’s expression sank into the abyss.
He could feel that this Void Corridor was completely different from any he had seen before.
The ones he had encountered thus far were all unintentionally formed by great masters in ancient times when they fought and destroyed segments of space; however, such Void Corridors were formed countless years ago and had already stabilized.
The Void Corridor in front of him now was completely chaotic, and the Void turbulences he felt pulsing from this door frame caused even Yang Kai to feel a sense of terror.
If he were to really be tossed inside, he would definitely fall into a life or death crisis, likely becoming lost in the Void for all eternity.
“I’m not going to seal your strength, because there may be some danger inside. You go in and investigate the situation. If you can come back alive, that would be best, if you can’t, don’t blame this old master… En, well, do your best!”
Saying so, Gui Zu moved to toss Yang Kai into the Void Corridor.
“Wait!” Yang Kai hurriedly snorted.
“What?” Gui Zu gave him a disgruntled glare.
“Senior, you only need me to go in and investigate the situation, yes?”
“Indeed!”
“And how I do so is up to me? If so, I hope Senior can allow me to use my own methods!”
“Oh?” Gui Zu suddenly showed a look of interest as he re-examined Yang Kai, asking curiously, “And what method is it you want to use? You should be clear, it’s useless to play tricks in front of this old master.”
“I did not have such thoughts,” Yang Kai stated calmly, his expression still filled with unhappiness.
“How long will this take? This old master isn’t very patient,” Seemingly thinking that Yang Kai was about to die, Gui Zu surprisingly agreed to let him try.
“There’s no need to wait!” Yang Kai said before sitting down cross-legged and shouting, “Come out!”
Along with his shout, a wisp of partially visible Spiritual Energy suddenly emerged from his body, this energy was illusory and ethereal, constantly changing shape, but after a moment it condensed into the appearance of Yang Kai.
“A Soul Avatar?” Someone muttered, seeing through the mystery of this entity.
Lu Gui Chen, Yue Xi, and all the others were stunned.
Gui Zu also laughed strangely.
No one thought that the method Yang Kai was talking about was actually to take out his Soul Avatar from his body.
He apparently wanted to explore the Void Corridor with just his Soul Avatar alone.
But didn’t he know that one’s Soul Avatar was extremely fragile and couldn’t leave its host body for long period of time? On top of that, this kind of practice was extremely dangerous, if anyone here were to use any kind of offensive Soul Skill on him, his Soul Avatar would surely take massive damage.
A Soul Avatar without its host body’s protection, no matter how powerful, would be like a hedgehog without thorns, fragile and vulnerable.
“Oh…” Gui Zu’s careless look changed suddenly, his Divine Sense sweeping Yang Kai carefully as his expression became strange.
Because he found that Yang Kai still had his Soul inside him, completely different from how one would appear if they removed their Soul Avatar from their body.
Looking closely at this ‘Soul Avatar’, Gui Zu discovered that it appeared a bit dull, as if it had no consciousness of its own.
“Little brat, what kind of strange technique have you cultivated, actually allowing you to possess two Soul Avatars?” Gui Zu shouted, a look of disbelief appearing on his face.
Even a character like Gui Zu was shocked by Yang Kai’s method.
“Soul Fission!” Yang Kai replied faintly.
The Soul Fission technique was one of Great Demon God’s Divine Abilities!
Yang Kai had absorbed a drop of the purest Demon God Golden Blood back in Nine Heavens Holy Land’s Holy Tomb and had obtained knowledge of this Divine Ability from it. Since then, he had been cultivating his Soul Clone, and in a flash, ten years had already passed.
This Soul Clone had almost reached the grand accomplishment stage and would soon be usable.
But today, he was forced to use this Soul Clone in order to explore the inside of this Void Corridor for Gui Zu.
Yang Kai was distressed to the point of wanting to cough up blood.
“Interesting, very interesting. You really know how to surprise others little brat,” Gui Zu examined this Soul Clone with great interest, soon discovering that aside from not having the ability to think for itself, it was essentially identical to Yang Kai’s own Soul Avatar.
Strictly speaking, it was basically a puppet, just without a physical shell to contain itself.
After observing it for a while though, Gui Zu curled his lips, “This thing needs an appropriate body to display its power… otherwise it doesn’t have much use.”
He had seen through the drawbacks of this Soul Clone at a glance.
“But for now, it’s useful enough,” Gui Zu said before releasing a wisp of his own Spiritual Energy, tightly wrapping up Yang Kai’s Soul Clone, then tossing it unceremoniously into the Void Corridor .
Through his wisp of Spiritual Energy, he too could investigate the inside of the Void Corridor.
Everyone suddenly held their breath, waiting for the results to appear.
They knew that if this time was unsuccessful, a situation like today would appear a second time, then a third…
This Gui Zu would continue to experiment until he found the correct configuration for this Spatial Array.
Today, Yang Kai had been chosen, and they were able to laugh at his misfortune, but who knows who would be selected next time? Maybe it would be one of them who would be unlucky.
In an instant, everyone’s heart filled with complex emotions, many of them beginning to earnestly pray that Yang Kai’s Soul Clone would return safe and sound. Even Yue Xi, who couldn’t wait for Yang Kai to die an early death, wore an anxious look upon her pretty face.
Time passed by slowly.
The light from the Saint Crystals also began to grow dim as the energy they contained was quickly consumed.
Beside the door frame, Yang Kai sat cross-legged with facial expression fluctuating.
Gui Zu stood next to him, his expression also changing rapidly.
The flickering glow from the Saint Crystals which illuminated his expression causing it to appear even more terrifying than normal.
On the mountain top, the Purple Star and Sword Union cultivators all waited anxiously, none of them daring to speak, creating a silent yet tense atmosphere.
None of them knew how long it was, but all of a sudden they saw Yang Kai’s body tremble and his face turn white, as if he had just experienced something terrifying.
The Void Corridor which had been opened by the Space Array also began to ripple, flickering open and shut like the maw of a great beast. In the blink of an eye, the pitch-black Void Corridor collapsed and the distorted space around the mountain returned to normal.
The moment of Void Corridor collapsed, Yang Kai’s Soul Clone and Gui Zu’s Spiritual Energy wisp flew out.
Gui Zu took back this wisp into his body while Yang Kai also took back his Soul Clone, his expression sinking in the next breath, “Senior, my Soul Clone is on the verge of shattering, it can’t be used like this again.”
Gui Zu seemed to be going over the information his Spiritual Energy wisp had brought back and paid no attention to Yang Kai for a while, nodding sometime later, “Good, you did well. Go restore yourself.”
“Senior, if there is such an occasion again, will you first look for me?” Yang Kai asked coldly.
Gui Zu grinned, “Depends on my mood, and whether you behave yourself from now on.”
Yang Kai’s face turned black and flew off without saying a word, landing beside Shen Tu and sitting down cross-legged.
“Go make yourselves busy, but don’t leave too far. When I need your help again I expect you to arrive promptly!” Gui Zu said lightly.
Listen to him say this, everyone felt a temporary sense of relief and quickly dispersed, fleeing from the mountain top as quickly as they could.
Yang Kai and Shen Tu also rushed out, not wishing to remain in this damned place for a moment longer.
A moment later, only Gui Zu remained atop the mountain, staring at the Space Array he had spent so much effort to create, frowning deeply as he pondered how to alter it in order to make it work.
Although he had not succeeded this time, he had been psychologically prepared for such a result, so he did not show too much disappointment.
After all, when he came here, he had only just broken through to the Saint King Realm and had not been well versed in any particular discipline, much less the Space Principle. It had taken him a thousand years to develop this Space Array, and even that had much to do with luck.
It was a pity that the mysteries of the Space Principle were something he couldn’t accurately grasp. Even after reaching the Origin King Realm, the secrets of Space still eluded him.
Rather than raw effort, this kind of thing required both aptitude and opportunity!
After sitting in the middle of the giant Spirit Array for a while, he began rearranging the rows of Saint Crystals, altering it ever so slightly.
A dozen kilometres from the mountain peak, Yang Kai suddenly came to a halt.
“What’s wrong, we should keep running,” Shen Tu looked at him anxiously and urged.
“Where do you want to run to?” Yang Kai looked at him strangely.
“I don’t know, however far I can run, I intend to run!” Shen Tu shouted, “I don’t want to be eyed by him then tossed into that door, unable to even control my own life or death!”
Yang Kai shook his head, “He is the master here, no matter where you go, he can immediately find you!”
“True enough,” Shen Tu thought about it and nodded in agreement, “Brother, a moment ago, I didn’t act very upright, but there was really nothing I could do about it. There was no way I could help you.”
“It’s fine, it’s my own fault for doing something that drew his attention,” Yang Kai knew why Gui Zu had chosen him first, it was clearly because he had killed Wei Wu.
Gui Zu must have felt he had rebelled against his orders and determined Yang Kai wasn’t obedient enough.
This had nothing to do with Shen Tu, and even if Shen Tu had tried to help him, in the face of Gui Zu’s absolute strength, there was nothing he could have done.
“What happened to you inside that Void Corridor?” Shen Tu asked curiously.
“I don’t know, my Soul Clone doesn’t have its own consciousness; although I attached my own Divine Sense to it, I wasn’t able to observe much. I can only tell you this, with Gui Zu’s current understanding of the Space Principle… Whoever enters that door will die without a doubt! This time my Soul Clone was able to escape only because it did not have a physical form and was thus able to move essentially at the speed of thought.”
Shen Tu face went pale, “Why does he keep studying it then?”
“He has been trapped here for two thousand years, naturally he wants to leave, but for us, this place is nothing less than a cultivation holy land. Him being able to break through to the Origin King Realm is definitely related to this cultivation environment,” Yang Kai took a long breath and smiled bitterly, “You should instead be thankful he still intends to study that Space Array. If one day he determines it’s impossible to use it to escape from this place… that will be when the real disaster starts!”
“Brother, don’t scare me like that!” Shen Tu showed a genuinely frightened expression, just imagining such a scene in his mind caused him to shudder.
Once Gui Zu lost hope in that Space Array, and felt that there was no possible way to escape from here, with his temper and character, everyone here would definitely experience a fate worse than death!
“What do you intend to do now?” Yang Kai looked at him and asked.
“I don’t know, wait to die?” Shen Tu’s mouth twitched, “What about you?”
“Look for a place to enter secluded cultivation,” Yang Kai replied casually.
Shen Tu was stunned, somewhat unable to understand why Yang Kai still seemed so calm and relaxed, not worried at all.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shen Tu nodded, “Then I’ll find something to keep myself occupied. Better than just sitting around on edge all day!”
On this continent, he could only get along with Yang Kai, the people from Sword Union and Purple Star both wouldn’t pay any attention to them, so now that Yang Kai was going to enter secluded retreat, Shen Tu was about to lose the only person he could talk to, causing him to feel a bit distraught.
He didn’t know why, his strength was obviously much higher than Yang Kai’s, but he actually couldn’t help feeling like he was somehow inferior in all aspects to him.
Yang Kai seemed to be able to remain calm no matter what he encountered, silently observing any situation beyond his ability to handle until he found a way to break through and take control.
Shen Tu couldn’t help admiring this.
The two of them said a few more words before going their separate ways for a while.
What Shen Tu was going to do, Yang Kai didn’t know; as for him, he was going to head back to that cave he had been practising Alchemy in before.
No matter what situation it was, greater strength was the best guarantee of survival! Yang Kai understands this more clearly than anyone else.
Because of Lu Gui Chen’s seal, he hadn’t been able to improve his strength these past two months, so now that he had broken free from it, he didn’t want to waste this rare opportunity.
“Senior, I am going to the cave where you found me before to continue studying Alchemy, do you have any issue with that?” Just in case, Yang Kai sent a Divine Sense message to Gui Zu.
After a while, Gui Zu’s voice rang in his ear, “Go, I temporarily have no use for you!”
“Many thanks!” Yang Kai nodded before summoning his Star Shuttle and flying off.
He hadn’t flow far though before he heard a tender voice call out to him, “Yang Kai!”
Yang Kai came to a halt and looked towards the source of the sound, seeing He Zao and He Miao flying towards him from nearby.
After a moment, the two sisters arrived in front of him.
He Zao’s expression was a bit complicated as if she didn’t quite know what to say. He Miao on the other hand just bluntly asked, “Was Senior Brother Wei Wu really killed by you?”
“What do you think?” Yang Kai didn’t answer directly.
“I don’t think it’s likely!” He Miao spat disdainfully, “Senior Brother Wei Wu had a Third Order Saint cultivation. The difference in strength is clear. You’re so weak, how could you have killed him?”
“I’m that weak?” Yang Kai asked stunned.
He Miao looked at him seriously, using her Divine Sense to sweep him before smirking, “You’re not strong in any case, I think I can easily beat you.”
“Yes…” Yang Kai gently nodded, not having any intention of arguing, asking after a short pause, “Did you have something you wanted to ask me?”
He Zao whispered softly, “Obviously we came here to say we’re sorry.”
She bit her red lips and apologized, “You helped us in the Chaotic Abyss, saving our lives, clearly we should be thanking you, but master said, she…”
“That has nothing to do with you,” Yang Kai smiled, not taking the matter to heart.
“In any case… we’re very sorry. Moreover, Master is very upset because of Senior Brother Wei Wu’s death, and she asked us to find an opportunity to kill you. Yang Kai, if we sisters end up fighting you future, please don’t blame us, this isn’t our intention.”
Yang Kai grinned, “I know, but if you really do that, you’d best be psychologically prepared to be killed by me, I won’t just stand there and not fight back.”
“Hmph, you’re really quite arrogant…” He Miao snorted, “If we sisters really try to kill you, could you put up any resistance?”
“Try it and find out!”
“He Miao, don’t be rude,” He Zao scolded gently.
“I know,” He Miao spat out her tongue.
“Is there anything else?” Yang Kai tilted his head and asked.
“No, we just came to tell you this.”
“Then let us meet again later,” Yang Kai said and moved to mount his Star Shuttle when he suddenly came to halt and frowned, “Let me ask you something, if you two died in the Chaotic Abyss, what kind of advantage would that bring Wei Wu?”
“What do you mean?” He Zao stared at him suspiciously.
Yang Kai laughed, “Just asking.”
He Zao frowned and considered the matter seriously, “Master is a Sword Union cultivator, and she doesn’t have many disciples, only us sisters and Senior Brother Wei Wu show some promise. If we were to die, Master would definitely focus on cultivating him.”
“How did you get lost in the Chaotic Abyss?” Yang Kai asked again.
“Senior Brother Wei Wu sent us a message, telling us to wait outside the Chaotic Abyss. We never expected to run into that group from Purple Star there though. We sisters were outnumbered and were forced to… forced to…” He Zao spoke until here before pausing, her expression changing dramatically, seemingly unravelling something, her tender body shivering unconsciously as she turned a look of shock towards Yang Kai.
“May we meet again!” Yang Kai didn’t say anything more, his body quickly being wrapped in a blue light that shot off into the distance.
Leaving behind a pensive looking He Zao, her pretty face contorting into a frown while He Miao stared on blankly.
After a while, He Miao whispered softly, “He’s really a strange person, suddenly talking about such senseless things out of nowhere.”
“I think he’s actually more astute we think!” He Zao’s beautiful eyes flashed a brilliant light, “Moreover, you’re underestimating him too much. Him being able to kill Senior Brother Wei Wu means he’s definitely not as simple as he appeared! Perhaps… He doesn’t even place us in his eyes.”
“What? Isn’t Elder Sister just overestimating him?” He Miao exclaimed.
“Do you still remember, when we first met him in the Chaotic Abyss, he didn’t even try to evade or hide. He didn’t know who we were, or whether we had any malicious intentions towards him, yet he still waited in place to confront us. In other words, he felt that even if we bore him hostility, given our strength, we wouldn’t be able to harm him!” He Zao declared solemnly.
Inside the familiar cave, the World Energy condensed into a pure liquid that dripped down from the stalactites above and crisply splattered on the ground.
The entire cave was covered in a thin fog, the World Energy aura so thick it was almost inexhaustible.
Yang Kai sat cross-legged, his hundreds of millions of pores all fully opened, madly swallowing this rich aura, enhancing his strength at a rate that was nearly visible to the naked eye.
Before leaving to travel the Starry Sky, Yang Kai had just broken through to the Saint Realm.
Wandering the Star Field for many days, he had failed to find a place to settle down and cultivate in peace.
Then, he had been captured by the Purple Star cultivators and taken aboard their Starship, once again affording him no time to cultivate.
Before he could make his escape, he and all the Purple Star cultivators had been stranded on this Floating Continent where his cultivation had been sealed for two months.
Now that he had finally regained his freedom, Yang Kai intended to take full advantage of this situation.
Only by becoming strong could he open up more possibilities. Even in the most desperate of circumstances, Yang Kai had never considered giving up.
Yang Kai had altered the terrain of this cave slightly to allow the rich World Energy aura to flow more quickly towards him, maximizing his ability to absorb and utilize it.
His cultivation thus steadily began to grow.
When he noticed his rate of cultivation progress slowing down, Yang Kai would take a break and refine several pills to adjust his mood or go out and explore the beauty of this continent while searching the jungles of the mountains for precious herbs.
What Shen Tu said was absolutely right. The material wealth in this place was beyond rich, almost everywhere Yang Kai went he would find spirit grasses and spirit medicines, each of them fully mature and containing potent medical efficacies.
Any Alchemist that arrived here would likely have their heart stop from over excitement.
The pills Yang Kai refined were also used to enhance his cultivation, each Saint Pill that entered his belly increasing rate at which he could enhance his strength to the very limit.
However, cultivation for Yang Kai now was not just a matter of gathering power.
At Yang Kai’s current realm, every additional break through required both an accumulation of strength as well as a certain amount of comprehension and enlightenment.
Strength included both his flesh body and Soul strength, while comprehension and enlightenment regarding the Martial Dao and Heavenly Way were also essential. If any of these factors were lacking, it would impede Yang Kai’s ability to continue improving himself.
But for Yang Kai, thanks to his solid foundation, these things weren’t much of an issue and his cultivation experienced no bottlenecks at all.
Day by day, in this wondrous environment, Yang Kai’s strength grew rapidly, and he even faintly felt he was approaching the Second Order Saint Realm.
He estimated that from the time he and Shen Tu separated, almost a year had passed.
Yang Kai hadn’t met other people in a long time and did not communicate with anyone, but he was still aware that the atmosphere in the continent had undergone some changes.
The Purple Star and Sword Union cultivators seemed to be disappearing one by one, their life auras vanishing from the continent periodically, their fate naturally clear to Yang Kai.
Obviously, they had been thrown into Gui Zu’s Space Array and never returned.
At first, Yang Kai was able to perceive the activity of some nearby cultivators through his Divine Sense, but for the last six months, no one had actually entered his sensory range.
It was as if he was the only one left in the entire continent!
On a certain day, Yang Kai was in meditation when suddenly his face changed, his eyes shot open, and he stared off in a certain direction.
From that direction, a gloomy aura spread like a great tidal wave, sweeping over most of the continent. Even from ten thousand kilometres away, Yang Kai could clearly feel this frightening aura, causing him to tremble unconsciously and forcing him to circulate his True Yang Yuan Qi to resist its erosion.
At the same time, Yang Kai was keenly aware that the plants outside the cave where he had been staying were rapidly withering and was being stained with rich Death Qi, as if the world itself was dying.
Gui Zu’s roar suddenly rang through the Heavens, “Why?! Why is it not successful? This old master worked painstakingly for a thousand years, yet why can’t I leave this damned place!”
His voice was hysterical.
And his raw anger was literally affecting the entire whole around him.
Yang Kai suddenly realized that Gui Zu seemed to have made little or no progress on his Space Array during this past year and was now becoming desperate.
Yang Kai held his breath and remained motionless.
“Little brat, come to this old master now!” The voice of Gui Zu suddenly sounded in Yang Kai’s ear.
Yang Kai’s expression turned incredibly bitter and knew not whether this was a blessing or a curse, but if it was a curse, it couldn’t be avoided, so he stood up and walked out of his cave, summoning his Star Shuttle then shooting off towards the mountain where Gui Zu lived.
After an hour, he arrived halfway up the mountainside and leapt down.
Sweeping his eyes around, Yang Kai sighed heavily, discovering that of the nearly one hundred cultivators who had arrived here with him, only about ten remained, the others were nowhere to be seen.
Of these ten though, Yang Kai actually knew more than half.
Sword Union’s beautiful woman Yue Xi, and the He Zao, He Miao sisters.
Lu Gui Chen and Bi Ya of Purple Star.
Shen Tu was also present.
That Liu Shan he had encountered once before had disappeared, his end obviously quite pitiful.
When Yang Kai appeared, everyone turned a gloomy look towards him, a dreary atmosphere surrounding all of them, none of them seeming to have any spirit left.
This reunion of misfortunate people was completely different from last time. Although everyone was worried and anxious last time, at least they had some hope they could one day leave this place and escape from the despotic control of Gui Zu, but now, none of them had such hope anymore, their eyes dim, without a single trace of light.
They were like a group of prisoners waiting to be executed.
Shen Tu turned to Yang Kai and nodded lightly, not even saying hello, apparently not in the mood to say anything.
“It seems your days have been quite pleasant little brat,” Gui Zu stood in the middle of the Space Array and stared at Yang Kai with a sneer.
“Senior, I have been very honest during this time. I have lived in seclusion, never provoking any kind of trouble,” Yang Kai’s mouth twitched, not understanding why he was suddenly being stared at by this old demon.
“This Old master knows! All your whereabouts cannot escape this old master’s perception. This old master naturally knows you’ve been very honest!” Gui Zu smirked, “But it is exactly because of this that this old master is very unhappy! Why does it seem like you’re not even worried about whether you can leave this damned place or not?”
Yang Kai suddenly understood what the problem was.
It was because he had been too quiet and obedient that he was being targeted. Everyone else was spending their days filled with anxiety, yet Yang Kai appeared as if he had no worries at all, obviously something with him was different.
“Junior is naturally worried about this issue, but aside from leaving this matter to Senior, what else am I supposed to do? Junior’s strength is low and his knowledge is shallow, I really can’t think of any good way to escape from here.”
“Enough flattery!” Gui Zu spat angrily, “Usually if you say a few good words, this old master may be pleased, but now… heh, this old master couldn’t care less!”
Yang Kai shut his mouth promptly.
Yue Xi, Lu Gui Chen and all the others wore panicked expressions as they listened to the conversation between Yang Kai and Gui Zu with trepidation, secretly praying Yang Kai didn’t do anything to further enrage Gui Zu.
Gui Zu figure stumbled, as if he was lacking strength, his pair of eyes drawing back in their sockets and filling with darkness.
There was a weird look on his face, as if he was talking to himself but simultaneously speaking to everyone, “When this old master was young, he had some fortuitous encounters, and managed to cultivate an evil strength, allowing me to slowly but steadily grow to the Saint King Realm. At that time, this old master was only one hundred years old, a strong young man who enjoyed freedom and dreamed of one day allowing his name to spread far and wide across the Star Field. But all of that was destroyed one night when my enemies broke into my home and murdered my wife and family. This old man didn’t die there though, and while seriously injured, fled all the way to the Chaotic Abyss where I lost my way. Soon after, the chaotic energies exploded, producing a domain eruption and dragging this old master into this continent. Here, the materials were abundant, and the World Energy aura was rich beyond imagination. This old master thought it was the Heavens granting me an opportunity to become strong, then go out and seek revenge on my enemies!”
Arriving at this point, his face suddenly became fierce, “I never imagined that even after reaching the Origin King Realm, this old master would still be caged in this damned place like a prisoner! If this old master cannot ever escape from here, even if I possess unfathomable strength, what good is it?”
“This old master must seek his revenge, must slaughter that man to comfort the souls of my dead wife and children!” He snarled at the crowd.
“Senior, two thousand years have passed, your enemies may have died long ago,” Yang Kai frowned.
“Then I will kill his sons and grandchildren, wipe clean his blood from the world! I’ll kill anyone who was ever related to him, I’ll slaughter the entire star he comes from, turning it into a Dead Star!” Gui Zu screamed wildly, like a crazed vengeful spirit.
“This old master’s obsession, do you now understand?” Turning around, he glared menacingly towards the crowd.
Everyone nodded, no one daring to show any disobedience.
“Good, you understand,” Gui Zu grinned evilly, before shouting, “Then help this old master one last time. After today… this old master won’t look for you again.”
Everyone’s heart filled with unease.
Ignoring what everyone else thought, Gui Zu quickly busied himself adjusting the Space Array while saying, “Thanks to your arrival, this old master managed to run multiple trials. The mysteries of space elude this old master still, so this Void Corridor has always been unstable and I cannot tell where it will send someone. This time, each of you must strive hard to succeed, whether you live or die is up to your own luck.”
As he said so, Gui Zu finished rearranging the giant array and activated it, a Void Corridor once again opening in the small door covered in a thin layer of Space Spirit Crystal. Turning to Yang Kai, the old man waved, “Little brat, you first!”
“Why me?” Yang Kai asked angrily.
The last time Gui Zu called everyone together, he was the first one to be chosen, and this time, the situation was exactly the same. Yang Kai really didn’t know where he had annoyed Gui Zu so badly to deserve such treatment.
“Enough nonsense!” Gui Zu ignored his complaints directly and stretched out his bony hand towards Yang Kai, directly dragging him over.
“Senior, isn’t this a bit unfair to him? Last time we gathered, you chose him, shouldn’t you find someone else this time?” A voice suddenly called out.
Just as he was preparing to throw Yang Kai into the Void Corridor, Gui Zu paused and turned a gloomy look towards He Zao’s pretty, pale face.
Yang Kai expression also changed, not having expected that at this last moment, she would actually try to speak up for him.
“Yes, Senior, why purposefully target Brother Yang?” Shen Tu snorted, emboldened by He Zao’s words.
He Miao’s beautiful eyes also flashed as she anxiously nodded, silently expression her agreement.
Gui Zu, while still holding up Yang Kai, stared at He Zao strangely.
He Zao was obviously afraid of death, her tender body shivering noticeably, yet she still refused to turn her eyes away from Gui Zu’s.
Everyone was astonished.
Sword Union’s Yue Xi covered her mouth in shock and quickly called out, “What are you doing? Sit down and be quiet this instant!”
He Zao remained motionless though. Rather, she couldn’t sit down even if she wanted to. In the face of Gui Zu’s imposing manner, she didn’t have the strength to move a finger, cold sweat dripping down her pale face.
Suddenly, Gui Zu grinned smugly, his eyes wandering back over to Yang Kai and asking, “What’s your relationship with this little girl?”
“Chance acquaintances!”
“Did she fall in love with you at first sight then?”
“I don’t think so,” Yang Kai shook his head and turned his eyes to He Zao, his expression becoming somewhat subtle.
“Then why is she trying to help you now?” Gui Zu smiled even more meaningfully.
“He… he saved both me and my sister’s lives!” He Zao trembled and answered Gui Zu’s question.
“En, good, good! You’re quite clear about your gratitudes and grudges little girl… But if this old master were to let him go, would you be willing to take his place?” Gui Zu looked at He Zao and grinned wickedly.
He Zao’s face became paler and her trembling became fiercer, unable to immediately answer this question.
Yang Kai couldn’t help staring at her as well, wondering how she would answer.
Lu Gui Chen, Bi Ya and everyone else all watched He Zao with rapt attention while Yue Xi kept trying to silently warn her not to act impulsively.
Suddenly, He Zao drew a sharp breath and her eyes became firm, seemingly having arrived at a decision.
Opening her lips to speak her answer.
“There’s no need,” Yang Kai frowned and cut in, “Senior, you don’t need to pay her any attention, just get on with it!”
Gui Zu stared thoughtfully at Yang Kai for a moment before nodding, “Seems you still have some guts left, not allowing a woman to face danger for your sake. But don’t worry, this time, none of you can escape, all of you must go in!”
When this statement comes out, everyone abruptly went pale.
They had thought that this situation was the same as before, that Gui Zu would throw someone into the Void Corridor then be done with it. They thought that after Yang Kai died, they would be able to live on dishonourably for at least a little longer, none of them had anticipated that bad luck would actually fall on their heads so quickly.
Gui Zu had obviously decided to stake everything on today’s attempt.
After understanding this, everyone looked extremely bitter, feeling that this time they could not escape and that they would be following in the footsteps of their dead comrades soon enough.
The seven coloured sky surrounding them seemed to cloud over at this moment, making all of them feel incredibly gloomy.
“Brother Yang, walk slowly. Brother here will soon be accompanying you, at least you won’t be alone on the way!” Facing impending and inescapable death, Shen Tu didn’t forget to get in the last word with Yang Kai.
Yang Kai gently nodded.
“Little brat, go in!” Gui Zu didn’t want to waste any more time, attaching a wisp of his Spiritual Energy to Yang Kai’s body before tossing him into the swirling Void Corridor.
As he perceived the information transmitted back to him from that wisp, he lifted his hand towards He Zao who was still standing nearby and drew her over, laughing as he said, “Don’t be anxious little girl, this old master will send you to accompany your saviour soon enough. I hope your luck is good and you don’t die inexplicably like everyone before!”
“Old monster, one day someone will make you pay for all your evil deeds!” He Zao gnashed her teeth and spat.
“Less idle chatter!” Gui Zu didn’t pay her any mind, attaching another wisp of Spiritual Energy to her.
Just as he was about to throw He Zao into the Void Corridor though, Gui Zu suddenly went stiff, his pair of gloomy eyes shrinking up, a look of shock filling his face, seemingly having discovered something unbelievable.
The next moment, he shouted loudly, “Boy, you actually possess such an ability?!”
Saying so, he tossed away He Zao while letting out a burst of riotous laughter and disappeared from sight.
Even as he flew far away, everyone was still able to hear his mad laughter.
Atop the mountain, He Zao’s face was ashen as she sat there motionless, staring off in the direction Gui Zu left, not understanding what just happened.
He Miao rushed over, tears filling her eyes as she worriedly asked, “Elder Sister, are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” He Zao shook her head. Besides being wrapped up in Gui Zu’s Spiritual Energy wisp, making her feel slightly cold, she really was alright.
Gui Zu hadn’t done anything to her.
“What happened? Why did that strange old monster suddenly fly off?” Yue Xi also rushed up and asked.
Lu Gui Chen, Bi Ya, Shen Tu, and all the others quickly gathered around, each of them staring towards He Zao, hoping she could provide them with some kind of answer.
All of them thought that as the one standing closest to Gui Zu, she would have noticed some clues.
“I don’t know,” He Zao shook her head.
“You really don’t know?” Lu Gui Chen asked suspiciously.
“I really don’t know!”
“This is too strange, why did Senior just suddenly leave?”
“Could it have something to do with Yang Kai?” He Miao asked innocently, “Those words that old fogey shouted before he flew off were clearly referring to him.”
Hearing her say this, everyone suddenly thought back to what had just transpired and felt it was possible. As if Yang Kai had some kind of profound method that attracted Gui Zu’s attention.
However, Yang Kai had already been thrown into the Void Corridor by that point, so why did Gui Zu fly off in a completely different direction?
“Could that old guy have finally gone insane?” Shen Tu’s mouth twitched, only able to come up with such a reason for Gui Zu’s strange actions.
“It would be best if he forgets about our existences altogether!” Lu Gui Chen prayed self deprecatingly.
Somewhere above the Floating Continent, a tear in space suddenly opened and Yang Kai’s figure appeared from inside it.
Glancing around for a while, a deep frown appeared on Yang Kai’s face and he couldn’t help but curse.
He discovered that he was still in the strange continent.
Before he could even catch his breath though, Yang Kai sensed Gui Zu’s aura approaching him at lightning speed, and in the blink of an eye, a dark figure appeared on the horizon. Before he even arrived though, streams of resentful spirits rushed out from Gui Zu’s body and rushed over towards Yang Kai.
Yang Kai’s face changed and he immediately tore space again, diving back into the turbulent flow of The Void.
When he appeared again, he was already several hundred kilometres away!
Gui Zu rushed over, spread out his Divine Sense, accurately locked onto Yang Kai’s current position, sneered deeply then continued the chase.
“Little brat, you certainly know how to conceal yourself, but regardless of how you try to run, you can’t escape from this old master’s palm!” Gui Zu spared no effort to pursue, vowing solemnly to capture Yang Kai.
Yang Kai, in turn, continued to flee, his heart filling with deep bitterness.
Since a year ago, when he had first been chosen by Gui Zu to enter the unstable Void Corridor, Yang Kai had been concealing his ability to tear space, not even hesitating to severely damage the Soul Clone he had been cultivating for ten years in order to not expose this method.
He had regarded it as his last life-saving method and was secretly counting on being able to leave this damned place by tearing space and returning to the Chaotic Abyss, thus escaping Gui Zu’s control.
However, today, when he had finally been forced to use this card, Yang Kai discovered that his thoughts had been too naive.
It seemed that because Gui Zu had built his unstable Space Array and haphazardly tested it over and over again, the space around the entire continent had become incredibly turbulent, making The Void in the surrounding area more dangerous than ever.
Even if Yang Kai had certain accomplishments in the Space Principle, he didn’t dare stay in that turbulent Void for too long.
This in turn meant that he couldn’t even catch his breath under the relentless pursuit of Gui Zu.
If not for these unfortunate circumstances, he could always hide in the Void and wait until Gui Zu thought he had died before quietly beginning to act.
Now he could only continue to tear space in order to flee from Gui Zu with great difficulty.
Every time he tore space, it would consume a massive amount of Yang Kai’s Saint Qi and Spiritual Energy, and displaying this Divine Ability four or five times had already made him breathless.
Yang Kai had a near-endless supply of Saint Qi, and even if he used all of it up, the Divine Tree could provide him with more, but supplementing his Spiritual Energy was not so easy.
Yang Kai gradually despaired, feeling like it was impossible for him to escape today.
“Junior, stop trying to run. As long as you’re still on this continent, you can’t escape!” Gui Zu’s voice sounded from far away but still rang clearly as if he was speaking right next to Yang Kai’s ear.
Yang Kai remained undeterred and continued to tear space, reappearing hundreds of kilometres away each time.
Gui Zu’s voice continually rang in his ear.
“Little brat, don’t refuse a toast only to be forced to drink a loss. If you dare continue to flee, when this old master finally catches you, you will pay the price!”
“Damn you, since you insist on opposing this old master, let’s see how long you can continue to hold out!”
“This old master knows you lack the ability to accomplish your objective! A tiny First-Order Saint like you, after tearing space so many times, how much power do you have left? Surrender without a fight and this old master won’t make things difficult for you.”
“Good good, stop! This old master won’t chase you any further, this old master swears to the Heavens he won’t harm a hair on your head, this old master means what he says!”
His attitude and words gradually began to change as he grew more and more surprised by Yang Kai’s performance, his confidence in being able to capture him beginning to waver.
Yang Kai expression finally changed, stopping in place and taking the opportunity to quickly swallow a few Saint Pills to supplement his Spiritual Energy while drinking a drop of Myriad Drug Milk in order to quickly refill his drained Knowledge Sea.
Gui Zu appeared a few dozen meters away in the next moment and gloomily stared towards Yang Kai, his expression filled with bitterness.
Grinning wickedly, he said, “Little brat, you really can surprise this old master. I didn’t think you could possess such means.”
“There’s much more you can’t think of,” Yang Kai tore space and hid half his body inside The Void, preparing to step inside at a moment’s notice.
“Don’t be so anxious, let’s talk about this,” Gui Zu raised his hands and wore his best smile on his face, trying to appear harmless to humans and animals alike, “This old master has seen your method quite clearly, but do you really believe this old master has no means to stop you? Don’t forget, this old master has also studied the Space Principle for a thousand!”
“Since you have such ability, why haven’t you used it yet? What are you worrying about?” Yang Kai said indifferently.
Gui Zu curled his lips, “If this old master really wants to stop you, he can, but whether you’d survive or not, this old master can’t guarantee, that’s why I’ve allowed you to carry on like this for so long. Don’t get too full of yourself.”
“You have something you need from me, naturally you won’t risk my life,” Yang Kai scorned.
“If I didn’t, do you think this old master would have tolerated your insolence for so long?” Gui Zu snickered coldly, “Enough nonsense, this old master didn’t know you were proficient in the Space Principle, but it’s not too late to have learned now. Come with this old master and we can cooperate to find a way out of here. How about it?”
“How would we cooperate?” Yang Kai frowned.
“This old master will ensure your freedom and supply you with anything you need. I promise you’ll be satisfied! You, on the other hand, search for a way to leave this place and when you find it, you take this old master with you when you go,” Gui Zu smirked, “This old master’s Space Array clearly won’t work, but since you have studied the Space Principle, you may be able to find some other way!”
“I don’t trust you!” Yang Kai shook his head decisively. When dealing with an old monster like this, carelessness could not be allowed.
“How can this old master win your trust?”
“Swear an oath!”
Gui Zu’s expression became strange as he wore a ferocious grin, “Would you believe this old master even if he swore an oath? This old master could renege on it at any time!”
“Swear it in the name of your dead wife and children, then I’ll believe you!” Yang Kai said seriously.
“Little brat, don’t reach out for a yard after taking an inch!” Gui Zu’s expression suddenly became irritated, Yang Kai’s words seemingly touching his reverse scale, causing him to shout angrily, “Irritating me holds no advantage to you; remember, I can kill you now and obtain your knowledge of the Space Principle by searching your Soul!”
“The chances of that working aren’t great. Perhaps you’ll be able to obtain all my insights into the Space Principle, perhaps you’ll get nothing, and even if you do obtain my knowledge, you won’t necessarily be able to understand it. This kind of thing depends more on aptitude than anything else, that’s why even after a thousand years of study you weren’t able to produce any results, your aptitude in the Space Principle is too poor!” Yang Kai spoke without reservation, unafraid of provoking Gui Zu.
Staring intently towards Gui Zu, Yang Kai asked, “Do you want to gamble?”
Gui Zu’s expression became gloomy as he stared towards Yang Kai like he couldn’t wait to butcher and eat him raw, wishing he could slap him dead and search his memories this instant but unable to help himself from hesitating.
Yang Kai’s words had hit the nail on the head, making it impossible for Gui Zu to not hesitate.
“If you don’t swear an oath on your dead wife and children’s souls, I’ll rush into The Void right now and not come out for a lifetime. I’d rather die in there than work with you. After I die, you can go bang your head against your Space Array. I wish you the best of luck,” saying so, Yang Kai didn’t give Gui Zu any time to consider and stepped further into the Void.
“Wait!” Gui Zu shouted, his face twitching as a gloomy aura pulsed from his body.
Suddenly, he laughed and nodded, “Little brat, your courage isn’t small, even daring to discuss conditions with this old master.”
Yang Kai shrugged his shoulders, “Trying to cooperate as equals with you is impossible, I have to be careful.”
“Good, you win! This old master swears in the name of his wife and children, as long as you cooperate with me, I will not bring any harm to you. If I violate this oath, may Heavenly lightning strike me down so I die like a dog!”
Yang Kai shook his head.
“Little brat, what do you want now?” Gui Zu shouted.
“It’s not you that should be struck down by Heavenly thunder and die like a dog, this kind of oath carries no real weight, how you should be swearing, do you need me to explain?”
Gui Zu glared at him coldly, a biting chill flashing across his eyes as palpable killing intent pulsed from his body.
Slowly closing his eyes, Gui Zu no longer played any tricks with his words and honestly made a vicious vow on the souls of his dead wife and children.
Yang Kai stepped out from The Void and said faintly, “Wouldn’t it have been easier to say that from the start?”
“Boy, I want nothing more than to kill you right now, reduce your body to ash, and extinguish your soul to soothe the hatred in my heart,” Gui Zu stared at him menacingly.
“I believe Senior is a man who values his wife and children far more than himself, otherwise you would not still be obsessed with seeking vengeance for them after an entire two thousand years,” Yang Kai smiled carefreely, “Senior is a man of unreasonable passion.”
Gui Zu’s cruel and violent aura, like snow under a hot sun, quickly melted as his eyes filled with a look of nostalgia, seeming thinking back fondly on his wife and children.
“The past cannot be changed. You come back with me first, from now on we’re partners in finding a way out of here,” His tone suddenly calmed down, as if the few words Yang Kai said had dispelled his previous indignation.
Saying so, with a wave of his sleeve, he wrapped Yang Kai up in his Saint Qi and carried him back the way they came.
On top of the mountain, everyone remained on edge, silently waiting.
Although Gui Zu had left almost an hour ago, none of them dared try to leave.
This entire continent was Gui Zu’s territory, there was nowhere they could escape to.
Everyone felt incredibly uneasy in their hearts and were secretly wishing Gui Zu would never return, allowing them to die peacefully of old age.
However, in the midst of their uneasiness, Yue Xi’s expression suddenly changed as she muttered, “He’s coming back.”
Saying so, she turned her head towards a certain direction.
Following her gaze, everyone else also noticed a black cloud that was rapidly approaching, Gui Zu’s cold and gloomy aura radiating from it.
Despair once again enveloped all of their hearts.
“Huh?” Shen Tu however suddenly called out as he stared towards the dark cloud with a confused look upon his face. He had just vaguely seen Yang Kai’s figure inside that dark cloud and couldn’t help feeling startled.
The others also quickly discovered this strange phenomenon and were taken aback.
Yang Kai had previously been thrown into the Void Corridor by Gui Zu, yet now he was returning together with Gui Zu from afar. None of them could find an explanation for what they were witnessing.
A moment later, the dark cloud fell to the ground and the figures of Gui Zu and Yang Kai appeared in front of everyone.
After confirming their eyes weren’t playing tricks on them, everyone only became even more confused, all of their eyes drifting back and forth between Yang Kai and Gui Zu curiously.
Soon though, they became shocked as they discovered that Gui Zu and Yang Kai seemed to have come to some sort of agreement, with the old monster’s attitude towards Yang Kai taking a significant turn for the better.
“If you need anything, just ask; find a method as soon as possible though, this old master does not want to wait,” Gui Zu faintly said.
“Even if you don’t want to wait, you’ll have to wait,” Yang Kai shook his head, “Thanks to you, the space around this continent is incredibly chaotic now, if it weren’t, I wouldn’t have been caught by you, I could have just hidden in The Void and not come out.”
“What does that have to do with this old master?” Gui Zu asked indignantly.
“This Space Array is yours, isn’t it…” Yang Kai pointed behind him.
Gui Zu suddenly looked embarrassed and didn’t say anymore.
Although he wasn’t proficient in the mysteries of space, he had still studied the subject for a thousand years and knew that what Yang Kai had said about the local space being chaotic was definitely a result of him continuously using his shoddy array to open an unstable Void Corridor.
“Stop using this array for a while and wait until the chaotic space becomes stable, then I can start searching for an appropriate method,” Yang Kai said.
Gui Zu didn’t say a word, waved his sleeve, and shut down the Space Array, closing the Void Corridor in an instant.
“How long will it take?” Gui Zu asked eagerly.
“I don’t know.” Yang Kai shook his head, “Perhaps half a month, maybe a few months, maybe a few years or more, I can’t say.”
“Little brat, are you just looking for an excuse stall for time?” Gui Zu stared at him suspiciously, “Don’t forget, although I swore an oath, that only applies if you are cooperating with me, if you dare play any tricks, this old master will absolutely show no mercy.”
“What benefit does stalling for time give me? Even if I wasted ten years of time I still wouldn’t be your opponent!” Yang Kai snorted.
“Good that you know!” Gui Zu nodded with satisfaction, “For the time being, you live here. There is a secluded cave this old master opened up over there, and the density of the World Energy aura there is the highest in the entire continent. You can cultivate there for a while, allowing you to easily return to this spot. If you need anything else, just let me know.”
Gui Zu said before vanishing into thin air.
Not sparing Lu Gui Chen or Yue Xi a single glance.
After Gui Zu left, Shen Tu came up to Yang Kai and asked, “Yang Kai, what’s going on? Why do you and that Senior seem to be getting along so well now… Also, how did you get escape from that Void Corridor?”
His head was full of fog and his face couldn’t hide his doubts.
The same was true of all the others as well, each of them staring towards Yang Kai, expecting him to explain it to them.
“He needs my help, so the two of us reached an agreement,” Yang Kai explained casually.
“He needs help from you?” Shen Tu was dumbstruck.
“What kind of skill do you possess that could force a master like him to work with you?” Yue Xi frowned, obviously not believing him.
Yang Kai glanced over at her briefly but was too lazy to explain.
“Little brother ……” Lu Gui Chen lightly coughed, his face full of smiles, drastically changing how he addressed Yang Kai as he spoke, “May I ask, does this mean that we’re temporarily safe? That Senior won’t force us into that Void Corridor to explore the way?”
“En,” Yang Kai nodded, “None of you will need to enter that Void Corridor again.”
“Really?” He Miao’s beautiful eyes lit up and she jumped for joy, feeling an unparalleled sense of relief.
“But whether or not you’re safe, I don’t know!” Yang Kai smiled softly as he stared towards Lu Gui Chen meaningfully.
Lu Gui Chen’s face suddenly changed, remembering that he and this young man had some deep grievances between them.
When they had first arrived here, it was he who sealed up Yang Kai’s Saint Qi, causing him to lose his strength.
Now, Yang Kai and Gui Zu had reached an agreement of some sort, so his status was obviously different from before.
As long as he had the asylum of that old monster, Yang Kai could act any way he wanted to!
Realizing this, Lu Gui Chen expression became flustered, not waiting for Yang Kai to have any stray thoughts and quickly wearing a flattering smile, cupping his fists and saying, “Little brother, before, this Lu had eyes but failed to see and committed some offences. I hope little brother can be generous and forgive these indiscretions.”
Bi Ya’s pretty face also paled, her pair of watery eyes filling with panic as she squeezed out an embarrassed smile, speaking in as charming a voice as she could muster, “Little brother, earlier, I was wrong and treated you without the proper respect you deserve. I hope you can be merciful and not haggle of such things. From now on, I will listen to your instructions and do for you whatever it is you ask, I ensure you will not be disappointed with me!”
Her last words were spoken very meaningfully; as long as one was a man, they would be able to understand exactly what she was suggesting.
At this moment, these two from Purple Star became incredibly submissive, compromising for their own interests. They understood that the situation demanded they act swiftly as Yang Kai was no longer a powerless youth they could look down on anymore.
As long as Gui Zu really needed his help, Yang Kai was capable of controlling who among them lived or died.
Nearby, Shen Tu’s spirit shook as he stared at Yang Kai with great admiration. He could never have imagined the situation would change so dramatically and couldn’t stop himself from letting out a low chuckle, taking pleasure in the other’s misfortune.
He was eagerly anticipating what answer Yang Kai would give.
Yue Xi’s expression also fluctuated greatly, staring towards Yang Kai warily, her beautiful eyes filled with dread and vigilance.
Lu Gui Chen had a terrible relationship with Yang Kai, but hers was not much better!
After Wei Wu was killed, she had confronted Yang Kai and declared that one day she would make him pay. Yang Kai had also ruthlessly retorted to her, his vile words still clear in her mind. Yue Xi’s heart filled with bitterness, not knowing what she should do now.
These two masters were incredibly depressed right now, feeling as if they had escaped from the tiger’s den only to enter a dragon’s lair. Facing the current Yang Kai made them more nervous than facing Gui Zu.
At the very least, they understood Gui Zu’s methods and purpose.
On the other hand, they knew nothing about what Yang Kai thought or how he would act.
Yang Kai looked over at Lu Gui Chen and Bi Ya indifferently, silently observing the smiles on their faces that seemed as ugly as if they were crying, suddenly feeling a deep sense of disdain.
The river flows thirty years to the east, then thirty years to the west.
A year ago, when they had fallen into this damned place, he had been subdued by Lu Gui Chen without the ability to resist; now, this powerhouse that was able to easily take his life had to act subservient and openly flatter him.
All of this was because he now had the backing of Gui Zu!
Yang Kai had wanted to use Gui Zu to kill Lu Gui Chen in order to soothe the hatred he felt from being sealed all that time ago. But now, he had lost interest.
Because even if Gui Zu killed Lu Gui Chen, Yang Kai wouldn’t be able to take any joy in it.
After a short silence, Yang Kai suddenly said, “I heard that your Purple Star people collected a lot of herbs some time ago, yes?”
Lu Gui Chen was slightly startled by this question but quickly nodded, “We indeed collected a lot of herbs, but because we lacked a proper storage artifact, we could not preserve them very well, so some of their medicinal efficacies have passed; however, the degradation should not be too bad. En, this Lu heard that little brother is an Alchemist, yes? These herbs will only be able to display their full use in little brother’s hands. Little brother should quickly refine them into pills so as not to waste the gifts Heaven has bestowed!”
Yang Kai grinned and expressed his satisfaction, again asking, “What about your Saint Crystal?”
“Everything has been stored in a hidden location. This place’s World Energy is so potent there is no need to use Saint Crystals. How about we gift these things to little brother? We cannot use them now in any case.”
“Good good, you know how to speak!” Yang Kai continually nodded, gently patting Lu Gui Chen’s shoulder, putting on a happy look as he shot Shen Tu a look, “Go together with them and carry those things back.”
“Understood!” Shen Tu’s body trembled as he straightened his back and puffed out his chest.
“This matter must not be delayed, let’s go now!” Lu Gui Chen smiled embarrassedly, only wishing he could escape from this place a moment sooner so as to avoid any more trouble from Yang Kai.
Saying so, he asked Yang Kai to be excused before leading Shen Tu to quickly withdraw.
Seeing Lu Gui Chen act like this, shamelessly flattering a boy he had moments ago been disdaining, Yue Xi couldn’t help revealing a look of contempt.
She had been dealing with Lu Gui Chen for many years and believed his strength and methods to be no worse than her own, so now seeing him act so submissive and cowardly somehow made Yue Xi feel vexed and disappointed.
Her originally bad mood became even worse.
“As for you…” Yang Kai suddenly turned to look at her, a strange smile appearing on his face as he swept his gaze over Yue Xi’s full chest, slender waist, and long leg, an obscene light flashing across his eyes.
Although Yue Xi was He Zao and He Miao’s Master, and her true age was definitely not small, her cultivation was profound so the years had not left any trace on her and instead given her a mature charm.
She looked like an unwed young woman, sweet and delicious.
Yang Kai couldn’t help secretly praising this beautiful woman, thinking she was more outstanding than her two disciples.
His vision was aggressive and unscrupulous, not even trying to hide his intent.
Being stared at by such a gaze, Yue Xi couldn’t help feeling like her clothes were being ripped apart and she was standing naked in front of this youth, a deep sense of shame filling her heart, her tender body shivering as she shouted, “What do you want? You can have our herbs and Saint Crystal as well but don’t expect me to humble myself like Lu Gui Chen!”
“You still have some spirit, good!” Yang Kai sneered, “Don’t think that because you are He Zao and He Miao’s Master I will show you any favour. To me, there’s no difference between you and those Purple Star people, if we weren’t stranded in this continent under Senior Gui Zu’s rules, perhaps I would have already been killed by someone from your side!”
“For a person like you, your death isn’t worth pitying!” Yue Xi smiled coldly.
“A person like me? Are you familiar with me? What qualifications do you have to evaluate me? I saved your two disciples’ lives yet not only did you not show any appreciation, you instead suspected and guarded against me, created obstacles for me at every turn, and snatched back the ring you supposedly gifted me. I can ignore all of those matters, but when Wei Wu tried to kill me, yet was too weak and was instead killed by me, did you even bother trying to determine right from wrong before deciding to kill me in the name of revenge? Why don’t you ask your two disciples carefully what kind of person I am and what kind of person that Wei Wu was!” Yang Kai shouted angrily.
“What do you mean?” Yue Xi’s brow furrowed deeply as she stared at Yang Kai suspiciously, feeling as if he was hinting at something.
“Bi Ya!” Yang Kai shouted.
“Does little brother have something he needs from me?” Bi Ya asked with a forced smile.
“You are from Purple Star, explain how you found He Zao and He Miao at that time and how you forced them into the Chaotic Abyss!” Yang Kai continued glaring at Yue Xi while commanding Bi Ya.
Yue Xi couldn’t help turning to look at Bi Ya, waiting for her answer.
Bi Ya didn’t dare conceal anything at this point, quickly saying, “We received a message from someone inside your Sword Union, saying that the ones who were carrying the Star Sect Command were waiting at the edge of the Chaotic Abyss. If not for that message, we would not have been able to find these two sisters in this vast Star Field!”
Yue Xi’s tender body trembled, her beautiful eyes flashing a look of disbelief.
“Master, the reason we stopped there was because we received a message from Senior Brother Wei Wu saying not to run around aimlessly as you would soon come to find us!” He Zao said to Yue Xi.
“I never issued such instruction!” Yue Xi shook her head, her face going pale, seemingly unable to accept the words she had just heard.
“Who was the one who sent that message to you?” He Zao asked Bi Ya.
Bi Ya slowly shook her head, “I don’t know, only Senior Lu would know. When he returns, you should ask him.”
Yue Xi was dazed as she muttered, “Impossible, Wei Wu isn’t such a person… He grew up beside me since childhood, how could he possibly do such a thing?”
As she talked to herself, she suddenly stared wickedly towards Yang Kai and shouted, “It must be you and this cheap whore colluding to slander Wei Wu!”
“You’re absolutely incorrigible!” Yang Kai shook his head slightly before staring towards her menacingly, “Do you still remember what I said to you that day?”
Yue Xi expression became panicked as her face paled.
How could she not remember Yang Kai’s words from that time, they were simply the most offensive words she had ever heard spoken to her in this life, every time she thought back to that moment, she couldn’t help feeling uncomfortable.
“I have no interest in an old bag like you!” Yang Kai curled his lips viciously and cursed, “You should remain a virgin for the rest of your life, forever unable to marry.”
When he said this, He Zao and He Miao frowned angrily and glared towards Yang Kai while Bi Ya actually chuckled, revealing a look of understanding.
“The anger you caused me, I won’t take out on you. Instead, I’ll let your two precious disciples pay the price for you, their young, tender flesh is much more to my appetite!”
“What do you want to do?” Yue Xi flew into a rage, quickly protecting He Zao and He Miao behind herself as she glared towards Yang Kai vigilantly.
“What I want to do, don’t you already know?” Yang Kai grinned fiercely while simultaneously sending a Divine Sense Message to Gui Zu.
In the next moment, a dark wisp of energy suddenly appeared beside Yue Xi, releasing a hideous wail as it spilled into Yue Xi’s body, causing her to stiffen up, unable to move.
Two more wisps of dark energy then appeared and wrapped around He Zao and He Miao like ropes.
He Miao screamed in fright.
Yang Kai ignored the stares of everyone else and stepped forward, picking up and resting He Zao and He Miao on his shoulders, posturing in front of Yue Xi for a moment before smugly walking over towards the mountain cave.
“You demon! Let go of He Zao and He Miao, if you dare lay a finger on them, I swear I’ll make you pay!” Yue Xi shouted hysterically as she watched Yang Kai take her two disciples away, screaming repeatedly as she struggled fiercely to free herself.
But facing Gui Zu’s oppression, she was completely unable to escape.
“Scream! Scream louder, scream until your throat goes dry, no one will care!” Yang Kai sneered, ignoring her threats.
“Boy, how can you do this!?” Yue Xi shouted, her voice filled with unwillingness, her beautiful eyes ablaze with indescribable hatred. She had thought that at worst, Yang Kai would drag her up the mountain and humiliate her, but never had she imagined that this grudge would be taken out on her two disciples.
If that was the case, she would have only felt aggrieved for herself rather than guilty towards her disciples.
“This is the fate of those who provoke me!” Yang Kai cackled as his figure finally disappeared into the mountain cave.
Yue Xi shouted and cursed unceasingly as the rest of the Purple Star and Sword Union cultivators stared towards the direction Yang Kai disappeared, all of them feeling a chill run up their spine, each of them thinking Yang Kai was too brutal and ruthless.
Even Bi Ya couldn’t help shivering; it was only after witnessing just how vicious Yang Kai could be that she realized she had looked down far too much on this youth.
He was a cold-blooded, heartless demon; perhaps he didn’t even understand the concept of compassion.
Compared with Yang Kai, she was nothing less than a virtuous saint.
Inside the mountainside where Gui Zu lived, he had opened up a number of massive stone rooms, each one filled with numerous things, cluttered and messy. It was really a wonder where Gui Zu found all of this junk.
The air was dry though, and the stone rooms were dotted with stones that radiated a soft light, making it bright even in the absence of sunlight.
This mountain peak seemed to be the center of the entire Floating Continent, and inside it there were passages extending in all directions that formed a kind of massive Spirit Array that concentrated the already rich World Energy aura towards it.
The arrangements Yang Kai had set up in his cave ten thousand kilometers away seemed like the work of a naive child compared to Gui Zu’s approach.
A small brook flowed through the stone chambers, filled with crystal clear liquid, but this liquid wasn’t just ordinary water, it was pure spirit elixir that contained massive amounts of World Energy, drinking it would result in massive benefits for one’s cultivation.
Yang Kai carried He Zao and He Miao with him as he walked further into the mountainside, releasing his Divine Sense to investigate his surroundings and was becoming stunned by what he discovered. The cultivation environment here was simply astonishing, it was no wonder Gui Zu had chosen this place as his residence.
He also noticed the extraordinariness of the brook and couldn’t help feeling amazed, following along it as he moved forward.
Since Yang Kai had hoisted them onto his shoulders, He Zao hadn’t shown any noticeable reaction while He Miao, on the other hand, was shivering in terror as she imagined what kind of shameful things Yang Kai would soon do to her.
In their ears, Yue Xi’s hysterical cries and curses still resounded, but no matter how she screamed, no one paid any attention to her.
After a short time, Yang Kai came to a stop, casually found a stone room, walking inside, and set He Zao and He Miao down.
He Miao immediately jumped behind her Elder Sister like a frightened rabbit, tightly clutching her clothes as she stared fearfully towards Yang Kai, her voice quavering as she asked, “What are you doing? What are you going to do to us?”
“What do you think?” Yang Kai smiled evilly.
He Miao couldn’t stop trembling in fright, becoming more and more alarmed.
“Stop teasing her,” He Zao stared towards Yang Kai indifferently, her thin brow creasing into a line, “Is this fun for you? Even if you have grievances with Master, you shouldn’t torture her like this, doing so is… it’s too cruel.”
“Cruel?” Yang Kai raised his brow and sneered, “What kind of person your Master is, as her disciples, you should know best. Could it be you don’t know what shortcomings she has?”
He Zao frowned and sighed softly, “Master sometimes becomes impenetrably thick-headed and stubborn, refusing to admit her mistakes. Like last time, she knew she shouldn’t have been so wary of you and try to create trouble for you and instead be modest and thank you for saving us, but she simply couldn’t bring herself to do so.”
“That’s because my strength was too low and she didn’t put me in her eyes,” Yang Kai slowly shook his head.
“Master isn’t a bad person, she…”
“You need not say anything more, she directed killing intent towards me, so she must pay an appropriate price! How she acts from this point forward will determine whether she lives or dies.”
He Zao’s tender body shivered as she stared restlessly towards Yang Kai, “Do you want to kill Master?”
“That will depend on her attitude; I won’t allow anyone who bears such naked hostility towards me to live in this world!” Yang Kai said callously, “Even if she is your Master she won’t be an exception. If you were to seek revenge, I will show you no mercy either.”
“Is that why you are embarrassing us now?” He Zao smiled bitterly.
“That’s why I brought you here!” Yang Kai nodded as he sent a Divine Sense Message to Gui Zu.
A moment later, the evil energy that bound He Zao and He Miao disappeared and the two of them regained their freedom.
“Look for a place to cultivate yourself, don’t think about going out for a while, you can’t even if you want to!” Yang Kai commanded before turning around and leaving.
After Yang Kai left, He Miao poked her head out from behind her sister and let out a sigh of relief, patting her chest with her small hand, “That really scared me to death, I thought he really wanted to…”
He Zao smiled and asked, “What did you think he was going to do?”
He Miao’s face went red as she hid once more.
“He’s not such a person. Him bringing us in here was first to punish Master and second to deliver us both some benefits.”
“Deliver us some benefits?” He Miao was shocked.
“When that Gui Zu was about to throw him into that Void Corridor, didn’t we speak up for him?” He Zao smiled brightly, adding a touch of colour to the lonely stone room, “He is a man who clearly distinguishes between gratitude and grudges. Bringing us here was definitely to let us cultivate.”
“Really? I think he’s actually quite frightening,” He Miao said with lingering fear in her expression, recalling Yang Kai’s appearance from a moment ago was enough to cause her shivers and make her think of him as an extremely cruel person.
“What about Master?” He Miao asked. She could still hear Yue Xi’s screaming, her hoarse and sorrowful voice causing her to worry greatly.
He Zao smiled lightly before taking out her communication type artifact, allowing her little sister’s eyes to brighten in comprehension.
He Zao poured her Divine Sense into the artifact and sent a Divine Sense Message to their Master informing her of their sister’s current situation.
In another stone room, Yang Kai found dry place, sat down, and began thinking about the future.
Although he and Gui Zu had reached an agreement today, whether he was even able to leave this strange continent by tearing space remained uncertain.
As he was being chased by Gui Zu, Yang Kai had torn space several times, but he was only able to re-emerge from The Void at other locations inside this Floating Continent, never once seeing a clear path to the Starry Sky, causing him to feel quite helpless.
If this method really wasn’t feasible, Gui Zu would not let him off and his death would be far more miserable than anyone else’s.
Fortunately, he was able to buy himself some time, but Yang Kai still felt he needed to find a solution as soon as possible; at the very least, he needed to give Gui Zu some hope.
Hearing Shen Tu’s voice suddenly call out from outside, Yang Kai’s expression brightened as he looked up and said, “Senior, can my friend come in?”
“Let in whoever you want! There’s plenty of stone rooms in this place anyways,” Gui Zu’s voice echoed.
Yang Kai nodded before quickly sending Shen Tu a Divine Sense Message.
A moment later, Shen Tu stepped into the cave network with several large bags over his shoulder, marveling at the cultivation paradise around him.
Arriving at the stone room where Yang Kai was, Shen Tu gently put down the things on his shoulder and said, “This is everything those Purple Star people collected during this time. Lu Gui Chen didn’t dare try to conceal anything.”
“There’s also many Saint Crystals!” A shadow flashed behind Shen Tu and the beautiful woman Bi Ya stepped out, smiling towards Yang Kai.
Yang Kai stared at her, then at Shen Tu.
Shen Tu shrugged her shoulders, “She followed me on her own, it helped because I couldn’t carry so much by myself.”
“Little brother… I came here because I wanted to apologize again to you,” Bi Ya wore a pitiful look, her beautiful eyes becoming misty like a little girl who had done something wrong, biting her thin red lips as she said softly, “I hope little brother can be forgiving and not worry about our past matters, okay?”
Her voice was soft and sweet as her eyes were filled with remorse.
In the depths of her gaze, there seemed to be a deep light of regret, giving the impression that she was truly acknowledging her past wrongs while tugging at the heartstrings of any who saw her, making them wish to forgive all her sins.
Shen Tu couldn’t help shivering with fright nearby, rubbing his arms as if he had suddenly caught a chill, cursing out loud, “Damn, you certainly know how to frighten people! Can’t you speak in a normal voice instead of that coaxing tone?”
Bi Ya shot him a wicked glance before turning a smiling face back to Yang Kai, “I know that I’m cheap, but as long little brother does not shut me out, I swear not to disappoint you, from now on, I will only listen to you, obeying your every whim, even if you want me to serve you as a maid or slave, I won’t utter a single complaint.”
Shen Tu gawked, “You actually know you’re cheap?”
Bi Ya’s mouth twitched, wishing she could punch Shen Tu in his dumb face this instant, but she didn’t dare get angry in front of Yang Kai, forcing herself to keep that pretty, yet ugly smile on her face.
“Maid or slave?” Yang Kai’s lips curled upwards as he wore an interested expression.
Bi Ya nodded firmly, “I am completely sincere.”
“What do you want?” Yang Kai stared at her and asked directly.
“To live,” Bi Ya replied decisively.
“Good, out of appreciation for your honesty, I’ll allow you to follow me later!” Yang Kai gently nodded.
Bi Ya’s beautiful eyes flashed brilliantly as she was immediately overjoyed, “Many thanks little brother, your slaves will do her best to serve you from now on and never disappoint you… En, how would you like your slave to call you later? … Is Master alright?”
On her face, a tinge of blush filled her cheeks as if she was a shy young maiden in love, creating a fascinating appeal…
Shen Tu stared dumbfounded at this display, shaking his head involuntarily, “Woman, you really know how to act, if I didn’t know all about you already, I would have swiftly been deceived by you.”
Anyone who saw her look like this would inevitably feel some compassion for her and relax their vigilance.
“You master and slave play here nicely, I won’t bother you any further,” Shen Tu said, “Yang Kai, can I chose any place here to stay?”
“Yes!” Yang Kai nodded.
“Many thanks!” Shen Tu grinned and was about to leave, but before he could, Yang Kai tossed a jade bottle over to him, causing him to ask, “What is this?”
“A bottle of Saint Pills! Use them to cultivate.”
Shen Tu laughed, “Brother is truly thoughtful, feel free to go all out, I’ll shut off my Divine Sense so I can’t hear anything.”
Saying so with great meaning, he disappeared into the caves.
“Master… It looks like you’re quite tired, would you like your slave to help massage your shoulders?” Bi Ya said as she fixed her beautiful eyes onto Yang Kai, her slender white neck taking on a hint of red as her breath seemed to grow hot.
Saying so, without waiting for Yang Kai to agree or disagree, she lightly stepped forward and sat down gracefully behind him, pressing her tender body gently up against his back as she used her two jade hands to gently knead Yang Kai’s shoulders.
Her movements were as gentle as flowing water, like she was touching her most beloved person, and the strength she used was just right, an inexplicable force stimulating Yang Kai’s body through her fingertips, causing him to unconsciously relaxed, all the stress he had built up from dealing with Gui Zu melting away as his spirits were roused and became re-energized.
“Your skills are impressive,” Yang Kai commented.
“I’m glad Master likes it,” Bi Ya whispered hotly into Yang Kai’s ear, exhaling an orchid scent, “This slave does not have other skills, but she knows how to serve others well.”
“How to serve men?” Yang Kai snickered.
Bi Ya laughed playfully, not taking Yang Kai’s teasing to heart.
“Good, don’t try to use your Seduction Technique on me, it’s completely useless,” Yang Kai muttered flatly.
Bi Ya’s movements went stiff and she quickly withdrew her technique, “Your slave did not intend to use it, please do not take offence, Master!”
“If I want a woman, there are two in the next stone room over who still have their innocence intact, it’s pointless for you to try to seduce me.”
“Master dislikes that my body is no longer pure…” Bi Ya smiled bitterly, suddenly suggesting, “Would you like your slave to train those two little girls? I am confident I can make those two women lose all resistance to Master’s charms and take the initiative to offer themselves, body and soul, to you of their own free will.”
Yang Kai’s face went black, “I somewhat regret allowing you to stay!”
Bi Ya didn’t dare continued speaking and instead focused on serving Yang Kai, intentionally or unintentionally pressing her hot, tender body and astonishingly elastic peaks onto his back.
After a while, Yang Kai waved his hand, “You step back, find a place to live. If I have something I need from you, I’ll call. Without my instructions, you’re not allowed to enter here.”
“Yes!” Bi Ya got up and set out leisurely, her full, rounded bottom swaying rhythmically as she left.
Inside the next stone room over, He Miao was leaning up against the wall, pressing her ear against it, suddenly saying with indignation, “Elder Sister, Yang Kai actually hooked up with that cheap woman Bi Ya, shameless! I think in the future we should be on guard against him!”
He Zao just sat cross-legged on the floor, remaining silent.
……
Gui Zu didn’t show up for half a month, and no one knew what he was doing.
During this time, Yang Kai had been single-mindedly concentrating on cultivating.
Inside the mountain’s stone rooms, He Zao, He Miao, Shen Tu, and Bi Ya all lived quietly, especially Bi Ya who withdrew all her debauched behaviour after pledging to serve Yang Kai. She had become more obedient than anyone else, not engaging in the slightest bit of frivolity anymore.
Unless Yang Kai summoned her, she would remain in her stone room quietly.
She clearly knew that she couldn’t move a character like Gui Zu, so if she wanted to live, she could only work hard to please Yang Kai. As long as Yang Kai was happy with her, there was a chance she would survive.
To this end, she didn’t hesitate to betray Lu Gui Chen and even handed over the communication type artifact she used to contact the other Purple Star cultivators to Yang Kai to show her resolve.
The few times Yang Kai did call her though, he had never done anything improper to her, causing Bi Ya a great deal of confusion. She even began wondering if Yang Kai had certain problems in that field; otherwise, why would he be so indifferent to a beauty like her?
She had made it abundantly clear she would not resist, so was it really possible he wasn’t the least bit tempted?
Hot-blooded young men always had bottomless desire when it came to such matters, so what other reason than a physical disability could there be?
As Bi Ya became more and more suspicious, the look she directed towards Yang Kai slowly began to change, even feeling some sympathy for him.
On this day, as Yang Kai was cultivating, he suddenly noticed that something was not right and hurriedly opened his eyes to find Gui Zu standing quietly in front of him, his eyes staring at him fixedly.
Yang Kai’s body went stiff and amazement filled his heart.
His Divine Sense was already quite powerful, but he hadn’t even been able to detect when Gui Zu arrived here, this old man’s cultivation was simply too profound.
“Does Senior have something he needs from me?” Yang Kai asked.
“Little brat, have you forgotten about our agreement?” Gui Zu asked somewhat dissatisfied, “I didn’t allow you to remain here just so you could improve your strength.”
“Naturally I have not forgotten, but the space around this continent has still not yet fully stabilized. I am unable to investigate anything even if I tear space to explore The Void,” Yang Kai replied flatly, hesitating for a moment before saying, “But if Senior is anxious, I can begin examining other related matters.”
“What other matters?” Gui Zu showed a confused expression.
“The seven coloured sky… If I have not guessed wrong, this seven coloured sky is the actual cage keeping us trapped here, Senior is unable to leave directly because of it.”
“Indeed,” Gui Zu’s eyes lit up and acknowledged, “Your vision isn’t bad little brat, this continent’s sky is an amalgamation of all the Chaotic Abyss’ fluctuating energy fields, making it even more twisted and chaotic than the Chaotic Abyss itself, and making it impossible for anyone to keep their sense of direction upon entering it. It’s for this reason that one can’t simply fly away from this continent. You being able to see through this is a surprise to this old master. It indeed should be investigated.”
Saying so, he grabbed hold of Yang Kai and flew out of the mountain cave like a bolt of lightning, reaching the sky above the mainland a moment later.
When Yang Kai regained his composure, he discovered that he was already standing ten thousand kilometres above the continent.
“Take a careful look, what can you see?” Gui Zu stood next to Yang Kai and motioned.
Yang Kai nodded and released his Divine Sense in all directions.
After a while, he frowned, “This space is truly chaotic, my Divine Sense is unable to find the correct path forward, the overlapping energy fields are severely hampering my sense of direction. How wide does Senior estimate this chaotic field is?”
Gui Zu pondered for a moment before replying, “This continent isn’t too large, so the scope of this chaotic barrier shouldn’t be too wide. I’d estimate it to be as small as several thousand kilometres to as large as ten thousand kilometres.”
“When I tear space, the furthest I can travel is six or seven hundred kilometres… If this field is so wide, it means that I’ll have to tear space at least a dozen times to cross it, and I cannot make a single mistake in the process!” Yang Kai frowned and shook his head, “It will be difficult!”
“If you think it’s too difficult to handle, what reason do I have to keep you alive?” Gui Zu sneered, “I might as well kill you now, search your Soul, then look for my own way out!”
Yang Kai just laughed, “That’s a matter of last resort. Senior doesn’t want to do so unless it becomes absolutely necessary, right?”
Gui Zu coldly snorted.
“This matter cannot be rushed. Senior should be patient for another half a month. After half a month passes, the space around this continent should stabilize and I will try to find a solution to our problem.”
“Seems there’s no other choice,” Gui Zu nodded helplessly.
“Does Senior have any other instructions? If not, Junior will take his leave.”
“Don’t move!” Saying so, Gui Zu placed his hand on Yang Kai’s shoulder before quickly injecting a frigid force that swept through Yang Kai’s body, seemingly investigating every bit of his physique, inside and out.
Yang Kai paled, not knowing why Gui Zu was suddenly acting against him like this.
A moment later, Gui Zu look changed slightly as he lifted his other hand, causing something to appear atop it.
The Demon Mystic Tome!
Yang Kai’s face suddenly became ugly as he stared vigilantly towards Gui Zu.
“Do you think this old master would be unable to sense this storage artifact inside your body?” Gui Zu sneered, “This old master didn’t pay much mind to it, but seeing it now, it’s a bit strange. Where did you get it?”
“The star I was born on,” Yang Kai answered honestly.
“Was there some kind of inheritance inside?” Gui Zu continued to ask.
“Yes!” Yang Kai, while feeling quite shocked on the inside, maintained a look of calm on his face.
“No wonder there are two different forces inside your body… There are also some inexplicable external energies residing within you as well.”
Yang Kai understood that the external energies Gui Zu was referring to were the Dragon Emperor and Phoenix Empress tattoos on his back.
“Little brat, have you ever thought about fusing these two forces together?” Gui Zu suddenly asked.
“Fusing them together?” Yang Kai stunned.
“En, you have two different types of power within you, but don’t you find them inconvenient to use? Their attributes are completely opposite one another, and in order to use one, don’t you have to suppress the other?”
“Yes.”
“If you can fuse these two forces together, your strength will undergo earth-shaking changes!”
“Please grant me your guidance, Senior!” Yang Kai immediately asked. Gui Zu’s words had opened up a completely new world to him, causing him to become excited.
Gui Zu however just rolled his eyes, “How would I know anything about that? That’s your business, find a solution on your own. This old master did once see someone perfectly fuse together Ice and Flame Attribute Strength, but he was an unparalleled genius! Whether you are able to accomplish this or not is up to your own efforts, this old master doesn’t have any experience in such matters.”
Yang Kai smiled bitterly, “Why would Senior suddenly say this to me then?”
“Because this old master feels that the higher your strength is, the greater chance there is you’ll find a way to leave here! And even if your strength increases tenfold, you won’t be able to escape from this old master’s palm, so this old master isn’t worried about you becoming stronger and is instead looking forward to it,” Gui Zu said while cackling, completely not putting Yang Kai in his eyes.
“True enough!” Yang Kai nodded bitterly.
An Origin King Star Master level cultivator really didn’t need to care about a small cultivator like Yang Kai.
“Oh, you have a strange tree inside this storage artifact? How many thousands of years did it take to grow to such a level?” Gui Zu suddenly exclaimed as his Divine Sense wandered around Yang Kai’s Demon Mystic Tome, the Divine Tree’s existence catching him by surprise.
Not caring about Yang Kai’s ugly face, he continued browsing through the secrets inside the Demon Mystic Tome.
“This spirit liquid, spirit milk, and spirit cream are actually not bad,” Gui Zu continued to be surprised, “This cream should be Saint King Grade.”
“Senior, can you return my things to me?” Yang Kai asked helplessly, his face completely black.
Gui Zu snorted, “Are you afraid this old master will take a liking to your treasures? You don’t have to worry about that; although these things might be quite good for someone like you, they’re all useless to this old master, en, I have no reason to snatch them…”
Saying so, he continued sifting through Yang Kai’s possessions.
Suddenly though, his look changed and he exclaimed, “You actually have this kind of thing?”
“What?” Yang Kai was stunned, not understanding what Gui Zu had found inside the Demon Mystic Tome that had actually warranted such a big reaction.
“Where did you get these?” Gui Zu asked as he took out three stones and held them in his hand.
One of these stones was a deep shade of crimson and contained a vast amount of Blood Qi inside it, it was the Blood Essence Stone Yang Kai had obtained some time ago.
The other two were actually the strange pitch-black round stones. These two round stones had many veins running across their surfaces like human meridians, and if one were to listen carefully, they would be able to hear a rhythmic thumping coming from them.
Seeing the drastic change in Gui Zu’s expression, Yang Kai’s look also became serious as he realized that these two pitch-black round stones should have extraordinary origins.
“Where did you get these things?” Gui Zu asked again.
Yang Kai answered honestly.
These two pitch-black round stones were obtained by him in different places through various coincidences and opportunities. As for the Blood Essence Stone, he had snatched it from someone else in Tong Xuan Realm.
Yang Kai only understood the role and use of the Blood Essence Stone and had even used it a number of times, but to this day, he still didn’t know what the two pitch-black round stones were.
“Senior, do you recognize these two strange stones?” Yang Kai observed Gui Zu’s reactions and asked with some trepidation.
Gui Zu’s eyes flickered as he stared deeply at the two pitch-black round stones, seeming to trace the complex lines on their surface with his gaze while listening to the faint murmurs coming from inside them, a little while nodding his head, “It seems you don’t know what these things are…”
“I hope Senior can dispel this Junior’s doubts!” Yang Kai sincerely asked.
Gui Zu grinned before tossing the Blood Essence Stone and the two pitch-black round stones back into the Demon Mystic Tome then handed it back to Yang Kai, commenting mysteriously, “Raise them well. One day you will understand, en, these things require a lot of mineral essence. If you can’t find any rare ores to feed them, artifacts will also work.”
After leaving this sentence, without another word, Gui Zu disappeared.
Yang Kai remained alone in the sky, more confused than ever.
Gui Zu was obviously not willing to tell Yang Kai what he knew, making Yang Kai quite depressed.
However, Gui Zu’s words alone were quite intriguing. He had said to ‘raise them well’ when referring to the two pitch-black round stones. How was he supposed to raise two stones though? It’s not like they were living things.
Not understanding, and with too much else to worry about right now, Yang Kai just told the Divine Tree to continue monitoring the pitch-black round stones carefully before returning the Demon Mystic Tome to his body.
Landing back on the flat region of the central mountain, Yang Kai noticed a menacing and ferocious pair of eyes staring towards him, as if the owner wished they could swallow him whole. Obviously, it was from Yue Xi!
Her strength had long been restored; after all, Gui Zu had no interest in restraining her indefinitely. These days, she had not moved her gaze from the mountainside, her beautiful and noble looks entirely destroyed by now, her hair a mess and her eyes bloodshot as they stared towards Yang Kai, revealing an unfathomable hatred and rage.
It seemed like she couldn’t wait to peel his skin, eat his flesh, and drink his blood.
Although she had learned everything from He Zao and He Miao, and was aware that Yang Kai had not done anything other than tossing them into a stone room and ignoring them, all as a way to punish her for her previous actions, Yue Xi was still somewhat unable to accept this, feeling that Yang Kai was nothing but a rampant, sinister, and disrespectful junior.
She regarded everything she had experienced to be a great shame and made no attempt to conceal her anger about it.
Right now, everyone trapped in here had to bow their head to a higher power. Therefore, she didn’t dare make any rash actions and was only able to vent her dissatisfaction and anger by glaring murderously towards this boy.
Yang Kai pretended to not even see her, walking right past her and disappearing into the mountainside.
Yue Xi closed her beautiful eyes and took a deep breath to calm her mood.
“This boy thinks that under Gui Zu’s asylum he’s perfectly safe, but he fails to realize he’s already dead,” Lu Gui Chen suddenly appeared beside Yue Xi and sneered, “Once Gui Zu can get out of here, he will definitely not let him off. Death will be all that waits for him!”
“Why bother telling me this?” Yue Xi opened her eyes and shot a cold look towards Lu Gui Chen.
“Don’t you hate him? He killed your disciple, then took your other two female disciples into that cave. What they suffered, I think you know better than me. He humiliated you, so how could you not hate him? Don’t you want to kill him with your own hands?”
“That’s my business, it has nothing to do with you!” Yue Xi snorted.
Lu Gui Chen grinned, “Of course it’s related to me, I want his life too.”
“Really, a few days ago you were happy enough to wag your tail for him weren’t you?”
Lu Gui Chen wore an embarrassed look as he scratched his nose, “The situation compelled me to act so, do you think I enjoy bowing down to this kind of person? If not for Gui Zu’s protection, I could kill him any time I like!”
“Lu Gui Chen, I’ll ask you a question, you answer honestly!” Yue Xi suddenly looked at him seriously.
“What?”
“My disciple Wei Wu… Did he make contact with your Purple Star before this incident? What benefits did you promise him to not make him hesitate to betray my and betray Sword Union!” Yue Xi shouted grimly.
Lu Gui Chen eyes narrowed ever so slightly before he let out a laugh, “What do you mean? I don’t understand.”
“You know exactly what I mean! This account, I will settle with your sooner or later. In addition, if you want the life of that Junior, kill him yourself, don’t think that by irritating me I will do your work for you. I’m not that stupid,” Yue Xi spat before turning and walking away, unwilling to even remain in Lu Gui Chen’s presence.
Gazing at her back, Lu Gui Chen’s expression became gloomy.
He hadn’t expected Yue Xi to swallow her anger at this point. According to common sense, after her two female disciples were carried off by Yang Kai then humiliated, Yue Xi should have lost all inhibitions and desperately rushed inside to kill him. Lu Gui Chen didn’t understand how Yue Xi was able to maintain her calm even now.
Inside the mountain’s stone rooms, Yang Kai sat watching the stream of spirit liquid flow by, lost in contemplation.
Gui Zu’s words today had awoken him to a possibility he had never even considered before.
Could the two opposite forces inside his body really be fused together?
He cultivated the True Yang Secret Art, filling his body with True Yang Saint Qi, but the energy inside the Unyielding Golden Skeleton was full of evil power.
Every time Yang Kai fought, he was only able to use one of these forces while giving up the other temporarily.
He had always thought that the purpose of cultivating True Yang Saint Qi was to suppress the evil power inside his Unyielding Golden Skeleton, but now that he carefully thought about it, that shouldn’t be the case.
Because even after using his Demon God Transformation, allowing the evil energy to flood his body, Yang Kai didn’t lose his humanity or his ability to reason and become a demon that could not recognize his own parents.
He had never even contemplated fusing together these two opposite attribute forces and could hardly even imagine what their fusion might look like.
Therefore, he was a bit lost at the moment.
However, since Gui Zu had bothered mentioning this, there was no doubt some truth to it; for now, Yang Kai chose to believe him!
After pondering the issue for a long time, he made his decision.
Rousing his spirits, he prepared to make an attempt.
Calming him breathing, Yang Kai had the True Yang Saint Qi flowing through his meridians return to his dantian.
A moment later, his physique had been completely emptied of power, making him feel a little uncomfortable.
This feeling of losing all strength, he had experienced several times before, but each of those times was due to overconsumption. This was the first time he had dispersed his power of his own free will.
Next, he carefully pulled a wisp of True Yang Saint Qi from his dantian into his meridians.
He simultaneously pulled a wisp of evil energy from the Unyielding Golden Skeleton and brought it to the same location.
When the two opposite attribute energies encountered one another, Yang Kai’s body shivered, and a look of pain filled his face. He could feel the fierce conflict between these two forces taking place inside his meridians. It was like a life or death battle between two cultivators who shared an unforgivable blood enmity, the conflict putting great strain on his physique, causing his meridians to bulge and contort while faint sounds of explosions resounded.
The True Yang Saint Qi and the evil energy were destroying one another.
Yang Kai let out a snort, his expression becoming incomparably ugly.
A short while later, nothing remained, the two energies wisps having suffered mutual annihilation.
The first attempt ended in failure!
Yang Kai frowned, this was the first time he had tried to accommodate both forces in his meridians at once, giving him an uncomfortable and indelible memory.
The evil power and his True Yang Saint Qi could coexist in his body because they were stored in different places, never interacting. Wanting to fuse them together would really prove difficult.
“Yang Kai, are you all right?” He Zao’s voice called out; she had seemingly been alarmed because of the disturbance here.
“I’m fine,” Yang Kai looked up and saw the He Zao, He Miao sisters standing outside his stone room, staring towards him, both of them appearing somewhat hesitant. Noticing this, Yang Kai expression changed and he asked, “Do you need something from me?”
“We want to exit to accompany Master… It’s been more than half a month since then, she must be very worried about our situation. Also, you’ve calmed down as well, right?” He Zao pursed her lips, feeling somewhat embarrassed.
“Didn’t you already send her a message?” Yang Kai chuckled, “What is there for her to worry about?”
“You knew?” He Zao was stunned.
“Did you think I wouldn’t know?” Yang Kai looked at them and laughed, pausing for a moment before nodding, “Go, tell your master what I told you: If she dares bear a grudge against me while biding her time to seek revenge, I will not let her off!”
He Zao nodded and frowned, “I will urge her, but can’t you also leave a little leeway? Master is a bit set in her…”
Yang Kai closed his eyes before she could finish, causing He Zao and He Miao to exchange a helpless glance, shaking their heads as they turned away.
After they left, Bi Ya appeared, looking towards their fading backs, letting out a light snort before turning a curious glance towards Yang Kai.
“Come in!” Yang Kai beckoned to her.
Bi Ya immediately wore a pleasant smile and gracefully stepped inside, arriving in front of Yang Kai a moment later, her tender body exuding an invisible aura that made her appear more radiant and attractive.
“What is Master’s command?”
“I have a question for you. Have you ever met a cultivator who achieved mastery over two entirely different types of strength and was able to perfectly fuse them together?” Yang Kai asked her.
“Two entirely different forces?” Bi Ya was amazed.
“Like fire and water, life and death, light and dark…”
“How could that be possible? Mastering any single attribute is a complicated and strenuous process. Even great masters may spend their entire lives trying but fail to fully comprehend the mysteries of their own strength. Wanting to then fuse two opposite strengths like water and fire, attributes that innately repel one another, is not very realistic,” Bi Ya smiled tenderly, not knowing why Yang Kai would suddenly ask such an esoteric question, “However, if someone could really fully master both the Water and Fire Attributes, perhaps they could achieve such a feat, but despite your slave having lived so long, she has never encountered such an astonishing person.”
“Fully mastered their strength?” Yang Kai frowned.
“Having a comply understanding of the mysteries of the strength one uses, allowing them to display its full potential and might!” Bi Ya explained with a smile.
“Fair enough,” Yang Kai was a bit confused. Although Gui Zu’s previous words had made him very excited and he secretly felt that a whole new world of possibilities had opened in front of him, it may have also just been Gui Zu speaking randomly.
He couldn’t offer Yang Kai any kind of advice or guidance on the matter.
“Your slave has never met such an astonishing genius, but I have witnessed two people who cultivate opposite attribute strengths fight side by side. Those two forces should have interfered with one another but instead they mutually enhanced each other,” Bi Ya added, “These types of cultivators are actually not that rare, I believe Master has also encountered some before.”
Yang Kai’s eyes lit up as he turned to stare at Bi Ya, his burning gaze making it seem as if he wanted to swallow her whole.
Bi Ya wore a forced smile and shyly whispered, “What does Master want, staring at your slave so?”
Yang Kai didn’t answer as a thousand different thoughts flashed across his mind.
It was as if he had found a light in the darkness, Bi Ya’s unintentional words had made Yang Kai remember a vital point.
It was indeed extremely difficult or even impossible for two opposing forces to fuse together; however, two people who cultivated different attribute forces could work side by side while complementing one another, such things often happened.
This was also the case when him and Su Yan!
Su Yan controlled frigid cold while he used blazing heat, the two of them shouldn’t be able to cooperate at all, but when they fought side by side, each of them would obtain a massive boost in strength!
And this was all because of the existence of the Yin-Yang Joyous Unification Art!
The two of them were dual cultivators, the primary forces in each of their bodies blending with one another before returning back to themselves in an endless cycle. Su Yan’s icy strength and his True Yang strength would purify and sublimate one another, increasing their density and intensity.
[Yin-Yang Joyous Unification Art?]
Yang Kai’s expression changed, sinking into an even deeper state of contemplation.
Yang Kai suddenly recalled the scene of him and Su Yan dual cultivating. He entered a state of epiphany, as if Su Yan was right in front of himself, the two of them achieving a union of heart and soul, unable to extricate themselves.
*Hong…*
In the midst of his reflection, Yang Kai felt like a barrier of fog around him lifted, allowing him to see further into this unknown realm.
His body shook greatly and a profound light overflowed from his eyes.
At this moment, he had thought of a possibility.
Ice and fire were able to fuse because they flowed together in a never-ending cycle, not restraining one another, but promoting and enhancing each other’s strength.
Ice and fire were capable of this, so his True Yang Saint Qi and evil power should be able to as well.
Strictly speaking, the evil power contained inside his Unyielding Golden Skeleton was a type of Cold Attribute strength, just different from Su Yan’s Ice Attribute strength; it was a type of cold that could cause one’s mind and soul to feel as if they had been dropped into the deepest levels of purgatory.
An invisible wave of force exploded from Yang Kai’s body and in instant, an alternating hot and cold aura surrounded Bi Ya, causing her to feel a sweltering heat difficult to bear, then a frigid chill like the coldest of winters in rapid succession.
“Are you alright?” She called out in alarm, immediately discovering that Yang Kai’s situation was unusual, frightening her greatly.
During this time, she had done her very best to please Yang Kai in order to make him feel some sympathy, all so she could obtain his asylum. If Yang Kai had any kind of accident, all her efforts would be wasted.
Bi Ya was naturally nervous.
“Get back!” From somewhere unseen, Gui Zu’s sternly shouted, and immediately, Bi Ya found herself held by an invisible force and thrown out of the stone chamber.
A breeze brushed past her face in the next instant and Bi Ya was amazed to discover that Gui Zu was now standing beside her, his gloomy eyes filled with profound light as he stared towards Yang Kai who was sitting in the stone room in front of him.
“Senior, what happened to him?” Bi Ya summoned her courage and asked.
“I’m not sure, but he seems to have had some kind of harvest!” Gui Zu frowned, “What were you talking to him about just now?”
Bi Ya quickly explained everything that just transpired.
Gui Zu listened to her explanation as his expression fluctuated, soon grinning strangely, “This boy, just because of a few words from this old master, was actually able to achieve such a result? I really don’t know if it’s a blessing or a calamity!”
“Senior… Is he in danger?” Bi Ya covered her mouth in fear.
“He’s trying to fuse together two opposite attribute forces, what do you think?” Gui Zu grinned, “It’s already impressive he wasn’t killed on the spot, his courage is certainly not small.”
“Senior, can’t you stop him?” Bi Ya exclaimed and hurriedly said, “Don’t you need him to help find a way to escape this place? If he dies…”
“If he dies, he dies. Besides, this little boy isn’t sincerely trying to help this old master. Even if he does find a way to escape, I’m afraid the first thing he’ll do is look for a way to leave this old master behind! Heh, if he dies, this old master just needs to collect his remnant Soul and search his memories.”
Bi Ya suddenly understood that it was useless. Regardless of what she said now, Gui Zu would not change his stance of non-interference.
“Little girl, it’s not like you really care about his safety, why act so nervous?” Gui Zu looked at Bi Ya and snickered.
Bi Ya wore a forced smile, “Senior must be joking… I really don’t want him to die now.”
“What happened?” Shen Tu shouted and quickly appeared, falling into a state of shock the moment he arrived at the stone chamber’s door and hurriedly calling out, “Brother Yang, what’s happening? Why is his appearance so strange? “
As soon as he asked this though, Gui Zu’s brow furrowed and he shouted, “Fall back!”
Saying so, he disappeared.
Seeing the seriousness with which Gui Zu was acting, how could Bi Ya and Shen Tu dare to remain? Using their movement skills, they quickly rushed out.
Just as the two of them appeared outside, two opposing forces suddenly broke out from the mountain.
One was burning hot, the other was cold and malevolent.
Both of these forces were incredibly powerful and had flooded the entire stone tunnel network before spreading out beyond the confines of the mountain peak.
Lu Gui Chen, who had been staying nearby, turned his head and stared in shock towards the mountain.
Yue Xi, who was talking with He Zao and He Miao, also turned to face the same direction, her pretty face filling with surprise.
The entire mountain was now engulfed in a bizarre phenomenon, seemingly having been divided into two distinct zones.
The left half of the mountain was filled with burning hot Yang Attribute strength, radiating bright golden light, while the right half was bathed in a jet black evil energy that was filled with a bloodthirsty and cruel aura.
These two forces were polar opposites and were visibly clashing against one another, causing the entire mountain to tremble, as if it would collapse at any moment.
“What’s going on?” Lu Gui Chen muttered as he rapidly withdrew. At the same time, everyone else around the mountain fell back more than a dozen kilometres before coming to a stop.
“This is that Junior’s aura. What is he doing?” Yue Xi narrowed her eyes and asked He Zao and He Miao.
“I don’t know. When we came out, he didn’t seem to be doing anything in particular,” He Miao shook her head.
“Bi Ya of Purple Star should know something,” He Zao turned her eyes to the side where both Bi Ya and Shen Tu were staring towards the mountain with nervous looks.
Lu Gui Chen also noticed this point and immediately asked them about it.
Listening to their conversation, Yue Xi quickly understood the truth of the matter.
A strange look appeared on her pretty face and soon a burst of laughter escaped from her lips, “That Junior is dead for sure this time, I don’t even need to take action. Hmph, just an overconfident brat, a mere First Order Saint daring to try such a stunt, it really makes one wonder how he lived this long.”
“Master, is Yang Kai in danger?”
“His life is hanging by a single thread!” Yue Xi said with a happy look upon her face.
“Master, please save him. I know you’re annoyed that he acted disrespectfully towards you, but you don’t really wish to see him die, right?” He Zao begged.
“Naturally I want him to die, the sooner the better!” Yue Xi ground her teeth, “And besides, this kind of thing can’t be interfered with by others. Haven’t you seen that Senior Gui Zu standing back?”
He Zao and He Miao looked up and indeed saw Gui Zu’s just standing in the sky, observing.
“If anyone tries to forcefully stop him, he will die without a doubt!” Yue Xi frowned and quickly said, “Now, whether he lives or dies, is all up to him.”
After saying this, Yue Xi suddenly noticed that He Zao and He Miao were staring at her strangely, causing her to snort and turn her pretty face away.
He Zao giggled, “Master’s really had a change of heart. You don’t seem to be bearing much of a grudge anymore.”
“Little girl, don’t make fun of your Master,” Yue Xi said bitterly, “If he doesn’t die this time, later you must keep your distance from him, at least ten meters!”
“Yes!” He Zao and He Miao nodded.
“Senior, can’t you try to find some way to help him?” Shen Tu stood at the foot of the mountain and yelled towards Gui Zu.
Gui Zu grinned, “There’s nothing this old master can do. After this, he will either die or soar to untold heights. No matter which end it is though, this old master is very much looking forward to it, so even if this old master had a way to, he wouldn’t stop this.”
He was truly quite interested in Yang Kai now.
Although he had been shocked when he learned that Yang Kai was proficient in the Dao of Space, and had been paying more attention to Yang Kai’s movements these past few days, it wasn’t until this moment that he discovered he had somewhat underestimated Yang Kai.
With only a few words from him, this boy had been able to rapidly comprehend the deeper mysteries of his own strength. This wasn’t something an ordinary cultivator could achieve.
Gui Zu wanted to see if Yang Kai could succeed, and if he did, what this new fusion of these two opposite attribute strengths would be like and how much his strength would improve.
If he didn’t die, his future would certainly be incredibly bright, even possibly becoming the greatest genius in the entire Star Field.
At the foot of the mountain, everyone stood and stared towards the mountain peak covered in these two opposite forces as they clashed against one another.
Some people hoped Yang Kai would quickly die, some hoped he would survive, and some were completely indifferent, only taking this as an interesting show to watch. Everyone had a different mood and watched with different expressions upon their face.
At the foot of the mountain, everyone waited and watched, each of them holding their own different thoughts.
Inside the belly of the mountain, Yang Kai felt his own power explode outward and his expression became extremely ugly!
The maximum amount of power a cultivator could have was dictated largely by their realm. A Transcendent would have the limits of the Transcendent Realm while a Saint would be limited to the power of a Saint Realm.
However, this limit didn’t apply to Yang Kai because his Secret Art was incredibly special.
While cultivating the True Yang Secret Art, once the Yang Attribute energy within his body reached a certain level of saturation, it would condense into a drop of Yang Liquid that he could store in his dantian that could be later called upon when needed.
The Unyielding Golden Skeleton also had the unique ability to accommodate an unimaginably large amount of energy.
These two power storages inside Yang Kai’s body couldn’t be compared with that of an ordinary cultivator, it could almost be said that there was no limit to the amount of Qi he could store.
But now, Yang Kai had forced open both of these storages.
The vast stores of evil energy inside the Unyielding Golden Skeleton had all of a sudden erupted out, and in order to balance its influence on his body and not become corrupted by its malevolent intent, Yang Kai had to burst drop after drop of Yang Liquid.
The evil energy and Yang Yuan Qi violently burst forth like water from a broken damn, quickly engulfing the entire mountain around Yang Kai.
The enormity of this eruption even caused Yang Kai some fear as this amount of energy was over a hundred, possibly over a thousand times what his physical body could withstand…
Yang Kai convulsed and the blood in his veins flowed rapidly. The massive eruption of force had caused his skin to crack open and golden blood to flow out, his intrepid physique healing itself, only for new wounds to be reopened, this process repeating in a seemingly endless cycle.
Yang Kai’s mood, however, was as stable as stone as he felt the two forces in his body, studying the way they flow, comprehending the laws governing them, deepening his understand of their true natures.
Time passed slowly, and more and more evil energy and Yang Yuan Qi dissipated in their fierce confrontation.
As these forces melted away, Yang Kai became more and more aware of their natures.
His Divine Sense was fully spread out, examining every detail of the changes he was undergoing. Yang Kai had never imagined that under such distressing circumstances, he would be able to witness such astonishing transformations in his own strength.
These two strengths seemed to possess a life of their own and were constantly whispering their secrets into Yang Kai’s ears. It was as if he was watching an endless ebb and flow filled with profound mysteries.
Yang Kai’s eyes grew brighter and brighter, his confidence growing stronger with each passing moment.
He didn’t pay any attention to the collision of his own strength and instead immersed himself completely in this ethereal state, leaving himself in the middle of the two forces’ confrontation, focusing his attention on the changes in the evil energy and Yang Yuan Qi.
It was as if he was an outsider, observing everything silently from the sidelines.
After a long time, he suddenly felt something marvellous.
At that moment, it was as if he had fully comprehended the nature and meaning of his own strength.
His expression trembling, Yang Kai began circulating his Yin-Yang Joyous Unification Art, using it as a type of guide for his Yang Yuan Qi and evil energy that had escaped his body to return to him once more.
Hundreds of millions of his pores opened and Yang Kai’s body became like a bottomless pit, easily swallowing up the two forces which had previously burst out.
As these two forces returned to his body, they followed the path Yang Kai guided them on, no longer clashing with one another, but instead beginning to fuse together, resulting in miraculous changes.
Feeling these incredible changes, Yang Kai’s face filled with joy and he put forth even more effort to merge his strength together.
At the foot of the mountain, everyone was whispering amongst themselves, discussing whether Yang Kai’s end would be life or death, when suddenly, He Miao exclaimed, “Something’s happening.”
Even without her reminder, everyone present was aware that the atmosphere had changed, causing all of them to turn their eyes towards the mountain peak.
When the scene before them appeared in their eyes, everyone was dumbfounded.
Prior to this, the whole mountain had been divided into two zones, one filled with golden light and blistering heat, the other blanketed in profound darkness and malevolent chill.
But now, everyone could faintly feel that these two forces were slowly blending together, as if they were being attracted to one another, each of them no longer seeking the annihilate the other.
“He actually succeeded?” Gui Zu’s expression became strange as he released his Divine Sense towards the mountain, a moment later curling his lips into a sharp grin as he snorted lightly, “This little brat…”
Obviously, Yang Kai had fully comprehended the nature of his own strength and found the correct method forward. As long as this process continued, he would be able to turn the casually made joke of Gui Zu into reality and perfectly fuse together two opposite attribute forces.
Gui Zu found that even now he had still been underestimating Yang Kai’s ability, a hint of admiration and envy appearing in his gaze.
Before, he had only made an irresponsible comment to Yang Kai about this possibility, figuring he could work towards this direction in the future, possibly spending the next several hundred years to accomplish it.
The premise being he could live that long of course.
Gui Zu had never thought Yang Kai would be able to achieve this astonishing feat so quickly.
This kind of transformation couldn’t be achieved in one shot, it was likely this boy’s understanding of his own strength had reached a great height beforehand and Gui Zu’s joke had simply served as the impetuous to awaken him to this possibility. Even if Gui Zu had not said anything to him, as long as he had the right opportunity in the future, Yang Kai would likely have been able to achieve this on his own.
Realizing this, Gui Zu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
He had inadvertently helped Yang Kai achieve a massive growth in strength.
“Senior, is Yang Kai all right?” Shen Tu raised his head to the sky and asked.
“How would this old master know? Hmph!” Gui Zu grumbled unhappily, waving his sleeve before disappearing.
“That’s good,” Shen Tu took note of the meaning behind these words and smiled happily, his heart finally relaxing.
A short time later, the scenery around the mountain underwent a dramatic change. The golden light and pitch-black darkness merged together into one whole, making it look like the entire peak was on fire, but this fire was actually jet black, a Demonic Flame!
This bizarre Demonic Flame seemed capable of incinerating everything in the world, inherently irresistible.
Just looking at it made one feel uncomfortable, as if their soul was being drawn in by this Demonic Flame and was suffering from an infernal burning, making it forever impossible for them to reincarnate. Not only did it contain the aura of True Yang Yuan Qi, resistant to all evil and malevolence, it was also filled with a bloodthirsty and brutal aura that stimulated the innermost evils one hid in the depths of their heart. These contradictory auras made it nearly impossible for anyone to think of a way to defend themselves against it.
Everyone quickly put aside their gaze, not daring to pry into this Demonic Flame’s mysteries.
“It looks like he really has soared into the sky…” Bi Ya’s eyes flashed with a strange light, secretly feeling she should change her attitude towards Yang Kai once more and treat him with full devotion and sincerity.
Before now, she had compromised for her immediate benefit, not even hesitating to treat herself as a slave to attend to Yang Kai all because she was afraid he would try to make trouble for her. It was only because of this point that she had humiliated herself so.
She had never felt that there was anything good about Yang Kai; rather, she felt that Yang Kai could only be unscrupulous on this continent because of Gui Zu’s favour, and that without it, he was nothing.
This kind of bullying the weak by taking advantage of the strong was quite repugnant to her.
Therefore, although she had truly done her best to serve him during this time, and had fulfilled every request Yang Kai made of her, she had never once respected him and instead had been looking down on him.
But now, she didn’t dare have such thoughts.
The young man in front of her now really had his own unique strength, a great potential that would sooner or later have all the big forces in the Star Field scrambling to win him over. Just give him enough time, and he would surely become an astonishing master.
He would hold a high post and become an overlord who ruled over a vast territory. Maintaining a good relationship was a wise course of action.
Bi Ya’s beautiful eyes took on a dazzling glow as her pretty face blossomed radiantly. Secretly glancing over towards them, she found that Lu Gui Chen and Yue Xi also had dignified expressions now, none of their previous contempt for Yang Kai apparent on their faces.
She knew that these two people had finally realized the potential of Yang Kai and were now reconsidering how to approach him.
Disdainfully curling her lips, Bi Ya couldn’t help feeling a subtle sense of superiority, because she had the advantage of distance over these two. She was the one closest to Yang Kai right now as his servant, this sense of superiority made her feel both shame and inexplicable excitement. Licking her thin red lips, she felt a heat rise in her tender body.
Realizing there wasn’t any risk to Yang Kai’s life, Shen Tu immediately stopped paying attention to the movements around the mountain and went back to his own business.
Over on the Sword Union side, the remaining five cultivators all gathered together. Yue Xi frowned deeply and tried to say something, pausing awkwardly for a moment before coughing, “Ignore your Master’s previous words, from now on, you two sisters should stick close to him. En, if he is willing to join Sword Union, it would be best, if not though, don’t push the matter.”
He Zao and He Miao exchanged a bright-eyed glance before quickly nodding, “Yes, Master!”
He Miao continued, “Actually, he’s not so bad, it’s just that he spends a lot of time with that slut Bi Ya. It’s simply shameful!”
Yue Xi stared at her and quickly followed up, “Making friends with him is alright, but make sure to keep a safe distance so he doesn’t take advantage of you.”
“En, I know, Master!” He Miao nodded repeatedly.
Inside the belly of the mountain, within his stone room, Yang Kai continued to circulate the Joyous Unification Art, guiding the two forces to fuse together.
Initially, the process was not very smooth, and some conflicts arose between the two forces as they fused together inside his body, but no major harm was done.
As time passed, Yang Kai found that everything became easier, and even the minor obstructions had disappeared.
The evil energy from his Unyielding Golden Skeleton, and the energy contained in the Yang Liquid in his dantian, with the exception of the part which had mutually destroyed at the beginning, all returned without any waste.
Yang Kai clearly felt that he was quickly becoming more powerful.
The power now contained within his body was incomparable to before, making him ecstatic.
What Gui Zu had said was right. After the two forces fused together, his own strength had really undergone an earth-shaking change, one he could clearly feel and perceive.
Having tasted the sweet benefits of this fusion, Yang Kai began circulating his Joyous Unification Art even more rapidly.
The entire mountain suddenly became like an invisible vortex, swirling rapidly, pulling a vast amount of World Energy towards it.
Under the influence of this vortex, the stream of spirit liquid that ran through the stone chambers vaporized into the purest of energy and poured into Yang Kai’s body where it was completely absorbed.
The mountain where Gui Zu originally lived was lush and verdant, filled with beautiful scenery.
But now, the whole mountain seemed like it had been incinerated, the forest burned to the ground and the earth covered in ash, retaining none of its previous splendour.
Even the giant Spirit Array which had been arranged inside it to gather the surrounding World Energy aura seemed to have been destroyed.
Inside the mountain, the stream of spirit liquid that had flown for so long had evaporated and disappeared.
In one of the stone rooms, an invisible vortex continued drawing in massive quantities of World Energy and absorbing it.
Gui Zu’s figure appeared leisurely and stood in front of Yang Kai, frowning at him while remaining motionless.
Yang Kai didn’t seem to notice him, and only after a long time did he let out a soft breath and stopped circulating his Secret Art.
Examining himself in silence, Yang Kai’s face filled with excitement.
The Yang Liquid in his dantian and the evil energy in his Unyielding Golden Skeleton had both disappeared and were replaced with his newly fused strength that contained characteristics of both but with far greater power and lethality.
A part of this new strength flowed through his meridians, constantly moisturizing every bit of his physique while the bulk of it was stored inside his Unyielding Golden Skeleton.
Yang Kai felt that inside and out, he had been reborn, his body now filled with unparalleled explosive power.
What was certain was that his strength had undergone an earth-shaking enhancement!
He even felt that he could fight on par with a Saint King Realm master!
His cultivation realm had also increased, reaching the Second-Order Saint-level without any hindrance.
Yang Kai hadn’t even realized when he had broken through as his entire consciousness had been immersed in the process of fusing his two forces together. This was a pleasant surprise that only added to his happiness.
With a thought, Yang Kai activated his Demon God Transformation.
The Demon Crests that none could see appeared beneath Yang Kai’s skin and melded into his physique, and a moment later, his vitality, as well as the strength of his flesh, rose rapidly…
It seemed that he could still use the Demon God Transformation, causing Yang Kai to put down one of his worries. This was what he expected though as the strength flowing through him now had the characteristics of both his Yang Qi and evil energy.
“Good good, you’re very good!” Gui Zu’s voice suddenly came from in front, offering sincere praise.
Yang Kai opened his eyes and dismissed his Demon God Transformation, quickly standing up and cupping his fists, “Senior, many thanks for your valuable guidance.”
Gui Zu wore a strained look and coldly snorted, “This old master didn’t teach you anything, don’t offer your thanks!”
Yang Kai smiled and said, “Senior may have just been speaking casually, but without those few words, Junior does not know when he might have achieved this step, it may have been many years, or possibly even longer, so regardless of Senior’s intentions, I must offer my thanks!”
“Do whatever you want!” Gui Zu waved his hand impatiently, seemingly unwilling to have any kind of friendly relations with Yang Kai, solemnly saying, “This old master did not disturb you as you sat in retreat for an entire month, giving you the time you required to improve your strength, now that you’ve succeeded, shouldn’t you fulfil your part of our agreement?”
He stared at Yang Kai coldly, seeming a little unhappy because he had been forced to wait so long.
Yang Kai quickly nodded, “Junior can begin immediately, en, but before that, I’d like to take a look at that Space Array.”
“Go ahead. As long as you can find a way to leave this place, this old master doesn’t care where you go, but remember, if you can’t find a way out of this cage, this old master will extract your Soul and torture it forever. Disappointing this old master will guarantee you the most miserable of ends!”
As he issued this threat, he released a wisp of pitch-black energy that flew into Yang Kai’s body, disappearing in a flash.
This dark energy shuttled through Yang Kai’s body before finally arriving at his right arm and transforming into an eerie mark.
This mark contained a threat of Gui Zu’s Divine Sense, allowing him to constantly monitor Yang Kai’s every move.
Yang Kai just smiled wryly and shook his head before walking out.
A short time later, he left the mountain and came out to the flat area where the Space Array had been set up.
This Space Array had been idle since the last time Gui Zu used it and the numerous Saint Crystals that were scattered about it were now quite dim, clearly having been almost completely drained of energy. The door which had been forged from broken Starship debris and covered in a thin layer of Space Spirit Crystal still stood where it had originally been.
Yang Kai had secretly observed this Space Array more than once in an attempt to gain some inspiration and enhance his own understanding of the Dao of Space.
It was only now that he was able to investigate it unscrupulously though that he discovered that even though Gui Zu’s aptitude in the Dao of Space was terrible, after a thousand of years of research, he did have some accomplishments.
He had been able to come up with the idea of using Space Spirit Crystal as the key to opening and stabilizing a Void Corridor.
Unfortunately, the door used to form the Void Corridor was made from broken scraps from a Saint King Grade Starship, which was somewhat insufficient. The Space Spirit Crystal that covered the door frame was also too thin, these two factors were the main cause of the instability of the Void Corridor which was formed.
If he had enough materials, Gui Zu might very well have been able to arrange a stable Space Array. As for where that Space Array would transmit a person who entered it, that was still unknown.
Yang Kai observed this Space Array while absorbing Gui Zu’s insights into the Dao of Space, enhancing his own comprehension of its mysteries.
After a while, several sets of footstep suddenly sounded behind him.
Yang Kai lifted his head and turned around to discover that everyone who was still alive on this continent, with the exception of Gui Zu of course, had come over.
They seemed to have realized Yang Kai had exited his retreat and had come to see him.
“Master…” Bi Ya, not caring about the scornful eyes which stared at her, shouted intimately before walking up to Yang Kai with a smile, sincerely saying, “Congratulations on your great increase in strength, Master.”
This time, when she shouted Master to Yang Kai, she really meant it, not like before where it was mere flattery and platitudes, her smile much more dazzling than before.
Yang Kai gently nodded.
“Brother, it’s good that you’re alright. In the future, you should really refrain from acting so recklessly,” Shen Tu laughed happily, but in the depths of his eyes, a hint of doubt arose.
He had never been clear about what Yang Kai’s true strength was. Though back in the Purple Star Starship, Yang Kai had suddenly and violently killed a Third-Order Saint, that was partially due to catching the enemy off guard with a sneak attack so it couldn’t be used as an accurate assessment.
Shen Tu had frequently speculated about the true depths of Yang Kai’s strength.
Before Yang Kai entered this latest retreat, he hadn’t felt any pressure from Yang Kai, but every time he was with him, a voice in his heart would constantly sound.
If he were to really fight with Yang Kai, the person who would die would undoubtedly be him!
This was Shen Tu’s intuition as a cultivator, so he had always felt that Yang Kai had hidden his own cultivation and strength.
But now, meeting him again, Shen Tu found that the sense of danger he felt from Yang Kai had disappeared and the uneasy voice in his heart had gone silent.
Shen Tu was greatly puzzled, not knowing what Yang Kai’s retreat had been about. Had he succeeded or had he failed?
However, his cultivation has improved a Minor Realm, a fact that was obvious to all.
“I’ll be careful later,” Yang Kai chuckled.
The He sisters also ran up to Yang Kai with smiling faces. Yue Xi naturally stood behind her two Disciples, a cold look on her pretty face.
Nearby, Lu Gui Chen squeezed out an ugly smile and nodded before reluctantly asking, “Little brother, there is one thing we have not understood. If it is convenient, could little brother enlighten us?”
Yang Kai glanced at him and asked lightly, “What?”
Lu Gui Chen looked around for a moment before calming his breathing and whispering, “You said that Senior Gui Zu needed something from you, what exactly was it?”
As soon as this statement came out, everyone looked towards Yang Kai with expectant gazes, clearly interested in his response.
They really couldn’t understand how Yang Kai, a trivial Saint Realm cultivator, could actually reach an agreement with a master like Gui Zu.
Given Gui Zu’s great strength, what could he possibly want from him?
“You might as well ask Senior Gui Zu. If he is willing to tell you, he’ll tell you,” Yang Kai smiled lightly.
Lu Gui Chen’s expression cramped and he immediately shut up.
Whenever he saw Gui Zu, his first thought would be to escape. How could he possibly ask him about this kind of thing, if doing so made the other party the slightest bit displeased, Lu Gui Chen’s life would probably come to an abrupt end.
“Little brat, if you keep wasting time with them, this old master will teach you a lesson!” Gui Zu’s voice, filled with intolerance, suddenly sounded in Yang Kai’s ear, causing his face to change greatly. Cupping his fists, Yang Kai hurriedly apologized, “Excuse me, Senior is urging me to continue my work. I cannot chat with you any longer.”
Saying so, Yang Kai summoned his Star Shuttle and disappeared in a blue streak of light.
Ten thousand kilometres away from the mountain peak, Yang Kai came to a stop.
Only Gui Zu knew that Yang Kai possessed the ability to tear space. This was one of Yang Kai’s greatest cards, so he was naturally unwilling to expose it, at least not to people like Lu Gui Chen.
Checking his surroundings, Yang Kai began circulating his strength, gathering it at his fingertips in the next moment and making a slicing motion.
Immediately, the space in front of him was torn open and a portal to the cold, black Void appeared, a strange strength leaking out from it.
Yang Kai didn’t rush into this tear though and instead stared at it fixedly.
In the past, when he had torn space, the crack he had formed seemed as if it was cut by a sword, its edges smooth and flat.
But now, the edges of this tear were actually lined by a layer of black Demonic Flame that simultaneously emitted a hot and cold aura, making it impossible to understand.
It seemed that it was even capable of burning space, making it so the torn crack could not instantly repair itself.
Yang Kai’s expression became stern.
He hadn’t expected that the Demonic Flame that had been born from the fusion of his two strengths would be so strange.
It seems it was necessary for him to re-examine it carefully.
After a brief pause, Yang Kai stepped into this tear, then used his Divine Sense to extinguish the Demonic Flames, allowing the crack in space to seal.
Inside the turbulent flow of The Void, Yang Kai didn’t panic or rush, turning his eyes to the black mark Gui Zu had left on his arm and chuckling.
What Gui Zu was thinking, Yang Kai knew better than anyone.
The reason why Gui Zu had not killed him, and instead was constantly urging him to look for a way to escape this place, was because he wanted to use this opportunity to enhance his own understanding of the Dao of Space by monitoring Yang Kai’s movements, spying on how he tore space and on the turbulent flow inside The Void.
In short, he wanted to steal this method for himself.
For someone like Gui Zu, he would never place all his hopes on a single person. He will always make an alternative to his own plans!
Gui Zu’s little schemes, Yang Kai was well aware of, but never brought to light.
Because inside the turbulent Void, everything from the outside world was cut off. Gui Zu wouldn’t even be able to sense where he was much less what he was doing, so Yang Kai wasn’t worried that his methods and abilities would be stolen by Gui Zu.
Although Gui Zu had enlightened him and allowed his strength to greatly increase, earning him Yang Kai’s gratitude, this and that were two different matters. Vigilance was always necessary as Yang Kai could never feel truly at east around Gui Zu.
For an old monster like Gui Zu, going back on his word was something all too common, so Yang Kai not only had to search for a way out of this place, but also a way to ensure that after leaving, Gui Zu wouldn’t kill him!
It was difficult! Yang Kai felt overwhelmed and was unable to think up any good way to accomplish these two goals simultaneously, only able to take one step at a time.
After spending a short time inside The Void, Yang Kai left.
As soon as his figure reappeared, Gui Zu’s voice rang in his ear, “Little brat, what did you learn?”
It was clear from this alone how anxious Gui Zu was for news.
Yang Kai smiled bitterly, “How could things be so easy? Senior should have some patience, I was only confirming whether or not the space around this place had stabilized.”
“And the result?” Gui Zu continued to press.
“En, it has stabilized and should not interfere with my judgment any longer.”
“That’s good!”
“Senior, how far did I move this time?”
“A thousand kilometres or so,” Gui Zu coldly snorted, “Your ability compared to last time has improved significantly, it seems your strength has grown quite a bit.”
Yang Kai couldn’t help smiling upon hearing this. In the past, whenever he tore space, he could move at most a few hundred kilometres, but now that distance had increased to over one thousand kilometres. This was a massive improvement!
“Don’t think you can play any tricks in front of me, you and I know that you can’t escape from this old master’s palm, so work hard and as long as we can leave this place, this old master promises not to hurt you!”
“Junior understands,” Yang Kai gently nodded, “Senior, if there is nothing else, I’d like to continue studying the problem.”
“Go on!”
Yang Kai once again tore space and stepped into the turbulent flow of The Void, searching for the correct way out of this strange place.
Although Yang Kai’s strength had improved greatly over the past few years. Standing in The Void, he suddenly realized that his understanding of the Dao of Space was still very shallow. Although it was far better than Gui Zu’s, at his current level of comprehension, it was obviously not enough for him to find a way out from this floating continent.
And so, as he had done many years ago, Yang Kai submerged himself in The Void in order to study its mysteries and improve his comprehension of the Dao of Space.
He didn’t explain this to Gui Zu though because Gui Zu was very impatient and was hoping that Yang Kai would immediately be able to take him away from here.
Time passed by and Yang Kai spent much of his time inside The Void, studying its mysteries and complexities.
Every day, he would return to the continent to make a progress report to Gui Zu in order to appease his anxiety.
Yang Kai had made remarkable progress and had gained much, his understanding of the Dao of Space becoming deeper and deeper.
One day, Yang Kai suddenly had an interesting idea and immediately left The Void.
He then released his Divine Sense and sent it into The Void without his physical body, projecting it in all directions.
If he wanted to leave this place, Yang Kai would need to pass through the strange seven coloured sky, but Gui Zu had said that this sky was formed by the chaotic interactions of the Chaotic Abyss’ various energy fields and spanned at least several thousand kilometres, possibly as much as ten thousand kilometres.
Even with Yang Kai’s current means, he would need to accurately tear space a dozen times in order to cross this chaotic region of space.
He didn’t dare run tests with his own body though, because a single mistake would cause him to become forever lost in that chaotic domain.
However, he could replace himself with his Divine Sense, because even if threads of his Divine Sense became lost, it wouldn’t cause him much trouble.
At most, his Soul would receive some minor damage, but with the Six Coloured Soul Warming Lotus, that damage could quickly be restored.
Sending out a tidal wave of Divine Sense in all directions, Yang Kai condensed his Spiritual Energy into invisible threads before attaching his own understanding of the Dao of Space to them and then piercing them into The Void.
These threads of Divine Sense, coordinating with Yang Kai’s understanding of the Dao of Space, began jumping across the entire continent, disappearing from one place and reappearing in another as they rapidly and repeatedly traversed The Void.
The range Yang Kai’s Divine Sense covered grew wider and wider!
Inside the mountain peak, Gui Zu, who had been monitoring Yang Kai’s movements, suddenly saw this scene and couldn’t help muttering to himself, “Good, it seems that he’s making some progress.”
He grinned widely seeing Yang Kai’s efforts, as every step forward Yang Kai made meant they were one step closer to leaving this cage. As such, Gui Zu didn’t bother disturbing Yang Kai and simply let him experiment.
After an hour, Yang Kai showed a tired look. His Divine Sense had spread out too far now, far beyond what should be possible for his current realm.
At this moment, Yang Kai’s Divine Sense covered almost half of the entire continent, a feat no Second-Order Saint should be able to achieve. Even masters like Yue Xi and Lu Gui Chen may not be able to cover such a vast area.
Because Yang Kai’s Divine Sense was leaping across space though, he didn’t have to spread it step by step like ordinary cultivators.
It was for this reason he could cover half of the continent.
He then took back his Divine Sense and began to restore himself.
However, at this moment, one of the threads of Divine Senses Yang Kai had sent out noticed something unusual.
Yang Kai’s brow rose as he first took back all his other Divine Sense threads before focusing his attention on that particular place.
After a moment, a look of shock appeared on Yang Kai’s face as he made an amazing discovery!
Right in the very centre of the continent, several thousand meters underground, there was a hidden mass of energy, one that was concealed so well that if Yang Kai’s Divine Sense thread hadn’t inadvertently passed by it, he would never have even noticed its existence.
Moreover, Yang Kai discovered that there was a barrier around this mass of energy that not only firmly protected it but also concealed its aura fluctuations from leaking out, making it nearly impossible to detect.
The thread of Divine Sense Yang Kai had accidentally made a jump inside this barrier and had only been there for a moment but it had actually received an incredible strengthening, going from nearly dissipating to stronger than when he had released it.
Yang Kai was incredibly shocked and quickly realized that this mass of energy was something extraordinary.
Recovering his composure, Yang Kai left that thread of Divine Sense in place so he could continue to determine the position of this strange energy mass before sitting down cross-legged and beginning to restore himself.
He wanted to figure out what this mass of energy was!
Could Gui Zu, who had lived here for more than two thousand years, know what it was?
Soon though, Yang Kai faintly felt that Gui Zu shouldn’t know about the existence of this energy mass! Because if he did know about it, he certainly would not have left it alone. Such a huge mass of energy would be enough to attract even an old monster like Gui Zu.
However, why didn’t he know about it? Gui Zu was an Origin King Realm master and had spent innumerable years in this place, he should be well aware of everything minute detail here.
“Senior,” Yang Kai called out with his Divine Sense.
“What?” Gui Zu immediately responded.
“Junior wants to ask, after having lived on this continent for so long, have you discovered any special places?”
“Special places?” Gui Zu coldly snorted before angrily growling, “What are you talking about? In addition to the rich aura and abundance of spirit herbs, this place is nothing more than a hateful prison! A cage that has trapped this old master for two thousand years, this old master cannot wait to leave here!”
“Why do you ask? What did you discover?” Gui Zu suddenly became alert.
“No, I simply wanted to learn more about this place. Perhaps it might help me find a way out!” Yang Kai replied casually.
“Good, if you let this old master discover you’ve been up to some kind of scheme, don’t blame me for not showing kindness!” Gui Zu snorted.
After a moment of silence, he suddenly said, “Do you want to use your special Divine Sense to find the Star Source of this damned place?”
“Star Source? What’s that?” Yang Kai asked curiously.
“You don’t know?” Gui Zu was stunned.
Yang Kai shook his head and smiled bitterly, “Junior came from a lower world, one where no one has ever even visited the Starry Sky before I, so I know next to nothing about the Star Field.”
“Barbarians!” Gui Zu snickered disdainfully, “A Star Source is the heart of a star, any Cultivation Star will have one. It can be thought of as the crystallized essence of a Cultivation Star. For example, if you think of a cultivator as a star, the Star Source would be equivalent to their dantian and Knowledge Sea. If any cultivator can engrave his Soul Brand on the Star Source of a Cultivation Star, he will become the master of that Cultivation Star and clearly understand everything about it. If he wishes, he can even cause natural disasters to happen at any place on that Cultivation Star. While he is alive, he can turn mountains into oceans and abysses into plains.”
Yang Kai couldn’t help raising his brow and asking, “Does that mean they could control that Cultivation Star?”
“Exactly! Throughout the Star Field, every Star Master that controls the Star Source of their Cultivation Star can draw energy from that entire star to supplement their own. While standing on their own Cultivation Star, their strength will never dry up, it’s literally inexhaustible! Little brat, do you now understand the power of a Star Master?”
“I understand,” Yang Kai turned pale, “Then this place…”
“Hah, it seems you really are a barbarian from some remote backwater. This strange continent isn’t even a proper star, so how could it have a Star Source? This old master did a thorough search of this place a thousand five hundred years ago. If I had found something, do you think I’d let it off?”
Yang Kai chuckled, “It’s as Senior said, I was just asking casually, not looking for some Star Source. Before now I’d never even heard of that.”
“Good, since you understand then stop wasting time and get back to finding a way out of this place. Don’t bother seeking for something that doesn’t exist, it won’t do you any good,” Gui Zu reprimanded before cutting off the conversation with Yang Kai.
Yang Kai continued restoring himself while sinking into contemplation.
As Gui Zu said, this place wasn’t anything like a complete star, it was just a strange floating continent.
However… Yang Kai had seen an ancient tree-like star in the Chaotic Abyss, one that towered high into the sky and emitted a rich Wood Attribute aura.
Considering that, it wasn’t really much of a stretch to say that this continent was also a star; after all, its volume wasn’t small, at least far beyond the scope of an asteroid.
This unintentional discovery shook Yang Kai’s mind greatly. Whether or not the strange mass of energy he found was this continent’s Star Source, Yang Kai couldn’t say for sure, and under Gui Zu’s strict surveillance, he didn’t dare investigate it further right now and simply set the issue aside.
However, that didn’t stop Yang Kai from contemplating this situation. If it really was the Star Source of this continent, it must have been formed in the last thousand five hundred years, or it was capable of concealing itself from Gui Zu’s senses. Otherwise, there was no way Gui Zu would be ignoring it.
Yang Kai didn’t retrieve his thread of Divine Sense, allowing it to remain where it was and receive nourishing from the strange energy mass.
He intended to wait for a chance before sneaking over and examining it further.
Leaving a thread of his Divine Sense there would allow Yang Kai to know the accurate location of this energy mass.
Yang Kai made sure to act quietly so as not to draw too much attention from Gui Zu.
As time passed by, Yang Kai’s comprehension of the Dao of Space continued to increase, his Divine Sense was now able to spread out across half of the continent with ease and even jump across space to any particular point in this range to quietly investigate it.
He then began repeatedly exploring the seven coloured sky, constantly experimenting by sending out countless threads of Divine Sense, losing many of them in the chaotic domain but finally gaining some confidence in his ability to leave this place.
He maintained his composure though and didn’t disclose this fact, instead continuing to explore and test his surroundings, striving for perfection.
Every day, Yang Kai would make a progress report to Gui Zu, but he didn’t explain the entire truth, so Gui Zu knew nothing about this.
One day, when Yang Kai returned from exploring the seven coloured sky, he landed on the flat region of the central mountain and smelled a faint bloody scent in the air.
His face changed slightly and he quickly spread out his Divine Sense, soon discovering that something wasn’t right.
Everyone who was still alive on this continent had gathered together, the atmosphere around them heavy as they were immersed in deep discussion.
“What happened?” Yang Kai flew over and asked.
“Someone died!” Shen Tu said with an ugly expression.
Yang Kai was stunned as he turned to see a cultivator lying on the ground, his vitality gone. It looked as if his body had suddenly been exposed to great pressure which caused it to burst open, making for a terrifying scene.
“What side did he belong to?” Yang Kai asked.
“Ours!” He Zao replied dispiritedly.
He Miao and Yue Xi also wore sad and indignant expressions. Even Lu Gui Chen revealed a look of consternation.
When they first arrived here, there were more than a hundred cultivators from Purple Star and Sword Union, but after spending one year here, there were now less than a dozen of them left alive. There had been a brief reprieve for the last couple of months, but now, someone else had died.
No one even knew how he died.
“Who killed him?” Yang Kai looked around and asked.
No one dared to answer, all of them just wearing helpless looks.
Yang Kai immediately understood. In this place, besides Gui Zu, no one else had the guts to kill another.
The old monster’s mood must have been particularly bad, otherwise, he wouldn’t have killed a Junior for no reason.
“Yang Kai, can you talk to Senior Gui Zu? We swear we won’t rebel against him, so can you ask him not to kill us again?” He Zao bit her lip and pleaded to Yang Kai.
This time, it had been a cultivator from Sword Union, the next time Gui Zu decided to kill someone, who knew who would be targeted?
Maybe it would be someone from their side, maybe it would even be them!
Besides Yang Kai who was able to sit back and relax, everyone else was now completely on edge!
Also, once Gui Zu killed everyone here and could no longer see any hope of leaving, he probably wouldn’t let Yang Kai keep his life anymore. He would strip Yang Kai’s Soul from his body then search his memories in order to obtain his insights into the Dao of Space before seeking a way to leave himself.
“Yes, Yang Kai,” Shen Tu also spoke, “Only you can talk to Senior Gui Zu… I don’t want to just inexplicably die.”
Everyone else stared at him eagerly, as if he was their last hope.
Yang Kai gently nodded, “I’ll talk to him, but whether he’ll listen to me, I can’t guarantee.”
“It’s enough if you can put in a word with him,” Shen Tu smiled bitterly.
“He Zao, He Miao, help me bury him,” Yue Xi whispered.
“Yes,” The only three remaining members of Sword Union collected their dead companion before walking off to find a place to bury him.
Yang Kai flew to the mountain cave and after a few twists and turns, came to the stone room where Gui Zu lived.
Yang Kai knew that this stone room existed and that Gui Zu lived here, but it was actually his first time coming to it.
This stone room was very different from all the others and was filled with a thick, seemingly endless darkness. There was no trace of light anywhere and phantasmal wraiths swam about wherever one looked. Upon arriving outside this stone room, Yang Kai felt his whole body shiver as this gloomy scene appeared in front of him and a series of eerie shrieks drilled into his ears.
From the darkness, a few spectres with hideous green auras rushed out and brushed past his body, circling around him as they seemed to harass his mind, trying to pull him into the deepest depths of purgatory, never to return or reincarnate.
Yang Kai went stiff and couldn’t move.
At that moment, a cluster of Demonic Flame suddenly erupted from his body, making it look like he was on fire.
Having done this, he managed to break free from this illusion.
In his ear, Yang Kai heard Gui Zu’s wicked cackle before he asked, “Little brat, what are you doing here?”
Yang Kai frowned, allowing his Demonic Flame to continue burning, dispelling the influence of the various ghost while looking for the right words, eventually deciding to get straight to the point, “Did Senior kill someone today?”
Gui Zu chuckled, “What’s the big deal about killing someone? You wouldn’t be looking for this old master just because of such a minor issue, right?”
“Everyone else outside is very nervous, afraid that they’ll be the next to die,” Yang Kai quickly said.
“En, they should be anxious,” Gui Zu seemed to be very happy, “This place has nothing to do for entertainment, so this old master decided to make his own fun, this old master most likes seeing people on edge and extremely uneasy.”
“Just because you’re bored you decided to kill someone?”
“What of it?” Gui Zu coldly snorted, the dark stone room suddenly brightening and returning to its original state, revealing Gui Zu’s figure sitting at its centre, his pair of gloomy eyes staring straight at Yang Kai while he maintained a malevolent grin, “Did you come here to ask for leniency for them? Were you really such a person? Even if this old master killed all of them, I think you wouldn’t care at all.”
“Senior must be joking, Junior has several friends among those people, naturally I don’t want to see you continue killing them.”
“Friends?” Gui Zu was startled for a moment before bursting out into wicked laughter, “You may be able to deceive others, but you can’t lie to this old master. En, you have some friendship with a couple of those people, but nothing to the extent that you would disobey me for them. If there’s some advantage to it, you’ll be good to them, but if you were to face a crisis, you wouldn’t hesitate to abandon them. You’re not so stupid to not understand what the consequences of disappointing me are!”
Yang Kai remained silent, allowing Gui Zu to continue.
“What you’re afraid of is that once this old master has killed all of those people, he will kill you too!” Gui Zu yelled.
Yang Kai nodded calmly, “Yes, Senior is well aware of Junior’s concerns!”
Gui Zu gently nodded, “If you really have such concerns, you should work harder to find a way to leave this place as soon as possible so we can all leave here before this old master kills all of them and kills you. I believe that you still aren’t trying your best in this matter.”
“Junior has already found some clues,” Yang Kai frowned.
Gui Zu’s body trembled as his eyes lit up, grinning as he said, “Good good, a clue is good. En, this piece of news makes this old master very happy, happy enough to not become bored for a while; you should continue to work hard to not let this old master down!”
“Junior will take his leave!” Yang Kai cupped his fists and quickly withdrew.
The moment he turned around, Yang Kai’s expression became dignified.
He understood that Gui Zu had killed that person not because he was in a foul mood, but rather as a warning to him and to put pressure on him.
Gui Zu should be wary of him concealing something; otherwise, he wouldn’t have suddenly decided to kill someone.
However, Gui Zu didn’t know what Yang Kai was hiding, and it wasn’t convenient to simply come out and ask about it, so he had used this method instead.
He was telling Yang Kai that his patience was limited and that if he couldn’t satisfy him, his fate would be the same as the man who had just died!
Yang Kai understood this so he had spoken a few words to calm Gui Zu down.
However, this small bit of comfort wouldn’t last for very long, the next time Gui Zu became impatient, he may really kill him.
Yang Kai’s face was incredibly ugly and he couldn’t help feeling a deep sense of weakness.
He had always planned to sneak away after finding a way out, not paying any attention to Gui Zu, leaving him here to die in this cage!
However, the difference in strength between them was far too vast, causing Yang Kai to constantly be on the defensive at every turn.
He was aware that his thoughts were somewhat unrealistic.
Even if he really found a way out of this place, before he could escape safely, he would certainly be stopped by Gui Zu.
Yang Kai pondered over the issue incessantly, wondering if he should believe in the oath that Gui Zu made before and take him out of this place, satisfying everyone.
This was undoubtedly very risky, and Yang Kai wasn’t certain if Gu Zui would really honour his word.
All kinds of thoughts flowed through Yang Kai’s mind and his expression became more and more serious.
Back inside his own stone room, Yang Kai sat down cross-legged and began restoring himself while continuing to ponder.
Outside his stone room, light footstep sounded and Bi Ya soon walked in unsolicited, circling around to Yang Kai’s back before pasting her tender body onto him while gently massaging his shoulders.
She then whispered lightly into his ear, “Master, when the day comes that you can leave this place, can you also bring your slave with you?”
“Naturally,” Yang Kai said casually.
Bi Ya wore a forced smiled and continued moving her hands as she spoke, “You don’t need to keep up appearances around me, I know you never planned on leading me out of this place with you… After all, I was rude and disrespectful to you from the moment we met, and I know I’m not a good person.”
Hearing her suddenly admit to her own faults like this, Yang Kai felt confused and didn’t know what kind of scheme she was up to.