Inside the stone room, Bi Ya wore a desolate look upon her face as she smiled bitterly.
During this time, she had served Yang Kai diligently, and although she had performed very docilely and well-behaved, not disobeying a single request made of her, she wasn’t by any means stupid or submissive. On the contrary, she was a sharp woman with keen instincts.
She had already clearly seen that when Yang Kai found a way to leave here, he would not be bringing her with him.
It was because of this that Bi Ya had brought up the subject ahead of time.
She wanted to change Yang Kai’s mind by showing her sincerity.
“If I can leave here, I will only listen to you in the future, obeying any command you may give me. I don’t want to be left here, I truly don’t… I swear that I will be loyal to you alone…” Bi Ya implored. Even a master like Gui Zu had been trapped here for two thousand years, if she was to be stranded here, dying alone of old age would certainly be her fate!
Such an ending was simply terrifying.
Yang Kai didn’t show any expression on his face and only stared at her deeply.
Bi Ya calmly met Yang Kai’s eyes, her beautiful face showing neutral look.
After a while, Yang Kai gently nodded, “When that day comes, I’ll think about it.”
Bi Ya was startled but immediately wore a wry grin, “Thank you!”
“Good, I have some things to think about. Draw back!” Yang Kai waved.
Bi Ya elegantly bowed before quickly departing, her expression even more bitter than before because she knew Yang Kai’s last words to her just now were still perfunctory, he hadn’t changed his mind at all.
In the blink of an eye, ten days had passed.
On this day, another person died. This time it was Lu Gui Chen’s subordinate, a Saint King Realm First Stage master.
He had been meditating on the mountainside when all of a sudden his body burst into blood fog.
The death of a second person caused all the remaining cultivators to become even more anxious, all of them quickly seeking out Yang Kai and asking him to think of a way to convince Gui Zu to show mercy. Even Yue Xi, who had always stubbornly refused to bow her head, did not hesitate to plead with Yang Kai about this matter.
Yang Kai casually accepted their request.
However, he knew persuasion was useless. The most important task he had right now was to let Gui Zu see some clear hope of escape. Only when this old monster was happy would he not kill again.
Yang Kai put aside everyone else’s worries and flew his Star Shuttle up to the seven coloured sky.
Sitting cross-legged on his Star Shuttle, Yang Kai condensed his Divine Sense into thousands of threads, attached his comprehension of the Dao of Space to them, and had them shoot out.
These threads of Divine Sense advanced at a rapid pace, leaping across space, ignoring the constraints of distance, quickly flying more than a thousand kilometres away from Yang Kai’s position.
Soon, Yang Kai’s brow wrinkled.
He had released thousands of Divine Sense threads, but all of them quickly became lost inside the chaotic field, a number of them losing contact with Yang Kai entirely, never to be found again.
After an hour, Yang Kai managed to take back eighty percent of his threads, but the remaining twenty percent, he was unable to retrieve.
His face paled as his Soul received some slight damage.
Stuffing a Saint Pill formulated to supplement his Spiritual Energy into his mouth, Yang Kai began urging the power of the Six Coloured Soul Warming Lotus to repair his Soul.
After another hour, he once again released his Divine Sense.
Inside the belly of the mountain, within a room filled with cold darkness, Gui Zu grinned, “Little brat, do you really think this old master doesn’t know what kind of wicked scheme you’re up to? If this old master doesn’t give you a little pressure, you wouldn’t put in any real effort. I hope that after this lesson you’ll become more diligent; if not, this old master will have to start killing again… The first two times this old master showed some mercy, but next time I’ll kill someone you have friendship with; I must see if you’re really capable of ruthlessly discarding all of them.”
In Gui Zu’s eyes, Shen Tu, He Zao, and He Miao’s figures were suddenly reflected.
At the same time, these three youths all felt a chill shoot up their spine as if they were being stared at by the incarnation of death, causing them to shiver unconsciously.
Amidst the seven coloured sky, Yang Kai silently sat atop his Star Shuttle, his Divine Sense shuttling back and forth randomly throughout the chaotic field.
He could no longer realize the passing of time, all of the attention now focused on his threads of Divine Sense piercing The Void.
After repeating this process more than twenty times, each time losing roughly twenty percent of his Soul’s strength, he still hadn’t obtained any substantial results.
If it were anyone else in Yang Kai’s place, they wouldn’t have been able to withstand using such a crazy method. Even if they were significantly stronger, once their Soul took too much damage, it would leave a permanent injury that would render them disabled or demented.
However, with the Six Coloured Soul Warming Lotus, Yang Kai could quickly repair his damaged Soul, freeing him of such worries.
At some point, Yang Kai’s Spiritual Energy once again dried up and he couldn’t help revealing a look of disappointment.
Because this time too, he had failed.
Just as he was about to take back his threads of Divine Sense, he suddenly noticed a subtle change in the field in a particular location and quickly focused the threads he had control over still to investigate it.
To his surprise, when he tried to investigate this location, his Divine Sense threads easily passed through it, instantly breaking through the seven coloured sky and leaping out of the chaotic field.
From these threads of Divine Sense, Yang Kai saw countless beautiful and magnificent stars.
Each of these stars exuded a powerful energy wave, some of them extremely cold, some of them blisteringly hot, some filled with fierce howling winds while still others seemed like giant ancient trees growing amongst the Starry Sky.
“The Chaotic Abyss!” Yang Kai couldn’t help crying out in surprise, his eyes lighting up.
This was the first time any of his Divine Sense threads had broken free from this prisoner’s cage and arrived at the Chaotic Abyss.
He couldn’t help feeling ecstatic!
Being trapped here not only made Gui Zu anxious but also caused Yang Kai a great deal of anxiety. Remaining nearby an old monster like Gui Zu made him feel a constant sense of life-threatening crisis!
Now that he saw the Chaotic Abyss once again, he saw the hope of survival!
Yang Kai’s heart was filled with joy.
Forcefully calming himself down, Yang Kai once again determined that his Divine Sense threads had arrived at the Chaotic Abyss before carefully withdrawing his Divine Sense to himself.
As he recalled his Divine Sense threads, Yang Kai left behind individual wisps of Spiritual Energy along the way to serve as guideposts.
These wisps of Divine Sense, however, wouldn’t be able to persist for too long; Yang Kai estimated that in no more than one day, all of these threads would dissipate and disperse, but as long as he had these wisps to guide him, Yang Kai didn’t have to worry about becoming lost as he crossed the seven coloured sky’s chaotic field and had full confidence in leaving this place.
Soon, Yang Kai took back all the other Divine Sense threads he could and a look of hesitation appeared on his face.
He wanted to follow these guideposts immediately!
However, once he left, everyone left on this continent would definitely die, but more importantly, Yang Kai wasn’t certain he could successfully leave here before Gui Zu intercepted him.
Looking down at the black mark Gui Zu had left on his arm, Yang Kai sighed helplessly.
He stood up, putting aside all other thoughts, and flew his Star Shuttle down towards the mountain.
A short time later, Yang Kai landed and walked straight to the stone room where Gui Zu lived.
Soon, Yang Kai stood in front of the pitch-black room once more.
“Little brat, what progress have you made?” Aware of his arrival, Gui Zu asked in a deep voice from within the darkness, his pair of sharp eyes staring fixedly towards Yang Kai as if refusing to miss even the slightest change in his expression.
“We can leave!” Yang Kai replied.
Stunned by this reply, Gui Zu actually became dumbfounded for a time, after a while shouting in disbelief, “Really?”
Gui Zu’s voice was trembling slightly, highlighting his inner excitement.
“Little brat, you should know what your fate will be if you dare play games with this old master. This old master has waited far too long for this day,” Gui Zu muttered solemnly.
“I’m not playing games with you, we really can leave!” Yang Kai replied indifferently.
“Ha ha ha ha!” Gui Zu burst into wild laughter, his voice echoing like thunder, shaking the entire mountain around him.
On the plain nearby the mountain, Lu Gui Chen, Yue Xi, and all the others wore panic-stricken expressions, none of them knowing what had suddenly caused such a great reaction from Gui Zu, or if it signalled danger for them. Feeling insecure, all of them quickly gathered together, hoping to find some sense of security.
“Good, I knew you wouldn’t disappoint this old master!” Gui Zu’s figure appeared in front of Yang Kai, his hand grabbing onto Yang Kai’s arm with a vice-like grip as he cried out impatiently, “Let’s go, let’s go, I must leave this damned place!”
Because of his excitement, the strength of his grip was quite strong, nearly causing Yang Kai’s bones to crack under the pressure.
“Don’t be so anxious!” Yang Kai struggled for a bit to work his arm loose from this vice grip.
“Don’t be anxious? This old master is very anxious!” Gui Zu squinted at him, his eyes filled with malice, “What scheme are you still thinking about?”
“Senior is thinking too much, I just need to make a few things clear before we leave,” Yang Kai said faintly.
Gui Zu’s eyes flashed with a strange light, his excited expression suddenly calming down and gently nodding, “Speak, this old master will hear you out!”
Yang Kai considered his words for a moment before saying, “Although Junior is willing to believe in Senior’s character and commitment, for the sake of insurance, Junior wants to confirm once again that after we leave this place, you will not act against me!”
Gui Zu grinned evilly, “Rest assured, if you can satisfy this old master’s desire to leave, this old master will not hurt you. Leaving this damned place is this old master’s lifelong wish, after leaving I will only be grateful to you, how could I even consider attacking you?”
Yang Kai’s brow wrinkled, quickly nodding, “I hope so, and I hope Senior can remember the oath he swore to me before.”
“Good, this old master remembers,” Gui Zu pointed to his own head, “I remember clearly! Good, can we leave now?”
Yang Kai once again shook his head.
Gui Zu’s expression sank as he grumbled impatiently, “What else do you still have to do?”
“I want to take a few people together with us.”
Gui Zu immediately knew who he wanted to take away and didn’t mind, “As long as they don’t get in the way of this old master, bring whoever you want.”
“They won’t get in your way, en, I’ll have to bother Senior to call them over.”
Gui Zu looked at him with great interest, “Who do you want to call?”
Yang Kai immediately listed a few names; Gui Zu then nodded and summoned them with his Divine Sense.
On the plain beside the mountain, Yue Xi, He Zao, He Miao, and Shen Tu, who were already nervous because of Gui Zu’s crazy laughter, suddenly went stiff and pale.
This was because Gui Zu’s voice had just sounded in their ears.
“What happened?” Lu Gui Chen hurriedly asked.
“Gui Zu summoned us…” Yue Xi couldn’t help but swallow.
The look Lu Gui Chen shot Yue Xi immediately changed, a hint of taking pleasure in other’s misfortune present, along with some sorrow and relief, but he no longer said anything.
“I was also summoned!” Shen Tu’s face paled as a deep sense of powerlessness filled his heart.
“I… as well!” Bi Ya rubbed her hands together nervously, her tender body shivering.
“What should we do, Master?” He Zao looked at Yue Xi nervously.
Yue Xi’s heart was also in chaos, not sure what to say for a while. When they first arrived here, there were more than a hundred of them, yet almost all of them had died at Gui Zu’s hands. Today, Gui Zu had actually summoned so many people of them at once though, who knows what his intentions were?
“It’s a blessing, not a curse…” Yue Xi smiled and gave up any plans to escape because, in front of an Origin King Realm master, there was no way to escape. “Come with me. If today… if today is the day of our deaths, Master will at least be able to accompany you on the road.”
She looked at He Zao and He Miao with great affection, secretly deciding to do whatever she could to protect her two Disciples.
Even if this was no different from a mantis trying to stop a cart, she wouldn’t hesitate.
The three of them began walking up the mountain while Shen Tu and Bi Ya exchanged a glance before sighing and keeping up.
Looking at their departing backs, a cultivator from Purple Star came up to Lu Gui Chen and said, “Senior, they…”
“They probably won’t return…” Lu Gui Chen sighed softly and smiled bitterly, “I don’t know I should feel glad or sad for them, but for now we’ve managed to escape, as for what will happen next time, I’m afraid…”
Saying so, he showed a dispirited look to his three remaining subordinates.
All of them thought that those who had been summoned were going to die.
Yang Kai waited in the heart of the mountain and after a while saw Shen Tu and the others walk in, gently nodded and was about to say hello when he suddenly wore a confused expression, “What’s wrong with you all? Why do you all look so depressed?”
The corner of Shen Tu’s mouth twitched as he somewhat unwillingly replied, “We were summoned by Gui Zu.”
Letting out a sigh, he reached out and gently patted Yang Kai’s shoulder, whispering quietly, “Brother, I’m afraid that there’s no way we can flee from this disaster. If you have the chance to escape from this place, please deliver a message to Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce. Tell my father I’m sorry for disappointing him, and that if I had only known this would happen, I wouldn’t have been so stubborn and disobedient.”
Appearing as if he was making his last confession, Shen Tu looked unusually solemn.
“Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce?” Yue Xi heard this and directed a thoughtful look towards Shen Tu, her eyes flashing a slight bit of doubt.
“Remember to deliver my last message; of course, if you can’t leave here that is,” Shen Tu patted Yang Kai’s shoulder, sighing heavily again.
Yang Kai’s expression became weird.
But after thinking about it, he suddenly understood why these people were so downcast, like they were marching to their own execution, causing him to smile with astonishment, “What do you think Senior Gui Zu Senior summoned you all for?”
“I don’t know, but it’s certainly not anything good,” Shen Tu replied before gawking towards Yang Kai, “Do you know what we’ve been summoned for? Can you tell us so we can prepare ourselves?”
Everyone cast their vision towards him.
“I asked Senior Gui Zu to call all of you over,” Yang Kai bluntly said.
Everyone expression became puzzled.
“I’m going to take you out of here,” Yang Kai continued.
Shen Tu shook visibly while Yue Xi, He Zao, He Miao, and Bi Ya’s beautiful eyes lit up as the stared towards Yang Kai incredulously.
“I found a way to leave this place, en, and when I told Senior Gui Zu about it, he agreed to let you come with us.”
“Wha… Did I hear you right? Can we really leave this place?” Shen Tu muttered absent-mindedly, his face filled with shock and disbelief.
He Zao and He Miao’s pretty faces both lifted, their eyes filling with a light of gratitude, He Miao eagerly asking, “Yang Kai, are you telling the truth? You’re not deceiving us right?”
Yang Kai shook his head.
Hearing this, the little girl suddenly became filled with joy as she covered her small mouth and teared up, “Good, good…”
She was so excited that she couldn’t stop crying. Just now, she had thought being summoned by Gui Zu, she would have to die, but now those worries had disappeared and were replaced with the prospect of being able to escape from this prison, so her reaction was only natural.
He Zao gently held her shoulders, the two sisters exchanging a knowing glance and smiled.
Bi Ya seemed to have been shocked by this news, standing there stupidly for a time, unable to compose herself as she stared towards Yang Kai, unable to understand why he had suddenly changed his mind.
Not long ago, Bi Ya had looked for Yang Kai to discuss this very matter, but the perfunctory answer she had received at the time had been very discouraging, yet not he was actually telling her he would bring her out from this place. Bi Ya couldn’t help wondering if she was dreaming right now.
Amongst this group though, the most confused was undoubtedly was Yue Xi.
Staring at Yang Kai, her look was particularly complex, her expression fluctuating, no one able to determine what she was thinking.
She wanted to offer her thanks, but she couldn’t find the words to say, her heart was tangled up in knots.
“You all wait here for a moment. Bi Ya, come with me,” Yang Kai didn’t pay any attention to Yue Xi and instead beckoned to Bi Ya.
“Ah, en…” Bi Ya quickly responded and followed after Yang Kai.
Standing a short distance away, Yang Kai stared at this promiscuous woman, his brow slightly wrinkled, eventually letting out a long sigh, “To be honest, I don’t really want to take you out from this place. Whether you live or die means nothing to me!”
Bi Ya smiled bitterly, “I understand, after all, I did many terrible things to you before.”
“There is a saying that one’s behaviour is easy to change, but their nature is not. You are a woman who treats men as nothing but playthings, a resource to be consumed to increase your own strength. Right now you may be acting docile, but who knows what will happen once we leave this place, perhaps your original personality will re-assert itself and you will bear a deep grudge for what has transpired here then bide your time to seek vengeance.”
“No, I won’t do such a thing,” Bi Ya quickly waved.
“I don’t trust you!” Yang Kai shook his head.
Bi Ya’s face went white, as if she was seeing the hope of leaving here slipping away before her very eyes.
“However, during this time you did serve me well. En, whether it was out of necessity or sincerity, you took care of me very attentively, so if I was to simply discard you here, that would be too ungrateful.”
“What do I need to do to win your trust?” Bi Ya understood the meaning of his words and her eyes immediately lit up, quickly asking Yang Kai, “Just say the word and I will comply!”
Yang Kai gently nodded, “Let loose your Knowledge Sea’s defences. I must take your Soul Brand and control whether you live or die!”
Bi Ya was stunned, her face filling with a look of horror as she hesitated for a moment, but she quickly recovered and nodded, lowering her Knowledge Sea’s defences.
In the next moment, Yang Kai’s Divine Sense penetrated into Bi Ya’s Knowledge Sea and shuttled back and forth.
After a few breaths, Yang Kai took back his Divine Sense as well as Bi Ya’s Soul Brand.
Bi Ya’s face had turned slightly pale from this experience, her red lips muttering, “Is this enough?”
Yang Kai looked at her in a strange expression and nodded. “Yes.”
After a pause, he asked again, “Just how many men have you harmed so far?”
Bi Ya pursed her lips and giggled, “Did you peek at my memories?”
Yang Kai shrugged his shoulders, “I didn’t intend to.”
Inside Bi Ya’s Knowledge Sea, so many of her memories were filled with obscene scenes, so much so that even an experienced man like Yang Kai felt frightened. This woman was nothing less than a walking disaster; any man she targeted would be unable to escape her poisonous hands, ultimately resulting in their vitality being sucked away.
But when each of these men died, their expressions were all filled with bliss, as if they remained ignorant of the terrible fate that had befallen them until the very end.
Yang Kai couldn’t help shivering slightly. If it weren’t for the many twists and turns back on the Purple Star Starship, his life may have ended like all those others, a dry husk beneath Bi Ya’s profane power.
“I am only yours now,” Bi Ya bit her thing thin red lip seductively, her tender body seemingly emitting a fragrant pheromone that assaulting Yang Kai’s mind, “I will serve you even more attentively from now on.”
“No need, I don’t want to have anything to do with you. After we leave here, you and I will part ways,” Yang Kai snorted.
“You shouldn’t really be…” Bi Ya covered her mouth and swept her eyes up and down, but mostly down Yang Kai.
“Shouldn’t really be what?”
“Do you… have problems down there?” Bi Ya asked the doubt she had held in her heart for so long, her eyes staring fixedly between Yang Kai’s legs, a tinge of sadness and pity appearing on her face.
Yang Kai’s face went black as he shouted, “If you dare talk any more nonsense I’ll leave you to rot here!”
Saying so, he no longer bothered with this crazy woman, turning around and leaving, Bi Ya’s delightful giggles resounding behind him; she seemingly didn’t care one bit about Yang Kai’s threat.
After Yang Kai arrived back at the place where everyone had gathered, Gui Zu appeared leisurely.
Everyone who had been whispering back and forth a month ago promptly shut up.
“Done?” Gui Zu looked at Yang Kai.
“En.”
“Then let’s go!” Gui Zu laughed.
“Wait a moment, I have some things to say first,” Yang Kai turned to face the crowd and put on a solemn expression, “All of you need to know that in order to take you out from this place, I will be using a method to tear space.”
“Tear space?” Yue Xi called out in shock as she stared Yang Kai, “Do you understand the Dao of Space?”
Nodding, Yang Kai admitted, “A little.”
Yue Xi’s beautiful eyes lit up, suddenly turning to look at Gui Zu, “No wonder, no wonder Senior Gui Zu made an agreement with you, it was like this.”
All of them had been speculating about just what would make Gui Zu take interest in Yang Kai, even going so far as to protect his safety and provide him with a the best cultivation environment, his attitude towards Yang Kai completely different from all the others. Now, they understood.
Being able to tear space meant Yang Kai had the ability to escape from this prison. This was similar to the approach Gui Zu had researched for a thousand years, his one hope to leave here, but also something he could not grasp clearly.
No one had thought that Yang Kai was also familiar with the Dao of Space. The Dao of Space had always been an extremely esoteric field, one that was extremely difficult to comprehend and even more difficult to practice. The number of cultivators even slightly familiar with the Dao of Space was extremely small.
Even if one were to take the entire Star Field into consideration, cultivators proficient in the mysteries of space were a rarity.
A master like Gui Zu, who had been studying the Dao of Space for a thousand years hadn’t even had any significant accomplishments, the Space Array he had painstakingly arranged ultimately being of no use.
“Brother…” Shen Tu licked his dry lips and muttered, “Do you really come from a lower world? You haven’t been playing the pig to eat a tiger this whole time right?”
Although Shen Tu was the one asking, this question was the one everyone present wanted to ask, all of them suspecting that Yang Kai actually came from some extraordinary background and these days had just been putting on an act.
Yang Kai smiled and shook his head, “If I hadn’t come from a lower world, how could I have been so ignorant about the Star Field’s common sense?”
Shen Tu thought about it for a moment before nodding lightly, “Fair enough.”
Since he met Yang Kai, Yang Kai had asked him many questions about things even children should have understood, saying he was acting the whole time really was a bit of a stretch.
“But regardless, you really an amazing guy…” Shen Tu grinned wryly, “And, why are you telling us this now?”
“Because in order to lead you away from this place, I need you to coordinate with me,” Yang Kai’s expression became dignified again, “I can tear space and allow all of you to enter the turbulent flow of The Void in order to lead you out of this place, but the path I create by tearing space is very different from a long-established Void Corridor… Void Corridors that have existed for extended periods of time have already stabilized and only connect two points in space together, allowing people to freely move between those two points while on the other hand, the path I create while tearing space is fluid and unstable.”
The looks on everyone’s face changed slightly as they suddenly realized that things weren’t as simple as they seemed. The road leading out of this place was apparently full of thorns.
“I need all of you to guarantee that you won’t use any of your strength while following me!” Yang Kai glanced around at everyone in a serious manner, his eyes eventually landing on Gui Zu, “This is especially true for you, Senior, because once you release your strength, there’s a high chance you will disturb the void turbulence around us, causing us to sink further into The Void. Once we lose our position in The Void, even I won’t be able to safely bring us out!”
“Oh?” Gui Zu grinned and nodded, “Good, this old master won’t use any of his strength!”
“Do all of you understand?” Yang Kai glanced over at the others.
Everyone nodded together.
“Good. Other than that, there’s nothing else, just follow me and don’t cause any trouble,” Yang Kai thought about it for a moment but really couldn’t think of anything else to say, “If you’re ready, let’s get underway.”
Saying so, he reached out his hand and sliced through the space in front of him, opening a thin, dark slit. Then, as if two giant hands were pulling it apart, the slit opened up until it was more than a meter in width and two meters in height, forming a pitch-black portal to The Void out of which a terrifying Void Energy pulsed.
Gui Zu’s expression became serious as he peered deep into The Void while the others were only more nervous than him.
Yang Kai pulled one of the high-quality luminous stones from the wall then stepped into the portal without even saying a word.
Gui Zu’s eyes flashed and did not rush to keep up with Yang Kai, but instead tossed Shen Tu inside.
Bi Ya followed Shen Tu, then Gui Zu, then Yue Xi and her two disciples stepped inside last.
After all seven people entered it, the tear in space quickly and silently disappeared.
Amidst the profound darkness, the only source of light was from the glowing stone in Yang Kai’s hand, this stone served as a guidepost for everyone.
None of them dared fall behind, each of them walking tepidly through this turbulent space, quietly observing their surroundings.
They had never had such a peculiar experience, none of them ever even thinking they would one day be able to walk through The Void.
The turbulent flow of space around them was disorienting and seemed like the mouth of the most terrifying beast imaginable just waiting to swallow them whole. All around them was like a thick swamp, with pitfalls and sinkholes everywhere, one careless misstep and they would be pulled under, banished to the end of the world forever.
Everyone’s heart pounded loudly in their chest.
Even as they admired the scene around them, it did not lessen their trepidation.
The only thing that gave them some comfort was that everywhere Yang Kai passed, the chaotic flow of space seemed to be smoothed out, and the unsteady ground became solid, making it easy to walk upon.
Everyone was keenly aware that Yang Kai’s aura had some kind of mysterious resonance with the turbulence here, allowing him to understand its flow and accurately find his way through it.
As they held their breaths, each one of them followed exactly in the footsteps of the person in front of them.
Suddenly, a cry of surprise rang out and Yang Kai couldn’t help but pause and turn back to ask, “What happened?”
“Nothing…” He Miao patted her chest and apologized, “Sorry, I suddenly felt like I was falling.”
Looking down at where her foot was, space seemed to have burst open and shattered like a broken mirror. Staring into this crack gave one the illusion they were falling into the abyss.
Yang Kai nodded and didn’t say anything more, simply continuing to lead the way.
“Little girl, don’t startle us like that, this old master was nearly scared to death by you!” Gui Zu turned back and grinned towards He Miao, his gloomy smile causing He Miao’s bad complexion to turn even paler.
Yang Kai, who was walking ahead, suddenly came to a halt, stretched out his hand, and tore through space again, opening another crack in The Void!
Quickly, he stepped through.
The others followed right on his heels.
Breathing in the fresh air, everyone felt like they had just emerged from the depths of purgatory. Looking around for a while, Shen Tu suddenly furrowed his brow and commented, “Yang Kai, we don’t seem to have gone far!”
As he spoke, he turned his glance downwards.
Beneath the feet of their group was a giant burnt mountain peak and nearby there were a few cultivators moving about. These people were clearly Lu Gui Chen and the other remaining Purple Star cultivators.
They had also noticed the situation above them and were pointing towards Yang Kai’s group, not understanding the situation.
“En, we really haven’t gone too far, a thousand kilometres or so I’d say,” Yang Kai nodded and explained, “This time was just to familiarize you with the feeling of moving through The Void. What comes next is the main event!”
Saying so, he pointed above his head at the seven coloured sky, “We have to break through the chaotic field surrounding this floating continent.”
“Got it!” Shen Tu nodded.
“Let’s go!” Yang Kai smiled faintly, “I can use this method a few times in a row.”
Carefully sensing the fluctuations from the Divine Sense marks he had left behind, Yang Kai confirmed the direction he needed to go and tore space again.
As everyone was stepping into the tear, He Miao suddenly turned her head and squinted, whispering softly, “Master, Lu Gui Chen and his people seem to be coming here.”
“Don’t care about them, keep up!” Yue Xi urged.
“En.”
“Lu Gui Chen, just wait here for death!” Yue Xi sneered softly as she shot a glance down towards the ground before finally stepping through the portal.
A moment later, Lu Gui Chen, who was riding his Star Shuttle from down below, arrived only to discover no trace of anyone left and quickly realize that they had been abandoned here, his face draining of all colour.
The few people that Gui Zu had summoned before were all clearly related to Yang Kai, with the only ones not summoned being his group from Purple Star.
At the time he had the attitude of taking pleasure in other’s misfortune, thinking that Yue Xi and the others were walking to their deaths, but little did know that it was actually the path to survival.
On the contrary, he and his remaining three subordinates had forever been abandoned here!
His face twisted in rage and he let out a roar of anger.
The seven coloured sky was formed by the intersection of the many chaotic energy fields from the stars of the Chaotic Abyss, forming a ten-thousand-kilometre wide domain of distorted space.
Somewhere amongst this chaotic domain, space suddenly split open with Yang Kai walking out. There, he stopped and quickly began determining his position.
Sensing the Divine Sense mark he had left behind was not far away, although there was some slight error in the position, he had emerged within an acceptable margin of error. As long as he followed the paths laid out by these guideposts, Yang Kai was confident they could arrive at the Chaotic Abyss.
Once they arrived at the Chaotic Abyss, they would really be free.
One after another, figures appeared behind him, and after everyone saw the scenery in front of them, they were filled with amazement because all around them was a gorgeous seven coloured space.
However, everyone quickly discovered that their Divine Senses couldn’t play any role here because as soon as they extended them out more than a few meters, they would become affected by the chaotic domain, possibly even becoming lost, without the possibility of recovery.
Gui Zu gently nodded, “Very good, you really have the ability to leave this place, this old master was not mistaken about you.”
At a glance, he could tell that this place was above the floating continent, a place he had never been to, increasing his confidence in Yang Kai greatly. Seemingly because the wish he had held onto for two thousand years was about to be completed, his expression wasn’t as ghastly as before and instead filled with a smile of expectation.
Yang Kai glanced at him and smiled lightly.
The black mark on his arm, however, was sending out an even chillier aura than before.
He knew that Gui Zu was on guard against him, lest he try to suddenly abandon him here in this strange space.
If he were really to be left here, Gui Zu wasn’t confident he could return to the Floating Continent.
Yang Kai did have such thoughts, but he didn’t dare make any rash actions. He didn’t have the confidence to plot against Gui Zu’s right before his eyes, so, for now, he behaved very honestly.
Once again perceiving the position of the next guidepost, Yang Kai tore space.
Yang Kai led the other six people through The Void, one thousand kilometres at a time, everything proceeding smoothly, bringing them closer and closer to the Chaotic Abyss.
After tearing space five times, Yang Kai immediately sat down cross-legged and gasped for breath, “Wait here a moment, I need to restore myself for a while.”
Every time Yang Kai tore space, it drained a huge amount of his strength, so it was impossible for him to do it continuously without end. The Spiritual Energy in his Knowledge Sea had already been greatly consumed, so he needed to supplement it in case some unexpected situation came up, otherwise, he wouldn’t have the strength to deal with it.
After an hour, Yang Kai had finished restoring himself and began leading the way forward again.
Every time he tore space, Yang Kai would first confirm the direction he needed to go by tracing the Divine Sense marks he had left behind, otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to advance through the confusing seven coloured field.
Things progressed far smoother than Yang Kai had anticipated, none of his previous concerns coming to pass.
The six people behind him also remembered Yang Kai’s warning and didn’t dare use any of their strength; even Gui Zu carefully cooperated, not stirring up any trouble along the way.
Everyone seemingly felt that so long as things continued on like this, they would soon reach the Chaotic Abyss.
With hope right in front of them, everyone’s spirits rose.
Somewhere amongst the seven coloured sky, Yang Kai’s figure again emerged from The Void, quickly followed by the other six.
Turning around, he smiled to the group, “This is the last jump. Once we pass through The Void again, we’ll reach the Chaotic Abyss!”
Hearing him say this, everyone’s eyes lit up and their sense of anticipation increased once more.
“Little brat, make it quick. This old master can’t wait to see the outside world,” Gui Zu grinned and encouraged.
“I have to restore myself again!” Yang Kai said faintly.
“Good, make it quick!”
Yang Kai sat down without saying another word. He wasn’t lying, there really was just one last jump left. As long as he tore space once more, Yang Kai was confident they could arrive at the Chaotic Abyss, but even so, he still felt quite uneasy.
This uneasiness, of course, came from Gui Zu.
Yang Kai had no way to guarantee that this old monster, who had lived more than two thousand years, would keep his promise not to harm him after they escaped.
In this situation, he could only passively choose to believe in him while praying Gui Zu would not go back on his word.
This feeling of helplessness made Yang Kai very uncomfortable.
“Senior, can you take back this thing in my arm?” Yang Kai suddenly opened his eyes and asked Gui Zu, “We’re almost free now, is there any reason to keep monitoring me?”
Gui Zu grinned lightly and didn’t say anything, simply nodding and waving his hand, removing the black mark left atop Yang Kai’s arm, taking back the evil spectre it was made from into his body.
Yang Kai’s mind and body both felt as if they became lighter like a shackle had been removed from him.
“Little brat, behave yourself and this old master won’t make trouble for you,” Gui Zu snorted.
“Senior is broadminded,” Yang Kai chuckled, standing up and taking a soft breath before tearing space apart under the gaze of the crowd.
He, as always, was the first to step through.
After entering The Void though, Yang Kai’s expression suddenly became dignified as he stood in place, not moving forward and instead silently perceiving his surroundings.
“Why are you stopping now? Are you still trying to play some kind of tricks at this last moment?” Gui Zu, who had followed Yang Kai in, saw him acting strangely and couldn’t help grumbling.
Yang Kai didn’t answer him though and continued his investigation.
Suddenly, his face changed and he shouted, “Move quickly, don’t stop, space here is far more chaotic than anywhere we’ve been so far, probably because we’re closer to the Chaotic Abyss.”
Seeing the alarmed look on Yang Kai’s face, the other six people realized the seriousness of the situation and quickly followed after him, moving as fast as they safely could.
Up until now, wherever Yang Kai passed, the void turbulence would temporarily subside, allowing everyone to safely pass while not being dragged into the surrounding chaotic flow, but now, the other six in the group could faintly feel that where they were stepping had become less smooth and muddier, like there was a faint suction tugging at them from all directions. The turbulent flow also seemed closer than before, like a swarm of locusts that were eyeing them from nearby.
*Kacha…*
A dense sound of cracking resounded all around the group, sending shivers into each of their souls. Glancing around, the barrier separating all of them from the turbulent flow of The Void was clearly beginning to shatter.
From the surrounding Void, the force of attraction increased greatly and threatened to swallow them whole.
Although none of them besides Yang Kai were proficient in the Dao of Space, they were well aware of the terrors of The Void, once any of them fell into one of these cracks, with no references to find their way out, they would become forever lost, never to return again.
Therefore, they huddled even closer to Yang Kai, not daring to fall behind.
Yang Kai’s expression was also solemn, not saying a single word and devoting all his attention to moving forward, soon arriving at a certain point and stretching out his hand to tear a hole in The Void.
When this tear was opened, from the other side of the portal, a familiar scene appeared in everyone’s eyes.
Massive, energetic stars arranged closely together, creating a vibrant and enchanting picture.
The Chaotic Abyss!
Yang Kai smiled and prepared to step out.
But just then, Shen Tu and Bi Ya suddenly shouted in alarm, as if something had happened just behind them.
Upon hearing their shouts, Yang Kai turned his head and saw Gui Zu’s figure flicker as he prepared to take one step ahead and flee through the portal.
However, in the instant he circulated his strength to propel himself forward, he had also stimulated all the turbulence throughout the surrounding Void and shattered the safe passage Yang Kai had established.
Before Gui Zu could escape, half his body was swallow up by The Void, and no matter how hard he tried to struggle, he was unable to escape its grasp.
Yue Xi and her two disciples who were following behind Gui Zu had also been caught up in the turbulent flow and were quickly sinking into The Void.
When Yang Kai turned to look back, he saw the three women staring at him with pleading looks as they silently prayed to him for rescue.
Even now, all of them were carefully abiding by Yang Kai’s words and had not used any of their strength.
Gui Zu on the other hand, upon noticing the dire situation he was in, pushed his strength wildly in an attempt to break through the crack that was trying to swallow him.
However, it was like the crevice he had fallen into was filled with quicksand, and the more Gui Zu struggled, the faster he sunk, causing his old face to pale.
“Fuck!” Shen Tu couldn’t help cursing, “Brother Yang, let’s go!”
Yang Kai’s look changed, and a look of hesitation flashed across his eyes. He glanced over at Gui Zu, who was being engulfed by The Void, only his head still visible; he then looked over at He Zao and He Miao, all sorts of thoughts surfacing in his mind.
Yang Kai went stiff, as a struggle took place in his heart.
With just one more step, he could reach the Chaotic Abyss and escape from under Gui Zu’s oppression, and now that this old monster had gotten caught up in the void turbulence it was likely he would never be able to find his way out, forcing him to endure an even bitterer and difficult life than the one where he was trapped on the floating continent, a lifetime spent drifting through The Void.
Yang Kai very much wished for such an outcome.
However, He Zao and He Miao would also die.
Yang Kai still remembered when Gui Zu had wanted to throw him into the Space Array to test the Void Corridor’s stability, how He Zao had stood up bravely and spoken for him.
“Brother Yang!” Shen Tu shouted again. Yang Kai was lead the way and blocking both him and Bi Ya from exiting. Shen Tu was so anxious to pass him and flee to safety he could barely contain himself.
Bi Ya’s heart was also in chaos, her beautiful eyes staring towards Yang Kai, wondering what choice he would make.
Yang Kai’s hesitation only lasted a moment though before his eyes became firm. Sending a palm strike towards the portal leading out of The Void, he released a cluster of pitch-black Demonic Flame that temporarily help it open.
“Go!” Yang Kai shouted before grabbing hold of Shen Tu and Bi Ya and tossing them out then with a gloomy expression flew in the opposite direction.
“Brother Yang!” Shen Tu’s face paled as he passed by Yang Kai, but before he could recover, he found himself already amidst the Chaotic Abyss.
Inside The Void, Yang Kai soon arrived in front of the void crevice which was swallowing the group of four and stared at Gui Zu, hurriedly shouting, “If you want to live, withdraw your strength, don’t make this more difficult for me!”
Gui Zu’s face was pure white by this point and quickly took back his strength, no longer struggling.
“I’ll save you now, don’t panic, don’t do anything at all!” Yang Kai called out to He Zao and He Miao before sitting down in front of the four of them, his Spiritual Energy and Saint Qi bursting out and pouring into the crevice.
Incorporating his own understanding of the Dao of Space into this crevice slowly allowed Yang Kai to produce a resonance with it and eventually control it.
Soon, the four people who were gradually sinking down were pleasantly surprised to find that the suction, which was drawing them in was gradually becoming weaker and soon disappeared altogether. Not only that, an opposite force which was trying to push them out soon appeared and began freeing them from the void crevice.
All four of their expressions brightened with He Zao and He Miao tearing up as they stared at Yang Kai, their eyes filled with joy.
They had thought that this time they had encountered an inescapable disaster and would certainly die, they hadn’t anticipated Yang Kai would return at the last moment, they all knew just what kind of risk he was taking to save them.
This caused their moods to undergo a subtle change as an inexplicable feeling filled their hearts and brought them a sense of warmth and comfort.
The feelings of panic and despair were quickly swept away and a radiant glow appeared on their faces, seemingly no longer afraid of any danger.
Even Yue Xi, at this moment, finally changed her opinion about Yang Kai, a look of pure gratitude appearing on her pretty face.
“Ah…” He Miao suddenly screamed and pointed to Yang Kai.
The other three all turned to look in the direction she was pointing and their expression sank once more.
At the spot where Yang Kai was sitting, a new set of cracks was forming, threatening to swallow his body into the void crevice.
As time passed, more and more cracks formed and spread out, seeming to engulf the entire space surrounding them.
Yang Kai’s eyes suddenly shot open as he shouted, “Come out!”
With this shout, the four others who hadn’t dared to move so far were finally freed from the void crevice and immediately rushed outward.
Whether the ground beneath her was too unstable of she was too anxious in that moment, Yue Xi stumbled and nearly fell, but before she could hit the ground, Yang Kai wrapped his arm around her waist and leapt out just as the cracked space around them began to completely collapse.
Yue Xi’s body instantly went stiff when she felt Yang Kai’s strong hand grab hold of her. It was like she had been struck by lightning, all her strength draining from her body. Her eyes landing on the Junior carrying her, she suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of safety, like she had just entered a tranquil harbour that gently cradled her, causing her mood to become incredibly complicated.
Amidst the Chaotic Abyss, Shen Tu and Bi Ya looked anxiously towards the black portal leading to The Void, hoping to see Yang Kai.
However, they were unable to see the situation inside, and the Demonic Flames burning the edge of the portal, keeping it open, were already beginning to fade, yet there were still no signs of the ones still inside escaping.
If they didn’t escape soon, Yang Kai and the others would be forced to remain inside forever!
“They couldn’t have had an accident, right?” Shen Tu stuttered, “Brother Yang’s understanding of the Dao of Space has reached a very high level. Nothing should have happened to them, wouldn’t you say?”
Saying so, he turned to look at Bi Ya, hoping she would affirm his statement.
“I don’t know…” Bi Ya shook her head, her mood extremely complicated, “But I hope nothing bad happens to him!”
Yang Kai currently possessed her Soul Brand, allowing him to control whether she lived or died, so if he didn’t emerge and instead became lost in The Void, she would also die!
More than anyone, she didn’t wish to see anything happen to Yang Kai.
“They’re coming out!” Shen Tu suddenly shouted as he saw a figure leap out from the crack just as it was about to close.
Naturally, it was Gui Zu!
Seeing his face, Shen Tu anxiously called out, “How is it you, where’s Brother Yang?”
“Right behind!” Gui Zu turned back just in time to see the He Zao He Miao sisters escape, swiftly followed by Yang Kai and Yue Xi.
Just as Yang Kai stepped out from The Void, the Demonic Flames holding the portal open burned out and the crack in space disappeared without a trace.
“Haha, I knew Brother Yang’s luck wouldn’t run out here. How could he have had any accidents?” Shen Tu laughed and was sincerely happy for Yang Kai, but as he said so, his expression suddenly became weird as he stared towards him with great interest, an ambiguous grin quickly spreading across his face.
Everyone else’s eyes also gathered on Yang Kai, each of their expressions becoming weird.
Yang Kai’s arm was currently carrying Yue Xi by her waist, and Yue Xi actually showed no signs of resisting, her neck dyed bright red as a slightly unusual expression filled her pretty face.
He Miao couldn’t help covering her mouth in shock when she saw this incredible scene, not knowing what had happened after she and her Elder Sister left that caused her Master and Yang Kai to become so intimate with one another.
What was most incredible about this situation though was that her Master wasn’t struggling at all.
In the past, her Master had never left any man get anywhere close to her, much less allow them to embrace her. This was undoubtedly a first. If such a scene were to be shown to all her Master’s admirers back in Sword Union, He Miao didn’t know how many of them would come seeking a fight with Yang Kai.
He Zao coughed lightly, unsure what she should say to remind her Master of her current position.
Being stared at by all these eyes, Yue Xi’s expression became even more embarrassed and she couldn’t wait to jump back into The Void and never come out again.
Yang Kai, on the other hand, didn’t say a word and easily put Yue Xi down before swiftly falling back a thousand meters, staring coldly and vigilantly towards Gui Zu as he prepared to tear space once again.
The ambiguous atmosphere was instantly broken and gave way to an incredibly grave one, everyone else staring towards Gui Zu worriedly.
Now that everyone had left the floating continent and successfully arrived at the Chaotic Abyss, Gui Zu had accomplished the wish he had cherished for two thousand years. If at this time he suddenly decided to start a slaughter, of the people present, besides Yang Kai who might have a chance to escape, everyone here would have to surrender their lives.
With the Chaotic Abyss as a backdrop, everything went silent as everyone’s mood became anxious.
Gui Zu grinned lightly, his pair of gloomy eyes staring towards Yang Kai who stood a thousand meters away, no one able to guess what he was thinking.
Violent heartbeats echoed as loudly as drums from everyone’s chest.
“Little brat, what are you afraid of?” Gui Zu asked.
Yang Kai’s mouth twitched as he bluntly said, “I’m afraid Senior will not honour his words and go back on our agreement!”
“Is this old master so untrustworthy?” Gui Zu coldly snorted, “For even saying that, this old master could condemn you to a dozen deaths! Don’t think that you can escape from this old master’s palm by tearing space. You’re too weak, I can easily stop you before you even try!”
“I believe Senior has such strength, but if you must act, Junior won’t just sit still waiting for death!” Yang Kai said solemnly.
“Senior Gui Zu, in light of Brother Yang fulfilling his promise and bringing you out from that place, can’t you…” Shen Tu wanted to put in a good word but before he could finish, Gui Zu stared coldly at him, causing Shen Tu’s expression to fill with pain as he gripped his head and howled miserably.
Seeing this, Yang Kai slightly paled.
“Senior…” Yue Xi also opened her mouth to speak.
But Gui Zu only glanced at her before Yue Xi’s face became pale and she began screaming just like Shen Tu.
“This old master is Gui Zu, this old master was never a man of his word. You believing in me was your greatest mistake!” Gui Zu scorned.
His body suddenly blurred and Yang Kai’s heart screamed out in alert, but before he could tear space, a gloomy aura pressed down on him making him unable to move.
Gui Zu appeared in front of Yang Kai’s eyes, a sneer upon his face.
“Good, this old master really intended to kill you after you brought me out from that cage. As for the reason, it was because you never sincerely wished to work with me,” Gui Zu sneered, “You think this old master didn’t know what you were planning? It was only because this old master’s strength dominated over you that you cooperated. If it were any other Saint King or Origin Returning Realm cultivator, they would have been long ago abandoned by you!”
Yang Kai didn’t say anything, because what Gui Zu said was the truth.
It was only because this old monster’s strength was so much higher that Yang Kai couldn’t plot against him.
“A few breaths ago, this old master still planned to settle things as such,” Gui Zu’s expression suddenly changed and a frown appeared on his face, “But now, this old master has changed his mind. You put your own life at risk to save mine, and although I know that was not your intention and you only did so to rescue those two little girls, if this old master were to kill you, that would be too ungrateful. If word spread out, it would only turn this old master into a joke.”
“This old master doesn’t like the feeling of owing someone a debt, regardless of the reasons; you saved this old master’s life, giving him the chance to seek his vengeance, so this old master will spare your life!”
Yang Kai’s eyes flashed as he stared at Gui Zu dubiously.
“Surprised? Did you think this old master was someone lacking all sense of humanity?”
Yang Kai frowned and shook his head, “Junior never thought so. Since Senior did not forget his hatred for an entire two thousand years, he could not lack humanity. Perhaps two thousand years ago, Senior was a good man!”
“Ha ha ha!” Gui Zu laughed riotously, “A good man? Good, this old master was really a good man at the time, but two thousand years of hatred and solitude is enough to change one’s nature.”
“Little brat, do you want to follow this old master?” Gui Zu suddenly lowered his voice and stared at Yang Kai seriously, “This old master appreciates your talent. If you follow this old master, no one across this vast Star Field will dare to embarrass you. This old master can also guide your cultivation, allowing you to reach the Origin Returning Realm in the shortest time. With your aptitude, that will definitely be less than a hundred years!”
Yang Kai didn’t even think about it before shaking his head, “Senior’s offer is quite generous, but Junior doesn’t intend to live his life like this.”
“You would refuse this old master?” Gui Zu looked at Yang Kai with amazement, “You actually dare reject this old master’s offer? Are you looking down on this old master?”
His expression suddenly became violent, his eyes filled with dissatisfaction because of Yang Kai’s answer, even arousing his just settled killing intent.
Yang Kai however just smiled and said, “Senior must be joking, you are an Origin King Realm powerhouse on the same level as a Star Master, I don’t think anyone wouldn’t wish to take shelter under your wings. Junior as greatly admires your achievements, how could I possibly look down on you?”
“Then why do you refuse?”
Yang Kai frowned for a moment before saying, “Junior doesn’t wish to grow up as a greenhouse flower, too delicate to withstand the wind and rain. I believe Senior’s words, that with your help, within less than a hundred year I will reach the Origin Returning Realm, but… perhaps after maturing in such an environment, the Origin Returning Realm will be my limit. I wish to pursue higher realms, such as the realm of Senior… in order to do that, I must temper myself with danger and slaughter!”
Gui Zu’s originally unhappy look gave way to one of approval as he nodded to Yang Kai, “What you say has some truth. This old master won’t force you. If you ever change your mind, you can always come find me, this old master’s name will soon resound throughout the Star Field, so it shouldn’t be difficult to seek me out.”
“Junior wishes Senior success in his revenge and that your thousand-year-old grudge may be swiftly settled!” Yang Kai cupped his fists.
These words seemed to go straight to Gui Zu’s heart and elicited a smile on his face. A moment later he nodded, “Little brat, seems you can speak well. This old master appreciates you more and more. En, here, you can hold on to this thing, it’s useless to this old master in any case. Consider it as a thank you for saving my life!”
Saying so, Gui Zu tossed a small black object over to Yang Kai.
Yang Kai instinctually caught it and upon examining it, he discovered that it was some kind of token engraved with a single word, ‘Emperor’!
Even though it was just a simple engraving, the sense of oppression that this ‘Emperor’ gave off made it difficult for Yang Kai to even breathe.
“The Star Sect Command?” Yang Kai exclaimed.
He remembered that this token had been found inside Yue Xi’s Space Ring by Gui Zu. When this token had appeared, Yue Xi, Lu Gui Chen, and everyone else had shown near fanatically looks.
Yang Kai had realized then that this Star Sect Command was some kind of supreme treasure that was enough to attract everyone’s attention.
“Senior, this thing…”
“Don’t you know what it is?” Gui Zu asked.
Yang Kai shook his head.
“En, you come from a lower world, so not knowing is understandable. A Star Sect Command, also known as a Star Emperor Token, is the token of the Starry Sky Great Emperor!”
“Starry Sky Great Emperor?” Yang Kai asked in confusion.
“He is a legendary character from the past, and was said to have single-handedly controlled an entire Star Field at one point. His cultivation was exceedingly high, superior to even this old master! When he took control of the Star Field, he produced ten Star Emperor Tokens, each one of them sealing one of his Divine Abilities, each of which was capable of destroying a star!”
Yang Kai paled as his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, only now realizing why Lu Gui Chen and Yue Xi were willing to expend so many resources and people to compete for this Star Emperor Token. He also thoroughly understood just how precious this Star Emperor Token was.
Each Star Emperor Token was imbued with the power of the Star Field Great Emperor, which when unleashed was capable of killing an Origin King Realm powerhouse.
Yang Kai was so shocked he was unable to speak.
“Back in this old master’s era, someone used a Star Emperor Token to kill an Origin King Realm master.”
“Can this thing really kill an Origin King?”
“That’s what the rumours say at least. This old master obviously never witnessed such a feat so I can’t say for certain. It may just be an exaggeration, but even if it is, the power it contains can’t be underestimated. After so many years though, most of the ten Star Emperor Tokens have probably been used, so guard this one carefully. If you ever encounter some kind of disaster you cannot handle, it may just save your life, but remember, each Star Emperor Token can only be used once!” Gui Zu explained.
Yang Kai suddenly felt that this Star Emperor Token was an extremely heavy and hesitantly looked towards Gui Zu, “Senior, this token is so precious, why would you give it to me?”
Gui Zu grinned, “This old master has no children or disciples; on top of that, with my current strength, there is no one in this Star Field who can threaten me, so what use would I have for it? If you don’t want it, just throw it away. I’m sure those few over there will be more than happy enough to pick it up.
Saying so, he gestured towards Shen Tu and the others who were observing from a thousand meters away.
Yang Kai decisively stuffed the Star Emperor Token into the Demon Mystic Tome and hid it in the deepest corner he could find!
Gui Zu saw this and nodded with satisfaction, “Very good, en, do you want this old master to take you out of here?”
“No, I can find the direction to leave,” Yang Kai declined.
Gui Zu didn’t insist, grinning as he said, “Fine, live well. This old master will head out first.”
Saying so, Gui Zu transformed into a dark cloud and quickly flew off.
Staring in the direction he left, Yang Kai wore a frown for a moment before shaking his head and chuckling before turning back towards Shen Tu and the others.
The five others had been waiting quietly. Shen Tu and Yue Xi, who had been targeted by Gui Zu, still had some lingering fear on their faces as just thinking about the old monster’s mysterious means made a chill run up their backs.
“Brother Yang… Did he leave?” Shen Tu asked nervously.
“En, he left!” Yang Kai nodded.
“He really just left?” Shen Tu was amazed. A moment ago, when Gui Zu suddenly flew over to Yang Kai, all of them had thought there would be no escaping, but never had then anticipated that after a quick chat, Gui Zu would actually leisurely depart.
This was really too unexpected.
“He’s really gone,” Yang Kai repeated, “You don’t have to be so nervous. In fact, he’s not all that bad, just a bit short-tempered.”
Hearing Yang Kai’s reassurances, everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed.
“Masters like him…” Yue Xi smiled bitterly, “They essentially don’t care whether people like us live or die.”
“Brother Yang, what did he say to you just now, it almost looked like you were having a pleasant chat,” Shen Tu asked curiously.
“Nothing much, he thanked me, then reprimanding me…” Yang Kai shrugged his shoulders, making up a story on the spot. He firmly believed that what he and Gui Zu had just talked about wasn’t known by these few.
The fact that the Star Emperor Token had fallen into his hands was something he obviously couldn’t tell them.
The value of this token was simply too great; once news of its existence leaked out, it would surely stir up a storm of trouble.
Scanning his surroundings for a moment, Yang Kai said, “Let’s go, we should leave this place too.”
After he said this though, everyone looked at him bitterly, with none of them moving.
“Leave here? How? We’re still inside the Chaotic Abyss and neither our Sword Union’s Chart Master or Purple Star’s Chart Master are here,” Yue Xi smiled bitterly.
Bi Ya quickly inspected her Star Shuttle and shook her head, “My Star Chart has also been damaged and can’t be used. Without a proper Star Chart, we won’t be able to find the way out.”
The joy of just escaping from the floating continent was once again replaced by despair as an ugly look appeared on everyone’s face.
“Oh, not a problem. Senior Gui Zu gave me some directions a moment ago, just follow me,” Yang Kai said lightly.
A bunch of surprised eyes instantly stared towards him.
Shen Tu asking doubtfully, “Brother Yang, you mean that Gui Zu not only didn’t kill you, keeping his word, but even kindly gave you directions?”
“En,” Yang Kai nodded shamelessly.
“Huh? How did he suddenly become so cordial?” Shen Tu still couldn’t believe it, “It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Well, it’s the truth. Let’s go!” Yang Kai summoned his Star Shuttle which Shen Tu jumped up onto unceremoniously with a smile on his face, “Brother Yang, I’ll have to rely on you, I have no artifacts on me.”
“Not a problem.”
The group of six people, riding four Star Shuttles, flew out as swift as the wind across the Chaotic Abyss.
Yang Kai, while leading the way, immersed his consciousness into his Knowledge Sea to spy on the vast Star Chart above it to confirm their position.
Doing so, he quickly realized the preciousness of this Star Chart.
Because by using this Star Chart, he could easily find his current location and accurately plot a course to leave the Chaotic Abyss without suffering even the slightest interference from the chaotic flow of energy of this place.
Yang Kai wasn’t sure where Purple Star’s Chart Master Wu Suo had obtained this magical treasure but now it was owned by him.
He was even somewhat grateful to Wu Suo, because if the latter hadn’t died so close to him, he wouldn’t have been able to obtain this Star Chart and gain knowledge of all the dangers and wonders throughout the Star Field.
With such a Star Chart, Yang Kai could freely go anywhere he wanted to.
Time passed by, and with the exception of Shen Tu, who kept chattering on endlessly, everyone else stayed relatively quiet. Bi Ya would occasionally say a few words to Shen Tu, but when she discovered that he would go on and on without end, she quickly began ignoring him.
After experiencing this series of hardships together, the other five in the group had unconsciously regarded Yang Kai as their hope and leader, choosing to believe in his decisions without any objections.
Following Yang Kai, they flew through the Chaotic Abyss for two months.
On this day, a different type of scenery finally appeared before them.
It was a dense Asteroid Sea, with countless large and small asteroids seemingly blotting out the Starry Sky, each of them rapidly flying about under the influence of some inexplicable force. This Asteroid Sea was so vast that it was impossible to see where it began or ended.
Upon seeing this giant Asteroid Sea, everyone’s eyes couldn’t help lighting up.
“We can leave!” Shen Tu shouted, “Haha, we can finally leave this forsaken place!”
“How do you know?” Yang Kai asked curiously.
“The periphery of the Chaotic Abyss is surrounded by a giant Asteroid Sea, everyone knows this,” Shen Tu replied.
Yang Kai glanced around and saw everyone nodding in agreement.
“Seems I’m the only one who’s ignorant,” Yang Kai rubbed his nose.
Shen Tu laughed, patting Yang Kai’s shoulder in a friendly manner, “The place you came from is isolated after all… En, you can slowly learn such things from now on. Fuck, I’ll never come anywhere near the Chaotic Abyss again in my life, this place is really just filled with disaster.”
“How did a young master from Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce get caught by Lu Gui Chen in the first place? Where were your guards?” Yue Xi suddenly asked.
“A young master from Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce?” Bi Ya covered her red lips and exclaimed, her beautiful eyes flashing a strange light as she stared towards Shen Tu.
Shen Tu gawked towards Yue Xi for a moment before grinning, “When did you see through my identity?”
“I didn’t, but I had my suspicions. Back on that floating continent, your urged Yang Kai to deliver a message to Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce, and your appearance… It’s somewhat similar to a great man I once saw many years ago, en, that Senior was named Ai Ou!” Yue Xi said solemnly.
“Ai Ou? Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce President Ai Ou?” Bi Ya called out in alarm this time as she stared at Shen Tu’s incredulously.
Even He Zao and He Miao couldn’t help trembling in shock, neither of them having imagined that Shen Tu had such a profound background.
Listening to this conversation, Yang Kai suddenly understood what kind of great family Shen Tu came from.
From what he had learned from Shen Tu, Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce was one of the Star Field’s super forces, on the same level as Purple Star and Sword Union; however, unlike Purple Star and Sword Union, they were mainly focused on business, hence their title as a Chamber of Commerce. Their influence had proliferated throughout the entire Star Field and had ties to all its important forces.
Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce occupied the stars with the most abundant resources in the Star Field, and could thus provide a lot of rare supplies to these forces, for a price.
“You’re the son of President Ai Ou?” Bi Ya stared at Shen Tu with amazement, “How come I’ve never heard of you before?”
“I’m an illegitimate child. My name hasn’t been publicly announced,” Shen Tu grinned meaningfully, “You never having heard of me is natural.”
Yue Xi couldn’t help coughing, her expression becoming slightly unnatural, “There are rumours that President Ai Ou was once quite loose and created a number of emotional debts outside in his youth…”
Bi Ya smiled bitterly, “If you have such an identity, why didn’t you say anything to Senior Lu at the time? If he knew who you were, he would have rushed to receive you as a guest, how could he have thrown you into the Starship’s power room?”
At the mention of Lu Gui Chen, Shen Tu gnashed his teeth and grumbled, “I did tell him, but he didn’t believe me. If it wasn’t for Brother Yang’s timely help, I’m afraid I would already died back in your Purple Star Starship.”
Everyone’s expression became awkward, but after thinking about it for a moment, they understood why Lu Gui Chen wouldn’t believe Shen Tu’s words.
President Ai Ou was a famous man who had several sons, a number of whom were not known to the public, so if an unnamed youth suddenly claimed to be one of them, it was likely no one would believe him and would instead think he was just trying to borrow an identity to increase his status.
“Your luck is really terrible,” Yang Kai looked at him sympathetically.
“What else could I have done?” Shen Tu said indignantly, “If this was really where I had died, it would have been too much of a tragedy!”
Seeing him grumble like this, He Miao couldn’t help but giggle.
The group of six soon dove into the boundless Asteroid Sea, and after a few days, emerged on the other side.
The sights in front of them also changed, there were now many more stars, some of them giving off great amounts of heat, some of them cold like ice, still others brimming with vitality while a large number of them were completely desolate.
“We’re out!” Shen Tu shouted joyfully.
Four streaks of azure light came to a stop outside the Chaotic Abyss, and looking out at the familiar scene of the Star Field, with the exception of Yang Kai who was seeing this for the first time, everyone felt exhilarated, Shen Tu even shouting out loud to express his joy.
Only after some time did everyone’s mood slowly settle.
“Where are we?” Bi Ya turned her head and looked around, knowing that they were just outside the Chaotic Abyss but unable to accurately determine their exact location.
“I recognize this place, I was captured not far from here. It’s also not far from Water Moon Star, the chamber of commerce’s main star. En, by Star Shuttle we should be able to arrive there in just over a month,” Shen Tu explained.
“Water Moon Star?” Yue Xi spoke thoughtfully, “If you say so, then I can understand our general position. Sword Union’s Sword Star is probably in that direction,” She said as she pointed to a certain spot in the Starry Sky.
“Would you like to come to Water Moon Star for a few days?” Shen Tu looked around at the crowd and extended an invitation. After the life or death crisis they had all experienced together, a sense of camaraderie had formed between the people present.
Yue Xi glanced over at Yang Kai and seemed to want to agree, but soon she wore a bitter look and shook her head, “No, after losing a Saint King Grade High-Rank Starship and hundreds of elite cultivators, I have to return to Sword Union as soon as possible make a report.”
Shen Tu directed a look containing some sympathy towards her and said, “If a day comes where you can’t remain in Sword Union, Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce will welcome you. Although I don’t have much status in the chamber of commerce compared to my brothers, recommending a few people to join is still possible.”
Yang Kai’s thoughts turned quickly and soon understood that after Yue Xi returned to Sword Union she would likely face some harsh punishment; after all, the losses that had been suffered under her watch had been great, and she had even lost the all-important Star Emperor Token.
“If such a day comes, I’ll consider it…” Yue Xi replied with a forced smile.
She once again turned to Yang Kai, a complicated look appearing on her face, after a long silence saying softly, “Yang Kai, thank you. Thank you for bringing us Master and Disciples out from that prison and for returning to save us from The Void.”
Hesitating again, she whispered, “Also… I’m sorry!”
Saying so, she bowed her head and sincerely apologized for all the unpleasantness that had transpired between them.
Yang Kai nodded lightly, accepting her apology.
“We three will take our leave first then,” Yue Xi said before turning in the direction of Sword Star and flying off.
“Yang Kai, you take care. I hope we can meet again someday!” He Miao continually waved to Yang Kai, clearly somewhat reluctant to part.
“Take care,” He Zao nodded.
“You as well!” Yang Kai smiled and waved, watching their three figures gradually drift away and disappear into the vast Starry Sky.
“They may not have, but you’ll accept my invitation, right Brother Yang?” Shen Tu asked Yang Kai.
“Why not? I’m new to the Star Field in any case, I don’t have anywhere in particular I’d like to go yet, nor do I have place to stay,” Yang Kai grinned, “Coming with you to Water Moon Star sounds like as good a plan as any.”
“Then I must thank Brother Yang in advance. If I really had to fly back to Water Moon Star all alone, I’d probably die somewhere along the road,” Shen Tu said happily, “Let’s get going.”
“Wait a moment,” Yang Kai said, turning his head to look at Bi Ya and lightly saying, “You should also leave.”
“Where should I go?” Bi Ya asked with surprise.
“I don’t know, go wherever you want to go. You don’t want to follow me in any case.”
Bi Ya’s beautiful eyes lit up as she stared at Yang Kai in shock, “You mean… I’m free?”
“I told you back on that strange continent. After we leave, you and I would part ways, I don’t have any intention of restricting your freedom.”
“Then why did you…” Bi Ya looked at Yang Kai in confusion, not understanding why he had collected her Soul Brand to control whether she lived or died if his plan was to just let her go in the end.
“That was your punishment. You and the others are different, the two of us had many grudges before. Lu Gui Chen I could discard to die in that place, but I decided to bring you out; however, you must pay an appropriate price, your Soul Brand,” Yang Kai quickly said, “I’ll keep this brand with me to ensure you don’t reveal any of my secrets and to make certain you don’t plot against me in the future. Who knows, a couple hundred years later, if I feel generous, I might return it to you.”
Bi Ya looked especially bitter as she stared at Yang Kai faintly, biting her red lips, “What if you accidentally die?”
“You best pray that I don’t, that my longevity rivals that of the Heavens themselves!” Yang Kai said to her with complete seriousness.
Bi Ya couldn’t help smiling at this, “Your appetite is too big… Forget it, in any case, I’m lucky enough to be able to escape from that place alive, if you need to keep my Soul Brand then keep it! However, I don’t really have any place to go now. I don’t dare return to Purple Star… after so many people died, if I return alone, I’ll definitely be questioned. En, Young Master Shen Tu, could you introduce me to your Chamber of Commerce? Although I’m currently just a Third-Order Saint, after living on that continent for so long and receiving its blessings, I feel that I am soon going to break through to the Saint King Realm. With such a cultivation, it won’t be a loss for you to recruit me.”
Shen Tu thought about it for a moment and nodded, “If you can break through to the Saint King Realm… our Chamber of Commerce will be happy to accept you.”
“Wonderful, then I’ll accompany you to Water Moon Star. I guarantee that after a month of retreat I will break through,” Bi Ya declared happily before winking playfully to Yang Kai, “It’s your own choice to not cherish this servant, don’t regret letting me go later.”
“Can your Chamber of Commerce accept this kind of woman?” Yang Kai stared blankly at Shen Tu.
“What’s the problem?” Shen Tu asked in confusion.
Yang Kai shook his head and said nothing. Bi Ya’s cultivation technique was obviously an evil one that harvests Yang to supplement Yin. If such a woman appeared on Tong Xuan Realm, she would definitely become a public enemy and would definitely be killed before she could mature.
There was an abundance of self-righteous defenders of justice in Tong Xuan Realm.
Bi Yaw was the type of woman these people most despised.
However, it was obvious that Shen Tu didn’t care much about it and was actually willing to introduce her to the Chamber of Commerce.
The Star Field was quite different from Tong Xuan Realm; they didn’t place a heavy emphasis on good or evil but were instead more focused on strong or weak.
“Hmph, and just what kind of woman am I?” Bi Ya asked unhappily. After confirming that Yang Kai really had no plans to restrict her freedom, she immediately relaxed and longer acted reserved towards him.
“Could you not be clear about what kind of woman you are?” Yang Kai cast her a sidelong glance.
“I’m flirtatious and fickle, and I do not try to suppress my desires. All you men act this way, why can’t women too?” Bi Ya grumbled with dissatisfaction.
“Good, let’s go. I can’t wait to return to Water Moon Star to rest,” Shen Tu cut in before pointing the way out to Yang Kai who immediately urged his Star Shuttle forward.
Along the way, Bi Ya’s carefree laughter rang out frequently, as if she was a bird that had just escaped from its cage, her face full of smiles.
Yang Kai soon discovered that the Star Shuttle she was riding was faster than his own.
This was not just because he was carrying Shen Tu with him, but rather because her Star Shuttle was of a higher grade.
This increased Yang Kai’s determination to purchase a higher grade Star Shuttle after they reached Water Moon Star, because he felt he would be spending a lot of time flying through the Starry Sky in the future and a good Star Shuttle would save him a lot of time.
Shen Tu knew the region around Water Moon Star very well so, under his guidance, the group of three people managed to avoid many dangers and quickly arrive at their destination.
One day, a giant five-coloured star appeared in front of the group of three, one that exuded a strong vitality and overflowed with rich World Energy.
Standing atop his Star Shuttle, Yang Kai’s eyes lit up as he understood that this was the Water Moon Star Shen Tu spoke of, the primary star of Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce.
The entire star was covered in a layer of clouds and from the Star Field above one could vaguely make out various mainlands and oceans, it was even possible to see some dense groupings of buildings in various locations. Among those clusters of buildings, countless black specs few about
Naturally, these black specs were cultivators!
Yang Kai’s spirits were roused as realized he had finally reached the true Star Field.
After leaving Tong Xuan Realm, he had been wandering aimlessly, exploring vast swaths of the Starry Sky, but he hadn’t seen much worthy of note until now, nor had he come across any Cultivation Stars where other people gathered.
Water Moon Star was his first stop!
He couldn’t help feeling a little excited.
“Fly over there!” Shen Tu pointed towards a certain spot, “My palace is in that direction.”
“En,” Yang Kai followed his directions and continued flying forward.
After a short time, the group of three broke through the thick clouds and descended towards Water Moon Star.
A force of attraction came from the star that pulled the Star Shuttle towards it, but this force wasn’t too strong and Yang Kai could easily resist it.
Upon penetrating the cloud layer, the world suddenly brightened and everything on Water Moon Star became visible.
Yang Kai behaved like a country bumpkin who had just entered the city for the first time, looking every which way, appreciating the new sights and sounds.
Seeing him act like this, Bi Ya and Shen Tu exchanged a glance and couldn’t help laughing.
Both of them understood that Yang Kai had come from a lower world and had probably never experienced such a magnificent sight before.
Amidst the sky, many blue streaks of light flew back and forth; naturally, these were cultivators hurrying along with the help of their Star Shuttles.
Unlike in Tong Xuan Realm, where only Yang Kai possessed such an artifact, Star Shuttles zipping around were a common sight on Water Moon Star.
Shen Tu continued guiding them casually while allowing Yang Kai to take in the view.
Along the way, the trio passed through many majestic cities in which a myriad of races peacefully coexisted.
Yang Kai saw cultivators from the Human Race, Demon Race, Monster Race, and even the Horn Race from Great Demon God’s memories, and that was just the start. There were many other races present he couldn’t name…
All of these cultivators lived together in one place without any kind of apparent racial discrimination.
“How can a single force manage and govern multiple Cultivation Stars?” Yang Kai was puzzled. When he initially became the Holy Lord of Nine Heavens Holy Land, he had been busy all day long and managing its situation had consumed a massive amount of his time and energy, he couldn’t even imagine how difficult it would be for him if all of Tong Xuan Realm had been placed under his command.
Yang Kai couldn’t imagine how a force’s leader could manage even one Cultivation Star, much less several of them. Their schedule would probably not have a single free moment of time. When would they even find time to cultivate?
“Layers upon layers of management,” Shen Tu explained with a smile, “There are high-level managers, then mid-level managers, then low-level managers, each one responsible for the level below them. The ones at the top don’t need to deal with everything.”
Hearing this explanation, Yang Kai realized he had just asked a stupid question and immediately kept quiet.
Yang Kai had never been in or reached such a position before, nor had he ever sought out such a position, so he felt such things were somewhat asinine, but people seek higher heights just like water flows down to the sea. Ultimately, this was just a different method of reaching the top .
Beasts had pack leaders while empires had monarchs. Standing atop a mountain, one would be able to enjoy the unique scenery and have the ability to command the subjects beneath them, but this wasn’t something Yang Kai concerned himself with.
After an hour or so, a group of buildings that covered a vast area appeared in front of the trio and Shen Tu instructed Yang Kai to land.
The designs of these buildings were strange, something Yang Kai had never seen before, many of them were like giant spires that stood thousands of meters high and were clustered all together.
“We’re here. Everywhere within a three thousand kilometre radius is my personal territory,” Shen Tu leapt off the Star Shuttle and spread out his arms, breathing in the air in an exaggerated manner, a cheerful look upon his face.
Yang Kai and Bi Ya also retrieved their Star Shuttles and landed behind him.
Yang Kai released his Divine Sense to examine his surroundings and was amazed to discover that there were several hundred cultivators in the area. These cultivators had varying cultivations, some of them not very high at all, only at the Transcendent Realm, Immortal Ascension Boundary, or even True Element Boundary. There were also a number of powerful auras comparable to that of Yue Xi and Lu Gui Chen.
Saint King Realm masters!
Yang Kai understood that there were a lot of masters in the Star Field, but even these masters had to grow step by step from the Initial Element Stage, to Qi Transformation Stage, Separation and Reunion Boundary, True Element Boundary, Immortal Ascension Boundary, etc….
Cultivation was a continuous process of breaking through one’s limits in order to obtain more and more tyrannical strength.
However, in order to escape the bounds of the Cultivation Star they were born in and travel to the Starry Sky, they had to at least reach the Saint Realm, so none of those Yang Kai saw out amongst the stars was weak.
Beneath the Saint Realm, even with the protection of a Star Shuttle, most didn’t dare risk traversing the Starry Sky.
Even brief contact with the power of the Starry Sky would be enough to kill them! Such cultivators had to shelter themselves inside great Starships to ensure their safety.
It seemed that because of the arrival of the group of three, the cultivators in this place had become alert and a middle-aged man in a black suit quickly appeared from inside. After seeing Shen Tu though, this man couldn’t help wearing a happy expression and shouting, “Young Master Shen Tu, you’ve come back?”
“En, I’ve returned,” Shen Tu nodded at him and grinned, “Has anything happened here since I left?”
The middle-aged man shook his head and said, “Nothing of importance, but President Ai Ou has been looking for you since six months ago. Because Young Master suddenly disappeared, President flew into a rage for quite some time.”
Hearing this, Shen Tu paled, shrinking his neck, “Did father come looking for me? What did he say?”
The middle-aged man shook his head, “President didn’t say anything, he only ordered that you see him as soon as you returned!”
Shen Tu’s expression became bitter as he muttered, “I’m finished. Death might be avoidable, but Father will definitely peel a layer of skin at least.”
As the two of them spoke, Yang Kai silently observed and quickly determined that this middle-aged man and the few masters hidden around this compound were subordinates of Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce sent to protect Shen Tu.
The middle-aged man was also observing Yang Kai and Bi Ya. He didn’t show much reaction to Yang Kai, but upon seeing Bi Ya, he wore an obviously disgruntled expression.
He seemed to be able to see at a glance that Bi Ya was a promiscuous woman and probably thought that she had seduced Shen Tu into accepting her.
“Young Master, these two are…” The middle-aged man continued to stare at Yang Kai and Bi Ya.
“Right, this guy is Yang Kai!” Shen Tu wrapped his arm around Yang Kai’s shoulder in a friendly manner and said, “He is a life or death brother I met while outside. En, Uncle Jia Long should regard him as my life’s benefactor.”
“Young Master’s benefactor?” The middle-aged man named Jia Long wore a stunned expression but didn’t ask anything, quickly cupping his fists to Yang Kai and saying, “Many thanks to little brother for your care of my Young Master. Young Master has been stubborn and disobedient since he was young and has probably caused little brother much trouble, I hope little brother can be broad-minded!”
“Senior is too polite, Shen Tu and I both helped one another,” Yang Kai smiled humbly.
Jia Long gently nodded, showing a satisfied look upon his face.
“This woman…” Shen Tu pointed to Bi Ya, “En, she was originally a Purple Star cultivator, but now wishes to join our Chamber of Commerce. Please arrange things for her Uncle Long.”
“Purple Star?” Jia Long frowned, “Her strength is a bit low…”
“As long as I can enter secluded retreat, I will be able to break through to the Saint King Realm within half a month!” Bi Ya hurriedly declared, clearly anxious to obtain a place to take shelter.
“Half a month to break through to the Saint King Realm?” Jia Long’s thick brow rose slightly, “If you become a Saint King, our Chamber of Commerce will gladly welcome you, en, you can enter secluded retreat here for the time being.”
Saying so, he gently clapped his hands and a guard immediately flew out from the palace and landed beside him.
“Lead this young lady to a cultivation room and provide her with some Saint Crystals and pill,” Jia Long said.
“Yes.”
“Thank you Young Master Shen Tu, thank you Senior Jia Long,” Bi Ya’s pretty face showed a happy look as she bowed elegantly to Shen Tu before turning to Yang Kai, “I hope we meet again.”
Yang Kai nodded lightly.
After Bi Ya was led away, Shen Tu enthusiastically ushered Yang Kai into the palace.
The middle-aged cultivator called Jia Long followed suit.
The guards and maidservants they met along the way all bowed and saluted respectfully.
“Brother, I’m going to go bathe and change, you should do so as well. If there is anything you’d like to talk about, we can do so a bit later,” Inside the palace, Shen Tu said casually, “Don’t think of yourself as an outsider here.”
“Good,” Yang Kai accepted politely.
Shen Tu smiled before reaching out and wrapping his arms around two young girls before walking towards the inside of the building while smirking.
“Young Master Yang, this way please!” Another maidservant with beautiful looks and a graceful figure walked up to Yang Kai and beckoned for him to follow her.
Behind her, Yang Kai walked through the palace.
Although Shen Tu had said he was an illegitimate son of President Ai Ou whose existence wasn’t disclosed to the public, from the extent of the territory he was given to the staff he was provided with, it was obvious that Shen Tu did not have a low position in President Ai Ou’s heart.
If that were not so, there wouldn’t be several Saint King Realm cultivators acting as bodyguards in this place, nor would Shen Tu have been granted dominion over a three thousand kilometre radius piece of land.
Yang Kai wasn’t interested in inquiring about other peoples’ affairs though and simply followed behind the maidservant, soon arriving at a large room.
Inside this room was a grand bed covered with light pink translucent curtains, giving it a warm aura.
The room was filled with flowers and a short distance away there was a massive bath made from the purest white jade. This bath was filled with hot water that gave off a light steamy mist.
Colourful flower petals floated atop the bath and beside it were a number of beautiful women wearing revealing negligee. When these women saw Yang Kai walk in, they all smiled and bowed politely.
The light mist surrounding them added an element of mystery to their beauty.
The white steam lightly wet the thin clothes they wore and caused them to cling to their seductive curves, emphasising their amazing body lines.
Yang Kai was stunned, not having expected to suddenly encounter such a scene, his pulse increasing slightly as his breathing became a bit heavy as he stared towards these young women.
Their ages didn’t seem too high and each of them had perfect, snow-white skin that was full of rosy, seductive lustre. They had outstanding appearances and a variety of temperaments as well as charming smiles and enchanting bodies that could fascinate any man.
To Yang Kai’s obvious gaze, some of them responded boldly with hot eyes while others showed bashful appearances, covering their most sensitive places with their hands in an alluring manner…
[That Shen Tu actually lives such an indulgent lifestyle…]
Yang Kai couldn’t help commenting to himself.
“Does Young Master need your servant to help you remove your clothes?” The maidservant who had led him here, seeing Yang Kai freeze up, showed an intoxicating smile and couldn’t help calling out softly.
Yang Kai took back his gaze and shook his head before asking, “Was all this arranged by your Young Master?”
“It was this servant who made these arrangements…” The maidservant replied, “But it was in lines with Young Master Shen’s intentions, he made a point of mentioning that Young Master is an honoured guest so this servant made sure to provide the highest level of reception possible. En, Young Master is only the second person to enjoy this level of service.”
“Oh? Have you received someone like this once before?”
“Yes,” The maidservant nodded, “But Young Master may rest assured that these sisters all still possess their innocence and have not been tarnished in any way, they are also very happy to serve Young Master Shen Tu’s guests.”
“Why would they be very happy?” Yang Kai asked curiously.
“Because Young Master Shen Tu has a graciousness to them, each of them volunteered to become a maidservant here, no one has forced them to do anything. Before arranging for them to come here, this servant has consulted with and received each of their agreement.”
Yang Kai once again looked towards the young women in front of him and discovered that they truly didn’t show any signs of unwillingness, understanding that the maidservant who led him here was telling the truth.
“Is Young Master dissatisfied with them? If so, your servant can replace them, I will certainly be able to find one to your liking.”
“No need,” Yang Kai shook his head.
“Then…”
Yang Kai thought about it for a moment then grinned, “Good, since Shen Tu is willing to show such kind intentions, to refuse would be impolite.”
Saying so, he calmly removed his robes and leapt into the bath.
The women standing next to the bath all smiled happily and slipped into the water after him, gracefully swimming over to Yang Kai and taking the initiative to press their tender bodies onto his, fully revealing their beautiful figures as they attentively served and bathed him.
The young girls inside the bath were all innocent maidens, so although each of them had received training in this area before, seeing how it was their first time going into battle, it was inevitable that their actions were a bit clumsy, but it was just right for Yang Kai. Relaxing inside the bath, he leaned up against its edge and closed his eyes, allowing the girls to wash every part of his body.
The maidservant who had led Yang Kai here walked over with a basket of flower petals and using her jade hand lightly sprinkled them into the bath while lightly explaining, “These Soul Soothing Flowers can help nourish one’s Spiritual Energy as well as strengthen one’s physique while they bathe… En, it can also help enhance a man’s ability in that regard!”
Saying so, her face went bright red with embarrassment.
Suddenly, Yang Kai gently pulled her into the bath, causing her to let out a yelp of surprise, the warm water soaking her clothes. When she straightened herself up and gently brushed the water from her face, she shot an embarrassed look towards Yang Kai.
Her wet clothes now stuck to her body, emphasising her pair of rich jade peaks which were grander than any of the other girls present, her body exuding a mature and graceful charm her younger cohorts lacked.
“Do you no longer possess your innocence?” Yang Kai smiled towards her.
The maidservant’s face went redder and she shyly nodded, “This servant has already been deflowered, so she is no longer qualified to serve Young Master in this regard.”
“Whether or not you have such qualifications is for me to decide.”
Her beautiful eyes brightened as she elegantly removed her wet clothes then plunged into the water and disappeared.
Soon, Yang Kai revealed a blissful look.
……
Inside a grand hall, instruments played while rows of beautiful young women sang and danced.
Behind a long table filled with precious foods and fine wines, Shen Tu and Yang Kai sit side by side while drinking and enjoying themselves.
A progression of maidservants brought new delicacies to the table frequently.
Yang Kai didn’t recognize most of these dishes, but he could easily tell that each of them was exuding potent energy fluctuations. These foods weren’t just capable of satisfying one’s appetite, but would also serve as nourishment for one’s cultivation.
Yang Kai did not stand on ceremony and ate and drank in a relaxed manner.
The middle-aged cultivator named Jia Long stood not far away, and observing the manner in which Shen Tu received Yang Kai, serving him the finest of food and wine, he realized that this Second-Order Saint Realm youth had an incredibly high status in his Young Master’s heart.
He couldn’t help but wonder what kind of skill this young man possessed to warrant Shen Tu treating him so seriously.
The maidservant who had served Yang Kai before came up and leaned over to Shen Tu, whispering a few words into his ear before shooting a glance over at Yang Kai, her cheeks dyed bright red, and then withdrawing.
Shen Tu couldn’t help grinning, a meaningful look appearing on his face, but he didn’t bring this matter up, instead turning to Yang Kai and asking, “Brother Yang, do you have any ideas about what you’re going to do next?”
“Not yet,” Yang Kai shook his head.
Shen Tu knew that he had just arrived in the Star Field and perhaps didn’t have any particular destination or plans in mind as of yet.
As such, he was seriously thinking about trying to recruit Yang Kai.
Water Moon Star was Yang Kai’s first stop in the Star Field, and Shen Tu had a good relationship with him, so he believed that if Yang Kai stayed with him for a time, he would be able to persuade him to join Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce.
After the series of events they had experienced together, Shen Tu had become fully aware of Yang Kai’s ability and potential and knew that if given enough time he would become a truly terrifying master.
“Well, in that case, there’s no need to be anxious. You can live here for now with your good brother and when you think of something you want to do you can let me know,” Shen Tu didn’t openly invite him to stay and instead left the decision up to Yang Kai; after all, he couldn’t treat him like a subordinate.
“Good, when the time comes I’ll let you know,” Yang Kai smiled as he continued to watch the group of dancing girls perform, admiring their graceful postures.
After a couple of hours, when they were both fully satiated, Shen Tu stumbled back to his room thoroughly drunk to rest while Yang Kai was also taken to a room under the guidance of a maid.
This room was quite large and was located nearly a thousand meters off the ground. Standing inside the room and staring out the large transparent windows, Yang Kai could see the lights of the city down below as well as all the various cultivators going about their business. Watching all this, he suddenly felt a sense of loneliness.
When he arrived in Tong Xuan Realm from the Great Han Dynasty many years ago, he hadn’t experienced such feelings.
Because the Great Han Dynasty and Tong Xuan Realm were relatively close to one another.
Now though, he had travelled far out into the Star Field, so far he didn’t even know where Tong Xuan Realm was relative to him.
The feeling that he was all alone out here sudden weighed down on him.
His heart was also filled with various thoughts and concerns.
Suddenly, thinking of something, his eyes lit up and he hurried over to the bed and sat down cross-legged.
Immersing his consciousness into his Knowledge Sea, his Soul Avatar appeared above the flaming ocean.
From there, Yang Kai looked up at the giant Star Chart hanging over his Knowledge Sea and guided his Divine Sense through it in an attempt to locate Tong Xuan Realm.
This Star Chart was extraordinarily detailed and seemed to have depicted the entire Star Field as well as every single motion of each and every large and small star following some inexplicable law.
The changes that occurred here were really happening in the Star Field!
The real-time situation of the Star Field was shown here.
Considering how detailed it was, Yang Kai figured he would be able to find Tong Xuan Realm as well.
His Divine Sense leapt from one star to the next as Yang Kai back-traced the approximate route he had taken from Tong Xuan Realm.
After an hour though, he couldn’t help revealing a weary look as the Spiritual Energy in his Knowledge Sea had been exhausted!
Arriving at this state, Yang Kai had no choice but to stop and restore himself.
After recovering, he started again from where he had left off but even after repeating this process several times, Yang Kai was unable to locate Tong Xuan Realm. However, his understanding of the arrangement of the stars in the Star Field had increased greatly and he had learned about the existence of several dangerous regions he should avoid in the future.
Yang Kai also found that he had still underestimated the profoundness of this Star Chart. Even after so many repeated explorations, he was unable to even determine the full scope of this Star Chart, it was as if it was endless. Spending an entire night studying it had only resulted in him exploring a tiny fraction of the Star Field.
Yang Kai realized that his strength wasn’t high enough.
If his cultivation realm was higher, this investigation would become faster and easier.
Opening his eyes, Yang Kai was greeted by a bright sunrise, he had temporarily given up the idea of exploring the Star Chart and searching for Tong Xuan Realm until his strength grew to a certain extent.
A knock came from the door at that moment and Yang Kai casually said to enter.
When the door was pushed open, a familiar maidservant stood at the entrance, bowed gracefully and smiled towards him, “Young Master Yang, Young Master Shen Tu asked me to inform you that he was summoned by the President and may not be able to return for short time. He also said that you may relax here to your heart’s content while waiting for him.”
“En, I understand,” Yang Kai nodded lightly.
The maidservant didn’t rush to leave, her red lips pursing slightly as she directed a bashful yet somewhat expectant look towards Yang Kai, “Does Young Master Yang have any other demands?”
Her meaning was obvious.
“If I have any demands, I’ll inform you,” Yang Kai smiled back at her.
The maidservant’s face blushed pink as she gently nodded and closed the door.
After she left, Yang Kai sat on the bed and furrowed his brow.
With Shen Tu not here, he was at somewhat of a loss as to what to do, and the feeling of idleness was somehow unpleasant to him.
Tossing a pill into his mouth, he began to meditate while restoring himself.
A moment later, he suddenly remembered something he wanted to do, replace his Star Shuttle!
The Star Shuttle he was currently using was something he had discovered a long time ago in the Starry Sky along with Li Rong. Back on Tong Xuan Realm, his Star Shuttle gave him an absolute advantage over everyone else in terms of speed, but out here in the Star Field, his Star Shuttle was nothing but a broken, outdated model. Even the one Bi Ya was using was far better than his.
In addition, he had to purchase some precious ores!
Gui Zu had reminded him specifically to raise the two pitch-black round stones in his Demon Mystic Tome well, and that they would eventually give him a pleasant surprise!
And to raise the two pitch-black round stones, what was needed was high-grade ores!
Yang Kai slightly regretted that he had forgotten to ask Gui Zu what exactly these pitch-black round stone were before he had left.
In the end, his relationship with Gui Zu had eased significantly, so if he had asked at the time, it was likely he could have gotten an answer, but at that time Yang Kai had been too shocked by the Star Emperor Token to remember this point.
Considering all this, Yang Kai stood up and strode out.
Arriving at the bottom of the grand tower, Yang Kai was about to leave Shen Tu’s palace when the middle-aged cultivator called Jia Long suddenly appeared, smiled and asked, “Does little brother want to go out?”
“En, I want to buy something,” Yang Kai nodded.
“Buy something?” Jia Long suddenly grinned, “What does the little brother want to buy? If it is convenient, can you inform me?”
“I want to purchase a better Star Shuttle and some ores.”
“A Star Shuttle and some ores?” Jia Long didn’t ask what Yang Kai wanted with ores and instead said, “Little brother is new here and probably not too familiar with the various stores nearby, if you can wait a moment, I’ll arrange for someone to accompany you.”
Yang Kai smiled happily hearing this, “Then I’ll have to trouble you for that.”
His proposal really solved one of Yang Kai’s worries.
“Little brother is too polite. Young Master Shen Tu said before he departed to meet any request Young Master Yang made, I will certainly not neglect an honoured guest such as yourself,” Saying so, he took out a communication type artifact and poured his Divine Sense into it.
After a moment, he took back the compass and smiled towards Yang Kai, “Please wait a moment, someone will soon come over.”
Yang Kai nodded and waited.
A short time later, a man flew over from afar and landed in front of Yang Kai and Jia Long, raising his eyebrows and asking, “Need something?”
This man had bulging muscles, a wild temperament, and a beast like aura about him. He also had thick facial hair that made him look like a mad lion.
[Monster Race!] Yang Kai was immediately able to infer this man’s race from his appearance and the energy fluctuations he gave off.
Because he was part of the Monster Race, he exuded a thick Monster Qi from his body.
In these kinds of situations, it would be rude not to accept.
I believe, in this case, Yang Kai settled on the one that has been deflowered to not be burdened by his actions.
Also, 9 Chapters this week. We were so close to 10.
Well, we didn’t manage to cross the goal by midnight but since we hit the goal before the first post, I’ll give it an exception.
This week will be 9 chapters and next week will be + 1 of the goal reached.
Outside Shen Tu’s residence, Jia Long pointed to Yang Kai and said, “Young Master Yang wants to purchase something, escort him to wherever he wants to go and protect his safety.”
“Young Master Shen Tu’s guest?” The Monster Race master turned to look at Yang Kai before gently nodding, “No problem.”
Obviously, he had also heard about Yang Kai’s existence.
After all, Shen Tu rarely brought people to his palace, but each one he did was always a valued guest.
“Please come with me,” The Monster Race man greeted Yang Kai.
“Thanks in advance,” Yang Kai smiled slightly.
The two of them flew off together, with Yang Kai following behind the Monster Race master who seemed a bit uncommunicative.
Yang Kai had to take the initiative to ask, “Friend, how may I address you?”
This Monster Race master was definitely a Saint King, because Yang Kai felt a certain amount of pressure when facing him. Only Saint King Realm masters could cause Yang Kai to feel this way now.
However, since he as Shen Tu’s subordinate, Yang Kai calling him friend was by no means disrespectful.
“Young Master Yang is too polite, you may call me Xue Tong.”
“Xue Tong?” Yang Kai raised his brow, “Which Monster Beast do you descend from?”
“Blood Eyed Bristled Mane Lion!” Xue Tong explained casually.
Yang Kai noticed that Xue Tong’s eyes indeed had a slightly reddish hue to them, but this was obviously just his normal state. Once Xue Tong began to fight, Yang Kai was fairly certain his eyes would become blood red and his ferocious nature would take over, causing his power to soar.
“You’re obviously from the human race, so why do I feel the existence of Monster Yuan Qi from you…” Xue Tong frowned at Yang Kai, “And the bloodline aura is incredibly pure, far nobler than my own, almost as if it belongs to a great Monster Emperor! Did you have some kind of fortuitous encounter related to my Monster Race before?”
“En, something like that,” Yang Kai smiled slightly.
The Golden Dragon and Ice Phoenix Tattoos on his body truly contained traces of Monster Qi, so it was only normal for Xue Tong to have noticed them. On top of that, the Golden Dragon and Ice Phoenix were both apex existences amongst Monster Beasts, even if one took the entire Star Field into consideration.
Xue Tong still didn’t say much but possibly because he sensed this Monster Yuan Qi from Yang Kai his demeanour became friendlier.
A short time later, the two men arrived inside a city grand city where blue-green streaks of light shuttled overhead. Obviously, these were cultivators hurrying along on their Star Shuttles.
Xue Tong walked forward with Yang Kai while asking, “What do you want to buy?”
“A good Star Shuttle and some rare ores!” Yang Kai replied.
“A simple request,” Xue Tong thought about it for a moment before proposing, “In that case, do you want to buy it here or from somewhere else?”
“What’s the difference?” Yang Kai asked.
“This city is a rather small one on Water Moon Star so the quality of things isn’t too high. If you want a good Star Shuttle, I suggest you get at least a Saint King Grade High-Rank one. You should just barely be able to fully utilize such a Star Shuttle and you won’t need to replace it for quite some time.”
“Then I’ll go with a Saint King Grade High-Rank Star Shuttle!” Yang Kai nodded.
“Then we’ll have to travel to a different city, one about thirty thousand kilometres from here where they have better things for sale.”
“That’s a bit far,” Yang Kai frowned. Even by Star Shuttle, flying thirty thousand kilometres would take some time.
In response though, Xue Tong smiled mysteriously, “It’s not that far, we’ll be able to arrive there immediately.”
Yang Kai was puzzled but did not ask much, just following behind Xue Tong as they made their way through the city.
A short time later, the two came to a certain building, but before entering it, Yang Kai noticed a strange energy fluctuation coming from inside. Carefully investigating this, he immediately understood what the fluctuation was.
It was actually Void Energy!
He couldn’t understand why there would be Void Energy here.
Outside the building were a large number of Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce guards, and when Xue Tong arrived, they all saluted, seemingly recognizing him as one of Shen Tu’s protectors.
Xue Tong walked straight inside.
After passing through several gates, the Void Energy fluctuations became more and more apparent.
Arriving at the innermost room, Yang Kai’s eyes couldn’t help shrinking as he called out in surprise, “A Space Array?”
In front of him, there was a large array that was quite similar to the one that Gui Zu had created back on the floating continent. The only difference was that this one was much more meticulously crafted. The Space Array Gui Zu had arranged much rougher and was lacking in detail in several locations.
The Space Array in front of Yang Kai now though was of much higher quality, without any shortcomings. In the middle of the big array, there was a mirror-like object covered with a thick layer of Space Spirit Crystal.
At the base of this mirror, there were a number of grooves which were obviously designed to accept Saint Crystals.
“Can this thing be used?” Yang Kai stared stunned at Xue Tong.
“Naturally, we can use this Space Array to reach a bigger city!”
“Wasn’t the ability to arrange such arrays lost to history?” Yang Kai revealed a strange look.
“Indeed, these Space Arrays are relics from ancient times and are actually present on many Cultivation Stars. No one knows when these Space Arrays were laid out and everyone can only use them. There are some great masters who are able to understand some small portion of their mysteries, but that’s not something us common folk can do.”
Listening to his explanation, Yang Kai suddenly understood that this Space Array should be a remnant from a long-passed era.
“With such a thing, is it possible to easily travel between Cultivation Stars?” Yang Kai asked excitedly. He understood just how far it was between Cultivation Stars, a single round trip would cost a cultivator a great deal of time, but with a Space Array it would be different, the journey would then only take a moment.
Xue Tong smiled awkwardly and shook his head, “That’s impossible, all Space Arrays can transmit people at most a hundred thousand kilometres. The Space Arrays on each Cultivation Star can only connect to others on the same Cultivation Star.”
Saying so, he took out a few pieces of high-quality Saint Crystal from his Space Ring and placed them carefully into the grooves at the base of the mirror before beckoning to Yang Kai, “This way, please.”
Yang Kai walked over and stood side by side with him.
Xue Tong then activated the Space Array and the mirror in front of the two rippled like the surface of a lake that one had thrown a pebble into. At the same time, the energy inside the Saint Crystals inserted at the base was quickly drained.
After a while, the mirror seemed to shatter and revealed a black portal.
“Go!” Xue Tong shouted before stepping forward first.
Yang Kai didn’t hesitate and followed right behind him.
Unlike when he tore space himself, Yang Kai didn’t feel anything in particular after using this Space Array, he simply stepped passed where the mirror was and then arrived at a different place.
Looking back, there was another Space Array behind him, but it was definitely not the same one as before.
Yang Kai immediately understood what had happened. When activated, two Space Arrays in two different locations were able to form a kind of temporary Void Corridor, allowing people to travel a few tens of thousands of kilometres in an instant.
And these Space Arrays were all the property of Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce.
Xue Tong grinned, “These Space Arrays are convenient, but no cultivator will use them too often.”
“Why is that?”
“The power of space is too mysterious, using Space Arrays to travel back and forth too frequently may cause some unnecessary harm. As long as one isn’t proficient in the Dao of Space, in general, they will only use these arrays once every few months, most of them they will use their Star Shuttle instead.”
“En, I understand,” Yang Kai smiled, “So we’ll be flying back after we’re done here, right?”
“Exactly,” Xue Tong nodded, “Let’s go, I’ll take you to a good place where a certain Grandmaster refines Star Shuttles, he’s the best in his craft in the entire Water Moon Star. You should be able to find a Star Shuttle that suits you in his shop.”
Hearing this, Yang Kai suddenly became a bit excited.
This city was indeed much more prosperous than the previous one. A variety of shops lined the streets and countless cultivators seemed to flow in an endless river between them. These people belonged to various different forces. Yang Kai saw some Sword Union and Purple Star cultivators here as well as many other from forces he didn’t recognize.
Because this was the home star of the Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce, it was also the busiest transaction hub in the entire Star Field.
All the major forces scattered throughout the Star Field would establish branches here so if they needed any kind of resources or supplies, they could purchase them from Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce and in some cases even have them delivered by them too.
Many Starships would set sail from the massive cities on Water Moon Star every day, their huge figures flying off into the Starry Sky and gradually disappearing.
Yang Kai was thoroughly astonished by the prosperity of this place and couldn’t help feeling a subtle sense of excitement.
With Xue Tong in the lead, the pair soon arrived at a shop with several floors. As soon as they entered, someone came up and greeted them, cupping their fists and smiling, “Sir Xue Tong, it has been too long. Does Young Master Shen Tu require something?”
Xue Tong shook his head, “It is Young Master’s guest who wishes to purchase a Star Shuttle, take us to the third floor.”
The shop assistant glanced over at Yang Kai and immediately nodded, “Please come this way!”
Yang Kai took a quick look around as he followed behind the shop assistant and discovered that this shop exclusively sold Star Shuttles. Each Star Shuttle was put up on display and many cultivators would crowd around, bargaining back and forth with the shop’s staff.
From time to time, someone would walk out with a satisfied look.
“This shop belongs to our Chamber of Commerce. The Saint King Grade High-Rank Star Shuttles you want are sold on the third floor, the grades on the first and second floors are below that standard,” Xue Tong explained to Yang Kai.
Yang Kai gently nodded, he had also noticed that the Star Shuttles on this floor were only of Spirit Grade and the cultivators who were purchasing them weren’t very strong, most of them just Transcendents while a few of them were Saints.
Spirit Grade Star Shuttles, whether in terms of speed or performance, were the lowest of quality. Such Star Shuttles couldn’t even travel out into the Star Field.
They were simply unable to withstand the ambient destructive energy of the Star Field.
Seeing the shop assistant eagerly leading Yang Kai and Xue Tong towards the stairs, the other customers inside the shop cast them curious glances, wondering which great person had suddenly arrived.
The second floor was filled with Saint Grade Star Shuttles. The energy fluctuations coming from these Star Shuttles were obviously stronger than those on the first floor as well as the one Yang Kai owned.
Many cultivators were present on this level, keeping all the shop assistants very busy.
The group of three didn’t stop on the second floor.
Arriving on the third floor, the shop hand stopped and smiled, “Please have a look around. If you see anything you like, just inform me.”
Yang Kai nodded and began walking around the various displays on the third floor.
The Star Shuttles here varied greatly in length, size, and even shape. It seemed that they were each designed to meet different requirements of various customers. The Artifact Refiners here especially made each Star Shuttle unique, but that didn’t affect their performance in the slightest.
The strength of the cultivators that came to buy Star Shuttles on the third floor was obviously quite different as well. The cultivators that were wandering around in front of the displays were Saints or Saint Kings, each of them possessing certain status and strength.
However, no matter how strong they were, each of them behaved respectfully.
No one dared to make trouble inside one of Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce’s stores, especially not on the Chamber of Commerce’s home star. The stores of this star were the foundation of the Chamber of Commerce, so they would definitely not allow anyone to affect it negatively.
Yang Kai walked around slowly, browsing the Saint King Grade High-Rank Star Shuttles. Whenever he found one he was interested in, he would ask the shop assistant to take it down so he could inspect it closer.
Xue Tong followed behind him and noticed that even after quite some time Yang Kai wasn’t able to find one he wanted, so he couldn’t help but say, “If you are willing to wait, you can let the Artifact Refiners here custom make one for you.”
“How long would that take?” Yang Kai turned back and asked.
“Even if you have a good relationship with Young Master Shen Tu, it would take at least a month or two.”
Yang Kai knit his brow and shook his head, “Forget it, there’s no need to go through that much trouble. In any case, when my strength grows to a certain extent, it will need to be replaced. I might as well just purchase one that’s ready-made!”
Saying so, his gaze suddenly landed on a sleek, sea-serpent like Star Shuttle, and he said to the clerk, “Let me see that one.”
The shop assistant nodded and quickly retrieved it.
Holding the Star Shuttle in his hands, Yang Kai tried circulating his strength through it and his eyes soon shined.
When he circulated his Saint Qi through this Star Shuttle, it flowed incredibly smoothly, far more so than with any of the previous models he had tried.
Because individual Artifact Refiners would use different materials and different Spirit Arrays, there were inevitably slight differences between each Star Shuttle. As such, whether a Star Shuttle could perfectly accept the strength of a certain cultivator would become an indicator of its suitability for that individual.
The Star Shuttle Yang Kai was currently holding was undoubtedly quite suitable for his Saint Qi.
Not planning on continuing to search for something better, Yang Kai nodded and said, “This one is good, how much does it cost?”
When the shop assistant heard this, he first shot a glance towards Xue Tong.
Seeing this, Xue Tong simply said, “Just state the normal price.”
“Yes,” The clerk nodded and said, “Saint King Grade High-Rank Star Shuttles generally cost ten thousand High-Rank Saint Crystals, with the price varying slightly from model to model. The Star Shuttle honoured guest is currently holding is the highest quality one on the third floor so it is valued at twelve thousand High-Rank Saint Crystals!”
“Twelve thousand…” Yang Kai frowned, suddenly discovering that he was somewhat ignorant of the value of Saint Crystals here. He didn’t know whether twelve thousand High-Rank Saint Crystals was a lot of wealth or not.
As such, he glanced over at Xue Tong for help.
Xue Tong smiled and said to the clerk, “Charge it to Young Master Shen Tu’s account. We will settle it another day.”
“Yes!”
“No need, I have enough Saint Crystals on hand,” Yang Kai said, “I’ll pay for it myself.”
Yang Kai indeed had a lot of Saint Crystals with him, all of them being ‘acquired’ from the cultivators of Purple Star and Sword Union who had been stranded on the floating continent. There was more than enough to pay for this Star Shuttle.
Since he could afford it, he didn’t want to accept a favour from Shen Tu.
The shop assistant couldn’t help looking to Xue Tong for guidance. In response, Xue Tong’s eyes flickered slightly but he didn’t say anything and just nodded.
The shop assistant relaxed and smiled, “Please come with me.”
Follow him down to the first floor, Yang Kai spent some time to pull out enough Saint Crystals from his Demon Mystic Tome and settle accounts with the shop assistant who then respectfully delivered him and Xue Tong to the door.
Outside the store, Xue Tong led Yang Kai to several other stores to purchase some rare ores.
On Water Moon Star, you could literally purchase anything you wanted, assuming you have enough Saint Crystals, one could even purchase a Starship.
The Starships refined by Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce were the fastest and highest quality in the entire Star Field, so many forces would place orders for them from Water Moon Star.
Yang Kai, of course, didn’t have any ideas about such things as he knew he currently didn’t have anywhere near enough wealth to purchase a Starship.
He didn’t know the value of Saint Crystals here and had no concept of what was cheap and what was expensive, so he could only follow behind Xue Tong to purchase ores in bulk. The ores Yang Kai chose were all Saint King Grade and he continued buying them until he only had a few hundred pieces of Saint Crystal left in reserve.
Inside the Demon Mystic Tome, there were now a ton of rare ores, which Yang Kai placed next to the two pitch-black round stones, allowing them to absorb their mineral essences.
Seemingly because Yang Kai did not let Shen Tu pay for his purchases, Xue Tong found him more and more pleasing to the eye. Clearly, he felt that this young man was very principled and did not make friends with his Young Master to take advantage of his status.
After finishing with the shopping spree, Xue Tong invited Yang Kai to have a meal at the most luxurious restaurant in the city.
The next day, the two men departed.
Xue Tong’s speed was extremely fast and his Star Shuttle’s grade was not low.
After about two hours, the pair returned to Shen Tu’s palace, and Xue Tong took his leave.
Yang Kai walked into the palace alone and was quickly met by Jia Long who smiled and asked, “Did little brother manage to purchase everything he wanted to?”
“En, Water Moon Star’s cities are rich in commodities, I was very satisfied.”
Jia Long laughed, “If one can’t buy something on Water Moon Star, then there’s nowhere in the entire Star Field they will be able to.
He said these words with a fair amount of pride.
“Is Shen Tu back yet?” Yang Kai asked.
“No,” Jia Long shook his head, “Little brother doesn’t need to worry. Although the President is a bit strict, he is still quite good to Young Master Shen Tu. Summoning him this time was probably just to reprimand him slightly. Before Young Master left, he asked me to urge little brother to relax here. If little brother has any requests, please don’t hesitate to ask.”
“I understand. I have to enter retreat for a while, so don’t let people bother me. I’ll inform you when I come out.”
“Good!” Jia Long gently nodded.
Yang Kai returned to his residence and closed the door before taking out the Star Shuttle he had purchased for twelve thousand High-Rank Saint Crystals and holding it in the palm of his hand. He then because using his Saint Qi and Spiritual Energy to refine it.
Any artifact had to be refined by a cultivator using their own energy before it could be used.
Back on Tong Xuan Realm, it had taken Yang Kai a few months to refine his current Star Shuttle, but at that time his strength was quite low while the Star Shuttle he had been refining was of a high Saint Grade, hence why it had taken so long.
Now however, things were different. Yang Kai had carefully selected this new Star Shuttle to match with his own Saint Qi and he himself had reached the Second Order Saint Realm, so refining it should be much simpler than last time.
As soon as he began pushing his Saint Qi, the Star Shuttle was covered in a layer of Demonic Flame. The Demonic Flame was both hot and cold, the two opposite attributes coexisting in perfect harmony.
In a flash, Yang Kai felt a subtle connection form between himself and the Star Shuttle and he began pouring his Divine Sense into it, investigating its internal structure while simultaneously leaving his Spiritual Energy mark on it.
Yang Kai temporarily forgot the passage of time and devoted himself fully to refining the Star Shuttle.
The entire process went smoother than Yang Kai had expected as he quickly refined the Star Shuttle while engraving his Soul Mark onto it, allowing it to adapt to his strength.
Everything proceeded unimpeded.
After Yang Kai thoroughly refined the Star Shuttle, he estimated that it would only take a month of nourishing it before he could use it.
Realizing this, Yang Kai felt a sense of satisfaction as he understood this was evidence of his own cultivation and strength having increased greatly.
Yang Kai didn’t choose to leave his residence but instead stayed in his room while nourishing his new Star Shuttle with his Saint Qi as he spied on the mysteries of the giant Star Chart in his Knowledge Sea.
Time passed by and soon it had been an entire month.
Since Yang Kai first arrived here, he had spent the vast majority of his time inside the palace. In fact, apart from when he went out to purchase things with Xue Tong, he had essentially not stepped out of his room or spoken with anyone.
As he sat calmly and pondered various things, Yang Kai suddenly felt an urge to go out and take a look around, see the various sights of Water Moon Star and experience how this prosperous star differed from Tong Xuan Realm. At the same time, he could also familiarize himself with the performance of his new Star Shuttle.
By deepening his understanding of the various aspects of the Star Field, Yang Kai would better be able to plan ahead.
Right now, he still hadn’t come up with an explicit goal.
Thinking so, Yang Kai got up and left his room.
After looking for Jia Long outside, and learning that Shen Tu was still not back, Yang Kai made plans to go out on his own.
Jia Long didn’t stop him and instead just gave him a Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce token, explain to him that with it he could use it to enjoy some privileges outside as well as avoid some troubles.
Yang Kai put the token in the Demon Mystic Tome before flying off on his Star Shuttle.
He had no specific destination in mind and simply flew wherever the wind took him.
This Saint King Grade High-Rank Star Shuttle was truly different; it was several times better than his previous one. In terms of speed alone the two were not comparable.
Flying along, Yang Kai would stop from time to time as he gradually explored Water Moon Star.
This star was not much different from Tong Xuan Realm actually, there were mountains, lakes, continents, and seas, along with a variety of different races.
If Yang Kai had to name a difference, it was that any Cultivation Star in the Star field had far richer World Energy’s reserves than Tong Xuan Realm.
As the home star of Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce, this was even more so the case for Water Moon Star. While the World Energy density here wasn’t as good as the strange floating continent, it still ranked amongst the best Cultivation Stars in the entire Star Field.
It was because of the lack of World Energy that, in Tong Xuan Realm, the Saint Realm was the highest peak a cultivator could reach. Since ancient times, only Great Demon God had broken through this barrier. Unfortunately, before he had time to explore the wonders of the Star Field, he had fallen in defence of the world, becoming nothing more than a legend.
Their weak cultivations and the lack of resources made it impossible for cultivators from Tong Xuan Realm to venture out into the Starry Sky and join the interstellar community. They could only be trapped in their small world, never able to experience the wonders of the Star Field.
However, this also spared the inhabitants of Tong Xuan Realm from the fate of being enslaved.
The overall strength of the cultivators on Tong Xuan Realm was not enough for them to carve out a place for themselves in the Star Field. If they had integrated into Star Field, the only result possible would be subjugation by a more powerful force.
Yang Kai’s mood was calm as he flew across Water Moon Star, traversing mountains, deserts, and oceans. Every few hundred kilometres though, he would come across another city where many souls gathered together.
These cities, both big and small, were very prosperous. Only in some extremely remote locations would there be less crowded towns where the people’s strength would be lower.
Just like in Tong Xuan Realm, each city had a City Lord governing it. The strength of these City Lords would also vary with the degree of prosperity each city had.
Many of the City Lord level characters were Saint King Realm masters while in some small places, they would only be Saints.
This allowed Yang Kai to realize that, in general, there weren’t many Origin Returning Realm masters and that they would be the mainstays of each force.
The World Energy density was also different from location to location. Some places Yang Kai passed by were filled with rich World Energy while in other places the aura was quite thin.
The cities on Water Moon Star all fell under Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce’s jurisdiction and each one of them contributed a portion of its wealth and strength to it. These many grains of sand came together to build the great tower known as Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce.
As Yang Kai flew about sightseeing, no one bothered him or came to stir up trouble.
Along the way, he heard a lot of interesting things.
For example, the avant-garde nature of President Ai Ou, the talent selection the Chamber of Commerce was going to be holding soon, the numerous sons of President Ai Ou…
Yang Kai didn’t hear anyone talking about Shen Tu though. It seemed that on Water Moon Star, Shen Tu’s identity as an illegitimate child was not known to the public. Given this reality, it wasn’t difficult to understand why Lu Gui Chen didn’t know about Shen Tu.
Yang Kai spent a month or two wandering across the Water Moon Star. From his explorations of Cultivation Star, he gained a good understanding of Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce as well as perfectly adapted himself to his new Star Shuttle, now feeling like it was an extension of himself rather than a tool.
Yang Kai even held onto a slight hope in his heart, that Su Yan might be somewhere on this Cultivation Star, so he had spared no effort searching it.
Unfortunately, it was obvious after some time that Su Yan was not here. With the Union of Heart and Soul between him and Su Yan, as long as they weren’t too far apart, they could sense each other’s existence.
Yang Kai, however, didn’t lose hope. He hadn’t really expected to find Su Yan so easily.
After two months of flying, Yang Kai was returning the way he had come, this time not stopping to see the sights instead of flying directly in the direction of Shen Tu’s palace.
Today, he passed through a certain mountain valley, and with his Divine Sense spread out, he suddenly noticed a significant number of life auras coming from within it.
Yang Kai didn’t pay much attention to this though, and in order to avoid any unnecessary troubles, he deliberately changed course slightly to avoid coming too close.
During his recent time outside, he had made a point to act prudently and not draw attention to himself.
As he flew by, Yang Kai casually glanced over and discovered that in a clearing of the mountain valley, there was actually a small Starship with its main hatch wide open and a stream of cultivators moving in and out of it.
Next to the Starship, there were a lot of crates piled up, and the cultivators seemed to be moving them onboard.
By now, Yang Kai had acquired some common sense knowledge about the Star Field. For example, some materials couldn’t be placed into Space Rings, possibly because they required extremely special storage conditions or they were simply too large or heavy to fit into conventional Space Rings.
When such materials needed to be transported from one star to another, a Starship was required.
As such, Starships were an indispensable part of any great force. Starships were a fast and relatively safe way to deliver goods and people long distances.
The Starship moored in the mountain valley was about three hundred meters long. Less than half the size of the ones Yang Kai had encountered before, so he could tell that it was only Saint King Grade Low-Rank or Mid-Rank.
Next to the Starship, there was a particularly eye-catching young man in fine robes who was laughing and chatting with the people next to him.
This young man’s appearance was very distinct. He had fair skin that appeared supple and delicate. His face was more enchanting than any woman’s and his long hair flowed gently across his shoulders.
Beside him, many female cultivators were staring at him obsessively, undisguised looks of infatuation colouring their faces, as if the young man only needed to say a word and they would willing to surrender their bodies and minds to him to use as he pleased.
Yang Kai couldn’t help narrowing his eyes towards this young man slightly.
This gaze, however, drew the attention of the young man who quickly shifted his own eyes to meet Yang Kai’s across a distance of several thousand meters. Upon seeing Yang Kai, the young man’s face sank and he quickly whispering a few words to a man next to him.
A moment later, a few Star Shuttles flew off towards Yang Kai.
Yang Kai couldn’t help but frown, not knowing why this person was trying to find trouble with him.
Not decreasing his speed, Yang Kai quickly flew away, a number of azure lights quickly chasing after him.
Arriving at a remote location that within the scope of his Divine Sense’s exploration there were no living people, Yang Kai came to a stop. This was a barren place where even the World Energy aura was quite thin, it had seemingly never been settled before.
There were many such places like this on Water Moon Star.
A total of three people were pursuing him, and from the energy fluctuations they gave off, Yang Kai could tell that two of them were Third Order Saint while the last was a Saint King!
The cultivation of this Saint King wasn’t too high though. Yang Kai didn’t feel much pressure from him, so he was likely just a First Order Saint King!
With insight into their cultivations, Yang Kai put down all his worries and not only didn’t try to escape but intentionally stopped in order to confront his pursuers.
Yang Kai hadn’t fought a Saint King since he fused the two opposite attribute energies inside his body and he was quite eager to know if his current strength could match a Saint King’s!
Thinking so, Yang Kai took a deep breath and turned around to meet these three.
The three men saw Yang Kai stop and quickly revealed happy looks, quickly rushing over and surrounding Yang Kai between them, each of them staring at him with clear malicious intent.
“Friends, why are you chasing me? I don’t believe there is any enmity between us,” Yang Kai asked indifferently.
“Naturally there is no hatred between us!” The Saint King Realm master nodded in agreement, “But you’ve seen something you should not, little boy. You can only blame your bad luck for passing through here at this time!”
Yang Kai raised his brow and suddenly understood what was happening.
The goods that were being loaded onto the Starship back in the mountain valley were probably some form of contraband, which was why they had chosen to do this exchange in such a remote location, yet now, an unrelated person, Yang Kai, had inadvertently passed through and seen everything.
Judging from the other side’s tone and attitude, Yang Kai could tell they had no plans to settle things peacefully.
“If you have any last words, you can speak them now. If it’s convenient, I’ll convey them to your loved ones for you,” The Saint King Realm master said lightly as he kept a bad gaze fixed on Yang Kai.
Just as he spoke, one of the Third-Order Saints standing behind Yang Kai took action, a powerful energy bursting from his body and an incredibly swift and sharp wind blade silently condensing in front of him before flying out towards Yang Kai, clearly trying to slice him clean in half.
The wind blade was extremely fast, and in a flash, it was already upon Yang Kai.
The face of this cultivator was filled with a disdainful smile, as if he could already see the scene of Yang Kai being cut down.
With his Third-Order Saint Realm cultivation, how could his sneak attack on a young Second-Order Saint possibly fail?
The wind blade cut through the body of the unmoving young man in the next instant.
However, no blood flew out and the figure of the young man slowly faded, disappearing right before everyone’s eyes.
The eyes of the man who had launched the wind blade shrank and his instincts cried out in alarm, causing him to instinctually retreat.
“Watch out!” A flurried shout came from the Saint King Realm cultivator whose eyes had gone wide with shock, as if he had just witnessed something inconceivable.
Each of these people’s reactions was fast; after all, anyone who could cultivate to the Third-Order Saint Realm had rich combat experience and had faced countless life or death battles.
Hearing this reminder, the backtracking cultivator rapidly changed direction and leapt out.
Immediately though, this man saw looks of horror on his two companions’ faces, both of them looking like they had swallowed their tongues in shock.
At that moment, above his head, the man felt a potent energy fluctuation that seemed both burning hot and frigid cold, impossible to defend against.
Looking up, he saw a giant palm print flying towards himself. This palm print seemed able to obscure the Heavens and quickly became the only thing his eyes could see, as if it had swallowed both his mind and body whole.
This palm was composed of a strange black flame that the man had never even heard of before.
Heaven Covering Hand!
The man wanted to escape, but there was nowhere for him to flee, the massive palm print seemingly having sealed off all his paths of retreat.
*Hong…*
A muffled bang rang out and the cultivator was swallowed by the palm print, a violent force sweeping across his body causing him to send out a pitiful scream. After being struck, the man crashed down to the ground like a meteor, his bones all broken and his flesh severally damaged. Clusters of Demonic Flame continued burning him and no matter how he tried to use his own Saint Qi to extinguish them, he was unable to.
With his opening strike succeeding, Yang Kai didn’t pause for an instant, summoning a Heaven Punishing Spear into his hand and throwing it out towards the other Third-Order Saint while his enemies were still in a state of confusion.
Sensing danger approaching, the man hurriedly tried to resist, condensing his Saint Qi to protect himself while summoning out a Saint Grade High-Rank shield-like artifact to block Yang Kai’s spear.
This shield artifact had blocked many near-fatal strikes for this Third Order Saint and he regarded it as his strongest defence.
Having summoned his shield, the man regained his composure and was just about to fight back when a crisp sound rang out in front of him. Looking down, the man was terrified to see that his prided defensive type artifact had actually been pierced through by the Demonic Flame spear, it’s spirituality completely lost and its light growing dim.
The man couldn’t help crying out in fear.
*Xiu xiu xiu…*
Three more Heaven Punishing Spears flew over, the first two completely shattering the shield artifact while the third pierced into its target’s body, breaking through the Third Order Saint’s powerful body and Saint Qi protection as if they were paper.
Vitality quickly disappeared from the man’s body and the light in his eyes faded as he plummeted head-first towards the ground.
In the blink of an eye, of the three people who had surrounded Yang Kai, one was dead and another was dying!
The dead man had not even hit the ground before his body was burnt to ash and even his Soul which had tried to escape failed to escape the wrath of the Demonic Flames, melting like snow under the hot summer sun and quickly disappearing.
The wounded man down on the ground was still being engulfed by the Demonic Flames and his shouts were rapidly growing weaker.
The only one of the three left, the First Order Saint King, was now staring towards Yang Kai with a dignified look upon his face.
He couldn’t fathom how this young man, who seemed to only be a Second-Order Saint, was able to instantly kill two cultivators who were a Minor Realm above him. What’s more, this youth managed to accomplish this without even breaking a sweat, like he was casually pinching two ants.
At this moment, the young man in front of him also wore a stunned look, as if even he was surprised by his own accomplishment.
A violent and bloodthirsty aura quietly swelled up from Yang Kai’s body, causing his momentum to climb to a new height.
Seeing the pair of indifferent eyes glaring towards him, the Saint King Realm master couldn’t help shivering slightly, as if in front of him was not a Second-Order Saint Realm boy, but a master who stood at a much greater height than his own.
Before they had even begun to fight, he wanted to retreat! He didn’t know if he could beat this strange youth.
“Profound Heavenly Sword!” Yang Kai suddenly shouted and a sword made from Demonic Flames appeared in his hand. In a flash, the sword chopped down towards the last man’s head.
The Saint King master finally came to his senses and let out a fierce roar, a wave of energy bursting forth from his Knowledge Sea. The fluctuations of this Spiritual Energy pulse were quite strange and as soon as they reached some kind of critical point, a great behemoth emerged from between the man’s forehead.
This colossus was a full twenty meters in length and was covered in a hard shell. It was a Monster Beast famous throughout the entire Star Field, the fierce Golden Armoured Poisonous Scorpion.
As soon as this Golden Armoured Poisonous Scorpion appeared, it emitted a thick green mist that polluted the surrounding dozen kilometres while its two powerful pincers clamped repeatedly, seemingly capable of cutting through the strongest metal or jade.
The Demonic Flame sword landed squarely on the hard shell of the Golden Armoured Poisonous Scorpion, but didn’t cause it any harm, only leaving behind a shallow scratch while the Demonic Flames themselves were actually swallowed up by the poisonous mist and soon extinguished.
Seeing that his Golden Armoured Poisonous Scorpion was capable of withstanding the strange Demonic Flame, the Saint King Realm cultivator laughed and taunted, “Little brat, your courage isn’t small. On Water Moon Star you actually dared to kill my Chamber of Commerce’s people, you cannot escape death now!”
“You’re from Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce?” Yang Kai’s eyes narrowed.
“Enough nonsense! Surrender your life!” This person was not willing to say anything more with Yang Kai and immediately made the Golden Armoured Poisonous Scorpion rush toward Yang Kai, its pincers stretch out threateningly as a green glow appeared on its barbed tail.
This poisonous scorpion was frightening and its poison was incredibly potent, anyone stained with it would die without a doubt. What cultivators feared about it most though was that its poison not only affects one’s body but their Soul as well, so any place where Golden Armoured Poisonous Scorpions appeared was considered a Restricted Area and only some very powerful cultivators would attempt to hunt them.
This Saint King master had apparently killed a Golden Armoured Poisonous Scorpion before and refined its remnant soul into a weapon he could control.
Fighting with Yang Kai, he had no choice but to summon it out.
This Golden Armoured Poisonous Scorpion was actually nothing more than a Soul Avatar, but it still possessed all of its abilities from before it died, and although it didn’t have a physical body, the Spiritual Energy it was composed of was sturdy enough to withstand a great deal of punishment.
Yang Kai’s Profound Heavenly Sword was unable to damage it.
Seeing the Golden Armoured Poisonous Scorpion rushing toward him like a bolt of lightning, its great maw open wide as if it was trying to swallow him whole, Yang Kai gathered the full power of his Soul and sent out a great burst of Spiritual energy towards it.
Noticing this, the Saint King Realm cultivator was startled but didn’t draw back and instead wore a disdainful grin.
The young man in front of him was clearly not aware of the Golden Armoured Poisonous Scorpion’s traits. Seeing that it was a Soul Avatar, this youth clearly wanted to use his own Spiritual Energy to fight back, but he didn’t know that the scorpion’s poison could corrode Souls as well.
The Saint King could already picture what result Yang Kai would achieve.
The invisible forces collided together, and the huge figure of the Golden Armoured Poisonous Scorpion came to a halt as it swung its pincers about violently and whipped its barbed tail forward, the green glow from its tip piercing towards Yang Kai’s Divine Sense.
Yang Kai’s face sank as he felt his consciousness becoming sluggish.
He immediately understood that this poisonous scorpion was not as simple as he had imagined.
Without hesitation, Yang Kai unleashed the full might of his Conflagrated Knowledge Sea.
The air suddenly became hot, and the space around the Golden Armoured Poisonous Scorpion began to warp.
The Saint King master, who had been sitting back and watching as if he was just a spectator to the show, suddenly felt the change in Yang Kai Spiritual Energy and paled, hurriedly trying to withdraw his Golden Armoured Poisonous Scorpion in the next instant.
But before he could succeed, the poisonous scorpion suddenly trembled as if it was suffering unbearable torment.
Its hard golden shell cracked in multiple places and the burning hot Conflagrated Spiritual Energy rushed in through the gaps, roasting it from the inside out.
The Golden Armoured Poisonous Scorpion went up in flames and in a flash, the beast which Yang Kai’s Profound Heavenly Sword couldn’t even scratch was burnt to ashes.
“Impossible!” The Saint King Realm cultivator let out a roar of disbelief as he stared at the spot where his precious poisonous scorpion had disappeared, his face filled with panic.
Even a Third-Order Saint King master wouldn’t have been able to deal with his Golden Armoured Poisonous Scorpion so quickly. That was a feat only an Origin Returning Realm master could achieve!
This man suddenly glared over towards Yang Kai, his face flushed red and a violent aura surging from his body.
The Golden Armoured Poisonous Scorpion was his trump card, one he had painstakingly refined using his own Soul over many years. Every time he used it, he was able to win handily, and had even used it to turn danger into safety more than once.
All that time and effort he had invested had just been destroyed right before his eyes, sending him into a rage. Now, all he wanted to do was kill the young man in front of him to soothe the hatred in his heart.
“Boy, I want you to die!” He roared madly, pushing his Spiritual Energy once more and summoning out more Monster Beast Soul Avatars one after another, each of them hovering mid-air while glaring towards Yang Kai.
The Saint King master stood in the middle of these Soul Avatars, like the king of beasts, his anger still boiling over.
With a single thought, the man sent all the Monster Beast Soul Avatars rushing forward towards Yang Kai while he himself hid amongst them, looking for an opportunity to launch a killing strike.
*Chi chi chi…*
Yang Kai’s Conflagrated Spiritual Energy burst out once more, his Divine Sense launching one blazing hot attack after another, causing these beasts to shriek in pain as they were burnt down in rapid succession.
Under the camouflage of a burning beast, the Saint King Realm master swiftly approached Yang Kai and a strange power burst from his body, forming an invisible vortex that pulled Yang Kai towards it.
Sneering deeply, a dazzling ray of light shone from his palm and a powerful burst of energy shot forth, seemingly tearing through space as it moved to swallow up Yang Kai.
Yang Kai instantly covered his body in Demonic Flames, turning himself into a human fireball while sending his strength into the vortex at his feet in an attempt to destroy it and free himself.
The next moment, he felt a shroud of light engulf him.
Yang Kai’s face changed as he felt this wave of light wash over him and finally understood the gap between the Saint King Realm and Saint Realm. With his current strength, he could easily kill Third-Order Saints, but he was actually unable to quickly handle a Saint King, even facing a First Order Saint King was a bit dangerous for him.
Cultivators who had reached this level had a far deeper understanding of their own strength as well as how to utilize it than Yang Kai currently did.
“Demon God Transformation!” Yang Kai roared in his heart.
Black Demon Crests appeared on his skin before swiftly disappearing into his physique, causing his vitality, life aura, and physical strength to rise dramatically…
*Xiu xiu xiu…*
As the beam of light crashed against him, Yang Kai was hit hard, his body tossed around like a rag, knocking the wind out of his lungs.
The Saint King Realm cultivator saw this and sneered before rushing out towards Yang Kai, intending to deliver the final blow.
He suddenly discovered that this strange young man was actually not as strong as he had imagined, and his absolute confidence in his own strength returned.
A double palm strike slammed into Yang Kai’s body, and the Saint King master poured his own Saint Qi into him, attempting to destroy his vitality.
At that moment though, he saw a teasing look on Yang Kai’s indifferent face.
Although he seemed to have suffered heavy injuries, and blood was flowing out the corner of his mouth, this young man didn’t seem to care.
Sending out a flurry of punches, the two men immediately fell into a violent hand to hand exchange.
Fresh blood splashed out as Yang Kai’s skin was cut open, but the Saint King master was not fairing any better, his body was also quickly covered with blood, turning him into a miserable state.
This was not Yang Kai’s first time fighting someone above his own realm, but it was his first battle against a Saint King master.
In this difficult situation, Yang Kai was inspired by the potential of his own abilities and was able to rapidly comprehend many mysteries about his own strength that had previously eluded him.
The longer that passed, the fiercer Yang Kai fought, a tinge of madness appearing in the depths of his eyes, his strength not decreasing at all as a result of his injuries and instead rapidly growing stronger.
Conversely, the Saint King Realm master’s anger and momentum quickly began to fade.
He was feeling that if he continued this fight, perhaps he would be the one to die!
He was heavily wounded now, and countless meridians inside his body had been damaged while many of his bones were cracked. Clusters of Demonic Flame burnt his body, almost turning him into a ball of flame, forcing him to circulate his own strength to resist the damage they were causing him.
But in the face of the simultaneously hot and cold auras, he was finding it difficult to resist and he once again felt the urge to flee.
As the battle continued, the Saint King Realm master pushed himself to his limit, using all his best Martial Skills and artifacts, yet he was still unable to defeat much less kill Yang Kai.
Over the course of the battle, Yang Kai not only didn’t retreat but instead became even more aggressive, his eyes filling with radiance as a joyful look appeared on his face!
He was enjoying himself.
Fighting an evenly matched opponent, going all out to out to kill one another knowing only one of them would be able to emerge victoriously, this rush made Yang Kai truly feel alive.
Seeing this crazed expression on his opponent’s face, the Saint King Realm master couldn’t help shivering slightly.
By now, he had comprehended Yang Kai’s real intentions here; this young man was actually using this battle to explore the depths of his own strength! The two Third-Order Saints he had killed before were just something he had done because it was convenient.
Realizing this, this Saint King master finally panicked and his courage gave out, his instincts screaming at him to escape from this insane and terrifying youth.
*Hong Hong Hong…*
As their strengths collided with one another in a series of explosions, Yang Kai and the First Order Saint King separated from each other, breaking away from the range of each other’s strikes, gasping for breath as they stared at one another across a hundred-meter gap.
The sound of joints cracking came from Yang Kai’s body as he flexed his physique, his Saint Qi welling up as a half-full look appeared on his face.
Opposite him, the Saint King Realm cultivator wore a bleak look as he struggled to support his bloody and exhausted body.
He couldn’t help staring at Yang Kai in horror as he saw the minor wounds on his body recover at a rate visible to the naked eye. At the same time, he noted that the blood covering this youth was actually giving off a dazzling golden glow.
He actually possessed golden blood!
The eyes of this cultivator stared dumbfounded at this incredible scene.
He didn’t know what kind of Secret Art this youth had cultivated to produce blood of this colour but he could tell that the abnormal vitality and resilience of his body stemmed from this golden blood.
It was thanks to this golden blood that this youth’s wounds healed so quickly.
The Saint King master quickly realized he was not this young man’s opponent as he simply didn’t possess such astonishing recovery ability. If they continued to fight, he would definitely die.
He actually still had a trump card he could play, a forbidden technique that would instantly raise his combat power significantly, allowing him to continue the fight.
But he didn’t dare to use it.
Because once he used this forbidden technique, his condition would rapidly deteriorate, and even his current realm might fall, damaging his foundation and preventing him from ever advancing again. He was already half-dead from this battle, if he really used his forbidden technique, even if he won, the cost would be too high.
The most important factor though was that even if he used this forbidden technique, he wasn’t confident he could triumph.
Just who was this boy? When did such a fearful character appear?
He was thoroughly confused and shocked by the power Yang Kai displayed.
Therefore, while continuing to stare at Yang Kai, he began withdrawing, his face filled with vigilance as he worried about this youth refusing to compromise.
Only after he retreated to what he considered a safe distance did he summon his Star Shuttle and shout out to Yang Kai, “Little brat, you’ll pay for your actions today! There will be no place on Water Moon Star where you can take shelter!”
His voice came from far away as his figure disappeared across the horizon.
Yang Kai’s face remained indifferent, seemingly having no intention to pursue, just standing in the same place while staring at this fading back.
However, while he remained still, a thread of his Divine Sense broke through the fetters of space and leapt forward and latched onto the fleeing Saint King.
Immediately after, Yang Kai stretched out his hand and tore the space in front of him.
A couple hundred kilometres away, the Saint King Realm master who was still escaping was working hard to extinguish the remaining clusters of Demonic Flame covering him.
While he was fighting Yang Kai, dealing with these Demonic Flames had forced him to consume a lot of his Saint Qi. If not, he wouldn’t have ended up in such a miserable state.
This Demonic Flame was something he had never even heard of before, much less experienced. Hot and cold coexisting, Yin and Yang mutually promoting one another, it was a combination filled with contradictions and he was unable to extinguish it easily, forcing him to continue consuming his own Saint Qi to resist it while he pushed his speed to its limits, hoping to return to the mountain valley as soon as possible and ask his Seniors for assistance.
There was no trace of the strange young man behind him, fortunately, so he felt that he had made a clean getaway and began wracking his brain to come up with an excuse to explain his defeat.
Just as he was contemplating this issue though, the space in front of him suddenly twisted, causing him to think his exhaustion was bad to the point where he was seeing things.
However, as he stared at it, this distortion in space only grew bigger, and soon, the space in front of him shattered like a broken mirror, and in the next moment, a giant crack appeared before him, like the great maw of an invisible beast.
From inside the crack, a figure emerged with a playful grin upon its face, seemingly having anticipated his arrival.
Seeing the face of this person, the man’s expression paled as if he had seen a ghost. He was unable to believe his eyes.
It was actually the young man he had just been fighting with!
This youth reached out and grabbed him while he was still in a daze and before the Saint King master could respond, he was tossed into the Void. Immediately after, the crack in space rapidly began to close as the young man stood outside and waved to him.
As the profound darkness engulfed him, the Saint King Realm master instantly felt like he had been sunk into a frigid swap as the turbulent forces around him dragged him under.
He roared and struggled frantically but was unable to escape and could only accept his fate.
Outside, Yang Kai dismissed his Demon God Transformation and after letting out a long breath, his expression becoming dignified.
After such an intense battle, he had come to understand where his current limits stood.
He could battle against a First Order Saint King, and after using his Demon God Transformation, he did not need to fear such an opponent.
He wasn’t clear however how he would fare against a Second-Order Saint King.
This fight had yielded other harvest as well, allowing Yang Kai to familiarize himself with his new power. He now fully comprehended how terrifying his Demonic Flame was.
However, what he was currently most concerned about was why these three people had chased him down in the first place. What exactly was it that he saw that he wasn’t supposed to?
It seemed like this group was simply transporting supplies, although their choice of location to complete this transaction was somewhat remote.
Yang Kai didn’t understand and couldn’t be bothered thinking deeply about it, so he simply summoned his Star Shuttle and quickly flew off.
Half a day later, inside the remote mountain valley that Yang Kai had passed by before, all the materials had been loaded onto the Starship, and a middle-aged man who had been talking and laughing with the handsome young man said with a smile, “Young Master Xue Yue, it’s been a pleasure doing business with you. If there is another good opportunity like this in the future, I hope Young Master Xue Yue can remember us. We will pay you a satisfactory price!”
The young man called Xue Yue’s smiled and nodded his face as refreshing as a spring breeze, causing the people around him to involuntarily feel a sense of warmth and kindness from it. Wherever his eyes drifted, the female cultivators, regardless of their age or strength, would all show intoxicated looks as they stared towards him.
There was no doubt that as long as this Young Master Xue Yue beckoned to them, these women would willingly throw themselves on him.
“We’ll take our leave then. Farewell, Young Master Xue Yue!” The middle-aged man said with a smile before waving to his subordinates and walking towards the Starship, many of them women who belonged to his crew wearing reluctant expression, all of them repeatedly glancing back towards Xue Yue.
At that moment, a Saint King Realm cultivator hurried over to Xue Yue’s side and whispered something into his ear in a dignified voice.
Xue Yue’s smile instantly went stiff as he whispered back, “Are you certain?”
“Positive, their two bodies were found five hundred kilometres away, and there is no sign of the other. It’s more than likely he too suffered disaster. Young Master, I’m afraid this time’s transaction has been fully seen by that bystander.”
Xue Yue’s pair of crystal clear eyes flashed a sharp light before he nodded, “I understand.”
Saying so, he took a step forward and shouted, “Wait a moment!”
The happily satisfied middle-aged man who was preparing to return home, came to an abrupt halt and turned to face Xue Yue, asking in confusion, “What instructions does Young Master Xue Yue have?”
Xue Yue continued smiling lightly as he said, “Although I’m very sorry about having to do this now, this transaction must be cancelled. En, you can’t carry off these materials.”
“Cancelled?” The middle-aged man frowned, a slightly disgruntled look flashing across his face briefly before he forced out a grin and asked, “Young Master Xue Yue, surely you must be joking. Money and goods have been exchanged and this transaction is already completed, yet now you say it must be cancelled?”
Xue Yue smiled and nodded as if it was only natural and declared, “If I say it’s cancelled, it’s cancelled.”
This young man’s blatant arrogance, not putting anyone in his eyes, irked the middle-aged man greatly and he couldn’t help but laugh, “You’ll have to excuse me, Young Master Xue Yue. Since the transaction has been completed, I am not ready to return the merchandise. These things are constantly in short supply so their value cannot be measured by mere money. En, you take care, I hope we’ll have an opportunity to cooperate again next time.”
“There will be no next time,” Xue Yue slowly shook his head, his smile was not fading at all, still causing everyone present to feel the refreshing atmosphere and involuntarily lower their guard, “These goods must remain, and… you as well!”
When this sentence came out, the middle-aged man’s expression changed greatly and a foreboding sense of fear suddenly shrouded his whole body.
The cultivator concealing his appearance in a large robe standing behind Xue Yue suddenly flickered and appeared in front of the middle-aged man, raising his hand and gently patting the top of his head. A strange force flooded into the middle-aged man and in an instant, all his bones shattered, along with his five viscera and six organs, his vitality quickly disappearing from his body.
“Origin Returning Realm…” Staring at the robed man standing in front of him, the middle-aged man called out in despair as the light faded from his eyes.
His death caused a huge panic, and the Starship and surrounding area were immediately plunged into a sea of screams.
The man hiding his figure slowly walked into the Starship, killing every cultivator he came across as easily as if he was stepping on a group of ants.
A short time later, he calmly walked out and reported to Xue Yue, “One hundred and thirty-five people, all dead!”
“En,” Xue Yue nodded lightly, waving to his subordinate and shouting, “Gather up the materials and take them all away!”
“Young Master, what about this Starship?” One of his subordinates asked, the materials could be carried off, but this Starship was obviously too big to fit inside a Space Ring and it remaining behind would definitely attract unwanted attention.
“Toss it somewhere into Second Brother’s territory. His subordinates haven’t been very peaceful as of late, they seem to have gotten into a fight with a group of outsiders,” Xue Yue faintly ordered.
“Yes!” The group of subordinates responded before getting to work.
Yang Kai soon returned to Shen Tu’s palace.
Several guards who were silently protecting the entrance greeted him respectfully as he arrived.
“Did you come back, Brother Yang?” Shen Tu’s voice suddenly sounded from the inside and he soon walked out with a big smile and welcomed him.
“Did President Ai Ou finally set you free?” Yang Kai looked at him with a smile.
Shen Tu’s mouth couldn’t help twitching slightly as a look of annoyance appeared on his face, “Don’t mention this, this time I almost lost a layer of skin… En, come inside, we can talk more there.”
Enthusiastically receiving him, Shen Tu walked side by side with Yang Kai, asking about where he had gone during this time and how come he had not seen him for so long.
Yang Kai gave him a simple summary of his trip before suddenly frowning, “There’s an incident I have to tell you about.”
“What incident?” Shen Tu saw his expression become dignified and also put on a serious look.
Yang Kai first glanced around cautiously.
Jia Long, who had been following Shen Tu, quickly said, “Little brother may rest assured, there is no need to worry about what you say here leaking out, everyone within the palace is completely loyal to the Young Master.”
Shen Tu nodded, indicating that Yang Kai could speak without reservation.
Nodding, Yang Kai continued, “While I was out… I was forced to kill three cultivators from your chamber of commerce.”
“And?” Shen Tu asked.
“That’s all. After I killed them, I returned here.”
Shen Tu grinned, “Then there’s no problem, the Chamber of Commerce has so many people and there are always some battles on Water Moon Star. Every day many people die, if you’ve killed them then so be it, as long as they didn’t have some kind of extraordinary status, there won’t be any problems.”
“Their status shouldn’t be very high because their strength wasn’t.”
“Then relax, I’ll handle this for you. Brother Yang doesn’t need to concern himself about it any further,” Shen Tu thumped his chest confidently, not showing any concern about the three dead cultivators from the Chambers of Commerce.
“You should let me finish explaining first,” Yang Kai waved his hand, “I didn’t intentionally provoke this incident, I was only passing by a remote mountain valley when I came across a group of people. After I spotted them, those three chased after me.”
“A group of people?” Shen Tu was surprised.
“En, in that mountain valley, I saw a parked Starship about three hundred meters long as well as some supplies that your Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce’s cultivators were loading onboard. I was too far away to get a good look at what the materials were though. What I’m not clear about is why, after I discovered them, some youth who looked about our age instructed those three people to chase me.”
“They were trading supplies in a remote mountain valley?” Shen Tu’s face suddenly changed slightly, suddenly realizing that things weren’t as simple as he imagined, hurriedly asking, “Did those people have any distinguishing characteristics?”
Yang Kai thought about it for a moment before saying, “If we’re talking about characteristics, then the young man who was their leader stood out greatly, he was… beautiful, en, very beautiful!”
Even as he said these words, Yang Kai’s expression contorted somewhat, using the word beautiful to describe a man made him feel awkward, but he truly couldn’t think of a more appropriate word to use.
Listening to him, Shen Tu’s face grew uglier and uglier, he and Jia Long exchanged a glance as both of them had a bad premonition.
“Brother Yang… can you describe that young man in more detail…” His voice stuttered.
“I didn’t see his face clearly and only caught a glimpse of him, but I could tell that his skin was very pale and that there was a refreshing smile lingering on his face. En, right, there were also quite a few female cultivators around him, all of them having infatuated looks. He looked around our age. His hair was also quite long and hung down past his shoulders,” Yang Kai thought about it and relayed what he could remember.
“It can’t be,” Shen Tu suddenly let out a groan.
Yang Kai didn’t miss the distressed looks on Shen Tu and Jia Long’s face and couldn’t help but ask, “Do you know him?”
Shen Tu’s mouth twitched, and deep within his eyes, a look of fright and alarm was apparent. He remained silent for a while but eventually said, “Brother Yang, you’re not an outsider, so I won’t lie to you. That guy you saw… was probably my Third Brother Xue Yue!”
When the name ‘Xue Yue’ left Shen Tu’s mouth, Jia Long’s brow couldn’t help jumping slightly, as if he sensed danger from just this alone.
“Your Third Brother?” Yang Kai was startled.
“My Third Brother!” Shen Tu nodded heavily.
Jia Long smiled bitterly and explained, “On Water Moon Star, Young Master Shen Tu only fears two people: One is the President and the other is Young Master Xue Yue…”
Yang Kai was stunned but soon grinned, “Why would you fear your own brother?”
Shen Tu immediately began to complain, “If he wasn’t my brother, I would have already done everything within my power to eliminate him. Brother Yang, you don’t understand. Just mentioning my Third Brother causes me to shiver in fright… Fuck, that bastard left gave me so many childhood traumas, I can say in all honesty I fear him more than my old man.”
“This Young Master Xue Yue seems to be quite capable,” Yang Kai couldn’t help but feel interested in that strange youth. He had been together with Shen Tu for a while and knew that this guy was a fearless rogue. Making Shen Tu quiver at the very mention of his name, this Xue Yue was definitely someone to be reckoned with.
“Brother Yang, don’t make fun of me. If it really was him though, this matter will be troublesome.”
“Why?” Yang Kai asked curiously.
“If I didn’t guess wrong… Third Brother must have been engaging trading some scarce commodities with some influence outside the Chamber of Commerce in order to secretly gather money. This is a big taboo and is strictly prohibited. If word of this were to get out, he’d be in big trouble.”
“So when I passed by, he sent people to chase me down?” Yang Kai suddenly understood everything.
“Yes! Moreover, my Third Brother is the type to never relent until he accomplishes his objective. If he ever takes a liking to something, or someone, even if there are thousands of obstacles in his way, he won’t rest until he obtains it. On top of that, he tends to act on instinct and no one can ever guess what he is thinking. I remember one year, he and a senior executive of the Chamber of Commerce both settled on a certain maidservant at the same time, and although that executive eventually won possession of that maid, he disappeared inexplicably a month later and was never heard from again.”
Yang Kai’s expression sank upon hearing this.
Jia Long nodded and said, “I remember this since, as a result, the President flew into a rage for a while, but because no evidence was ever uncovered, the matter was eventually dropped.”
“Now, I’m afraid he’s going all out to find you, Brother Yang, because he must kill you to eliminate any chances of his actions being exposed!” Shen Tu declared.
Saying so, Shen Tu turned a look filled with concern towards Yang Kai.
“Am I supposed to hide then?” Yang Kai asked, frowning.
“Hiding may not do you any good. You don’t understand how much influence and power my Third Brother wields. He is the one my father most highly regards, and many people believe the next President will certainly be him. The entire population of Water Moon Star is his eyes and ears. If he wants to find someone, as long as they are still on Water Moon Star, he will definitely find them.”
“Then what should I do?” Yang Kai smiled bitterly. He had just gone out to have a look around, yet now he had actually gotten caught up in such a serious matter, his luck was really too bad.
“Brother Yang, don’t go out for a while, just stay inside the palace. I’ll help you inquire about this situation and see if there’s some way to resolve it,” Shen Tu sighed slightly.
“Good.”
After this incident, Yang Kai didn’t show himself in public again, simply remaining inside Shen Tu’s palace all day long, sitting in meditation, stabilizing his current realm or refining pills and studying the Star Chart in his Knowledge Sea to enhance his understanding of the Star Field.
Jia Long would pass him some news from time to time.
From him, Yang Kai learned that the Chamber of Commerce’s Third Young Master Xue Yue really had started a search for someone during this time, causing the entire Water Moon Star to become somewhat turbulent. Many people lost their lives as a result.
Yang Kai now thoroughly understood the brutal methods of Xue Yue.
At that time, he had passed by far from the mountain valley and had not clearly seen Xue Yue’s appearance, so Yang Kai estimated that the other party had also not clearly seen him.
Finding a single person you didn’t even know the exact face of was undoubtedly more difficult than finding a needle in a haystack. Even if Xue Yue had near-limitless resources at his disposal, it was very difficult to find Yang Kai.
As such, all cultivators with similar builds and strength to Yang Kai suffered.
Xue Yue would rather kill a thousand innocents than let him escape!
He was bolder and more decisive than his brothers and even President Ai Ou!
Yang Kai found it somewhat difficult to imagine that someone like Xue Yue could be so ruthless. When he saw him from afar, all he could feel from him was that he was devilishly attractive and had a unique warmth about him.
He was secretly startled and now fully realized one must never judge a person by their face. Xue Yue’s innermost murderous intent was completely masked by his appearance. Once Yang Kai fell into his hand, his end would no doubt be miserable, so he obediently hid inside Shen Tu’s palace and peacefully cultivated.
The fierce undercurrent lasted for two months, and more than two thousand people on Water Moon Star lost their lives because of it. Only after so much time had passed did things gradually subsided.
Jia Long also reported this to Yang Kai so that he could finally breathe a little easier.
After these two months passed, Shen Tu came to Yang Kai with a resigned look upon his face and openly admitted, “Brother Yang, although I really wish you would remain here and join me in my future endeavours, if you remain there will always be a day when my Third Brother discovers you. Once he does, even I won’t be able to protect you.”
“You mean?”
“You have to leave,” Shen Tu sighed, “The situation is a bit calmer now as Third Brother’s attention has shifted to other matters, so I can arrange for you to quietly sneak away.”
Saying so, he paused and said, “Of course, all of this depends on your own intentions. If you are willing to stay, I will be extremely grateful. My friends are not many and Brother Yang definitely counts as one, that was why I intended to recruit you in the first place, but if you do choose to stay, you can only hide inside the palace temporarily.”
“Then I’ll leave,” Yang Kai smiled faintly, “In fact, even if this matter hadn’t occurred, I wouldn’t have remained here indefinitely. Brother Shen Tu’s hospitality has been more than gracious, but I still have my own things to do.”
Shen Tu was startled for a moment but his expression soon relaxed and a smile appeared on his face, “It seems Brother Yang already had some long-term plans. It’s a pity. I originally wanted you to participate in the talent selection battle that the Chamber of Commerce will soon hold. With your strength, within the Saint Grade, you would certainly raise a great storm, but it seems that was not meant to be.”
Yang Kai smiled slightly.
“Then you should make some preparations, I’ll see if there is a suitable Starship that will soon depart and inform you when the time arrives.”
“Good!” Yang Kai didn’t have any opinion.
If he wanted to leave Water Moon Star, he had to take a Starship. Travelling by Star Shuttle not only took far too long, but it also consumed his own strength.
Yang Kai waited with peace of mind.
Ten days later, Shen Tu suddenly arrived in a hurry and told Yang Kai that everything had been prepared.
Yang Kai didn’t have any belongings to carry off so he simply stood up and followed Shen Tu out of the palace.
Outside the palace, Shen Tu once again apologized, “Brother Yang, I can only send you up to here, my identity is too sensitive, if I leave with you, it’ll draw too much attention. Take care of yourself out there.”
“Xue Tong will accompany you and provide you with all the information you’ll require to maintain your safety,” Jia Long hurriedly added as the Monster Race cultivator who had accompanied Yang Kai to buy his new Star Shuttle and supply of ores flew over and grinned, “Young Master Yang.”
“En, I’ll be depending on you.” Yang Kai knew this all stemmed from Shen Tu’s good intentions, so he didn’t refuse.
“Brother Yang, may we meet again!” Shen Tu cupped his fists.
Yang Kai returned the gesture then, under the leadership of Xue Tong, summoned out his Star Shuttle and flew away.
Water Moon Star’s Starships were all basically used to transport commodities. The various major forces throughout the Star Field would place orders from Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce through their own branches on Water Moon Star, then when the goods were prepared, the Chamber of Commerce would deliver the goods to the stars specified by these forces via Starship.
Along the way, according to Xue Tong’s explanation, Yang Kai understood that the Starship the two of them were about to board was headed to a place called Emerald Star, the home star of a force called Roaring Flame Sect. This force was neither strong nor weak and could only be considered mid-ranked among the entire Star Field. It controlled two Cultivation Stars, with Emerald Star being one of them.
The total transit time would be about half a year, and there would be stopovers at some other Cultivation Stars along the way.
“Young Master Yang, you can choose to get off at one of the Cultivation Stars along the way or remain on the Starship until it reaches Emerald Star,” Xue Tong explained.
“Understood, I’ll make a decision when the time comes,” Yang Kai nodded.
Followed behind Xue Tong, Yang Kai quickly arrived at the Space Array he had used once before then transferred to another city before eventually coming to an area crowded with other cultivators.
This place was an open square that was incredibly vastness, and at fixed intervals, various large and small Starships were parked, with an endless stream of cultivator hurrying about, carrying goods in and out of these Starships in an orderly manner.
The contents of the crates most gave off strong energy fluctuations, and many of them were clearly extremely high-grade goods.
After Xue Tong brought him to this place, Yang Kai couldn’t help marvelling once again at the immense wealth of Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce.
Just these few dozen Starships were worth a massive fortune, and that wasn’t even taking into consideration their loads of precious cargo or the countless cultivators manning them.
Great forces really had the style of great forces!
The two men hadn’t gone far before several Saint King Realm cultivators flew over and barred their way, releasing clear murderous intent as the stared vigilantly towards Xue Tong and Yang Kai, one of them raised his hand and shouting, “You there, halt!”
Xue Tong paused his steps but didn’t reveal any kind of fluster, simply taking a token out from his Space Ring and handing it to these two men.
One of the cultivators accepted the token and carefully examined it before gently nodding, no longer asking anything and simply waving Xue Tong and Yang Kai along.
“Young Master Shen Tu has already arranged everything, we will be leaving here with a Senior who he is on good terms with,” Xue Tong whispered.
Flying through the Starship dock, a short time later, Xue Tong’s eyes lit up and pointed towards the front.
In the direction he pointed was a Saint King Grade High-Rank Starship with its main hatch wide open and a line of cultivators carrying supplies into it. Outside this Starship was a big burly man with his hands crossed in front of his chest, his pair of eagle-like eyes glittering sharply, his expression one of cold indifference.
All the cultivators carrying goods involuntarily stayed away from him, many of them doing their best to not catch his eyes.
When Xue Tong and Yang Kai came over, this burly man couldn’t help frowning slightly as he stared towards Yang Kai, causing the latter to feel a slight pressure.
“Senior Xin Rui!” Xue Tong stepped forward and politely cupped his fists.
“Is this him?” The big man who was called Xin Rui looked Yang Kai over before snorting lightly, “Young Master Shen Tu wants me to ferry him away from this place?”
“Yes!” Xue Tong nodded.
“He’s not from our Chamber of Commerce is he?” Xin Rui narrowed his eyes slightly and asked.
Xue Tong shook his head, “He is a friend of Young Master Shen Tu.”
“Oh?” Xin Rui’s eyes revealed a curious light, “He’s actually Shen Tu’s friend? That’s something quite rare. En, I can take him away from here, but you’d best remember not to cause any fuss on my Starship. Make sure he honestly obeys the rules, otherwise I’ll toss him overboard and leave him to fend for himself amidst the Starry Sky.”
“Rest assured, Young Master’s friend won’t stir up any trouble,” Xue Tong smiled lightly, not paying any mind to this threat.
Xin Rui spat disdainfully, “If he wasn’t a troublemaker, how could Shen Tu be so anxious to arrange for him secretly depart? Seeing him in person, it’s obvious he’s not the law-abiding type!”
Directing a profound and meaningful look towards Yang Kai, Xin Rui seemed to have noticed something, but he didn’t ask any questions and simply shouted, “Go in already!”
“Many thanks!” Xue Tong smiled before motioning for Yang Kai to follow him into the Starship.
Inside the ship, there were still quite a few cultivators running about, each of them incredibly busy.
Xue Tong ignored all the chaos around him and calmly led Yang Kai down a couple of corridors before arriving at a pair of rooms.
“If Young Master Yang feels this room is not satisfactory, I can help you find a different one,” Xue Tong consulted Yang Kai.
Yang Kai walked inside and stared out a large window at the surrounding scenery before slowly shaking his head and saying, “No need, this place has a wide view, that’s plenty.”
“As long as you’re satisfied.”
“That Xin Rui… What is his relationship with Shen Tu? Why would he go out of his way to help him?” Yang Kai asked.
“Senior Xin Rui…” Xue Tong thought for a moment before replying, “He is Young Master Shen Tu’s uncle.”
“What?” Yang Kai was stunned.
“En,” Xue Tong grinned, “Senior Xin Rui sister was Young Master Shen Tu’s mother. The President and Senior Xin Rui’s sister met many years ago, but for various reasons, the two of them could never officially become a couple.”
“Forget it, don’t explain any further. I’m sure it’s a troublesome story!” Yang Kai waved his hand.
Xue Tong also smiled bitterly, “En, there’s a number of unpaid debts related to it. If Young Master doesn’t have any other instructions, I’ll retire first. After an hour or so, this Starship should set sail!”
“Good!”
Xue Tong immediately withdrew.
Yang Kai stood by the window and looked at the crowds down below, his heart beating slowly, once again feeling a sense of loneliness and solitude.
The Star Field was so massive it seemed nearly limitless. He was an outsider here, with no relatives or friends and nowhere to call home.
From where he stood, everything felt foreign and distant. As a lone wanderer in this strange land, Yang Kai couldn’t help subconsciously thinking of the warmth of Little Senior Sister and the tenderness of Su Yan, even remembering the charms of the seductive Shan Qing Luo and the sharp wit of Qiu Yi Meng.
As these familiar faces crossed his mind, his pulses quickened slightly.
Were they all happy and healthy right now? Had they encountered any kind of difficulties? Were they also thinking about him…
Yang Kai’s thoughts drifted about like this, causing his mood to sour slightly.
However, when a certain figure appeared in his line of sight, all these melancholy thoughts were swept aside and his eyes couldn’t help but shrink, his face quickly becoming gloomy.
Out in the giant square, a group of three people were slowing walking this way. The young man leading them was extraordinarily handsome, his skin so fair it would make any woman jealous, his long black hair gently falling across his shoulders, a warm and genial smile that seemed as refreshing as a spring breeze adorning his face.
Wherever he went, the female cultivators who were carrying supplies stopped their movements and stared at him longingly.
What’s more, he was actually walking towards this very Starship!
[Xue Yue!]
Yang Kai quickly left the window and flew straight out of his room, arriving at the door of the one adjacent to him and walking straight in.
Xue Tong was meditating on top of the bed, but upon seeing Yang Kai suddenly burst in, he couldn’t help feeling a bit stunned and asking, “Young Master Yang, do you require something?”
Yang Kai stared at him deeply and spoke in a cold tone, “Answer me honestly, did Shen Tu sell me out?”
Xue Tong’s expression only became more confused upon hearing this, frowning as he asked, “What does Young Master Yang mean by that?”
“Take a look outside for yourself!” Yang Kai coldly snorted.
Xue Tong stood up and gazed out the window, his eyes immediately shrinking up as he cried out, “Young Master Xue Yue? How can he be here?”
“If you ask me, who am I supposed to ask?” Yang Kai sneered, “Did Shen Tu rat me out to him?”
Xue Tong wore a serious expression and replied, “Young Master Yang, if you really think so, you look down on Young Master Shen Tu far too much. He sincerely treated you as a friend, how could he suddenly betray you? Moreover, Young Master Xue Yue should have left Water Moon Star yesterday. It was only because of this fact that Young Master Shen Tu chose to have to depart today.”
“Left yesterday?” Yang Kai frowned, his eyes staring fixedly towards Xue Tong, not letting off the slightest change in his expressions.
“En, Young Master Xue Yue was assigned an important mission and should have left yesterday to complete it,” Xue Tong nodded heavily, “Many people witnessed him board a Starship that left Water Moon Star!”
“So how could he appear here? And on top of that, head for this particular Starship?” Yang Kai asked flatly.
Xue Tong smiled bitterly, “I don’t know… but Young Master Yang, Young Master Shen Tu did not betray you, he would not do such a thing.”
Yang Kai stared at him for a moment before letting out a sigh and nodding, “Good, I believe you! Should we get off now then?”
“That’s too risky, there’s too great a chance of running into him,” Xue Tong hurriedly waved, “If Young Master Xue Yue intends to travel aboard this Starship, you’d best remain here and conceal your presence. Hopefully, he is just coming over to discuss something with Senior Xin Rui…”
“I’m afraid there’s no chance of that,” Yang Kai slowly shook his head as he perked up his ears. Xue Tong and his rooms weren’t far from the hatch, so even if he didn’t circulate his strength to enhance his senses, Yang Kai could hear bits and pieces of the conversation going on outside. Listening to the dialogue being exchanged between Xin Rui and Xue Yue, Yang Kai knew that the latter really came here to board this battleship.
Yang Kai’s mood suddenly turned pitch black.
“Young Master Xue Yue, as far as I know, you should have left Water Moon Star yesterday. How could you suddenly appear here today?” Next to Starship, Xin Rui asked curiously.
Xue Yue smiled lightly, “There were a few matters that weren’t settled on time yesterday, so I let that Starship depart first. Uncle Xin Rui is sailing for Emerald Star, so I thought there shouldn’t be a problem if I rode your Starship instead. In any case, you will be passing through Rainfall Star, that’s my destination as well.”
Xin Rui’s brow couldn’t help furrowing slightly.
Xue Yue observed this and continued to laugh, “Is there something inconvenient about my presence, Uncle Xin Rui? Could it be there’s something aboard this Starship you don’t want me to see?”
Xin Rui’s attitude made him feel somewhat suspicious so Xue Yue couldn’t help probing him slightly.
Xin Rui broke out into laughter hearing this, “Young Master Xue Yue surely jests, aboard my Starship are only the materials ordered by Raging Flame Sect, how could there be anything I don’t want you to see? Please feel free to step aboard, Young Master Xue Yue!”
Saying so, he opened the way.
“Many thanks, Uncle Xin Rui,” Xue Yue nodded before he and his two followers walked up the ramp to the Starship under the solemn and respectful gazes of all the surrounding cultivators.
“Check if there are any materials aboard this Starship that aren’t supposed to be here!” Xue Yue never lost his smile as he sent a Divine Sense Message to his two subordinates.
“Does Young Master suspect Xin Rui of smuggling supplies?” One of them asked back.
“He shouldn’t be, but the way he was acting just now makes me a little curious. An abundance of caution is not unwarranted!”
“Subordinate will verify the situation as quickly as possible!”
The group of three walked through the Starship’s corridors and soon arrived at a luxurious room. Only the most important of passengers were eligible to live in such quarters.
The rooms where Yang Kai and Xue Tong were staying were just ordinary quarters where the ordinary crewmembers lived.
Outside the Starship, after Xue Yue and his escorts walked inside, Xin Rui looked up and saw two particularly ugly faces staring out a nearby window.
“He really boarded,” Yang Kai expression sank dramatically as he glanced towards Xue Tong.
Xue Tong’s face was also twitching. Never had he dreamed they would run into Xue Yue at this time, much less watch him board the same Starship as them.
“Young Master Xue Yue seems to be headed for Rainfall Star, it is one of the Cultivation Stars under the jurisdiction of the Chamber of Commerce and is only a two months journey from here. Young Master Yang should bear with this situation for a while. After Young Master Xue Yue leaves, everything will be alright,” Xue Tong comforted.
“Seems there’s no other choice,” Yang Kai nodded helplessly.
Although he had never really met Xue Yue and at the time could only vaguely see his face, the other party should still remember his approximate appearance. If Yang Kai were to appear in front of Xue Yue now, it would be no different from turning himself over to him. In order to keep the secret of him privately trading precious commodities, Xue Yue had already killed two thousand innocent people, he certainly wouldn’t mind killing one more.
The two people beside Xue Yue were definitely masters Yang Kai couldn’t beat as he felt tremendous pressure from them.
He knew that Xue Tong’s suggestion was the best course of action to follow.
“Please take this, Young Master Yang. After pouring your Divine Sense into it, you can immediately contact me if you require anything,” Xue Tong said as he took out a communication type artifact and handed it to Yang Kai.
Yang Kai accepted it and briefly examined it, quickly figuring out how it worked.
Yang Kai had seen these kinds of compass-looking artifacts used for communication many times before. The cultivators from Purple Star and Sword Union also used these to communicate, but it wasn’t until now that Yang Kai actually got hold of one of them, piquing his curious slightly.
“Good, then I’ll go back first,” Yang Kai said, storing the communicator into his pocket.
He had heard the footsteps of the group of three led by Xue Yue pass by a while ago and knew they must have left by far by now, so for the moment there wasn’t any problem moving about.
“Young Master Yang…” Xue Tong suddenly called out towards his back.
“Is there something else?” Yang Kai looked back at him.
Xue Tong hesitated a moment before declaring, “Young Master Shen Tu sincerely wished to become friends with you. He would not do something to betray your trust!”
Yang Kai stared deeply into his eyes before gently nodding, “I understand.”
He had only suspected that Shen Tu had betrayed him because this situation was too coincidental. Anyone would have been confused by it.
However, from the conversation between Xue Yue and Xin Rui, Yang Kai had already determined that this was just his own misunderstanding.
When Shen Tu had learned that he had killed three cultivators from the Chamber of Commerce, he showed no intention to pursue it, so it was obvious how much he valued their friendship. Otherwise, he would have at least revealed an unpleasant look at the time.
However, he had not done so. Compared to Yang Kai, Shen Tu didn’t care one bit about the death of three of his Chamber of Commerce’s cultivators!
Returning to his room, Yang Kai closed the door and sat down on the bed to cultivate.
After about an hour, a humming sound echoed throughout the huge Starship and for a moment it seemed to shake. Soon after though, everything became smooth again and the Starship slowly lifted off and adjusted its heading. After rising a few thousand meters, the Starship rapidly accelerated, turning into a streak of light that rushed off into the Starry Sky.
Yang Kai opened his eyes and looked over his shoulder just in time to see the scenery outside his window rapidly rush past and soon, everything on Water Moon Star’s surface became incredibly small.
After passing through the thick layer of clouds, the Starship arrived in the realm of stars and swiftly headed in the direction of Emerald Star.
Since he knew that Xue Yue was also aboard this Starship, Yang Kai behaved with extreme caution, not even opening his own door. Even when he was cultivating, he was careful not to expose his own aura so as not to attract the attention of Xue Yue.
From the information obtained by Xue Tong, Yang Kai had learned that Xue Yue was living in a first-class suite on a different level far away from their low-level rooms, but Yang Kai still didn’t relax his vigilance.
After spending so many years outside adventuring, Yang Kai had fully understood that care and caution were the foundation of survival.
This Saint King Grade High-Rank Starship was extremely fast, many times faster than Yang Kai’s Star Shuttle.
When comparing the same rank of Starship and Star Shuttle, a Starship would always have an absolute advantage in terms of speed. Despite their larger size, the numerous Spirit Arrays engraved on their hulls would provide a much greater boost in propulsive output and use Saint Crystals as their primary source of power instead of a cultivator’s own Saint Qi.
Amidst the Starry Sky, there were countless drifting asteroids. There was no regularity to these asteroids. Some were big, some were small, some were scattered and remote, while others gathered together to form a large Asteroid Seas.
As the Starship moved through the Starry Sky, it would avoid most of these asteroids with great finesse so as not to cause unnecessary damage to the hull. If an asteroid couldn’t be avoided, cultivators from the Starship would be dispatched to shift its track or to simply destroy it.
The journey was calm and peaceful; Yang Kai remained inside his own room, mostly cultivating but occasionally observing the fascinating outside scenery to ease his nerves.
One day, he suddenly took out the communication type artifact and poured his Divine Sense into it to contact Xue Tong.
“What command does Young Master Yang have?” Xue Tong quickly responded.
“What kind of cultivation do the two people around Xue Yue posses?”
“One of them is an Origin Returning Realm master and the other should only be a Third Order Saint King!”
“Origin Returning Realm…” Yang Kai couldn’t help feeling a sense of surprise, now fully understanding just how much President Ai Ou valued Xue Yue. Even the best guards in Shen Tu’s palace were on the same level as Jia Long, Third Order Saint Kings, but Xue Yue actually had an Origin Returning Realm master serving as a bodyguard.
In President Ai Ou’s mind, Xue Yue’s position must be significantly higher than Shen Tu’s.
“What about Xue Yue himself?” Yang Kai asked.
“Ten years ago he broke through to the Second Order Saint King Realm, but currently I’m not too sure…” Xue Tong’s spoke in a somewhat exasperated tone, “Young Master Xue Yue’s talent is outstanding. Among President Ai Ou’s many sons, Xue Yue’s cultivation is the highest; Young Master Shen Tu only ranks a distant second.”
“Fierce,” Yang Kai acclaimed with sincere admiration, “Besides the master accompanying Xue Yue, are there no other cultivators on this Starship at the Origin Returning Realm?”
“En, there aren’t. After all, such masters are not very common. The number of Origin Returning Realm masters on each Cultivation Star is never that high, most of them are scattered throughout the Star Field and each one is a mainstay of each force. Shipping commodities from place to place is a minor matter that most Origin Returning Realm masters pay no mind to, only if something of extreme value is being shipped will an Origin Returning Realm cultivator be sent to escort it.”
After explaining all this, Xue Tong paused for a moment before asking, “Is Young Master Yang worried about the safety of this Starship? If so, you may be rest easy. Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce’s influence has spread to every corner of the Star Field and we have connections to every major force in existence. Even those robbers and murderers from Galaxy Ridge and Abandoned Lair won’t get any ideas about our Chamber of Commerce’s Starships because they too need to maintain trade relations with us.”
Galaxy Ridge and Abandoned Lair were Heng Luo Star Field’s two great evil forces. Yang Kai has previously learned from Shen Tu that these two forces were rampant pirates who pillaged and murdered across the Star Field, robbing Starships and plundering their goods while turning the males into slaves and the women into toys. They were savage and ruthless to the bone.
Any Starship would steer well clear of these two places.
In the past, the Star Field’s great forces had collaborated many times to encircle and route these two forces out, but their two hideouts were natural fortresses and possessed extremely strong fortifications. Every time they have encircled these two places, the Star Field’s great forces would suffer heavy losses and although they could temporarily suppress Galaxy Ridge and Abandoned Lair, it wouldn’t be long before they recovered and then wreak terrible revenge upon the Star Field.
After repeating this thankless job several times, the great forces eventually gave up.
“As long as this Starship bears the insignia of the Chamber of Commerce, no one will dare move against it!” Xue Tong’s said with an obvious note of pride in his voice.
“En, understood!” Yang Kai nodded, chatting with Xue Tong for a while to alleviate his boredom before ending the conversation with him.
Immersing his consciousness into his Knowledge Sea, Yang Kai materialized his Soul Avatar and began studying the giant Star Chart once again.
A moment ago, during his conversation with Xue Tong, Yang Kai had inquired about Rainfall Star and their end destination Emerald Star. From Xue Tong, Yang Kai learned that these two stars were Cultivation Stars with rich World Energy auras and that Rainfall Star belonged to Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce while Emerald Star was the home star of Raging Flame Sect. After learning this general information, Yang Kai became curious and decided to seek out the positions of Emerald Star and Rainfall Star in his Star Chart.
Yang Kai’s Divine Sense flew like lightning across the giant Star Chart suspended above his Knowledge Sea.
Soon, he found a Cultivation Star matching the description Xue Tong had given him. This Cultivation Star was half ocean, half dry land, and was almost the same size as Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce’s home star, Water Moon Star.
Rainfall Star!
Around Rainfall Star there was a great sun as well as a number of small moons. These moons orbited Rainfall Star under the influence of its gravity field, while Rainfall Star orbited the sun under the influence of its gravity. All of these celestial bodies were invisibly yet inextricably linked together.
The entire Star Field was like this, and observing it was equivalent to observing some kind of grand Heavenly principle.
Suns and Moons were two kinds of stars that would inevitably exist around any Cultivation Star. Suns would give off brilliant sunlight, providing the plants and creatures on the surface of a Cultivation Star with the energy required to support life. Moons scattered holy radiance and cold moonlight that would allow cultivators to calm their minds and souls.
After finding Rainfall Star, Yang Kai began trying to use his understanding of the Star Field to plot a safe course to it.
Soon, Yang Kai was pleasantly surprised to discover that using his consciousness as a pen and his Spiritual Energy as ink to sketch routes on this Star Chart was actually able to enhance his understanding of the use of his Divine Sense.
This unexpected discovery caused him some elation.
He spared no effort mapping out other safe routes on the Star Chart, copying them into his Star Shuttle whenever he completed one.
Yang Kai soon immersed himself in this task and gradually forgot the passage of time.
Plotting then copying these safe routes on the Star Chart then into his Star Shuttle consumed a great deal of Spiritual Energy. Yang Kai continued mapping out various safe routes from one Cultivation Star to another on the Star Chart for several days. Some of these safe routes were extremely long and would take several years even with a fast Starship. Others were short enough that only a couple of months would be required to complete them.
Yang Kai’s understanding of the Star Field became more and more profound as he continued this unusual form of practice. His understanding and control over his Conflagrated Knowledge Sea also grew at a noticeable rate. Both inside and out, Yang Kai felt as if his Soul had been baptized and sublimated.
However, he didn’t really know how much use these various routes he was plotting out would have. With the giant Star Chart in his Knowledge Sea, moving safely about the Star Field was a simple task for him.
The only way to verify their usefulness would be to put them to use.
Yang Kai stopped plotting new courses at one point and compared the route the Starship he was sailing about to the one he had created.
When he found that the safe route he had plotted using the giant Star Chart did not differ greatly from the sailing route of the Starship, Yang Kai was quite excited and his confidence and motivation were both boosted.
Yang Kai then began to observe the route ahead, wanting to see if they would encounter any danger.
After a short observation though, he found something wrong.
The Starship he was aboard would sail for another day or two before entering a cold and desolate part of the Star Field. There was a large number of asteroids in this particular region and the light from all the surrounding stars was weak and gloomy, with no aura whatsoever.
These stars were all Dead Stars.
Contacting Xue Tong, he asked him about this region.
Xue Tong quickly replied, “Young Master Yang does not need to worry, that is the famous Ice-Cold Dead Zone. We will indeed be passing through it.”
“Is there no problems with that?” Yang Kai didn’t immediately relax and asked.
“En, there are no issues. Every Starship travelling to Rainfall Star from Water Moon Star will pass through there, there is no danger,” Xue Tong seemed to think that Yang Kai was making a fuss over nothing and secretly chuckled to himself.
After a moment though, he suddenly asked with amazement, “How did Young Master Yang know that we will pass through the Ice-Cold Dead Zone?”
According to what Xue Tong knew about him, it was impossible for Yang Kai to have had prior knowledge about their route, confusing him somewhat.
Yang Kai did not explain and instead just ended the conversation before continuing to study the giant Star Chart and improve his ability to manipulate his Spiritual Energy.
In a different, far more luxurious room of the Starship, Xue Yue sat in a relaxed manner upon a comfortable chair. He held a glass in his hand, filled with dark red wine, savouring its taste elegantly as he listened to the report of his Origin Returning Realm guard.
“Young Master, I performed a thorough inspection and discovered that there is nothing out of order with the materials being shipped aboard this Starship. It is indeed what Raging Flame Sect ordered with no additional unregistered cargo.”
“Nothing extra or missing?” Xue Yue asked softly.
“None! I even caught one of the crew and spied on his memory, yet I found no problems at all.”
“Oh?” Xue Yue showed a thoughtful look on his face, his slender fingers casually brushing his long hair away from his face as his brow slightly wrinkled.
Xue Yue’s movements were natural and unintentional, but when they appeared in the eyes of his other subordinate who was standing nearby, that man couldn’t help revealing an infatuated look, his breathing becoming a bit heavier as the gaze gradually went from that of a calm master to those of a hungry wolf staring at a delicious meal.
This man’s aura started fluctuating violently as his strength began to condense, seemingly on the verge of pouncing upon Xue Yue, not caring one bit he was also a man!
“Young Master!” The Origin Returning Realm master immediately realized something was amiss and quickly shouted.
“Hm?” Xue Yue awoke from his contemplation and saw the ugly look on his other subordinate’s face, his crystal clear eyes revealing a thick meaning of disgust as he angrily shouted, “Get out!”
The Third Order Saint King cultivator finally regained his senses when he heard this shout and his face dyed bright red with embarrassment, wishing he could immediately find a hole to crawl into and hide, swiftly asking for mercy before dashing out the door!
After he left, the Origin Returning Realm old man could only smile bitterly, “Young Master, you must pay more attention to your surroundings, just now was not actually his wrong.”
Xue Yue snorted, “Such disappointing metal fortitude, from now on, do not allow him to follow me!”
“Understood,” The old man gently nodded, sighing in his heart.
If it weren’t for his own profound strength and advanced age, a moment ago, even he might have fallen into a deluded state when Xue Yue had inadvertently revealed his aura. He suddenly understood that this extraordinary Young Master of his was indeed as rumoured, deadly to men and women alike!
Usually, his charms only affected women.
However, when he inadvertently exposed his mesmerizing aura, even men would find themselves unable to resist his appeal.
If this person were to fully mature, who would be capable of resisting his charms?
“If there is no problem with the materials… What is Xin Rui trying to hide?” Xue Yue showed a shallow smile on his face before suddenly saying, “Forget it, there’s no point wasting any more effort on such a minor matter. You may go.”
“Yes!” The Origin Returning Realm old man respectfully retired.
……
The Starship’s cruising speed suddenly dropped as it entered the Ice-Cold Dead Zone. If it wanted to avoid the irregularly moving asteroids, it simply couldn’t maintain its original speed.
Soon, the fascinating scenery outside the window disappeared and was replaced by a dark and desolate void. There was truly nothing of worth to see, as if the Starship had suddenly plunged into a deep abyss.
Occasionally, some streaks of light would pass by, but just as fast as they came, they would disappear.
Through this vast desolate region, the huge Starship continued moving forward smoothly, unaffected by the outside world.
This route was not dangerous, just a bit bumpy. Innumerable Starships from the Chamber of Commerce had passed through this place and never once had there been any kind of serious accident.
So the cultivators aboard the Starship didn’t reveal any kind of worry.
However, as the captain of the Starship, Xin Rui always maintained a degree of vigilance about the surrounding environment, not daring to relax.
He knew that any accident, large or small, could cause unexpected losses.
Two days later, a massive Asteroid Sea appeared again in front of the Starship and Xin Rui ordered his crew to act even more cautiously, to avoid impacts as best as possible.
When the Starship entered this Asteroid Sea though, for some inexplicable reason, Xin Rui suddenly felt an uncomfortable chill, as if crisis was upon him!
The last time he felt this sensation was many years ago when he was being chased down by an Origin Returning Realm cultivator. It was thanks to this unique intuition that he had managed to escape and survive until today.
He had great faith in this instinct.
So Xin Rui immediately began scanning the surroundings outside the window to see if there was any kind of approaching danger.
A moment later, from a certain location, he saw a white point of light amongst the dark Ice-Cold Dead Zone.
This point of light cut through the darkness like a brilliant sword. As if chain reaction had been started, another twenty white points of light appeared around the Starship like fireflies scattered around the nearby asteroids.
Xin Rui’s pupils shrank as he shouted at the top his lungs, “Full speed ahead! Get us clear! Someone’s set up a trap using Star Breaker Sparks here!”
His shout echoed throughout the Starship, allowing everyone on board to clearly hear him, the cultivators in the power room all paling when they heard his words and not hesitating to raise the Starship’s speed to maximum to desperately flee this area.
However, it was too late. As soon as Xin Rui’s words rang out, the white points of light all sent out a strange energy fluctuation and exploded, releasing a brilliance brighter than the dazzling rays of the sun, causing the darkest part of the Starry Sky, the Ice-Cold Dead Zone, to fill with light.
Shocking and terrifying energy fluctuations erupted from the white lights, causing ripples in space visible to the naked eye. These ripples from the twenty white lights immediately overlapped and amplified one another, creating an inescapable region of death.
The space inside the Ice-Cold Dead Zone warped and cracked. Innumerable asteroids were instantly vaporized, leaving not even dust behind.
The Saint King Grade High-Rank Starship which had just accelerated was swiftly engulfed by these destructive waves.
The incredibly sturdy hull, which could allow the Starship to safely roam the Star Field, was as fragile as tofu before these ripples and like the surrounding asteroids, turned to ash, exposing the interior.
Every single one of the Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce cultivators went pale with fright, as horror filled their faces and their lives flashed before their eyes.
When the destructive waves hit, regardless of how high their cultivation was, all burst into bloody fog with not even their bones surviving!
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When Xin Rui first shouted, Yang Kai was still immersed in studying the Star Chart above his Knowledge Sea.
Noticing something was wrong from the sudden shout and subsequent panic, he withdrew his consciousness just in time to feel the intense energy fluctuations crash towards him from all directions, the overbearing force they carried with them giving him the feeling of impending death.
The communication type artifact in his pocket vibrated and Xue Tong shouted, “Young Master Yang, quickly…”
Before he could finish his words though, the communication was cut off.
The room around him suddenly collapsed, and the debris that was created quickly disintegrated and vanished into nothingness. Yang Kai’s body was then directly exposed to the Starry Sky.
Rapidly sweeping his eyes around, Yang Kai saw bursts of blood all around him as the Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce cultivators one after another desperately tried to escape but were swiftly overtaken by the destructive waves and pulverised.
The ripples in space acted like the sharpest of blades, shredding these cultivators to dust.
Yang Kai realized he was in the midst of a life or death crisis and immediately condensed his strength and slashed his hand forward in an attempt to tear space and escape from this place.
However, what made him feel desperate was that at this moment, he was unable to accomplish the familiar task of tearing space. The explosions that had occurred all around him had greatly destabilized the surrounding space. So, he was unable to tear space!
Twenty black hole-like cracks appeared around the Starship, like the mouths of giant fish that were engulfing everything nearby.
Yang Kai went paled and swiftly activated his Demon God Transformation in an attempt to maximize his strength before attempting to escape in the opposite direction of the spreading ripples.
Behind him, the aura of death pursued him like a relentless tidal wave, the space around him seemingly transforming into the sharpest of weapons, shredding Yang Kai’s body, causing great spurts of golden blood to fly out.
Resisting the pain, Yang Kai madly circulated his Saint Qi and condensed out a series of Grand Heavenly Shields while simultaneously summoning out the Silver Leaf artifact he had not used for so long, transforming it into a light curtain that tightly wrapped around his form.
*Chi chi chi…*
The disintegrating space swiftly cut into Yang Kai’s defences, ripping apart the silver light halo in an instant and causing the Silver Leaf Grade High-Rank artifact to lose its spirituality in the next moment before it ultimately collapsed.
The artifact had actually been directly destroyed.
The destructive onslaught did not abate and the Grand Heavenly Shields condensed by Yang Kai were unable to resist their might, shattering faster than he could form them, leaving no margin for Yang Kai to even catch his breath.
Bearing the terrible pain directly with his body once more, Yang Kai did not doubt he would soon die if he didn’t do something.
Raising his speed to its limits, Yang Kai let out a desperate roar as he shot in a random direction, trying to seek a way out from this disaster.
Just then, another shout rang out from nearby.
“Young Master, run quickly! I will buy you some time!”
Even while busy fleeing, Yang Kai shot a glance towards the source of the voice and discovered an old man standing nearby, his arms spread wide open as if he was trying to embrace something, staring towards the approaching waves of destruction, a strange energy fluctuation spreading out from his figure. As the unique aura of an Origin Returning Realm spread out, this old man used all his strength to wrench open one of the cracks in space before him and expand it as wide as he possibly could.
As the violent waves crashed towards him, the old man wore a fearless look upon his face as he stood his ground, allowing the Heaven shaking destructive force to wash over him, disintegrating his clothes, then rending the flesh from his bones.
However, because of this old ma’s efforts, a large portion of the destructive energy had been led into The Void.
Yang Kai felt the surrounding pressure on him drop noticeably and joy filled his heart.
Not far from the old man, an incredibly handsome young man with long hair draped over his shoulders stared at the old man who was sacrificing his life for him and desperately wished to help him, but was powerless to do anything. Clenching his teeth, the young man summoning a set of flame-coloured armour that tightly wrapped around his body, making him appear even more gallant and valiant.
He and Yang Kai exchanged a single glance before both fled in the same direction.
Xue Yue!
Yang Kai groaned, wishing he could stop right now and choke this guy to death!
In that brief glance, Xue Yue had also recognized Yang Kai’s identity, but in this life or death crisis, he had no time to care about him. Frustrated, Xue Yue simply clenched his fists together while suppressing the feelings of helplessness and anger inside his heart, glancing back once more just in time to see the old man’s bones rupture before turning around and fleeing as fast as he could.
The Origin Returning Realm old man had only delayed the destructive onslaught for three breaths of time before the space crack he had forcibly opened was destroyed and the deadly waves expanded outwards once more.
These overlapping waves of destruction quickly spread to the location of Yang Kai and Xue Yue.
Yang Kai felt as if he had been punched by thousands of fists, every bit of his skin cracking open while his Knowledge Sea was thrown into chaos before he swiftly lost consciousness.
Just before he passed out though, he saw that the set of armour and the clothes Xue Yue wore beneath them tear apart, revealing a white, flawless body.
Yang Kai’s eyes bulged at that moment as he swore he saw something unbelievable…
In that instant, the two pectoral muscles of this ‘young man’ appeared somewhat different than he had expected…
This strange sight was the last thing Yang Kai saw before darkness took him.
……
Amidst the Ice-Cold Dead Zone, a desolate silence filled the air.
The nearby Asteroid Sea had been swept away and was now nowhere to be seen. The massive Saint King Grade High-Rank Starship had also disappeared, along with hundreds of cultivators and all the materials it had been carrying.
It was as if none of it had ever existed, no trace left behind at all.
Silently, Yang Kai’s bloody figure drifted through the Starry Sky. It was as if he had fallen into a deep sleep and there was no way to tell when he might awaken.
Golden rays of light shrouded his figure as the restorative powers of the Demon God Golden Blood once again displayed their formidability, rapidly repairing his damaged physique.
His fingers twitched suddenly and his eyes shot open, a dazed look covering his face as he stared blankly into space for a moment.
The scene from just before he passed out then flashed before his eyes and the desperate screams and roars reverberated in his ears, allowing him to immediately come to his senses.
Upon trying to move, Yang Kai discovered that his body was completely stiff.
He felt as if all his bones had been shattered and his body filled with scars.
Laying back down again, he quickly inspected his condition with his Divine Sense.
The situation was quite bad, his physique had many grievous wounds and many of his meridians were seriously damaged. Yang Kai couldn’t circulate his Saint Qi smoothly either, so his current strength didn’t even reach half of his maximum.
Even with Yang Kai’s formidable resilience and the incredible restorative power of his Demon God Golden Blood, if he wanted to completely restore himself from these injuries he would need at least half a month.
After clarifying his current state, Yang Kai took out a healing Saint Pill from his Demon Mystic Tome and stuffed it into his mouth.
At the same time, Yang Kai couldn’t help rejoicing slightly. If it weren’t for the old Origin Returning Realm master who had been accompanying Xue Yue dampening the destructive wave for a moment back then, his current injuries would be far more serious and the chances of him having died would not have been small.
Even a master at the Origin Returning Realm had died, what hope did a small Second-Order Saint like him have?
What about Xue Yue? Did he die?
Recalling the scene he saw right before slipping into a coma, Yang Kai’s expression became strange. He thought about it carefully and confirmed that it was not an illusion born of his own confusion. The Star Field’s famous Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce Third Young Master apparently had an incredible secret!
Yang Kai released his Divine Sense but didn’t notice any life auras nearby. If he hadn’t died, Yang Kai anticipated that Xue Yue’s situation would be similar to his own. He had accidentally seen the other party’s greatest secret, and even before that Xue Yue had intended to kill him, so now it was even more impossible for him to let Yang Kai off.
Yang Kai fully regarded Xue Yue as his enemy!
Xue Tong…
Remembering about the other person who had been accompanying him, Yang Kai quickly took out the communication type artifact from the Demon Mystic Tome and poured his Divine Sense into it, trying to get in touch with Xue Tong.
To his disappointment though, no matter how he called out, Yang Kai received no response from Xue Tong. Before the disaster, Xue Tong had used this communication type artifact to try to warn Yang Kai to escape, but he had been cut off before he could even finish his words.
It seems that at that time, Xue Tong had already suffered disaster.
Yang Kai sighed deeply before stowing away the communication type artifact. He was a bit sad that Xue Tong had fallen. This Monster Race cultivator had been good to him; if Shen Tu hadn’t made Xue Tong accompany Yang Kai, he wouldn’t have been caught up in this disaster.
His luck was really bad…
Who laid such a trap in that Asteroid Sea though? Why did they want to destroy a Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce Starship?
Also, what kind of trap was capable of such immense destructive power?
Was it for revenge? Was it an assassination? Yang Kai had no way to know.
He only remembered that Xin Rui had said something about Star Breaker Sparks before the disaster occurred, but Yang Kai had no idea what that was.
Yang Kai secretly decided that he needed to discover the truth of this matter, not only because he had almost been killed, but also because he need to give Shen Tu an explanation for Xue Tong’s death!
From behind Yang Kai, a slight attractive force appeared, pulling his body downwards. Yang Kai turned his head around with great difficulty and discovered that a few hundred kilometers or so away there was a small Dead Star.
The force which had caught Yang Kai was the gravity generated by this Dead Star.
Yang Kai didn’t resist and allowed the Dead Star to pull him in.
Two hours later, when Yang Kai was just about to hit the surface of this Dead Star, he slowly, roughly circulated his Saint Qi to stabilize his figure.
Glancing around, Yang Kai felt that this place truly deserved its Dead Star classification. A thick Death Qi lingered about the deserted surface, with no trace of vitality or life anywhere to be seen, only some scattered craters and mountains added variety to the landscape.
At the moment, Yang Kai stood next to a huge pit, not a single strip of clothing on his body.
All his clothes had been destroyed in the previous incident.
After this short period of recovery, Yang Kai felt a bit better and was just about to take out a set of clothes from the Demon Mystic Tome when his expression suddenly changed and he hurriedly released his Divine Sense.
He noticed another life aura in a place not far from him.
His brow wrinkling slightly, Yang Kai didn’t even bother wearing clothes first before quickly flying over to investigate.
A thousand meters from where Yang Kai had landed was another massive pit. There, a woman with an astonishingly beautiful body and exposed jade white skin sat.
Standing up in the pit, she rubbed her forehead, slowly kneading it as she scanned her surroundings.
Similar to Yang Kai, because of the recent disaster, she was in somewhat of a daze and couldn’t immediately tell what had just happened.
Standing there, her snow-white naked form revealed a gloss, like the finest of porcelain, and her pair of jade peaks stood as tall as mountains yet as soft as the clouds. Her beautiful legs were long and slender and by themselves were enough to cause any man’s blood to boil.
The dark red bloodstains which covered her body did nothing to detract from her image, and instead, caused her to exude an even richer sense of temptation.
She was currently in a great deal of pain, and every time she tried to move a moan would leak from her lips, resounding like the most fascinating music between the Heavens and the Earth.
Calming down and thinking about it, she gradually understood her situation, and recalled what had happened before, her beautiful eyes trembled lightly and a thick murderous intent flashed across their depths, causing her tender body to shiver unconsciously.
Gritting her teeth tightly, she took a deep breath, her full chest heaving up and down in a mesmerizing arc, trying to calm her fluctuating mood.
She quickly tapped her Space Ring and took out a fragrant healing pill, forcing it into her mouth in order to help restore her injuries and recover her strength.
She then took out a pair of petite snow-white underwear adorned with exquisite lace patterns and made from the finest of materials from her Space Ring.
She lifted her foot and bent down halfway, ready to put on her clothes before considering anything else.
But just then, a sudden noise resounded from above her head and a few pieces of rock quickly fell before her eyes.
When she heard this movement, her beautiful face couldn’t help but pale as she swiftly glanced upwards.
There, she saw a man who at some unknown point had arrived and stood at the top of the crater she was standing in. His vision was fiery and he made no attempt to hide the sharp glances he was directing towards her most intimate and secretive places, everything she was being imprinted into his eyes.
She instantly remembered this man’s face.
It was him, the one who had passed by the mountain valley some time ago and forced her to abandon that transaction.
It was him, the one she had spent two months looking for and killed two thousand people to find!
It was him, the one who had fled together with her when the Starship they had been riding was destroyed.
His whole body was also stark naked, his solid, powerful muscles exposed and the symbol of his manhood, like the long trunk of an elephant, on full display, tarnishing her delicate eyes and forever engraving its image into her innocent soul!
It was then that she realized that she was also not wearing anything, and at this moment, was bent over halfway, her twin peaks pressed together tightly while she lightly lifted and extended one of her legs towards his direction. It was as if she was a seductress actively showing off her beautiful figure to please her lover…
Her rage and anger soared to unprecedented heights!
“You seek…” She tried to shout, but before she could finish her sentence, her face went pale and she began coughing fiercely, her thin, tender mouth overflowing with red blood, her delicate hand reaching up to cover her chest as she staggered backwards.
Her injuries were much more severe than Yang Kai’s, her five viscera and six organs all heavily battered, and although her red flame armour had managed to stop her skin from receiving many series bruises, her internal injuries were awful to the extreme.
“… Death!” She squeezed out the last word as she glared at Yang Kai, gnashing her teeth, wishing she could drink his blood and feast on his flesh.
No man had ever seen her body like this, and aside from a few select people, none even know about her secret identity, yet now she had actually exposed everything to this nobody, her whole body put on display for his dissolute eyes to wantonly gaze upon.
She couldn’t help feeling as though she was being blasphemed.
“Young Master Xue Yue?” Yang Kai grinned, a meaningful grin appearing on his face, not caring one bit about his own nakedness. Not only did he not try to cover himself, he even took a step forward, allowing his figure to be seen even more clearly, chatting as he walked, “I didn’t expect that Young Master Xue Yue was actually a woman, this is really a fantastic tale.”
The woman standing at the bottom of the pit was seventy or eighty percent similar to Xue Yue, whom Yang Kai had seen before, but the difference now had made Xue Yue reborn as an astonishingly beautiful woman.
Her beauty was hard to describe in words, everything from her looks to her body was the epitome of perfection, without the slightest blemish. It was as if the Heavens themselves had concentrated all their blessings onto her, allowing anyone who laid eyes upon her to fall into a fascination they would never be able to extricate themselves from.
Her beautiful eyes were also crystal clear, so much so that if one were to stare into them, they would feel as if their soul was being drawn from their body, shattering their sense of free will, and making them willing to dedicate their entire being to serve her every whim.
When Yang Kai had first arrived here and caught sight of her, he felt as if lightning had struck his body, and a deep intoxication swiftly filled his heart. At that moment, he wished time and space would freeze so he could forever see this scene of her leaning over to dress herself.
Her whole being was like the most beautiful of dreams, beguiling one’s soul and causing them to wish they would never awaken.
Yang Kai was a wanderer and in his travels, he had seen many different women, many of them possessing outstanding beauty, but when carefully comparing them, none could reach the height this woman before him had reached. No one was as perfect as she was. Even Su Yan and Little Senior Sister fell short of her.
A woman like her could only be described as a miracle!
This was the gracious gift of the Heavens to mankind.
She was clearly the same as he was, knocked out by the disaster then pulled by the gravity of this Dead Star, forcing her to land here. On top of that, she shouldn’t have woken up long ago otherwise there was no way she wouldn’t have put on her clothes.
She had killed two thousand people innocent people just to seek him out in order to ensure her secret never leaked.
Whether Yang Kai was willing or not, she had become his enemy.
But at this moment, Yang Kai wasn’t certain whether he should immediately attack her, or take a step back.
After all, this person was still related to Shen Tu, she was Shen Tu’s Sister!
Also, Yang Kai found himself a bit reluctant to act against her, secretly feeling that bullying such a beautiful woman wasn’t something he should do.
This thought, however, only raised his vigilance even higher and he quickly stabilized his mind to resist Xue Yue’s natural aura.
Xue Yue had not used any kind of Seduction Technique and had not used any kind of secret technique or skill to affect his judgment, she was just standing there, staring at him resentfully without disguising her disgust and murderous intent; however, her mere presence was pulling at Yang Kai’s heart, making him wish to cherish and protect her.
[Such a fearful woman!] Yang Kai secretly screamed to himself.
Yang Kai clearly knew she had ill intentions towards him, and couldn’t wait to kill him brutally, yet he still couldn’t immediately bring himself to attack her. A woman capable of such magnetism was something Yang Kai had never before encountered.
“What do you want to do?” Xue Yue seemed to know that her current state was horrendous so she didn’t rush to find trouble with Yang Kai. She did, however, use the last remnants of her strength release a seven coloured light screen around her to cover her more sensitive parts so as not to give Yang Kai a chance to continue gawking at her.
However, possibly because she was weaker than she realized, this seven coloured light film wasn’t very strong and instead of completely obstructing her figure, it only added a translucent covering to her body.
She suddenly became even more seductive!
This kind of alluring scene ruthlessly slammed into Yang Kai’s mind, giving him an intense visual impact.
Compared to when she was fully naked, her current appearance was even more fascinating.
Xue Yue’s face became even uglier, her shame and embarrassment reaching levels she had never even imagined possible before, all of which finally snapped her last thread of reason and she gathered the seven coloured light onto her fist and ruthlessly leapt towards Yang Kai while he was still in a daze.
Xue Yue flew right up to Yang Kai and sent her seemingly delicate fist hurtling towards him. This punch was filled to the brim with an amazing energy fluctuation that shot straight towards Yang Kai’s heart.
She had to kill this man who had defiled her beautiful body with his obscene eyes and protect her life’s greatest secret!
Meeting this murderous intent head-on, Yang Kai remained indifferent, his brazen gaze continuing to sweep over Xue Yue’s body, focusing on the two delicate cherries top her grand peaks, then the fine grassland between her two legs, all of her features becoming like a great vortex which sucked in his heart, making him unable to extricate himself.
Xue Yue’s pretty face showed a look of utter disdain and loathing as she condensed even more power into her fist.
*Hong…*
Her jade white fist pounded directly onto Yang Kai’s chest, a fierce strength penetrating right through to his core, shattering his five viscera and six organs, causing him to burst into a bloody fog. Or at least, that’s what Xue Yue expected to happen. However, at the moment of impact, she saw a mocking grin appear on Yang Kai’s face as he swiftly stretched out his arms and directly grabbed hold of her!
Xue Yue’s face went pale as she let out a scream.
She felt her full peaks squeezed up against a strong, muscular chest, deforming greatly as an amazing amount of heat shot through her like a bolt of lightning, causing her tender body to tremble and scrambling her thoughts, making it difficult for her to even breathe normally.
She lifted her hands to push and shove Yang Kai, but she was unable to gather any of her strength.
The punch she had just delivered a moment ago had completely turned her into a dry oil lamp.
She pounded her fists against Yang Kai’s shoulder while continually twisting her body in an attempt to free herself from his grasp, but not only did this not achieve her objective, it instead created an amusing picture, like the playful flirting of two lovers.
“Don’t move!” Yang Kai shouted lowly, and ominous light flashing across his eyes as he threatened.
But Xue Yue obviously ignored his warning completely and simply continued punching and cursing Yang Kai as a shameless bastard, hoodlum, rogue, and beast as she struggled even harder.
“Ao…” Yang Kai’s expression suddenly became strange as an odd sound leaked from his throat, a look of ecstasy appearing on his face.
All this intense rubbing and twisting had caused Yang Kai to obtain a deep and profound understanding of Xue Yue’s amazingly soft body and the unimaginable elasticity of her jade peaks.
Yang Kai’s gaze filled with fire and he was almost unable to contain the primal desires raging in his heart, his body already surrendering to them and displaying the natural reaction a man should have to such a situation.
“You…” Xue Yue’s face went as pale as paper as she felt a great monster quickly rise up between her legs, its head as hard as steel and as hot as lava, aggressively clawing its way towards her most precious of treasures!
Inside the crater, Yang Kai and Xue Yue faced each other up close, each of them able to feel the heat of the other’s skin and smell the fragrance of the other’s breath.
Yang Kai tightly embraced her, putting as much strength into his arms as he could, as if he wished to break her tender body in two.
Xue Yue’s beautiful face paled, the boiling hot dragon which was scaling her legs throwing her heart into chaos. She immediately realized what was happening, and she couldn’t help shuddering, her beautiful eyes filling with fear and panic as she involuntarily clamped her legs together as tightly as possible, trying to impede this monster from further encroaching upon her innocence.
Her efforts, however, only further stimulated Yang Kai.
Xue Yue’s beautiful legs were as smooth as silk and as soft as clouds, so her tightly gripping them around Yang Kai’s little brother brought him unimaginable pleasure and comfort, causing his murderous intent to stagnate momentarily.
“I’ll… I’ll kill you!” Xue Yue had never suffered such humiliation before and screamed out hysterically. At this moment, she no longer had any of the calm and gentle demeanour of Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce’s Third Young Master and instead had transformed into a crazed woman, summoning strength she, by all rights, should no longer possess to double slap towards Yang Kai’s face, bursts of seven coloured light covering her palms as they struck forward.
*Peng peng…*
Yang Kai felt as if he was struck by lightning and his body shivered, a fog of golden blood spewing from his mouth, covering Xue Yue’s face and body.
His current state was barely better than hers. Before he had immobilized Xue Yue, he had suffered a frontal blow from her, and now he had taken another two heavy slaps to his face, Yang Kai was already an arrow at the end of its flight and his aura quickly became dispirited.
With these two palms, all the injuries Yang Kai had just managed to stabilize worsened once again.
Xue Yue had gone completely feral, kicking, scratching, and gouging out Yang Kai’s body however she could, even opening her mouth and sinking her teeth into his shoulders and chest, struggling with all her might, exhibiting an attitude of wishing to perish together with him.
Xue Yue was at least a Second-Order Saint King, and although she couldn’t use even thirty percent of her full strength right now because of her injuries, her all-out resistance was difficult for Yang Kai to endure. In a flash, his body was covered with fresh bloody wounds and teeth marks…
“You court death!” Yang Kai shouted before sending his fist straight into Xue Yue’s pretty face without holding back in the slightest.
This punch immediately knocked Xue Yue’s head to the side and caused her cheek to swell up, the residual force sending both her and Yang Kai tumbling onto the ground.
Before they landed though, Yang Kai flipped her body around and forced her to face away from him, both his arms still gripping tightly onto her, making sure she could not scratch and bite him any further.
Xue Yue struggled and resisted fiercely, refusing to surrender, transforming every part of her body she could move into a weapon to thrash against Yang Kai as she desperately attempted to escape from his clutches.
*Hong Hong Hong…*
The pair rolled around in the crater on this unnamed Dead Star, their fists and feet hitting towards each other, fighting as if they were the most hated of blood enemies.
Dust flew up everywhere and every once in a while an explosion of light would appear.
However, both of them gradually grew weaker until, eventually, neither could move.
Violent wheezing breaths sounded as the two of them lay down in the crater somewhere, Xue Yue lying down on top of Yang Kai which her back facing him, the two of them staring up at the cold and dark Starry Sky.
At some point, Yang Kai’s two hands had latched onto Xue Yue’s two great peaks and an amazing feeling of elasticity was transmitted to his palms, causing his dispirited dragon to once again rise up towards the Heavens.
When Xue Yue was disguising herself as a man, Yang Kai obviously couldn’t tell how rich her assets were, but after firmly grasping her jade peaks in his hands, Yang Kai could tell this woman had abundant capital.
Yang Kai’s palms were by no means small, but even so, he couldn’t completely take her completely in his hand.
Small and delicate cherries rubbed against Yang Kai’s palms, adding texture to her amazingly soft and elastic peaks.
Yang Kai couldn’t help increasing the strength of his grip to ruthlessly squeeze them.
A fascinating note spread from Xue Yue’s throat as her head arched back slightly as if being pinched like this was uncomfortable, but even more so shameful.
Yang Kai didn’t care about her objections and instead revelled in the feeling of her smooth skin and plump bottom gave him.
Although Xue Yue’s body had many scars and a great deal of fresh blood on it, her skin was still white and tender, as lustrous as a newborn. As they had tumbled about, Yang Kai had fully experienced the charms of her lower moons which were constantly brushing up against and squeezing his spear, lighting a flame in Yang Kai’s body which he found difficult to extinguish.
His dragon was still firmly clamped between her well-rounded valley and it seemed like all Yang Kai needed to do was move slightly and he could break through her last line of defence and plant his flag upon her.
The two of them were exhausted and could only maintain this ambiguous and awkward posture.
A single drop of warm liquid suddenly rolled down onto Yang Kai’s arm and the sound of Xue Yue soft whimpers echoed in his ears.
“Don’t tell me you’re…” Yang Kai was speechless, during this life or death struggle, this woman actually broke down into tears; worse though, Yang Kai couldn’t tell if they were genuine or simply a ploy.
“From when I was a child until now, no one has ever treated me like this… even the few people who know my true gender would never dare act so discourteous to me, I’ll remember you, I’ll certainly make you pay for this!” Xue Yue said through clenched teeth.
“Say that again after you live through this!” Yang Kai snickered, “When I finish restoring myself, the first thing I’ll do is kill you!”
“Go ahead and try!” Xue Yue remained defiant, shouting back at Yang Kai, “Your present condition is terrible, and before you arrived, I had just taken a Saint King Grade High-Rank healing pill. Soon I’ll have enough strength to escape your evil clutches, when that time comes we’ll which one of us dies!”
No longer sobbing, Xue Yue actually sneered, “You can rest assured, I won’t let you die easily, I’ll let you taste the world’s most brutal torture as I slowly kill you!”
In response, Yang Kai lightly blew on her delicate earlobe, causing Xue Yue’s face to blush bright red and her tender body to shiver as fear of Yang Kai further humiliating her rose up within her again.
“Then we’ll have to see who can recover first!” Yang Kai declared confidently, as if he had already won.
When it came to restorative ability, Yang Kai didn’t fear anyone. Although Xue Yue had taken a Saint King Grade High-Rank pill, he had his Demon God Golden Blood. The minor wounds and bites Xue Yue had inflicted on him had already begun to heal and his body’s five viscera and six organs were already starting to recover.
The two of them no longer spoke and simply lay together, skin touching skin, as if the two of them were the most intimate of partners enjoying a moment warmth and tranquillity; however, beneath this spring scenery was a cold and potent murderous intent.
Suddenly, a burst of seven coloured light blossomed and Yang Kai let out a grunt, his expression sinking as he ground his teeth, “Slut, you’re actually so insidious?!”
“Ha…” Xue Yue smiled smugly, “Dealing with people like you, what reason is there to not act sinisterly? Hurry up and release me or else I’ll shatter your dantian and waste your cultivation, turning you into a cripple for life.”
One of her jade hands had silently punctured Yang Kai’s ribs and was now inserted into his tight abdominal muscles. At her fingertips was a sharp blade of seven coloured energy just waiting to invade Yang Kai’s dantian and destroy his source of strength.
Yang Kai didn’t know when she had condensed this bit of power, perhaps she had been concealing it from the beginning…
He finally understood how different this woman was from other women. Even if he had managed to suppress her to this extent, she would still not yield and take any possibly opportunity to reverse the situation.
“Will you release me or not? I’ll give you three breaths to consider, after three breaths, you can… hey, what are you doing!?” Xue Yue’s calm and confident tone suddenly became disordered as her face paled and she let out a scream of panic, “Stop! Don’t you dare move again!”
Ignoring her threats, Yang Kai did not retreat and instead advanced, pushing his body forward, allowing Xue Yue’s little hand to dig deeper into his abdomen as he gradually closed the last bit of distance between his dragon and Xue Yue’s cavern.
Yang Kai touched the tip of his spear to its mark before stopping.
Xue Yue’s thoughts were once again thrown into chaos and for a moment she was too flustered to respond.
Yang Kai ignored the impending crisis to his dantian and put more strength into his waist as he stretched out his tongue and licked Xue Yue’s delicate earlobe.
“You bastard!” Xue Yue screamed, her tender body now shivering uncontrollably.
“Scream and shout all you like, there’s a saying that dying beneath a beautiful flower is a worthy death. Even if you ruin my dantian, it matters not, go ahead and try, I’ll immediately claim your innocence for myself!” Yang Kai smiled lowly, “I’m a lone wanderer, no one will care if I disappear, my status can’t compare to Young Master Xue Yue’s. Heh, just wait until after you marry and your new husband discovers you’re body isn’t pure, I’m sure it will be a glorious show to see! A small nobody like me being able to possess a woman like you, even if I need to give my life, it will be worth it!”
“Lunatic! Madman! You’re insane!” Xue Yue’s beautiful face filled with panic. She was really scared that Yang Kai would follow through with his threat, and feeling of the hard foreign body between her legs, she knew that all her carefully laid out calculations and schemes had completely collapsed.
This man was more vicious than any bandit from Galaxy Ridge and more sinister than any rouge from Abandoned Lair.
“How am I insane? Our situation has already reached the point where it is either you die or I perish. Since there’s no other path forward from here, I may as well enjoy your taste before I die, then wait in the underworld to taste it again.”
Saying so, Yang Kai put more strength into his waist and slowly but surely swung his hips forward.
He exhibited the behaviour of really wishing to die beneath a beautiful flower, not caring one bit about his life.
“Wait a moment!” Xue Yue tensed up her tender body, trying to wiggle her way forward while speaking in as calm a tone as possible, “Can’t we talk about this?”
“Talk?” Yang Kai stopped his aggressive charge and said with great interest, “What’s there to talk about?”
“You and I don’t actually have any great hatred between us, so is there really a need for us to be at such odds?” Xue Yue lightly opened her lips to speak these words while flames of pure hatred burned within her eyes, but for her innocence, she had no choice but to compromise.
“What you mean is… we can exchange weapons of war for gifts of jade and silk?”
“Why not?” Xue Yue turned her head to the side, her snow white cheek immediately pressing up against Yang Kai’s lips. She couldn’t help immediately jerking her head back, silently criticizing this bastard for still trying to profit at this moment, wishing she could roast his flesh to ash and grind his bones into dust.
After listening to Xue Yue’s words, Yang Kai couldn’t help but laugh, “You can’t possibly be that naive, right? If you think you can treat me like a three-year-old child, I’m afraid you’re in for a great disappointment. After I’ve treated you like this, can you still swallow this insult and pretend that nothing happened? You are the Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce President’s heir while I am just a nameless pawn. This time, if you really survive, I’m afraid I’ll have no future to look forward to. Since that’s the case, I’d rather take what I can now, have my cultivation crippled, then die by your hand, rather than let you sweet talk me into letting you off for free!”
“You think I’m sweet talking you?” Xue Yue shouted, “Just because I’m a woman you think I’d lower myself to such a level? Are all men so full of yourselves?”
“In any case, I don’t believe a word you say, it’s all nothing but farts to me!” Yang Kai snorted.
“Can you not act so unreasonable!” Xue Yue gasped before grinning, “Since I made this proposal, I can definitely come up with a way to prove my sincerity and let you understand I’m not just biding my time to turn the tables on you!”
Yang Kai expression changed as he stared deeply towards her.
Right now, both he and Xue Yue were stuck in a deadlock, neither one possessing any kind of advantage.
Xue Yue’s cultivation was much higher than his, but her injuries were more severe and the rate she could restore herself was also lower than his, allowing this tenuous stalemate to continue.
However, doing nothing wasn’t a viable solution. If things were left as they were, the end result would definitely be both of them losing something, and neither of them was willing to see that.
In truth, Yang Kai was wholly unwilling to give up his own cultivation just to win a woman’s chastity, while Xue Yue was even more reluctant to be defiled by a peasant like Yang Kai.
He suddenly felt that it wouldn’t be a problem at least hearing Xue Yue out.
“You talk, I’ll listen,” Yang Kai nodded to her, his hands still clenched firmly onto her jade peaks, refusing to relax his vigilance in the slightest.
“There is no major grievance between you and me. In the end, it was just you inadvertently witnessing my secret trade in that mountain valley.”
“Yes, and as a result of that you killed more than two thousand people!” Yang Kai sneered, “A vicious, viper-woman like you, how could I possibly believe your words?”
“Aren’t you still safe and sound?” Xue Yue asked, “Is there anyone among those two thousand people you even care the slightest bit about?”
“No, not really.”
“Then shut up!” Xue Yue coldly snorted, “My proposal is simple: You release me, and I no longer make trouble for you; however, you cannot leak a word about that transaction. En, this situation as well, you cannot tell another soul about it!”
Saying so, her face turned bright red. She had just been involved in a life or death struggle with Yang Kai, yet now she had been forced to set aside that humiliation and discuss terms with him, causing her womanly shame to suddenly rise to the surface.
In particular, the great heat which was transmitted from Yang Kai’s palms to her two proud peaks made her feel a strange sensation she had never before experienced. Quickly dispelling her shame and inner discord, she forced herself to not fall into a passive state.
“How do you plan on guaranteeing this?” Yang Kai asked calmly.
“I’ll prepare a guarantee, and not just a verbal one, I know you won’t believe me no matter what kind of pledge I make!”
“As long as you know!”
Xue Yue took a deep breath, her full chest swelling beneath Yang Kai’s palms, a reluctantly light flashing across her beautiful eyes as she helplessly said, “I have a special artifact that was refined by a Grandmaster from my Chamber of Commerce. It was originally prepared for me when I encountered extreme danger, now I have no choice but to use it on you.”
“What artifact?” Yang Kai asked curiously.
“Soul Chains!” Xue Yue grit her teeth, “This artifact can tie our Souls together. Meaning, that if either one of us dies, the other person will also die! Is this guarantee enough?”
“Live and die together?” Yang Kai smiled brightly and said with a strange grin, “Beauty, I don’t think our relationship has reached that point yet, has it? Although you and I have indulged in each other’s touch and met one another with no barriers between us, this kind of progress is a bit fast even for me. On top of that, I already have a wife, en, two actually.”
“Can you be serious for an instant? Are you only capable of acting so loathsomely?” Xue Yue snorted, “Do you think I am willing to link my life to yours? You’re just a tiny Second-Order Saint, the slightest danger you encounter could send you to the afterlife! If we really do this, I’ll have no choice but to constantly protect you!”
Yang Kai’s expression slowly became solemn as he carefully observed Xue Yue’s breathing, pulse, and Soul fluctuations.
After a while, he asked lowly, “Why should I believe in you?”
“I have already compromised to this degree, if you still refuse to believe me, we can only fight and perish together! That’s not the ending you want, is it? You and I both have long, bright futures ahead of us, how could we be resigned to dying on this barren Dead Star?”
Yang Kai’s lips curled into a grin, “Why does it seem like your desire to survive is much stronger than mine…”
Xue Yue pretty face sank and she no longer spoke.
“Let me ask you one last question, can the effects of this artifact be lifted? I don’t want to bind my life to yours for all eternity.”
Even with Xue Yue’s extreme self-control, she nearly flew into a rage when she heard Yang Kai utter these words.
Just who was it that didn’t want to be bound to the other? He was making it sound as if she was some kind of shameless woman forcing him to accept her when in truth, them being tied together in any way was this little bastard’s greatest honour!
Xue Yue’s cursed viciously in her heart as she forced her voice to remain calm, “It can be lifted, but both parties must be willing. If either one refuses, the artifact’s effects cannot be dispelled!”
“Good,” Yang Kai smiled, thought about it for a moment, then nodded, “I’ll believe you.”
“So we have an agreement?”
“En, we have a deal.”
“I need to take out the artifact. Loosen your grip a bit, like this I can’t even move,” Xue Yue said weakly as she struggled slightly.
Yang Kai slowly relaxed his arms, but he maintained the highest degree of vigilance while simultaneously bringing his lips to Xue Yue’s delicate ear and whispering, “Don’t try to play any tricks, as long as I use a bit more force, you’ll be mine.”
“I know!” Xue Yue ground her teeth in anger.
While still tightly held in Yang Kai’s embrace and with one hand still inserted into his abdomen, Xue Yue brought her other hand wearing her Space Ring to her mouth and poured her Divine Sense into it. With a flash of light, an artifact shaped like a chain appeared and landed on the ground.
“This thing?” Yang Kai reached out and seized the artifact before Xue Yue could grab hold of it, “The function of this artifact is quite odd, why would one of the Grandmasters from your Chamber of Commerce refine something like this for you?”
“As I said, this thing was prepared for when I fell into great danger. If I was confronted by an enemy I could not match, I would be able to use this artifact to connect our lives together, preserving my own.”
Yang Kai nodded lightly before pouring his Divine Sense into the artifact, quickly discovering a series of unfamiliar Spirit Arrays engraved inside of it. There was also a very strange energy contained within it that was potent enough to cause his complexion to pale slightly.
Without a doubt, this strange energy belonged to a powerful Origin King and it contained a mysterious Soul fluctuation.
Yang Kai immediately understood that it was not this artifact but rather the Divine Ability of the Origin King Realm master who forged it that was special. This artifact was just a vessel used to seal this Divine Ability.
Realizing this, Yang Kai’s heart relaxed slightly but still insisted, “I can’t trust you still, so tell me how to stimulate the power contained in this artifact!”
Xue Yue angrily spat, “Are you really so cowardly? Are you even a man?”
“Would you like to verify for yourself whether I’m a man or not?” Yang Kai snorted.
“No need.” Xue Yue shivered and quickly said, “Just pour your Divine Sense into it and the seal will open.”
Yang Kai followed her instructions and poured in his Divine Sense and the seal inside the artifact easily broke.
In the next moment, a shocking Soul fluctuation suddenly emanated from the artifact and a halo of purple light burst forth, instantly covering both Yang Kai and Xue Yue’s bodies.
This purple halo was incredibly invasive and rapidly flooded into Yang Kai and Xue Yue and soon disappearing.
The two of them couldn’t help closing their eyes as they felt this potent Spiritual Energy crash into their Souls, causing their bodies to tremble and an indescribable feeling to arise within their hearts.
It was as if their two Souls had become intertwined with one another all of a sudden.
Xue Yue let out a gentle moan.
This fascinating melody caused Yang Kai to suddenly awaken and his expression to become weird, lowering the strength he was putting into his arms. One of his hands was still cupping her jade peaks while the other had slid down to her waist and began caressing her full moon, indulging in the amazing softness and plumpness of Xue Yue’s abundant assets.
Xue Yue’s voice became even more enthralling as her tender body squirmed, her red lips pouting as her snow-white skin took on a tinge of pink.
Yang Kai’s big rough hands caressing her like this involuntarily caused her to have a shameful reaction.
What’s more, at the moment, she didn’t seem to want to resist and was actively cooperating with Yang Kai, allowing him to do whatever he pleased.
Her brow suddenly tightened, condensing into a line as she tried to struggle and resist this overwhelming sensation, biting her tongue in the next instant, the sharp pain causing her to wake up and allowing her to leap out of Yang Kai’s arms like a frightened rabbit. Only after scampering a few dozen meters away did Xue Yue turn back to direct an anger-filled glare towards Yang Kai as she gnashed her teeth, “Shameless! After taking advantage of me so much already you’re still not satisfied?”
Yang Kai licked his lips as he flexed his fingers somewhat reluctantly.
When Xue Yue leapt out from his embrace, he couldn’t help feeling a thick sense of loss.
“Why does it feel like you’ve suddenly become much more cordial? Moreover, why do I no longer feel as wary towards you as a moment ago? Is this also an effect of the Divine Ability sealed within that artifact?” Yang Kai tilted his head and asked.
“Yes!” Xue Yue crossed one hand across her chest to cover her twin peaks while her other hand reached down to shield her innocence from Yang Kai’s penetrating gaze, explaining snappily, “Our Souls and life essence have been connected together, so whether we’re willing or not, a deep sense of intimacy will form between us. In other words, we now see each other as our most precious person!”
“Such a strange ability really exists?” Yang Kai frowned.
“Just like you, I no longer think you’re so repugnant,” Xue Yue said somewhat unwillingly.
Yang Kai grinned and wanted to laugh, but fearing she would become angry out of shame, he somehow suppressed himself.
“Turn around already, I want to put on some clothes. Don’t peek!” Xue Yue shouted tenderly.
“I’ve seen and touched every bit of your body and know all of its features from top to bottom, what’s there to be embarrassed about now?” Yang Kai chuckled, disagreeing with her sentiments.
Xue Yue squatted down angrily, picked up some loose gravel at her feet, and ruthlessly threw it towards Yang Kai, sending him fleeing like a scared rat.
Atop the Dead Star, Yang Kai sat in meditation, resting while recovering his strength and restoring his injuries.
A light sound of footstep suddenly appeared in front of him and he quickly opened his eyes, his vision becoming bright.
Xue Yue was standing in front of him at the moment, wearing a fiery red dress, its long skirt overflowing with soft light. It was clearly a high-quality artifact.
This dress was woven from exquisite materials and appeared soft and silky yet it also clung tightly to her body, emphasizing Xue Yu’s perfect curves and seductive figure, making her appear just like a beautiful goddess.
Her long hair which was normally draped down over her shoulders had been done up in an elegant bun held together with an ornamental hairpin to further complimented her style.
Her snow-white arms, which seemed tender and delicate, were adorned with two green jade bracelets and around her exquisite ankles were two more pieces of fine jewellery that emphasized her gracefulness.
Yang Kai couldn’t help revealing an enraptured look as he stared towards her, unable to pull his eyes away.
In his heart, he was constantly warning himself not to be confused by this woman, but he still couldn’t quite resist her ethereal beauty, almost as if all she needed to do was beckon to him gently and he would willingly pledge his undying loyalty to her.
Just as this thought surfaced in his mind, Yang Kai’s instincts flared up in warning and he forcefully bit his tongue to awaken himself.
Xue Yue’s beautiful eyes narrowed slightly as she observed Yang Kai, and as if realizing what kind of state he was just in a moment ago, a happy smile appeared on her face and an unknown sense of satisfaction filled her heart!
This kind of satisfaction could only be felt by a woman!
After Yang Kai broke free from her invisible aura, Xue Yue couldn’t help but frown, a trace of surprise and loss appearing on her face.
Twirling around once to show off her beauty even further, she smiled and asked, “What do you think?”
“Beautiful!” Yang Kai praised sincerely.
“Thank you!” Xue Yue smiled even more happily.
“You’re even more attractive without clothes though!” Yang Kai added.
Xue Yue’s pretty face sank as she rolled her eyes, “A dog’s mouth really can’t speak pleasant words! Remember, everything that happened between us can never be told to anyone, especially the secret about my true gender! If you dare try to leak this to anyone, our agreement will be invalid and I’ll immediately commit suicide, then let the Soul Chains end your miserable life!”
“I know!” Yang Kai gently nodded, his eyes narrowing slightly as he wore a grin on his face and asked, “Why does it feel like you’re enjoying yourself right now?”
As Xue Yue spoke to him, she was constantly looking down at herself, observing the jewellery and clothes she was wearing. The more she looked, the more joyful she appeared.
“Naturally, I’m enjoying myself!” Xue Yue smiled happily, “Ever since I can remember I was forced to act like a boy. From the time I was a child until now, I have never openly worn women’s clothes. These things have been kept in my Space Ring for many years, but today I was finally able to use them, why would I not be happy?”
“Why must President Ai Ou force you to act like a man? Why do you need to hide your true gender? He has many other sons, so even without you, he’d have plenty of successors to choose from. Why insist on making you put on this charade?” Yang Kai rapidly asked all the questions he had in his heart.
Xue Yue’s expression sank and after a short pause, she desolately replied, “He has his reasons, and I’m used to it.”
Seeing her not answer clearly, Yang Kai did not insist. Just when he was about to change the subject though, his expression suddenly dropped as he muttered, “Some people are approaching.”
Xue Yue was stunned by these words and stared at him suspiciously, “How do you know?”
“They entered into the scope of my Divine Sense’s coverage,” Yang Kai’s face became dignified.
Xue Yue only become more confused though, “Did you release your Divine Sense? Why can’t I feel it?”
Her strength was much higher than Yang Kai’s and although both of them were currently quite weak from their injuries, if Yang Kai had really released his Divine Sense, she should have been able to detect it.
However, she actually couldn’t sense anything.
“I also have my own secrets, just trust me,” Yang Kai said sincerely.
Xue Yue nodded without hesitation, “How many people are there and what kind of cultivations do they have?”
“There’s a lot of them, and there are several Saint Kings among them, a number of whom give me a stronger sense of pressure than you did at your peak!”
Xue Yue’s complexion darkened as she called out in alarm, “If that’s true, wouldn’t you spying on them be discovered by them? Anyone who could appear in the Ice-Cold Dead Zone at this time must have something to do with that trap we encountered. If they find any survivors they definitely won’t let us off!”
“I agree with you, but don’t worry, they can’t discover my Divine Sense.” Yang Kai shook his head.
After dramatically increasing his understanding of the Dao of Space on the floating continent, Yang Kai’s Divine Sense was now able to leap across space, allowing it to act in a far more nimble manner than others who needed to continuously spread out their Divine Senses to explore an area.
This kind of distributed Divine Sense was incredibly difficult to detect, and even if one was able to sense it, there was essentially no way to trace it back to Yang Kai unless that person’s strength far exceeded his own.
It was for this reason that Xue Yue couldn’t detect anything about Yang Kai’s Divine Sense.
“The Death Qi on this Dead Star is heavy and there isn’t the slightest trace of life aura or other forms of energy. Once they get closer, they’ll definitely notice us!” Xue Yue’s expression grew ugly, “My strength hasn’t even half recovered yet. If they were to find us now…”
She didn’t dare to imagine what kind of treatment she would encounter.
If she was still maintaining her identity as Xue Yue Third Young Master, she might be able to discuss terms with this unknown enemy, but right now she was simply an astonishingly beautiful, yet unfamiliar young woman.
Xue Yue was clearer than anyone just what kind of fate awaited a captured beautiful woman.
That was a brief future filled with ruthless humiliation and disgrace!
“Let’s get moving then! We first need to evade them!” Yang Kai didn’t panic and simply summoned out his Star Shuttle before leaping up onto it and extending a hand to Xue Yue.
“Are you confident you’ll be able to avoid their search?” Xue Yue asked seriously.
“No, but it’s better than sitting here waiting to die!” Yang Kai shook his head.
Xue Yue bit her red lips in frustration but felt Yang Kai’s words made sense, nodding a moment later before accepting his hand and mounting his Star Shuttle.
Yang Kai embraced her in front of himself, resting her head on his shoulder while activating his Star Shuttle and transforming into a stream of blue light that quickly escaped from the Dead Star.
“Don’t make any unnecessary moves, although I don’t find you so hateful right now, there’s still a voice in my heart screaming at me to kill you… Don’t let that hatred gain the upper hand,” Xue Yue whispered as her white neck took on a hint of red and her delicate earlobes became somewhat hot.
This was the first time she had ever accepted the embrace of a man.
Previously, when she was rolling around stark naked with Yang Kai on the Dead Star, all her attention was on finding a way to seize the initiative and kill him, so she didn’t have any time to pay attention to the new sensations she was experiencing.
But now, at this moment, through the connection of the Soul Chains, her body became exceptionally sensitive towards Yang Kai’s touch, and the hot air that brushed past her ear caused her tender to noticeably heat up.
“Don’t you trust me?” Yang Kai smiled, “I am very honest.”
“Hmph, you and honesty have nothing to do with one another!” Xue Yue snorted, taking note of Yang Kai ‘inadvertently’ grabbing hold of her smooth waist.
Yang Kai didn’t try to flirt with her any further and instead became serious, randomly flying his Star Shuttle through the cold and dark Starry Sky in no particular direction.
Although Xue Yue didn’t dare to release her own Divine Sense for fear of revealing their whereabouts, she could tell that Yang Kai was flying evasively to avoid these unknown enemies.
She couldn’t help becoming curious about Yang Kai’s Divine Sense, wondering just what kind of fortuitous encounter this little Second-Order Saint obtained that allowed him to cultivate such strange Spiritual Energy.
Also, she didn’t know why, but when she was embraced by Yang Kai into his chest, Xue Yue felt a profound sense of security. It was as if so long as she remained in his arms, it wouldn’t matter how many pursuers there were, they would never be able to harm her.
As soon as this thought arose in her heart, Xue Yue became frustrated, knowing it was the side effects brought on by the Soul Chains, causing her to subconsciously feel that this man was kind and reliable.
A hint of fear welled up inside her, and that fear quickly became deeper and deeper, making her wish to free herself from the Soul Chains’ effect as quickly as possible in order to purge herself of these weak thoughts.
She no longer said anything, relaxed her tensed expression, closed her eyes, and focused on restoring her injuries and strength.
A few days later, a different Dead Star appeared in front of the two, and Yang Kai flew his Star Shuttle straight down to its surface.
This Dead Star was slightly larger than the previous one, but it was still filled with Death Qi and had no trace of any vitality.
Violent winds and extremely harsh weather covered this Dead Star, kicking up dust clouds that limited visibility to a few meters in front of one’s face.
Yang Kai explored the Dead Star for a while before diving into a cave along with Xue Yue, closing the entrance behind him to prevent the dust from flowing in, then took out some light stones for illumination and placed them around.
This wasn’t too big or deep but was large enough for two people to comfortably hide inside next to each other.
Whether it was intentional or not, the moment they entered this cave, Xue Yue quickly separated from Yang Kai as far as she could, a look of anxiety appearing upon her face.
“The direction those people were heading is the opposite of this place, we should be able to hide here for a while,” Yang Kai took back his Divine Sense and said to Xue Yue, “When they come back, we’ll leave again.”
“En, I’ll leave it up to you,” Xue Yue nodded lightly, not having any opinion, taking out a good piece of Saint Crystal and holding it in the palm of her hand while meditating.
As she meditated, she also secretly paid attention to Yang Kai’s movements.
She imagined that Yang Kai wouldn’t be able to restrain himself and would attempt to appeal to her somehow.
After all, she was the heir to Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce’s President, her cultivation and status both highly venerated, while on the other hand, Yang Kai was just a small unknown cultivator. No matter which aspect was compared, she was far beyond him.
It was simply his privilege to be able to associate himself with her, and Xue Yue didn’t believe Yang Kai would easily let go of such a rare opportunity to forge a relationship with her. He would definitely have some absurd and unrealistic expectations of ingratiating himself to her.
Therefore, Xue Yue took the initiative to sit in meditation while pretending to not pay him any mind.
At the same time, she would secretly wait for Yang Kai to take the initiative to talk to her then take the opportunity to ruthlessly humiliate him, so she could teach him of the profound gap between them and thoroughly cut off all his vain hopes.
Xue Yue had secretly calculated everything, and was ready to let Yang Kai know what the true meaning of a toad lusting after swan meat was while at the same time getting rid of her own heart knot, allowing him to realize the gap in identity between them as well as drawing a line between this man and herself!
Everything was set, now all she needed was an opportunity!
She silently waited for Yang Kai to open his mouth and speak to her.
How could she have imagined though, that even after waiting for so long, things did not progress as she had envisioned? After what seemed like forever, Xue Yue couldn’t help opening her beautiful eyes to peak towards Yang Kai, her face cramping up in the next instant.
This man, who had taken advantage of her so wantonly, touching every single part of her body. Under these circumstances where the two of them were stuck alone in a small room together, was actually sitting down calmly with a piece of Saint Crystal in his hand while meditating and restoring himself.
He was actually just cultivating!
An intense sense of frustration suddenly rose inside Xue Yue’s heart and she secretly clenched her teeth and glared hatefully towards Yang Kai.
Unable to stand this irksome feeling, she took the initiative to open her mouth to speak, trying to make her voice sound as calm as possible, “I don’t understand a few things, can you explain them to me?”
Yang Kai opened his eyes quickly and stared towards her, suddenly grinning, “I also have some things I’d like to ask you!”
“I’ll go first!” Xue Yue declared lightly.
“En, go ahead,” Yang Kai replied naturally, not arguing with her over such a trivial matter.
Xue Yue was startled for a moment but quickly said, “What is your name, where are you from?”
Up till now, she still didn’t know Yang Kai’s name, and upon remembering all the embarrassing experiences she had been through with him, she suddenly felt a sense of indignation.
“Yang Kai! You probably don’t know where I come from, it’s just a lower world, I was the first cultivator to successfully escape its bonds and enter the Star Field!” Yang Kai answered honestly.
“A lower world?” Xue Yue looked at him strangely and said with great interest, “What cultivation did the most powerful person in your world possess?”
“Third Order Saint Realm… En, there was once a Saint King, but before he could join the Star Field he fell, that was a matter from several thousand years ago though.”
“Only up to the Third Order Saint Realm… It really is a lower world.”
“En, it was only after I came here that I learned about the Saint King Realm above the Saint Realm, and the Origin Returning Realm and Origin King Realm above the Saint King Realm…”
“Hmph, truly an ignorant bumpkin!” Xue Yue covered her mouth and smiled tenderly, a hint of ridicule in her voice, “However, a little fellow like you being able to arrive at this level is quite impressive actually, you must have experienced a lot of hardship along the way, right?”
The way she spoke made it seem like she cared greatly about Yang Kai’s story, but after realizing this, the smile on her face suddenly disappeared.
“It was just good luck, arriving here was more of an accident…”
“No need to elaborate, I don’t really care,” Xue Yue interrupted him with a cold face, “I have to ask you, why couldn’t I find you back on Water Moon Star? Where were you hiding? Did someone shelter you? Why would they do that?”
“Oh that, I was living inside Shen Tu’s palace, you probably didn’t go there to look for me,” Yang Kai replied casually, not feeling at all like he was selling out Shen Tu.
“Shen Tu…” Xue Yue muttered under her breath, suddenly wearing a faint smile, “So it was him who was making trouble for me. En, I understand now. Hmph, seems like if I don’t hit him frequently enough he becomes arrogant enough to dare oppose me, just wait till I get back, I’ll make him pay for this!”
As she said so, a vicious look appeared on her face as she ground her teeth, as if she couldn’t wait to tear Shen Tu apart.
“Did he also arrange for you to leave aboard that Starship?” Xue Yue continued to ask.
“En, he thought that you had left Water Moon Star the day before. I hadn’t expected that just after I stepped aboard that Starship, you would come over to board it. Beauty, could this be fate?” Yang Kai said as he smiled towards Xue Yue.
“Who exactly shares any fate with you?” Xue Yue glared over at Yang Kai. Her unique charm and style had caused his heart some distress, forcing his mind to drift back to their little tussle atop the previous Dead Star. All the rich and tender sensations still vivid in his mind, the look he directed towards her suddenly changing flavour as well.
“What are you thinking about?” Xue Yue’s face suddenly blushed, as if she too had seen through Yang Kai’s dirty thoughts, somewhat dreading the aggressive look in his eyes and quickly changing the subject, “What exactly is going on with your Divine Sense? I’ve been paying special attention to it these days, but why does it feel so strange? It’s almost as if it’s drifting about erratically. What is the mystery behind that?”
“That’s because I am proficient in…” Yang Kai didn’t even think about it before beginning to explain, but halfway through his expression cramped and a frown appeared on his face, “Isn’t the power of this Soul Chains too great? It’s like I’m not even the slightest bit wary of you…”
Anything she asked, he was willing to answer. Realizing this, Yang Kai’s heart filled with alarm and he quickly raised his guard.
Seeing Yang Kai actually wake up at the critical moment, Xue Yue couldn’t help cursing to herself, an annoyed look appearing on her pretty face.
Just a little bit longer and she would have been able to unravel the secret to Yang Kai’s strange Divine Sense, yet she had actually fallen short at the last moment.
“The Divine Ability sealed with the Soul Chains was created by a Senior Executive of my Chamber of Commerce, naturally its power is incredible, but you actually being able to resist it is quite surprising,” Xue Yue looked at him with amazement.
“Were you planning to take this opportunity and let me explain everything about myself?” Yang Kai smiled meaningfully.
“Naturally! Just think about everything you’ve taken from me… Of course, I’d want to find out everything about you in return!”
“If you give the rest of yourself to me, even without the power of the Soul Chains, I’ll make an honest confession to you!”
“In your dreams!” Xue Yue snorted, feeling extremely resentful of how shameless Yang Kai was.
“Good, my turn to ask you question now,” Yang Kai smiled lightly, not giving Xue Yue any time to think, swiftly asking, “How did you disguise yourself as a man? I know of some artifacts that can change one’s face, but even the shape of your body and your stature were altered, isn’t that a bit too exaggerated?”
The male Xue Yue and female Xue Yue did have many similarities in appearance, but their body shapes were worlds apart, especially her plump round bottom and rich twin peaks. Yang Kai really couldn’t understand how she managed to hide these assets.
“That’s also thanks to a special artifact!” Xue Yue replied reluctantly, “One of my Chamber of Commerce’s Grandmasters especially refined a unique artifact for me! But in this latest disaster, that artifact was damaged, so now I can only maintain this appearance!”
“It’s good like this.”
“I also feel this is good!” Xue Yue responded with a smile, seemingly very much liking her current female look.
“What is your current cultivation?” Yang Kai asked again.
Xue Yue’s brow furrowed, not really wanting to answer this, but still eventually responding, “Third Order Saint King! I broke through about a year ago, this is also a secret, don’t reveal it to anyone.”
Yang Kai’s expression became serious, calculating silent before muttering, “So your realm is one Great Realm and one Minor Realm higher than mine?”
Xue Yue giggled pleasantly, “Have you realized the gap between you and me now? If it weren’t for my being so seriously injured back there, how could I have had any trouble with a little brat like you, I could pinch you with just two fingers, what could you have done to resist?”
“How old are you this year?” Yang Kai stared at her.
Xue Yue’s pretty face sank as she ground her teeth in anger, “None of your damn business! Hasn’t anyone ever taught you to never as a woman about her age?”
Yang Kai could only smile awkwardly.
“There’s still one thing that I can’t understand!” Xue Yue’s expression suddenly became serious, “In that disaster, I had to rely on an Origin Grade Armour to survive, but even then, I nearly lost my life, how did you, a mere Second-Order Saint, not die?”
“My luck is quite good,” Yang Kai shrugged his shoulders, suddenly recalling that at the time of the disaster, Xue Yue had summoned out a fiery red armour, but even that armour had subsequently been blown away.
“I don’t think it’s just a matter of luck!” Xue Yue stared thoughtfully at Yang Kai, “Before, I should have caused a lot of damage to your body, but looking at you now, it’s as if all those injuries have been healed, and… the blood in your body is golden, the vitality and restorative power it contains are also incredible. Just how many secrets do you have?”
As her beautiful eyes drifted over Yang Kai, a look of curiosity began filling her face!
In her opinion, such a disaster, which had nearly even killed her, should have easily claimed the life of someone as weak as Yang Kai.
“My resilience and restorative abilities are very strong, that’s probably the biggest reason why I was able to survive,” Yang Kai smiled and forcefully changed the subject, “Do you know what this was all about?”
“I don’t know,” Xue Yue shook her head, a dispirited expression appearing on her face, “I don’t know if it was a trap targeting the Chamber of Commerce in general, or if I was the intended target, but what’s for certain is that there were some people on the inside colluding with our enemies on the outside. Once I find out who it was that dared to betray me, I will make them pay for it with their blood!”
Saying so, Xue Yue’s beautiful eyes flashed with ice-cold killing intent.
She seemed to have instantly changed back into the incomparably cruel, cold-hearted, and merciless Xue Yue Third Young Master who had not hesitated to kill two thousand innocent cultivators just to find Yang Kai!
“Moreover, those Star Breaker Sparks used to create that trap were developed by the Chamber of Commerce and are never sold to outsiders. As long as I trace their origins, the truth will come to light soon enough,” She said with a cold sneer upon her face.
Yang Kai grinned and secretly felt a bit of pity for the ones who had been behind this ambush. He could almost see the scene when Xue Yue returned, it would surely become a massive storm.
It was very likely the entire Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce would be caught up in this!
As they talked inside the cave, the two of them did not feel the passage of time, and with their deepening mutual understanding, both Yang Kai and Xue Yue began to feel more at ease with the other.
The wounds had not healed, and the worry about the enemies outside had not abated. On top of that, Xue Yue did not have Yang Kai’s abnormal resiliency, so after speaking for a while, she felt weary and soon nodded off.
She didn’t know how long after it was, but Xue Yue suddenly heard Yang Kai gently call out to her. Swiftly opening her eyes, she sat up straight and frowned towards Yang Kai, who was right now embracing her shoulder, and asked suspiciously, “Why are you hugging me?”
Yang Kai shot her a wry look and replied, “You leaned onto me on your own!”
“I…” Xue Yue blushed, not knowing how she should argue back.
“We should leave, they’re heading towards this Dead Star now, if we don’t go now, we’ll be discovered,” Yang Kai said hurriedly as he stood up, opened the entrance to the cave, summoned his Star Shuttle, and beckoned to Xue Yue.
Xue Yue rushed over and stood on the Star Shuttl, snorting lightly, “Next time, keep your distance from me, and especially don’t hug me, it’s not my intention!”
“Sure! From now on I won’t care about whether you live or die!” Yang Kai simply nodded.
For nearly two months, Yang Kai and Xue Yue continued to shuttle across and hide on various Dead Stars in the Ice-Cold Dead Zone. By now, Yang Kai had realized that whoever it was that had plotted to destroy the Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce Starship was being extraordinarily cautious!
There had been a continues stream of cultivators flying about the Ice-Cold Dead Zone, looking for something, and it was only a couple days ago that their presence had started to decrease.
They had spent two whole months confirming that no one had survived that disaster.
“I feel that the trap was directed at me…” Atop a certain Dead Star, Xue Yue muttered thoughtfully.
“No kidding,” Yang Kai nodded in agreement. If at the beginning the two of them did not know whether the trap had been for Xue Yue or the Chamber of Commerce Starship, both of them had now arrived at the same conjecture.
This incident was planned to assassinate Xue Yue!
“Oh?” Xue Yue looked at Yang Kai with a smile, a hint of interest appearing on her face as she asked, “Why do you think so? Explain your reasoning; I want to see if it lines up with my own.”
Yang Kai didn’t try to conceal anything and simply said, “Time. They spent far too long searching for survivors. There wasn’t supposed to be any important people or important materials aboard that Starship, if all of this was set up to damage the Chamber of Commerce, they wouldn’t have bothered conducting such an exhaustive search. Them acting so cautiously, spending a whole two months combing through this barren expanse, can only mean that they’re frightened that someone might have survived and would retaliate against them. Since that’s the case, the target of this trap must have been you. The Starship from your Chamber of Commerce just happened to get caught up in it.”
Saying so, Yang Kai directed a thoughtful gaze towards Xue Yue.
Xue Yue’s beautiful eyes brightened, her lips curling into a smile, “Your wit is quite sharp, it seems I’ve been looking down on you.”
Yang Kai’s reasoning was basically the same as her own. From this, Xue Yue had also unexpectedly discovered that Yang Kai had the makings of a good seedling, smiling light and asking, “If one day the Soul Chains are unlocked and I don’t immediately want to kill you, do you want to serve me?”
“Are you trying to win me over?” Yang Kai looked at her strangely.
“En, but it’s much more likely that the moment the Soul Chains is untied, I’ll kill you!” Xue Yue spoke such horrifying words so lightly and with a smile upon her face, as if she was casually talking to a friend.
“No thanks, I won’t be restrained by you, when that day comes, before you can act against me, I’ll kill you!”
“You sure know how to boast!” Xue Yue spat disdainfully, “I must have a look at what kind of ability you have to kill me!”
“You’ll experience it when the time comes,” Yang Kai said before jumping out of their temporary shelter, taking an exaggerated bow while stretching out his hand and making an invitation, “But for now, how about we leave this damned place?”
Xue Yue’s lips curled into a happy smile as her eyes bent into crescents, also leaping out and placing her jade hand into Yang Kai’s open palm, allowing him to summon his Star Shuttle and carry her up onto it before flying off.
After two months, both of their injuries had fully healed, and Xue Yue had also returned to her peak state at the Third Order Saint King Realm.
However, she was still willing to share the same Star Shuttle with Yang Kai.
She quite enjoyed this feeling of being cared for and protected.
She had repeatedly warned herself not to wallow in this sensation, constantly telling herself that this was all due to the side effects of the Soul Chains and that, if she was in the right state of mind, she wouldn’t feel anything about a young man like Yang Kai, but for now, she simply wanted to continue experiencing this unfamiliar sense of warmth.
The Star Shuttle shot off like a bolt of lightning and in no time at all the pair departed from the Dead Star.
Back out amidst the Starry Sky, Yang Kai came to a halt and asked, “Where should we go now? Back to Water Moon Star?”
“No, it’s too far to go back now. The Ice-Cold Dead Zone is about half a month’s journey by Starship from Water Moon Star, so it would take at least three months to return by Star Shuttle! We should head for Rainfall Star, it’s much closer, and that was my original destination, in any case. This bit of trouble just caused some minor delays.”
“Hmm… Alright.” Yang Kai didn’t have any opinion, in any case, he didn’t have a specific destination in mind.
“Give me a bit of time to figure out which direction Rainfall Star is in. It’s difficult to see any kind of starlight in this damn Ice-Cold Dead Zone, getting my bearings may take a while,” Xue Yue’s brow furrowed as she glanced around, attempting to find some kind of reference, but before she could, Yang Kai let his Star Shuttle fly off in a certain direction.
“Do you know the way?” Xue Yue called out worriedly, “If you don’t recognize the road, it’s very easy to get lost in the Starry Sky.”
“My Star Shuttle happens to have a Star Chart to Rainfall Star,” Yang Kai smiled faintly.
“That’s great,” Xue Yue cheered up and let go of her worries.
The Star Chart in Yang Kai Star Shuttle was one he had plotted himself and was even the optimum route according to the massive Star Chart floating above his Knowledge Sea, this was a perfect opportunity to verify whether it was accurate or not.
“Why were you going to Rainfall Star in the first place?” As the pair flew forward, Yang Kai couldn’t help but ask.
“My father sent me to handle something,” Xue Yue replied casually.
“What matter could be so important that you would actually have to go in person?!
“Don’t ask too much…” Xue Yue pretty face became bitter, “I want to tell you, but you need to know, this is one of my Chamber of Commerce’s secrets, not something that can be readily divulged to others. Can you please not make this awkward for me?”
She sincerely asked in a soft and gentle tone.
“Alright, alright. Just pretend I didn’t ask!” Yang Kai immediately agreed, somewhat unable to endure seeing her like this.
He had no choice but to admit that once a woman like Xue Yue wore a pitiful look and begged, no one would be able to refuse her.
Yang Kai had already been completely entranced by her unique charms, and the days with her had been a great battle between his heart and mind. He constantly needed to remind himself not to accidentally fall under her spell and pledge his loyalty to her.
It was because of his constant efforts in the regard that he was able to maintain some semblance of sobriety and not become enslaved by the Soul Chains.
He believed that Xue Yue was also working hard to cope with the power of the Soul Chains. The two of them had a tacit understanding about this so they quickly stopped talking about this particular subject.
Seemingly because she felt a bit embarrassed about what had just happened, Xue Yue suddenly asked, “What attribute strength do you cultivate? Is it Yang or Fire?”
The first day, when she and Yang Kai had tossed about atop that Dead Star, she had learned a little bit about Yang Kai’s strength, but even until now she wasn’t clear about its true nature.
“Why do you ask?” Yang Kai became somewhat vigilant.
“I thought that if you were willing, I could help you look for a master who could guide your cultivation and teach you how to use and gain insight into your strength,” Xue Yue sincerely said, “On the road of cultivation, having someone to teach you can make a big difference, and since you are the first person from your world to enter the Star Field, no one should have taught you even some common sense things, yes?”
“Look for a master?” Yang Kai heard these words and was quite surprised.
“En, there are many Elders and Masters in my Chamber of Commerce who are proficient in all kinds of different attribute strengths. It should not be difficult to find one who matches well with you. Even I have several masters who I study under…”
“No thanks, there’s probably no one who can teach me,” Yang Kai smiled and shook his head.
“Don’t be in such a rush to refuse, this doesn’t have any disadvantages to you.”
“It’s not that, no one can teach me because the attribute of my strength is somewhat special!”
“Special? Special how?” This time is was Xue Yue’s turn to be surprised.
Yang Kai frowned slightly, but in order to dispel any strange thoughts Xue Yue was having, he quickly produced a cluster of Demonic Flame.
The blazing pitch-black flames exuded a mysterious kind of charm, like a blossoming black rose that seemed capable of swallowing one’s soul while at the same time reducing anything in the world to ash.
Xue Yue eyes flashed as she stared stupefied at this mass of black flame.
She could feel how profound the mystery of this cluster of Demonic Flame was, and as she examined the attributes behind it, she couldn’t help calling out in alarm, “How could such a contradictory strength exist?”
The cluster of Demonic Flame was both cold and hot at the same time, with pure yang and malevolent evil perfectly coexisting. All kinds of contradictions were combined together, promoting one another, evolving into something unique that seemed to have no equivalent.
Xue Yue had never seen such a strange power.
It was difficult for her to imagine just how a cultivator who was invaded by this power would be able to resolve or even resist it!
At the very least, she couldn’t think of any way!
A touch of panic, as well as excitement, flashed across the depths of her beautiful eyes!
She was frightened by the unique properties of this Demonic Flame and also excited about Yang Kai’s enormous potential.
This man was currently just a Second-Order Saint, so his unique strength couldn’t play much of a role, but if he were to receive proper training and become a master at the Saint King Realm or Origin Returning Realm, then this Demonic Flame would be able to display unimaginable might.
The contradictory attributes of his power would give him a natural advantage others could only dream of obtaining!
Once he was fully matured, it would be difficult to find anyone who could be his opponent in the same realm! Only if the other party also cultivated some very special force would they stand a chance against him.
“Is there anyone in your Chamber of Commerce who has power similar to mine?” Yang Kai asked.
“No,” Xue Yue shook her head honestly and dismissed the idea of looking for a master for him, her beautiful eyes flashing a different kind of light in the next moment as she called out, “Yang Kai, how about we make a deal?”
“What kind of deal?”
“When we undo the Soul Chains bindings, I won’t act against you, all the grudges between us will be written off and I will provide you with the best cultivation environment and resources to improve your strength, allowing you to advance as quickly as possible.”
“Oh?” Yang Kai’s expression didn’t change, maintaining a slight smile upon his face as he asked, “And, what are your conditions?”
“I want you to follow me.”
“Follow you…” Yang Kai shook his head, “I already told you, I won’t be restrained by you!”
“There’s a big difference between serving me and following me,” Xue Yue snapped back, “Can’t you even understand that much?”
“To me, it’s the same thing.”
“At most… I can give you the opportunity to pursue me!” Xue Yue’s face blushed red as she bit her thin lip, seemingly having made a great concession!
The special strength Yang Kai possessed had really aroused her intention to win him over.
However, hearing what Xue Yue just said, Yang Kai couldn’t help but laugh.
“What are you laughing at?” Xue Yue’s blush deepened as she became somewhat angry out of shame.
“Your public identity is Xue Yue Third Young Master… If I don’t pursue you, would there even be anyone in this world who does? Are you really so lonely to that extent?”
“You… you bastard!” Xue Yue shouted indignantly.