Zong Ao was right about one thing though, Yang Kai couldn’t remain here for long, there was no way to tell how Water Moon Star would respond after learning about Xue Yue’s situation, and if some top-level executive were to come to investigate, it would be incredibly difficult for him to explain.
Xue Yue also didn’t want to expose her biggest secret.
Right now, Yang Kai had to hurry to restore her consciousness, lift the fetters of the Soul Chains, then soar off into the sky to disappear.
For the next half a month, Yang Kai received very generous treatment as he recovered his strength. Every day, inside his luxurious guest palace, the very best food and wine, as well as rare spirit fruits were provided to him allowing him to slowly restore his lost vitality and rid himself of the crippling sense of weakness.
Yang Kai secretly decided that he would never attempt to refine Pill Clouds again unless absolutely necessary.
If his luck was good, and while performing Alchemy he inadvertently refined a pill that formed Pill Clouds, then that was fine, but he never wanted to purposely generate them again. The consumption cost was simply too great.
Ha Li Ka sent a few dozen masters to build a grand palace for Zong Ao in his mountain valley, finishing the construction in short order.
However, Zong Ao didn’t go back immediately, because the World Energy in the mountain valley was still too thin and it would be some time before it recovered to even the average level of the rest of Rainfall Star.
The news that he had refined a Burning Flame Pill which formed Pill Clouds spread like wildfire and every Alchemist on the Rainfall Star made a special pilgrimage to pay him their respects. Since these people were in a sense his colleagues, Zong Ao couldn’t just send them away, so he spent many days suffering from their incessant flattery and praise, not having a moment of free time to himself for quite a while.
Whenever he saw this scene, Yang Kai secretly rejoiced about his decision.
If the merit of refining Pill Clouds were to be assigned to him, such a harmonious scene would never have appeared, instead, these old men and women would only be trying to make things difficult for him, using any method they could to verify he wasn’t cheating or lying to them.
None of them would admit to being inferior to Yang Kai, that would be too great an insult to them.
Inside a separate room, Yang Kai sat cross-legged on the bed next to the still sleeping Xue Yue.
Staring at her enchanting face, Yang Kai really didn’t want to wake her up.
The sleeping Xue Xue was the easiest to get along with, he could do whatever he liked to her and she wouldn’t put up any resistance or make any complaints, but once she woke up, it would only bring Yang Kai endless trouble and danger.
But Yang Kai had to wake her up, lifting the Soul Chains’ fetters required both of them to agree. Currently, Xue Yue’s Soul Avatar was nowhere to be seen, and without her cooperation, Yang Kai couldn’t break free of this burden.
Sending out his Spiritual Energy, Yang Kai dived silently into Xue Yue’s Knowledge Sea.
The next moment, Yang Kai’s Soul Avatar appeared over Xue Yue’s Knowledge Sea.
This was not the first time Yang Kai had entered Xue Yue’s Knowledge Sea, he had visited here before to examine her condition, but at that time, he hadn’t looked around carefully.
At any time, investigating another’s Knowledge Sea was a taboo among cultivators, it was something only those who shared the most intimate of relationships would do. One’s Knowledge Sea contained all the experiences and secrets of a person’s life, searching through someone’s Knowledge Sea was worse than stripping away their clothes and groping around their body.
Last time, Yang Kai had used discretion and did not probe into Xue Yue’s secret too deeply; he didn’t want to have too much entanglement with this woman.
But this time, he no longer had a choice.
The sea breeze blew gently and the waters themselves were calm. Aside from a vast ocean, there was nothing else inside Xue Yue’s Knowledge Sea, unlike the colourfulness of his own Knowledge Sea.
One’s Knowledge Sea was the greatest reflection of a person’s experiences and personality, so it was quite clear that Xue Yue led something of a desolate and dull life.
Xue Yue was a woman, but she was raised by Ai Ou as a man. She may have had the prestige and style of Xue Yue Third Young Master, but she was surely tired of that by now and simply supporting herself with willpower alone.
“It’s not that I want to spy on your secrets, but I can’t wake you up if I don’t do this, don’t hold it against me in the future,” Yang Kai murmured softly, his Soul Avatar diving into the ocean in Xue Yue’s Knowledge Sea in the next moment.
The warm seawater wrapped Yang Kai’s body like the finest of silk, giving him an unimaginable excitement and comfort.
Yang Kai almost lost himself in this feeling for a moment.
The blending of Souls was a terrifying experience that allowed a man and woman to enjoy a sensation a thousand times more joyful than a mere physical union. It was like sharing the deepest part of one’s self with another, resulting in a sense of euphoria that was difficult to extricate oneself from.
Fortunately, this was not Yang Kai’s first time doing this kind of thing. When he went to Ice Sect to find Su Yan, he had blended Souls with her once, so he had some experience dealing with this kind of overwhelming sensation.
Struggling to restrain the innate desires welling up in his Soul, Yang Kai constantly called out in his head to remind himself of his original purpose; this was no time to simply seek pleasure.
Gradually, the euphoric joy faded and Yang Kai managed to regain control of his Soul Avatar, allowing him to breathe slightly easier.
He didn’t know why, but his current set of actions and situation made Yang Kai feel as if he was violating Xue Yue.
Xue Yue was unable to sense anything right now, and with her Soul Avatar missing, she also couldn’t put up any kind of resistance to Yang Kai’s Divine Sense intrusion, how was this any different from him raping her? And the most vicious type of rape at that!
A woman who had no Soul Avatar was no different from a doll, thinking so, Yang Kai’s sense of fascination instantly faded away.
This kind of one-sided action was something only those who had twisted psychology would enjoy.
Yang Kai quickly spread out his Soul Avatar’s senses through this ocean.
Inside Xue Yue’s Knowledge Sea were an incredible number of bubbles that seemed to be suspended in the water, each bubble representing one of Xue Yue’s memories.
Yang Kai began to scrutinize the information hidden in these bubbles.
He saw many, many scenes and pictures …
A baby fell as her nearby mother lay weakly on the bed, her face pale and bloodless, but upon hearing the baby’s cry, the most beautiful smile in the world blossomed on her face. A burly man who had been waiting outside rushed in, his hands shaking as he picked up the baby, completely disregarding the dirt and filth staining it, a look full of affection filling his face as he gently kissed the baby’s forehead, his eyes shining with fatherly love.
The seven or eight-month-old child was being held in the arms of its mother to breastfeed, closing its eyes as it drank thirstily. The mother smiled with satisfaction as she teased her daughter from time to time, the burly father standing nearby grinning dotingly.
The baby started toddling about and even began to babble, sending out a stream of wordless noises as she walked forward cautiously, falling down once in a while, causing her mother to rush over in distress and hug her into her arms, the father smiling warmly nearby, a happy family of three.
An old man with a snow white beard came to see the baby, carefully examining her before solemnly reporting something to the burly father. The smile and joy immediately vanished from his face, a solemn light flashing across his eyes as he stared at his nearby daughter.
A three-year-old child was received into a palace, dressed in boys clothing, and raised as a man. The little girl stood ignorantly inside the grand palace, followed by servants and maids. She was forbidden from leaving the palace and no longer able to see her loving mother, only able to meet her dignified father.
She began to learn all kinds of miscellaneous things and began to cultivate, growing healthy and strong, but only able to live as a man.
Her aptitude was excellent, and only when her strength increased would she be able to see a smile from her father, at other times his face only contained sternness and scolding.
Xue Yue Third Young Master’s spread out and soon the entire Star Field knew about her.
She learned how to deal with those strangers she met by showing the perfect smile, her elegant demeanour and beauty able to mesmerize men and women alike.
But she couldn’t see her own mother, and only at night, when she was all alone, would she be able to take out a few sets of women’s clothing and lay them on her bed sadly.
These clothes were all sent by her mother secretly and seemed to retain a traced of her gentle aura.
Watching these scenes, Yang Kai felt as if he was experiencing them himself and was able to sense the pain and resentment in Xue Yue’s heart, the sadness and helplessness of this woman.
Under her immutable smile that was able to dazzle and dumbfound all sentient beings lay a bitter and fragile heart, hidden under layers of false strength.
Years of pretence not only allowed her to deceive the world but herself as well.
Until that life or death struggle atop that Dead Star. At that time, Xue Yue was enraged and her murderous intent soared to the Heavens, but it was also the first time she had ever experienced such strong emotions stemming from her female nature. She had been hugged naked and had her snow-white peaks squeezed tightly causing her pulse to race and her tender body to shiver, new and indescribable feelings surging through her body, making her feel numb and unable to breathe. Whenever she thought back to that time, she would blush bright red.
The boisterous and noisy period of time after that then became the most unforgettable days of her life, making her wish she could stop time and forever remain on that Dead Star.
Because only in front of this man could she let down her guard and be herself.
Yang Kai injected vitality into her life, making it no longer seem so dark and dreary.
When she was exploring the Ancient Ruins, she had ignored the deaths and injuries of many of her subordinates while constantly ordered for the expedition team to pick up speed just so she could leave there a bit faster and return to that small world of freedom.
But when the Space Ring she tried to collect burst, she was sent into a coma.
It took a long time for Yang Kai’s Soul Avatar to emerge from Xue Yue’s Knowledge Sea.
Yang Kai now knew all of Xue Yue’s secrets. He hadn’t expected this vicious woman to have such a miserable past; and although he felt some sympathy and pity for her his heart, that did not change what he had to do.
He saw not only Xue Yue’s misery but also the darkness in her heart.
Even if this woman was worthy of pity, that didn’t mean she wasn’t extremely dangerous.
Her sentiment towards him wasn’t her pure feelings, but all because of the influence of the Soul Chains.
After watching for so long, Yang Kai also faintly knows why Xue Yue’s Soul Avatar had disappeared, as well as how he should go about treating her.
This kind of heart knot wasn’t a physical wound, so as long as Xue Yue could untie it, she would naturally wake up.
Inside Xue Yue’s Knowledge Sea, Yang Kai’s Soul Avatar sent out a subtle wave.
He began to create dream-like illusions and forced them into the seawater.
From her infancy to her current age, in these illusions, Xue Yue did not have to pretend to be someone else, did not have to show that unchanging spring breeze-like smile, did not have to live as a man.
She grew up carefree, with her father, mother, brothers, and sisters all living in harmony. She could wear the most beautiful clothes and the most beautiful jewellery, no longer needing to spend torturous days and nights cultivating and training.
In these illusions, she was the world’s happiest woman, she would take a few maidservants with her to stroll around the streets every day, occasionally revealing a radiant smile that made the blood of all the men in the city boil.
In these illusions, she would return home at the end of each day and tell her parents about the various things she encountered while they listened to her quietly with happy, smiling faces.
She even met a man who moved her heart but due to her shyness, she could only watch him from a distance, paying attention to his movements, unable to take the initiative to talk to him.
To her surprise though, this heroic-looking handsome man actually took notice of her too, defeated all his competitors, and fulfilled her father’s demanding requirements to win her hand in marriage.
They then became husband and wife and had children of their own. Although they didn’t live a lavish or magnificent life, both of them helped one another during times of difficulty and shared much joy together.
Their children slowly grew up, and they gradually grew old. Eventually, they passed on, finally being buried together in graves placed right beside one another, as if even in death they would never be separated.
In these illusions, Xue Yue lived a perfect life without any regrets.
Yang Kai repeated this process over and over again, submerging these illusions he constructed with his own Spiritual Energy into Xue Yue’s Knowledge Sea, disregarding his own consumption and fatigue.
Time passed by, but Xue Yue’s Knowledge Sea was still as stagnant as ever.
However, suddenly, the calm seawater began to roll and the numerous bubbles under the surface all burst, returning to nothingness.
The breeze blew and a light fragrance began wafting past the tip of Yang Kai’s nose.
Yang Kai stopped what he was doing, turned around, and saw Xue Yue standing behind him with a grin of interest on her face.
Yang Kai rolled his eyes and immediately withdrew from her Knowledge Sea.
The moment Yang Kai opened his eyes, Xue Yue also woke up, reached out, grabbing him and said, “Hey, why did you run away like some frightened thief?”
“Since you woke up, what else was I supposed to do? Wait for me to be tortured by you? If I were to stay there, a little Third-Order Saint like me wouldn’t be able to put up any kind of resistance,” Yang Kai snorted.
Everyone’s Knowledge Sea was their personal domain where they had absolute control; therefore, when two cultivators were of similar strength, they would never try to invade each other’s Knowledge Sea as the one who did would always be the one to suffer. Only when there was a vast disparity in strength would one possibly invading another’s Knowledge Sea to deal serious damage.
“Me, torture you? Why do you think I would torture you? If you didn’t do anything wrong, what reason would I have to torture you?” Xue Yue pressed the issue relentlessly, her eyes narrowing as a dangerous light filled them.
“Good, I admit that I broke into your Knowledge Sea without your permission and it was wrong of me to pry into your secrets, but you refused to wake up, so I had no other choice,” Yang Kai shook his sleeve to free himself from her grip.
“After prying into my secrets, you still want to argue about?” Xue Yue grit her teeth as she glowered towards Yang Kai menacingly.
“I didn’t see much…” Yang Kai said somewhat evasively.
Xue Yue didn’t speak, simply staring back at him fixedly.
“Fine, I even know how many hairs you have on your body, so what? What are you going to do, bite me?” Yang Kai said without the slightest trace of shame.
“You bastard!” Xue Yue immediately became angry out of shame, leaping off the bed and rushing over to Yang Kai, nipping his hand with her pearl white teeth once before shouting, “You think I won’t dare?”
Yang Kai didn’t try to avoid her and instead curled his lips into a grin, “If you’re not satisfied biting my hand you can always try somewhere else, interested?”
Xue Yue’s face and neck turned bright red as she quickly released Yang Kai’s hand and spat, “In your dreams!”
In that illusion, she had gained plenty of experience with the man she married and could now easily recall all those various postures and positions with ease.
She had received a thorough and systematic education …
Naturally she understood what Yang Kai meant.
Although she also understood that it was just a fantasy created by Yang Kai for her, and none of it really happened, she still couldn’t help feeling extremely ashamed; after all, the woman in that fantasy was modelled after her, sharing her exact appearance.
It was as if she was really a harlot, constantly begging for more, completely insatiable!
“Were you always so obscene?” Xue Yue looked at Yang Kai strangely, seemingly not having through he was such a degenerate pervert, “Seems I’ve greatly misread you!”
“What’s obscene about the love between a man and a woman?” Yang Kai spat disdainfully, “When you really try it, you’ll realize the beauty of it.”
“Even so, you didn’t have to add yourself into that illusion did you?” Xue Yue smiled sweetly, as if she had suddenly discovered something interesting, “In those illusions, you were quite handsome and persistent. Are you hoping I’ll really marry you?”
“Nope, I wouldn’t be able to endure being with a woman like you,” Yang Kai quickly waved his hand.
“Get lost!” Xue Yue’s expression changed faster than one could turn the page of a book, trembling with anger as she kicking Yang Kai off the bed.
Yang Kai stood up, patted himself off indifferently and said, “Have a good rest. Once you restore yourself, I have something I need to tell you.”
The expression on Xue Yue’s face froze, apparently understanding what it was that Yang Kai wanted to talk about, closing her eyes in the next moment without saying a word.
Outside the room, Yang Kai saw Zong Ao leaning sideways, cupping his ears, listening intently. After seeing Yang Kai, Old Zong didn’t make any attempt to cover up his actions or apologize, simply asking, “Rescued?”
“En,” Yang Kai nodded.
“Impressive,” Zong Ao couldn’t help but give him a big thumbs up, “But what were you two doing inside, why was it so lively? Aren’t you her guard? Kid, this old master has to say, your courage is simply extraordinary, even daring to get involved with Xue Yue Third Young Master’s woman. En, you should run as soon as possible, this old master doesn’t wish to see you die so young, once that Xue Yue’s anger explodes, the whole Heng Luo Star Field will shake.”
Zong Ao may have spent too much time in seclusion, so despite being so old, his interest in gossip was as strong as any youth. He seemed to like seeing others flirting, and when he did see such scenes, it made him feel a few dozen years younger.
[Shameless!]
Yang Kai ignored him and instead walked out to find Ha Li Ka to inform him of the situation.
After hearing Xue Yue had awoken, Ha Li Ka was overjoyed and even gave Yang Kai a great big hug while sincerely expressing his gratitude.
Since Xue Yue had woken up, their last worries had disappeared, and now that Zong Ao had taken one step further on the Alchemy Way, as long as they could appropriately process the Profound Yin Sunflower Water, everything would be wonderful.
What’s more, since there was Xue Yue to handle the matter of the Profound Yin Sunflower Water, even if the Chamber of Commerce sanctioned them, they would only receive some slight punishment, nothing near as serious as what they had been worrying about before.
With all the good news flowing in, how could they not be joyful?
With the executives in a jubilant mood, the rest of the branch was also extremely happy.
One month passed by in the blink of an eye.
Xue Yue had been staying in her room ever since she woke up that day, claiming that his injuries still needed time to heal.
But the effects of the Profound Yin Sunflower Water had already been treated by the Burning Flame Pill, and there was no damage to her Soul, so what kind of healing could she still need? Although she had stayed in a coma for more than a year, with her cultivation, she only needed a day or two to restore herself.
The only reason was none other than she was avoiding Yang Kai!
Yang Kai understood this, but there was nothing he could do about it. Every time he went to find Xue Yue, he was stopped outside by several Saint King Realm cultivators serving as door guards. These people did not give Yang Kai any trouble, instead just smiling and saying that Lady Xue’er had ordered them to not allow anyone to enter her room without her permission. Their attitude was good, but their meaning of rejection was incredibly firm.
Yang Kai wished he could pound these guards flat.
Yang Kai was unhappy, and Old Zong wasn’t in much better of a mood.
Half of his Profound Yin Sunflower Water was taken away by Yang Kai, and several dozen of his large and small pill furnaces were snatched, causing Zong Ao to feel like his heart had been pierced, but he wasn’t shameless enough to go back on his word.
Zong Ao was still a trustworthy person. Since he dared to bet, he dared to lose, very much unlike Xue Yue who liked to dominate others with force.
Yang Kai also asked Zong Ao how to refine the Profound Yin Sunflower Water.
Zong Ao didn’t conceal anything and taught him all he knew.
Yang Kai realized after some explanations that although the Profound Yin Sunflower Water was a rare treasure. If it wasn’t properly handled, refining it would be fatal. Aside from needing a wide variety of auxiliary materials though, refining it also required an extremely hot environment!
Only when these preparations were completed and conditions were met could one start refining this treasure.
The auxiliary materials required were actually already in Yang Kai’s possession.
Back on the floating continent, he had harvested many Origin Grade and Origin King Grade herbs, each one of incredible value.
All he needed to do was find a suitable environment. According to Old Zong, it would be best if he used the magma chamber of some ancient volcano because only such a level of heat could suppress the chill of Profound Yin Sunflower Water.
However, Zong Ao also said that Yang Kai’s current strength was still too low, he would need to at least reach the Saint King Realm before attempting to refine the Profound Yin Sunflower Water, otherwise he would definitely lose his life.
Xue Yue’s refusal to meet him face to face continued to agitate and annoy Yang Kai.
The next day, when Yang Kai arrived outside Xue Yue’s room, the Saint King Realm guards would smile at him and say a few kind words, but still barred his path.
Seeing this familiar scene, Yang Kai’s face sank.
Just after the several guards stopped Yang Kai with smiles on their faces and were about to ask him to forgive them for carrying out their responsibilities, Xue Yue’s pleasant voice sounded off, “Let him in!”
Upon hearing this, the guards stepped aside, breathing deep sighs of relief, throwing out silent looks of encouragement as they did so.
Yang Kai was disinclined to deal with them, strode forward, pushed open the door with a cold look on his face, and walked inside.
There was no change in the room, everything was the same as it was the last time he visited. Xue Yue on the other hand somehow seemed worse for wear, her expression a mixture of sadness and gloom. She didn’t avoid Yang Kai’s angry eyes, nipping her lip lightly as she stared back at him, “Sit down, let’s talk.”
Seeing her appearance, Yang Kai had nowhere to vent his anger.
Women were truly unfair!
Obviously, her strength was far higher than his own, and if it came down to a fight he would definitely not be her opponent. She could punch him into submission at will, yet at this moment, she could rely solely on her expression to create the illusion of weakness.
Like the Heavens themselves had wronged her …
Yang Kai picked up the teapot on the table, poured himself a cup, took a sip gently, then opened his mouth to say something, but before he could utter a word, Xue Yue’s jade finger landed on his lips.
Her fingers were icy cold, but there was still a faint fragrance on its tip.
“Don’t say anything, let me show you something first,” Xue Yue said lightly, with a softer tone than ever before.
“What?” Yang Kai immediately became vigilant, sweeping his eyes up and down Xue Yue before saying, “If it’s your body, there’s no need, every part of it has already been imprinted into my head, I can perfectly picture it even with my eyes closed.”
“A dog’s mouth can’t spit out ivory!” Xue Yue became ashamed and angry, “Do you think I’m the kind of woman who’d try to seduce a man with my body?”
“Then what do you want me to see?” Yang Kai ignored her question and asked.
Xue Yue glared angrily before pushing a sheet of paper over to him.
Yang Kai accepted the piece of paper, sipped his tea lightly and began browsing its content.
After a while, a strange expression appeared on his face and he grinned, “Xue Yue, these conditions are a bit too good, aren’t they? Just by becoming your guard, I’ll be paid a hundred thousand High-Rank Saint Crystals every year and obtain a five hundred kilometre radius domain?”
“Not really, my guards all obtain certain benefits, but everyone’s treatment is different,” Xue Yue took the teacup of tea in front of her and calmly took a sip, putting on a calm appearing, but the slight trembling of her hands betrayed her inner nervousness.
If before, the warm feelings she had for Yang Kai, and even the intimacy and affection she felt for him, had only been a result of the effects of the Soul Chains. However, right now she could say for certain that even without the bindings of the Soul Chains, those feelings wouldn’t completely disappear as they had taken root in her soul.
When forced actions and feelings became natural habits, they weren’t easy to change anymore.
What’s more, he had peered into her Knowledge Sea, and all of her secrets had been exposed, making her feel shyer and more embarrassed than if she was standing in front of him naked, allowing him to examine her.
Xue Yue sincerely hoped that Yang Kai would remain with her, even though she knew he couldn’t wait to get away from her.
While pretending to drink her tea, she quietly watched Yang Kai’s reaction, wanting to see if he showed any interest at all.
However, to her disappointment, Yang Kai showed no trace of temptation and only seemed to be curiously examining the different articles and clauses in the document.
“I’ll have twenty beautiful maids to serve me?” Yang Kai glanced up at Xue Yue with a raised brow, “Aren’t I just a guard? Am I supposed to have beautiful maids?”
“What’s so strange about it? An average person’s guard is naturally just a subordinate and not entitled to have such luxurious, but could my, Xue Yue’s, guards possibly not have such qualifications?” Xue Yue smiled deviously as she saw a trace of anticipation finally appear in Yang Kai’s eyes, quickly adding some embellishments, “I can choose the best women for you. You may not know this but my Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce also operates a slave business. Many big and small families that go bankrupt or fall into ruin will have their Young Ladies bought up by the chamber of commerce to later be sold. Each of these women have good education and their aptitudes and strength aren’t bad either. As far as I know, the strongest ones have reached the Saint King Realm. They’re nothing less than precious treasures!”
While she was colourfully describing these women to Yang Kai, she was silently cursing him out in her heart, she had offered him so many favorable conditions yet besides this one, he had treated them all indifferently. Xue Yue couldn’t help feeling the urge to reach out and choke him.
[Seems like he’s a man after all…]
Xue Yue sighed helplessly.
“Very good, very good!” Yang Kai nodded strongly a few times, he was truly quite interested in having some beautiful maids serving him. When he was back on Tong Xuan Realm, there were too many acquaintances around, and he didn’t dare act sloppily, but now that he had arrived in the Star Field all alone, such concerns didn’t exist anymore.
On top of that, since he took that last step with Little Senior Sister, Yang Kai had found that his mentality towards the happenings between men and women had changed greatly. At least, he no longer repelled the idea of having some fun here and there.
Back when he was staying in Shen Tu’s palace, his freewheeling activities had provided him with much food for thought.
“You think so too?” Xue Yue still maintained a smile on her face as she secretly ground her teeth before softly coaxing, “If you agree, then just leave your mark on the contract and from now on you’ll be my person and receive my shelter. From now on, if anyone dares to bar your way or offend you, you need only report my name, you’ll be able to walk sideways* in the Star Field if you so please.”
“I’m not a crab,” Yang Kai smiled and put the instrument back on the table.
Xue Yue stared straight at him, her brow furrowing slightly.
Yang Kai let out a sigh, shifting his gaze away from hers as he said, “Why do this? You know what it is I want, what do you intend to do by asking me to sell myself into servitude?”
“Who said anything about selling yourself into servitude?” Xue Yue’s beautiful eyes dimmed as she said uprightly, “Isn’t it written at the very top? This contract is only valid for five years, if you’re not satisfied after five years, it can be renegotiated, I just want you to spend some time considering it.”
“After I sign, in this lifetime, I’ll never be able to leave. Xue Yue, let’s unlock the Soul Chains and from now on you will walk along the broad road while I traverse the narrow path, well water should not mix with river water,” Yang Kai said sincerely.
When Xue Yue heard these words, the impulse to cry welled up inside her but she stubbornly refused to let her tears fall, lifting her head and tilting her head back slightly.
Amazingly, the tears disappeared, seemingly drawn back into her tear glands through sheer force of will.
She then clenched her teeth and said, “I don’t care, everything that you could touch you touched and you even dove into the depths of my Knowledge Sea, peeping on all of my secrets, you have to sign this contract with me of the loss I suffered can’t possibly be made up!”
“If it’s about your secrets, you can rest assured I will keep them safe without leaking a single word, I won’t joke around with my life, I fully realize the strength and influence you possess,” Yang Kai said solemnly.
Xue Yue became even more indignant as she muttered, “It seems you even know that secret.”
Yang Kai scratched his cheek and said innocently, “I really wish I didn’t know it. Who could have guessed that you were hiding something even more shocking than the fact that you’re actually a woman! No wonder President Ai Ou forced you to live as a man, he did it for your sake and you shouldn’t blame him!”
“For my sake?” Xue Yue’s eyes suddenly flashed with cold light as she said dreadfully, “I was separated from my own mother for several decades, and then in order to keep this secret, my father killed everyone who knew it, including her, was that also for my own good?”
Yang Kai didn’t know how to respond.
What Xue Yue mentioned he had already uncovered from his time in her Knowledge Sea. This was her family’s matters though so it wasn’t appropriate for him to comment on it. Moreover, the circumstances surrounding Xue Yue’s mother’s death remained a mystery; even Xue Yue had only heard some rumours about it.
“So what if I possess the Dragon Marrow Phoenix Body? Could it be that everyone in the world can see through my physique come to snatch me for it?” Xue Yue screamed in anger, her proud chest heaving up and down in a souls stirring rhythm.
“Lower your voice!” Yang Kai called out in fright, “Do you not want to live anymore? Why would you yell out so crazily like that?”
Seeing Yang Kai act so nervous, Xue Yue couldn’t help feeling a little smug, the anger she just felt thrown a thousand kilometres away as she directed a smile towards him, “Right, you also know about this secret, so why didn’t you make a move? You should know what kind of advantages a Dragon Marrow Phoenix Body can bring to you.”
“Of course I know,” Yang Kai shot her a faint look, “According to what those people in your memory said, any man who is able to take your Primordial Yin will gain unimaginable benefits. The moon slave business of your Chamber of Commerce was actually inspired by your special constitution, right?”
Xue Yue gently nodded, “Yes! You can say that I am the highest quality Moon Slave in the Chamber of Commerce, but no one knows about it. While I was unconscious, you obviously had many opportunities; I don’t believe you weren’t tempted! You aren’t nearly that righteous.”
Saying so, she directed a look towards him as if to say she had completely seen through him.
“You’re right, I was tempted, extremely tempted!” Yang Kai nodded firmly, “When I learned that secret, my first thoughts were to strip off your clothes and take possession of you.”
“Then why didn’t you?” Xue Yue asked curiously, “You also knew that even if you did that, I wouldn’t blame you for it. At worst I would beat you a bit.”
She said these words incredibly calmly, as if she wasn’t talking about her own innocence but that of another woman she didn’t know.
Yang Kai felt a headache and after a moment of silence declared, “I’m a man of principles!”
Xue Yue lips curled fiercely, obviously not believing a single word Yang Kai just said.
“According to the old man who first discovered your special constitution, the higher your strength, the greater the benefit the one who obtains you will gain. You are currently a Third-Order Saint King. If I really took you, I’m afraid the most I would be able to achieve would be breaking through the First Order Saint King Realm!” Yang Kai said lightly, “But so what? I don’t need the aid of your body to reach such a level. Do you believe I can’t achieve the same height in less than three years?”
Xue Yue stared at Yang Kai with a stunned look. Listening to his grand words, her beautiful eyes flashed in confusion for a moment before she nodded repeatedly then seemingly casually asked, “What if I wasn’t a Saint King, but an Origin King?”
Yang Kai swept his eyes over her once then without thinking said, “Then you’d already be my woman.”
The blur in Xue Yue’s beautiful eyes instantly disappeared and was replaced with endless contempt, cynically snapping, “So the truth is that in your mind, there just weren’t enough benefits!”
“Yes!” Yang Kai admitted frankly.
“And those high minded principles you were just spouting off about?” Xue Yue’s sneered as the contempt in her eyes grew even stronger.
“What are those worth? Can they be sold for money?” Yang Kai said in disdain.
In this verbal confrontation, neither side could convince the other.
Inside the room, Yang Kai looked helplessly at Xue Yue while Xue Yue drank tea constantly to calm her anger. Unfortunately, her teacup had long ago been emptied, leaving nothing behind but air.
The atmosphere was incredibly depressing.
“Are you really so cold and ruthless?” Xue Yue suddenly spoke, staring towards Yang Kai with a chilly gaze, this man’s persistence had wounded her somewhat.
Yang Kai just shook his head in response, “No matter what you say, I want to leave. This time I suffered a big loss and I never want to leave my life in the hands of another again, especially a woman like you who possesses so many secrets. Once you’re exposed, even Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce won’t be able to protect you, and if you were to die, I’d be hit with the same fate.”
Xue Yue’s Dragon Marrow Phoenix Body special constitution was a very unique physique; it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that she was the best Moon Slave in the Chamber of Commerce.
When those Moon Slaves were taken by men, they would only be able to give them some slight benefits.
But Xue Yue was different. Even at her current strength, Yang Kai was confident he could directly break through to the Saint King Realm, and as her strength improved, her special constitution would only provide greater benefits to her first man.
Moreover, this wasn’t just a pure boost in strength, but one in realm!
There were too many masters in this world who painstakingly cultivated for hundreds or even thousands of years yet were unable to break through to the next realm; to them, Xue Yue’s body was the greatest tool.
President Ai Ou was a man of profound vision so when Xue Yue was three years old, he had taken her away to be raised as a man in order to avoid her suffering such a fate and bringing disaster to Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce in the process.
“How long could you restrain me?” Yang Kai stared at Xue Yue indifferently, with no intention of backing down, “Forcefully picked melon is not sweet, on top of which, both of us know that the biggest factor by far in your current behaviour is the effects of the Soul Chains. The reason you’re acting this way is because of your own desires, you’ve lived as a man for so long and during that time the only one who you’ve been able to let your guard down around is me. Rather than any other kind of feelings, the biggest reason you want to keep me around is so you can maintain that sense of freedom, right?”
Xue Yue remained silent.
Yang Kai’s words were clear and concise; she could not find anything in them she could refute.
Yang Kai’s expression gradually became solemn as his tone of voice became firm, “You see me as nothing more than a tiny Third Order Saint, someone you can order around at will, but have you ever thought about things from my perspective? I am the first one from my world to enter the Star Field, which also means that I am the strongest cultivator from that world; there, I am the master!”
Xue Yue’s absentminded look became slightly thoughtful upon hearing these words.
“You’ve captured Monster Beasts before, haven’t you? Do you remember that Monster Beast King?” Yang Kai’s solemn expression twisted into a snide one, “What was the fate of that Monster Beast King you captured? Were you able to tame it?”
Xue Yue’s mind involuntarily recalled an event in the past where she had captured the king of a pack of Monster Beasts. That king refused to obey her and would often lash out at others, offending those it shouldn’t. No matter how she tried, she was never able to tame it, and in the end, she had no other choice but to put it down.
“I…” Xue Yue opened her mouth to speak but found that she didn’t know what to say.
“Think it over carefully, I’ll wait for you for three days. Give me your reply then, I don’t want to make things too stiff,” Yang Kai glanced at her lightly before standing up and leaving.
From the look in his eyes, Xue Yue was able to see a kind of firm will, one that told her that regardless of what choice she made, three days from now, he would still choose to leave.
Without unlocking the Soul Chains, him leaving would make her situation difficult.
How much risk a Third Order Saint travelling by himself through the Star Field would be taking on was something Xue Yue knew better than anyone. How could she feel secure leaving her life in such a precarious state?
With her thoughts in a mess, Xue Yue grabbed the cup on the table and threw it hard against the ground, grinding her teeth in grief for a long time before finally muttering a few words, “Cruel and heartless!”
From when she was a child until now, she had never been at a disadvantage when confronting others. She had always held the initiative, whether that person was male or female, young or old. As long as they fell into her hands, she could bend them to her will.
The senior executives in the Chamber of Commerce all agreed that she was the best and most outstanding successor candidate for the presidency.
Xue Yue accepted such compliments as if they were only natural.
But when facing Yang Kai, she found herself constantly being restrained, even during their brief conversation now, she had been forced into a position where she couldn’t even refute his words, leaving her extremely annoyed and disgruntled.
Hiding inside the room in a distressed state of mind, she sat cross-legged on the bed, quietly circulating her Secret Art in order to stabilize her disordered mood. Gradually, her breathing calmed down and she began to think about herself and Yang Kai from a different angle, mainly the pros and cons of their relationship, what letting him leave and making him stay would mean.
Outside of Xue Yue’s room, Yang Kai slowly shook his head.
He had given Xue Yue three days, but when the time came, no matter what choice she made, he would definitely put as much distance between himself and this woman as possible, perhaps because of Soul Chains’ effects though, he was feeling a bit bitter at the moment.
Several people who were standing around nearby giving him curious glances made Yang Kai even more unhappy.
These people apparently had nothing better to do and had come to enjoy a good show, each one eager to gossip about it to anyone and everyone they could find, wanting to ask about the situation yet too embarrassed to open their mouths.
“Old Ha!” Yang Kai couldn’t stand it any longer and called out.
Ha Li Ka’s face turned slightly red as he strode over with the other executives while pretending to discuss something, wearing as serious an expression as he could as he did.
“Old Ha!” Yang Kai shouted again as they approached.
“Little brother…” Ha Li Ka said with a slightly unhappy look, “Even though these old fogies call me Old Ha, it’s not quite appropriate or polite for you to address me so. Although I don’t mind personally, if outsiders were to hear about this it wouldn’t be good.”
“Lady Xue’er asked me to get her some cultivation materials from the branch’s storeroom,” Yang Kai ignored his protest.
“Lady Xue’er made such a request?” Ha Li Ka was startled but without asking much, he turned to Yang Kai and said, “Come with me, there are many good things in the storeroom, I don’t know if they can enter Lady Xue’er’s eyes though.”
“Lady Xue’er isn’t too particular,” Yang Kai scratched his cheek.
No matter what, he would be leaving in three days. This time he had nearly lost his life in order to wake up Xue Yue, and he couldn’t remain on Rainfall Star for long, so he decided to fish for some advantages before departing.
Especially Saint Crystals, Yang Kai had exhausted his current supply.
As such, he decided to borrow Xue Yue’s name, by the time she found out about it, he would already be long gone.
In front of the storeroom, Ha Li Ka and Lin Mu Feng each took out a key and together opened the heavy door.
Old Ha was a clear cut and decisive person, so standing at the door to the storeroom, he simply said, “Go in and see for yourself, don’t hesitate to take anything you need, we’ll wait here.”
Yang Kai nodded and casually strode into the storeroom.
A moment later, bright colourful lights flashed in front of Yang Kai, making it difficult for him to even open his eyes.
This was the treasury of Rainfall Star’s Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce branch, the wealth stored inside was astonishing. Rows upon rows of shelves filled with cultivation materials, artifacts, and pills along with ores of each of the five elements and even Space Spirit Crystals used to manufacture Space Rings were carefully placed inside.
As he looked at the assortment of treasures before him, Yang Kai walked straight ahead to a pile of Saint Crystals.
The Saint Crystals here were piled up into small hills of Low-Rank, Mid-Rank, and High-Rank…
Yang Kai went straight up to the pile of High-Rank Saint Crystals and collected fifty thousand of them before stopping, this would be enough for him to use for quite some time. After spending this long in the Star Field, Yang Kai had gained a rough idea about the value of Saint Crystals.
Fifty thousand pieces of High-Rank Saint Crystal was enough to purchase an Origin Grade High-Rank artifact!
After storing away these Saint Crystals, Yang Kai next went to the place where herbs were placed.
Yang Kai already possessed a lot of Origin Grade and Origin King Grade herbs, but he had no way to use them yet as his Alchemy proficiency wasn’t high enough.
On the other hand, he was lacking Saint King Grade herbs which corresponded to his current level. Yang Kai could current refine Saint King Grade Mid-Rank pills fairly easily and with some effort, he could even refine some High-Rank pills.
As such, he collected as many Saint King Grade herbs as possible to help him promote his Alchemy level in the future.
Yang Kai hadn’t gone too far in his pillage, only caring about a few good things while leaving most the wealth here behind so as not to create a life or death enmity.
Yang Kai packed up enough Saint King Grade herbs to fill a single space ring before stopping.
The five-element ores were also essential as the two pitch-black round stones inside the Black Book space were like bottomless pits. The ores he had purchased back on Water Moon Star last time had already been consumed by these two stone so now was the right time to add some more.
Worthy of the treasury of a Heng Lou Chamber of Commerce branch, the grade and amount of ores stored here were quite good, allowing Yang Kai to easily fill up a ring before moving on.
When he arrived at the area where artifacts were stored, Yang Kai was filled with anticipation.
He hoped to find a couple of artifacts here, preferably for defence; as for offensive type artifacts, Yang Kai wasn’t as interested. Compared to these external boosts, he preferred to concentrate on enhancing his own strength.
However, defensive items were a different matter, the more such artifacts he could possess, the better, as in critical moments they could save his life.
After browsing around though, Yang Kai wound up disappointed.
There were indeed a lot of artifacts here, but none of them were able to catch his attention.
The best artifact stored inside the storehouse was a Saint King Grade High-Rank halberd.
Yang Kai has never been interested in such a bulky weapon. Only those men with excess muscles everywhere, including in their heads, would use such an artifact to show off their might. Taking such an artifact would be useless to Yang Kai and would also waste a lot of his time to refine.
Looking around for a while longer but turning up empty-handed, Yang Kai left the storehouse.
Ha Li Ka and Lin Mu Feng, who had been waiting outside, saw Yang Kai walk out but didn’t ask him what had taken much less inspect his haul, instead just nodding to him before closing the treasury’s doors.
They were also counting on Lady Xue’er to put in a good word for them when the representatives from the Home Star arrived, allowing them to escape punishment. So naturally, now that Lady Xue’er wanted something from their treasury, they were more than happy to open the doors wide for her.
Yang Kai, on the other hand, couldn’t help worrying about Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce a bit, thinking that if every branch president was as irresponsible as Old Ha, wouldn’t the Chamber of Commerce soon go broke?
Inside Zong Ao’s room, Yang Kai poured a glass of wine for the old man with a respectful expression.
The old man accepted the glass without the slightest politeness or hesitation.
After lifting the glass and taking a sip, Zong Ao grinned widely and said, “If you have something to say, just say it, as long as you’re not after this old master’s treasures of course.”
Yang Kai smiled back, “I didn’t have such intentions, Old Zong is thinking too much. This Junior just came to say goodbye to Senior. En, during this time, I’ve received much care from Senior, which I am very grateful for.”
Whether Zong Ao was a good person or not, or whether he had harboured murderous intent to him or not, these days Yang Kai had really been taken care of well by Zong Ao. Without his guidance, Yang Kai wouldn’t have had any idea about how to save Xue Yue or how to awaken her Soul Avatar.
Although Zong Ao had also gained much from Yang Kai, there was nothing wrong with a Junior paying his respects to an old Senior.
“Say goodbye?” Zong Ao was stunned, “Are you leaving?”
“Good, I’ll be leaving in two days!” Yang Kai nodded.
Zong Ao wore a strange expression as he asked, “Are you afraid that Xue Yue Third Young Master will come seeking trouble with you? En, you should leave, if someone from Water Moon Star wants to seek trouble with you, you’ll definitely die.”
He still believed Yang Kai didn’t fear the Heavens and had dared to covet touch Xue Yue’s woman.
Yang Kai, of course, didn’t bother to explain, allowing the old man to think what he liked.
“Kid, have you considered following this old master?” Zong Ao suddenly proposed, “It’s just a woman, and since Xue Yue is the son of President Ai Ou, I don’t think he’ll fail to see the bigger picture. As long as you follow this old master, when the time comes, I should be able to make big things small, and small things nothing. Otherwise, how is a cultivator at the Third Order Saint Realm supposed to escape pursuit from the Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce? I’m afraid the Star Field isn’t vast enough for you to hide in.”
[Why does everyone want me to follow them?] Yang Kai complained in his heart while maintaining a calm look on his face. He knew that Old Zong was making this proposal because he fancied his Alchemy aptitude, so Yang Kai simply shook his head and said, “I appreciate Old Zong’s intentions, but this Junior is still determined to leave.”
Zong Ao nodded lightly, “Since that’s the case, this old master won’t insist. Good, I’ve got some things here for you. I noticed that despite your excellent Alchemy aptitude you’ve never received any kind of systematic instruction in the field so you probably aren’t aware of the uses of various high-grade herbs and pills. These should be of use to you.”
Saying so, he took out a big stack of ancient books from his Space Ring.
Yang Kai’s eyes lit up and didn’t stand on ceremony, quickly sweeping all these texts into his own space ring.
Yang Kai was familiar with many of these ancient books as he had browsed through some of them in Zong Ao’s palace. Some were written by Zong Ao himself while others had apparently been collected by him over the years. These books gave descriptions of the medicinal properties, grades, and growth environments of various herbs in the Star Field.
As long as he could thoroughly digest the content inside, Yang Kai’s could smoothly adapt to the Star Field’s Alchemy standards and would no longer encounter herbs he couldn’t identify.
Not having a chance to finish browsing through these books was one of Yang Kai’s regrets about having to leave Rainfall Star in such a rush as he had no idea when such a good opportunity would appear again, but now Zong Ao had taken the initiative to deliver these books to him.
Yang Kai was naturally quite grateful.
“Kid, tell this old master, where did you learn Alchemy? The Spirit Arrays you use is a bit different from the ones that are popularized in the Star Field. Although they seem to share the same source, there are still many subtle differences,” Zong Ao asked curiously.
“Old Zong, the place where I come from is a lower world, where the strongest cultivators are only Third Order Saints, the same as my current cultivation. The best Alchemists are also only Saint Grade High-Rank standard. Spirit grasses, spirit medicines, artifacts, and even raw materials are all capped at this grade, that’s why I don’t know much about materials above Saint Grade…” Yang Kai no longer concealed anything and freely chatted with Zong Ao while sharing a drink.
Zong Ao was startled again and again as he listened to Yang Kai’s story, thinking more and more he wasn’t simple.
A Junior from a lower world actually was actually able to obtain such achievements in Alchemy and even provide the inspiration required for Zong Ao to solve the problem which had troubled him for hundreds of years, allowing him to now achieve a ten percent chance at refining pills that formed Pill Veins.
What kind of achievements would this kid have made if he had instead been born on one of the best Cultivation Stars in the Star Field? Thinking about all this, Zong Ao became even more congenial as he spoke with Yang Kai.
After three rounds of drinking, Yang Kai got up to leave and Zong Ao didn’t try to retain him, only telling him that the method of generating Pill Veins would not leak from his lips without Yang Kai’s permission.
Yang Kai waved his hand lightly and said nothing.
Whether it was Artifact Refiners or Alchemists, or even cultivators, they were a not the sharing type who would freely expose the details of their Martial Skills and skills; instead, they would treat these things as their greatest secrets and only pass them on to their own people, outsiders wanting to spy on these things was impossible and attempts to do so often led to life or death conflicts.
Zong Ao being able to learn the method of generating Pill Veins from Yang Kai had already made him very satisfied, naturally, he wouldn’t now go about publicizing it.
After two more uneventful days, Zong Ao moved back to his mountain valley saying he was going to re-cultivate his vast Medicine Gardens. In any case, his cultivation wasn’t low and he had plenty of years left to live, more than enough to grow a new batch of mature herbs.
Xue Yue and Yang Kai both also stayed in their own rooms these two days.
Ha Li Ka and Lin Mu Feng sensed that the atmosphere wasn’t right and busied themselves with their own affairs while waiting for someone from the Home Star to arrive and deal with things here.
Two days later, Yang Kai came to Xue Yue’s room and without saying anything walked inside directly.
There seemed to be a chill lingering in the room. Xue Yue was sitting at the same table as before, looking stoic. When she saw Yang Kai come in, she only shot him a faint glance.
Yang Kai clearly understood that Xue Yue felt a deep resentment in her heart and it was obvious that her attitude was different from a few days ago, there was a cold aura now surrounding her tender body.
Yang Kai braced himself and sat down in front of her.
“Drink this first!” Xue Yue poured a glass of wine and placed it in front of Yang Kai.
“Is it poisoned?” Yang Kai shot her a look of distrust.
“What benefit would poisoning you bring me?” Xue Yue stared at him coldly.
Yang Kai looked at the clear liquor in the cup before shaking his head, “Forget it, I didn’t come here to drink wine, let’s finish our business.”
He was sure there was something wrong with this wine. Based on what he knew about Xue Yue, it was absolutely impossible she would give up so easily. Yang Kai was prepared to not leave her any face and bicker to the end.
Seeing him act with such vigilance, Xue Yue smiled sarcastically, took the wine glass and drank it before slamming it back down in front of him, seemingly wanting to demonstrate that he was thinking too much.
“Have you thought things through?”
“Have you thoughts things through?” Xue Yue returned his words.
“Don’t play games with me, doing so is meaningless, I gave you my answer three days ago.”
“Is there really no room to negotiate?” Xue Yue still didn’t give up.
“No,” Yang Kai shook his head slowly.
Xue Yue grit her teeth and said, “Yes, you’re right, forcefully picked melon is not sweet, you and I are now tied together by the Soul Chains and if I were to really force you to stay, if one day you decide to commit suicide, I’d be buried along with you, I can’t allow that to happen. Since you insist on leaving, then we’ll have to unlock the Soul Chains then neither of us will have anything to do with the other.”
“It’s good that you understand,” Yang Kai was overjoyed.
“Don’t look so happy,” Xue Yue got up, walked over stood behind Yang Kai from a moment before saying, “The reason why I’m so willing to be entangled with you is definitely related to the Soul Chains, but you’re also right that a big part of it stems from my womanly heart. From the age of three until now, the only person I’ve ever been able to truly let my defences down around is you. These days have been the happiest of my life. Old Zong also told me that in order to wake me, you nearly lost your life, and although I don’t know all the details, since Old Zong went so far, he shouldn’t be lying. I need to thank you for that because no one has ever worked so hard for me as a woman. It’s the first time anyone has shown care for me in this form.”
Yang Kai brow wrinkled, secretly raising his vigilance.
The more Xue Yue talked like this, the more he felt crisis closing in on him. For a woman like her, once she revealed what was concealed in the depths of her heart yet didn’t receive the response she wanted, the consequences would be dreadful.
“Once we untie the Soul Chains, without that layer of entanglement, I don’t know what I will do, but most likely my first instinct will be to butcher you!” Xue Yue leaned over behind Yang Kai, her hands resting on his shoulders as she sighed.
“I’m prepared for that, rest assured, I’ll definitely run far away, so far you won’t ever be able to find me,” Yang Kai nodded.
“Your strength is too low, if I really want to find you, it doesn’t matter how far you run or where you hide!” Xue Yue still breathed hot breath next to Yang Kai’s ear, her cold tone slowly showing signs of melting as she softly whispered, “Is a woman like me really not enough to keep you?”
Yang Kai didn’t say anything, but somehow a sense of sadness filled his heart.
“You’re really cruel and heartless!” Xue Yue clenched her jaw and muttered.
The next moment, Yang Kai felt a sharp pain on his neck and drops of warm liquid drip down on his skin.
He couldn’t help wanting to turn around and comfort her but he somehow resisted.
After a long time, Xue Yue released Yang Kai, her delicate mouth filled with golden blood. After swallowing this blood down she once again grit her teeth and declared, “Drinking your blood today is compensation for all the disrespectful acts you’ve done to me. If you ever let me see you again in the future, I’ll peel your skin and eat your meat, don’t doubt me, I’ll live up to my words! Go and never show yourself before me again, because if you do, I don’t know I will do.”
Saying so, turned her back to Yang Kai, her shoulders trembling, the tone of her voice rising in pitch.
Yang Kai sighed softly, stood up, opened his mouth, but still didn’t know what to say.
Listening to the footsteps of Yang Kai’s departure, Xue Yue’s beautiful eyes burst into tears that seemed to flow without end.
She knew that she would never have a chance to live like this again, and that starting today she would have to resume her role as Xue Yue Third Young Master.
A Star Shuttle shot up into the sky like a bolt of lightning, quickly dashing towards the Starry Sky.
After an hour, Yang Kai stopped and stood amidst the stars, overlooking the colourful Rainfall Star.
In the next instant, an indistinct shackle which was tying down his Soul loosened and Yang Kai couldn’t help feeling as if he had suddenly become free. At the same time, a questioning voice seemingly sounded in the ear.
Yang Kai responded affirmatively.
Then, with a loud bang, the invisible shackles on his Soul suddenly shattered and all the sorrow and anxiety he felt for leaving Xue Yue disappeared, allowing Yang Kai’s mood to completely clear up.
Prior to this, Yang Kai wasn’t quite sure how much the Soul Chains were affecting him, but when they were finally unlocked, he was able to realize the profoundness of this Soul Skill.
It could not only link the lives of two people, but it was also capable of producing warm intentions between them for no reason, making them reluctant to leave one another.
Yang Kai couldn’t help wondering about what would have been the case if it wasn’t Xue Yue who had used the Soul Chains but instead it was an old man or woman with their neck half-buried in the grave.
Would he have also felt a deep sense of affection for them?
Thinking about such a possibility, Yang Kai suddenly shivered.
But now that the Soul Chains had been completely lifted by the two side’s mutual agreement, those illusionary feelings had also disappeared and now, besides some slight regret, Yang Kai no longer felt loathed to part with her.
Regardless of appearance, identity, or cultivation, Xue Yue was an outstanding woman, and any man who missed a chance to be with her would certainly feel a sense of regret.
The moment the Soul Chains were unlocked, Yang Kai reached out and tore space, escaping a thousand kilometers away.
Xue Yue had told him upfront that once she was free from the constraints of the Soul Chains, she didn’t know how she would react. Yang Kai could only assume she would act ruthlessly against him.
He knew too many of her secrets and had taken advantage of her so much that with her vicious temperament, it would be strange if she just let him leave safely.
That’s why Yang Kai first left Rainfall Star on his Star Shuttle and only unlocked the Soul Chains with Xue Yue at the furthest distance possible, it was all in order to give himself a head start in escaping in case Xue Yue turned on him on the spot.
After tearing space ten times in succession, travelling ten thousand kilometres in a blink of an eye, Yang Kai threw a Spiritual Energy restoring pill into his mouth while urging his Star Shuttle forward to continue his escape.
He could clearly feel a murderous intent behind him, like a shadow following him.
Ten days later, somewhere amidst the vast Star Field, Yang Kai sat cross-legged atop his Star Shuttle as it flew forward.
The Star Shuttle had been imprinted with a Star Chart Yang Kai made personally and was moving towards a distant location. Rainfall Star had long ago disappeared and when he looked back he could only see indistinct flickering stars.
After flying for more than ten days without any pursuing troops catching up, Yang Kai felt he should be safe, otherwise with the resources at Xue Yue’s disposal, she would have caught up to him long ago.
He had even come up with a number of contingency plans, the last of which was to simply hide in The Void, denying Xue Yue any opportunity to catch him.
Just as he felt relieved though, Yang Kai faintly felt a set of life auras enter the range of his Divine Sense.
Using thin Divine Sense threads joined together with his comprehension of the Dao of Space, Yang Kai was quickly able to analyse the strength of these people before they could possibly be aware of him.
Three people, all of them First Order Saint Kings, each one traveling on their own Star Shuttle and moving quickly in his direction. Yang Kai could also tell that they had been flying through the Star Field for quite some time, with each of them having expended a great deal of energy.
Had they come chasing him on Xue Yue’s orders? Or did they just happen to be passing through? Yang Kai couldn’t judge, choosing to hide his aura and change direction; regardless of this group’s intent, Yang Kai first planned to avoid them in order to not stir up trouble.
But to his surprise, after changing directions several times in succession, the three pursing him continued to follow flies drawn to honey, closing the distance between them with each passing moment.
If Yang Kai hadn’t figured out what the purpose of these three people was by now, he would have lived his life in vain.
These three people were definitely a pursuit force sent out by Xue Yue, otherwise their goal wouldn’t have been so obvious.
Sitting on his Star Shuttle, Yang Kai squinted towards the rear, not continuing to flee.
What did Xue Yue mean with this action? Did she want these three First Order Saint Kings to bring him back?
She was well aware of his strength. Back on Water Moon Star, at just the Second Order Saint’ Realm he had managed to kill a cultivator at the First Order Saint King Realm, so now that he had reached the Third Order Saint, how could three First Order Saint Kings possibly be enough to capture him?
Xue Yue had far stronger subordinates she could have sent out. Ha Li Ka and Lin Mu Feng were Origin Returning Realm masters and the branch was not lacking Secord or Third Order Saint Kings. As long as she issued an order, Ha Li Ka himself would have no choice but to set out.
But she had only sent out three First Order Saint Kings!
Was she using the lives of these three people to make a clean break with him, to show the depths of her thoughts and her determination?
Such an act fit perfectly with her temperament, and knowing her intentions, Yang Kai grinned fiercely.
This was also good, Xue Yue’s approach had allowed the last trace of regret in his heart disappear.
If they were to meet again in the future, Yang Kai believed that Xue Yue would definitely try to kill him, no longer displaying the same dangerous yet enchanting attitude he had come to know.
However, Yang Kai had made up his mind to never get involved with this woman again and didn’t plan on having any interaction with her in the future.
Yang Kai sat in place and observed as his three pursuers swept the area around themselves with their Divine Senses, clearly not aware of his position yet.
Only after they closed to within a certain distance did the three people’s mood suddenly jump, as if they had just found a profound treasure, swiftly taking back their Divine Senses after discovering Yang Kai; and flew towards him.
Seeing these three idiots standing not far away from him after setting up a triangular formation around him, each of their faces wearing an aggrieved and angry expression, Yang Kai knew they must have been had been sent here by Xue Yue against their will.
Since Xue Yue sent them here to die, they must have somehow offended or upset her.
Yang Kai wasn’t familiar with them and had never even seen them before, so there was no psychological burden on him when it came to killing them.
“Little brat, daring to covet Xue Yue Third Young Masters woman, you’re not lacking courage I’ll give you that! Although that woman is useless except for being a bit more beautiful and greatly annoys this master, when all is said and done she’s not someone who can ever be yours. Good, we brothers have been ordered to bring you back alive, obediently surrender and we’ll make you suffer less, if you disobey us we’ll break your hands and feet then beat you half-dead before dragging you back!” The big man to his left shouted.
“Fuck, father here has lived for so many years yet never had to experience flying so far through the Starry Sky on a flimsy Star Shuttle. This time I’ve suffered greatly due to that woman. Little brat, how do you plan on compensating me?” A young looking man to his right snapped at Yang Kai with an unpleasant look, his eyes filled with anger, apparently blaming Yang Kai for all of his suffering.
Flying through the Star Shuttle on a Starry Sky was by no means a pleasant experience, usually, cultivators would take Starships from one Cultivation Star to another and only occasionally perform some scouting missions via Star Shuttle, but these missions would only last three or five days at most.
But this time, they had chased Yang Kai down for a full ten days, causing all three of these cultivators to feel extremely exhausted even after refining a great deal of Saint Crystals.
Naturally they intended to make up for these losses by robbing Yang Kai.
“Heh heh, that woman only asked us to bring this brat back, she didn’t say anything about the things on him. I heard that he tricked Ha Li Ka using that woman’s name to get him and Sir Lin Mu Feng to open the branch’s storeroom and take a lot of good things from it including tens of thousands of High-Rank Saint Crystals!” The last man said greedily.
“Really?” The big man and the young man’s eyes both fixed on the Space Ring on Yang Kai’s fingers, their eyes burning with greed.
Tens of thousands of Saint Crystals was a massive amount of wealth, enough to temp all three of these three.
“That’s right, I took fifty thousand pieces of Saint Crystals,” Yang Kai chuckled, holding up the ring on his hand as he continued, “They’re all in this ring, en, I also took a number of Saint King Grade herbs and ores. The value of those things isn’t low either, probably at least a hundred thousand Saint Crystals.”
Listening to Yang Kai, no matter which of the three men it was, they couldn’t help feeling their breathing speed up a bit as greed and coveting filled their gazes.
“Little brat, hand over that ring and I promise not to hurt you, of course that’s only as long as cooperate with us!” The big man extended his hand to Yang Kai with a big grin.
“You want this? Then first answer a question for me,” Yang Kai smiled.
“If you have something to ask just ask so we can hurry back, I don’t want to remain here a moment longer than necessary,” The big man said impatiently. It wasn’t just inconvenient to travel the Starry Sky by Star Shuttle, it was dangerous. Not only would one need to consume their own strength constantly, if a sudden Starry Sky Storm or fast-moving asteroid were to hit them, their lives might be in danger.
If it wasn’t under the threat of that woman, who would be willing to accept such a task? Even Ha Li Ka had been somewhat irritated by that annoying woman.
Seeing Yang Kai intend to cooperate, the big man quickly urged him.
“How did you find me? It’s not that I’m looking down on your three, but the three of you don’t seem to have such great skill that you’d be able to accurately follow me for so long,” Yang Kai asked curiously.
The three looked at each other and laughed.
The big man didn’t try to conceal it, waving his hand and taking out a colourful ribbon. When this ribbon appeared, as if it was pulled by some invisible force, it flew directly towards Yang Kai.
Yang Kai’s expression changed slightly as he reached out and grabbed the ribbon.
On this ribbon, he could faintly smell Xue Yue’s fragrance.
“You were relying on this?” Yang Kai frowned, “What is it?”
“If you ask father, who is father supposed to ask?” The big man grinned, “Before leaving, that woman handed it to me and said that by following its guidance we’d be able to find you, so we followed it all this way and sure enough we’ve now caught you.”
Yang Kai stared at this man deeply and felt that he wasn’t lying or trying to deceive him.
Looking at the ribbon again, Yang Kai suddenly understood something and ground his teeth, “That cheap slut!”
At this moment, he suddenly understood where the problem was. That woman’s plans were worthy of admiration, a simple conversation before he left was enough for her to set up this scheme.
The drink prepared by Xue Yue at that time was nothing but a distraction, there really wasn’t any kind of drug in it and was only meant to draw him into a false sense of security after he refused it. All along her real intention was to bite his neck while she shed tears of anger and bitterness.
When she bit him, she definitely left behind some kind of mark on him, otherwise how could she possible determine his position with a mere ribbon?
Having figured out what method these three had been relying on to track him, Yang Kai relaxed.
As long as he knew how they were doing it, it wasn’t a difficult problem to resolve.
Yang Kai stowed the colourful ribbon into his Space Ring before turning an indifferent look towards the three men.
Since Xue Yue had made her position and attitude clear, what he had to do now was provide an appropriate response.
Seemingly having noticed the murderous intent in Yang Kai’s eyes, with a loud shout, the big man on the left suddenly pushed his strength and did not hesitate to take action.
The other two didn’t do anything, simply crossing their arms in front of their chests as they prepared to watch the show, hoping to admire the miserable look on Yang Kai’s face after he was captured.
In their opinion, Yang Kai was just a Third Order Saint, so no matter which of them made a move, it would be easy for that one person to capture him.
A mountain-like momentum exploded from the body of the big man on the left, submerging a large area of the Starry Sky in a strange pressure which seemed to squeeze Yang Kai from all directions, causing the latter’s bones to let out a crackling sound as if they were being crushed and broken.
The big man sneered as he flickered to appear behind Yang Kai. In the next instant, this man grew into a hundred-meter tall giant that lifted up one of its enormous feet, covered it in a brown energy halo, and stepped down towards Yang Kai.
A soul extinguishing pressure burst from the giant’s eyes and flew straight towards Yang Kai’s Knowledge Sea.
When he noticed that his attacker was actually using a Soul Skill against him, Yang Kai couldn’t help grinning and simply stood his ground calmly, waiting for the Soul Skill to reach him.
If his opponent had used a physical attack, Yang Kai may have needed to spend some effort to deal with it, but since this big man had chosen to use a Soul Skill, Yang Kai had nothing to worry about.
Yang Kai’s Soul strength was far greater than his cultivation, at least on the same level as a Second Order Saint King’s, and with the added effects of his Conflagrated Knowledge Sea, even if he was facing the Soul Skill of a Third Order Saint King, he wouldn’t lose.
This big man was only a First Order Saint King and was thinking he could easily bully Yang Kai, taking him in a single move, but how could he have known how strange Yang Kai’s strength really was?
Waves of Spiritual Energy Soul overlapped to form a potent strike that the big man sent hurtling into Yang Kai’s Knowledge Sea, but before this Soul Skill could play any role, it was met with a burning hot force and instantly incinerated.
The smug expression the big man’s face completely changed and his giant body shrivelled back down to normal size as his pupils shrank to the size of a needle tip, his complexion paling greatly.
The overwhelmingly powerful Conflagrated Spiritual Energy inside Yang Kai’s Knowledge Sea had caused him to suffer a big loss. His Divine Sense had been immediately damaged and pain so great he felt as if his head was splitting apart assailed him in the next instant.
At the same time, the big man’s pitiful screams rang out, a black spear of Demonic Flame appearing in Yang Kai’s hand and was thrown out before anyone could react.
*Xiu…*
A whooshing sound resounded.
Perceiving the approaching crisis, the big man forcefully circulated his strength and summoned out a Saint King Grade Mid-Rank defensive artifact.
This artifact was shaped like an umbrella and span slowly in front of the big man in order to deflect incoming attacks. The big man had relied on this umbrella artifact to save himself from a number of what would have been fatal injuries in the past.
He believed that this time would be no exception, and as long as he could block this spear, he would be able to survive while his two companions who have not moved took action to assist him!
The umbrella-like artifact however failed to live up to the big man’s expectations and before he could tell how, the Demonic Flame spear disappeared and strangely reappeared just one meter away from him.
The spear had leapt across space, bypassing the big man’s defences entirely, appearing from The Void right in front of the big man, causing him to let out a cry of horror as it easily penetrated his stone-like body.
A burning hot yet simultaneously freezing cold strength spread out from the spear as the black Demonic Flames burned down his body, the contradictory waves of heat and chill making it impossible for the big man to mount any kind of defence. No matter how he pushed his own strength, he was unable to extinguish the Demonic Flames eating away at his body, instead only making things worse as the black flames seemed capable of burning everything it was fed, whether it was his clothing, his flesh and blood, or even his Saint Qi, all of it was just fuel to the Demonic Flames.
The big man was soon completely engulfed and turned into a black fireball, his mournful screams echoing across the Starry Sky as he flew this way and that like a headless fly, quickly disappearing from sight.
The other two men, who had been assuming relaxed postures, expecting to just spectate for fun, now wore extremely solemn expressions as a deep sense of shock, fear, and horror-filled their hearts.
Fighting and defeating opponents at a higher rank than one’s own was not a foreign concept to them. As cultivators of a Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce branch, basically each of them had their own unique skills and abilities, allowing them to fight ordinary cultivators who stood a Minor Realm above their own.
But what they had just witnessed was something entirely different, a boy killing an opponent with higher cultivation than his own in the blink of an eye was something neither of these two men had ever even imagined, yet now this absurd situation had actually happened right in front of their eyes.
The two men immediately realized how horrifying Yang Kai’s combat strength was and understood that this time they had taken on an incredibly dangerous mission.
Without any kind of discussion or eye contact, the two remaining men shot towards Yang Kai at the same time, not daring to hold back any of the strength, only wishing to defeat this strange boy as swiftly as possible.
A big drum-like artifact was summoned out by one of them and while he rushed towards Yang Kai, he beat this drum with the stick in his hand.
*Dong…*
A deep and resonant sound rang out, one that seemed capable of shaking the Star Field itself, and with this sound came a heavy murderous intent that flushed towards Yang Kai.
Yang Kai opened his left hand and condensed a Grand Heavenly Shield just before this invisible attack hit him. When the Grand Heavenly shield was struck by this potent strike, its surface sank inwards and nearly broke.
The other attacking man summoned out a long sword and stabbed it forward, releasing a ray of light that along with the invisible attack from the big drum slammed towards Yang Kai.
The Grand Heavenly Shield broke after less than three breaths.
Anyone who had reached the Saint King Realm was no pushover, each of them had experienced countless life or death battles and spent countless hours cultivating to obtain their current strength.
Facing the joint attack from these two, Yang Kai didn’t dare to act carelessly.
Demonic Flames burst from his body and soon a Black Dragon from behind Yang Kai’s back. With a deafening dragon roar, this Black Dragon shook its head and swung his tail, its giant house sized eyes locking onto the two attackers who flew towards Yang Kai.
Yang Kai stepped onto the dragon’s head, and as he spread out his vast Spiritual Energy towards the two men in front of him, he constantly pushed his Saint Qi to condense and display various Nine Heavens Divine Skills along with his comprehension of the Dao of Space. Profound Heavenly Sword, Heaven Punishing Spear, Heaven Covering Hand, each strike Yang Kai sent out leapt across space, suddenly appearing and disappearing, quickly suppressing the two attackers.
As his strength had grown, Yang Kai had come to realize an important truth, there was no strict division between Martial Skills.
When one’s cultivation and understanding of their own of strength reached a high enough level, even supposedly Low-Grade Martial Skills could display astonishing power.
Artifacts were different, Low-Grade artifacts were just Low-Grade artifacts, no matter how one used them, they could never become High-Grade artifacts or be used in high-level battles.
However, Martial Skills were simply an application of one’s strength, and as long as one reached a high enough cultivation, they no longer needed to even use Martial Skills as they apply their own strength to respond appropriate during the course of a battle.
Martial Skills were developed to assist cultivators who had just stepped onto the Martial Dao so they could begin to comprehend how to use their strength.
So although after coming to the Star Field, the artifacts and herbs Yang Kai had brought from Tong Xuan Realm were of little use, with the exception of supreme treasures like the Soul Warming Lotus and Demon Eye of Annihilation, he could still use his Martial Skills freely.
The Black Dragon’s body exuded a terrifying aura, nearly causing the courage of the two Saint King Realm cultivators to break as both of them used their full strength to attack yet failed to cause any harm to Yang Kai.
As it overlooked them, the Black Dragon sent a mountain-like pressure towards the two attacks, greatly impeding their movements.
The huge dragon’s maw suddenly opened and engulfed one of the men, swallowing one of them into its form before biting into the other man’s body. Although it failed to tear this man in two, the dark Demonic Flame spread directly to him and no matter how this man tried to extinguish them, he failed and soon followed in the footsteps of the first big man.
The screams of pain gradually diminished and eventually, silence reigned.
The Black Dragon dissipated and the residual Demonic Flames were quickly taken back into Yang Kai’s body.
Amidst the vast Starry Sky, only two burnt corpses remained.
Yang Kai stood in place for a while but unlike normal, he was unable to absorb the remnant Spiritual Energy from these three.
Helplessly shaking his head, Yang Kai knew that the Souls of these people should have been completely extinguished by the Demonic Flame.
Not thinking it was something worth regretting though, Yang Kai simply glanced in the direction of Rainfall Star before summoning his Star Shuttle once more and flying off.
Back on Rainfall Star, in the main palace of the Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce branch.
Xue Yue, wearing a stunning red dress, closed her eyes and sat upon her chair, motionless.
Ha Li Ka, Lin Mu Feng, and the middle-aged woman all stood by, glancing around at each other from time to time, but none of them daring to speak.
The atmosphere in the hall was stifling.
They didn’t know what had transpired for Xue Yue to actually send three First Order Saint Kings to chase after Yang Kai.
Yang Kai had worked hard to awaken Xue Yue for nearly a year, and Ha Li Ka and the other executives who had witnessed the entire incident really couldn’t figure out how this pair of master and servant had turned into enemies.
Could it be that this little brat had thoughtlessly taken advantage of this lady then abandoned her? Ha Li Ka and the others couldn’t help thinking.
Old Zong, on the other hand, didn’t pay any attention to this incident.
The three branch executives felt incredibly awkward.
Just as he was mulling over his suspicions again, Ha Li Ka’s complexion suddenly changed and he took out a wooden token from his Space Ring, carefully stared at it for a moment, then cupped his fists and said, “Lady Xue’er, Hei Ying’s team of three have all… died!”
Xue Yue’s beautiful eyes opened slowly, not showing any trace of surprise, her slightly furrowed brow relaxing, as if she had put down some kind of great worry, allowing her to exhale a long breath.
After learning of the death of the three men sent out, Xue Yue said nothing and instead just stood up and walked towards her room.
“Lady Xue’er!” Ha Li Ka stepped forward and called out.
Xue Yue paused and looked back at him coldly.
Ha Li Ka couldn’t help feeling a sense of panic when those beautiful star-like eyes fixed on him, gulping to himself quietly.
He couldn’t understand why, but he felt as if it was Xue Yue Third Young Master staring at him in that moment.
Ha Li Ka, as the President of the Rainfall Star branch, had naturally met Xue Yue Third Young Master and experienced his ruthless methods. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say he was quite familiar with this look; it was clearly the one Xue Yue Third Young Master wore when he was displeased.
He couldn’t understand why two completely different people who were even of different genders had the exact same eyes, but pushing down his fear, Ha Li Ka quickly said, “Lady Xue’er, were Hei Ying and his team killed by Little Brother Yang?”
“Yes!” Xue Yue nodded slightly.
Ha Li Ka, Lin Mu Feng, and the middle-aged woman all paled.
“How could that be? Little Brother Yang is only a Third Order Saint. Even if he is capable of fighting above his realm, dealing with one person should be his limit, how could he defeat three stronger opponents all at once?” Lin Mu Feng shook his head repeated, seemingly unable to believe Xue Yue’s words.
That was three Saint Kings, not three Saints, such a result was simply impossible.
“Then how do you think they died?” Xue Yue turned to look Lin Mu Feng lightly, the latter immediately not knowing how to respond.
Ha Li Ka instead, after watching the situation carefully, asked hesitantly, “Lady Xue’er, why is it that after hearing that Hei Ying and his team died you seem happy?”
“Do I?” Xue Yue asked faintly.
Ha Li Ka shook his head and didn’t dwell on the issue. Hei Ying and his team dying were because their strength wasn’t high enough, so there was nothing to complain about. After thinking about it for a moment, Ha Li Ka asked, “Lady Xue’er, that Yang Kai was your guard, but he has now killed three members of my branch. How should I process this matter?”
“What else is there to do? He’s not my guard anymore, en, if you see him later, capture him alive for me, I want him to taste the most exquisite torture this world has to offer!” Xue Yue commanded, her voice seemingly filled with the coldest malice from the depths of purgatory. Finished with what she had to say, she waved her hand and slowly walked off.
The three executives left in the hall all stared at each other in blank dismay.
“Lady Xue’er seems to have put down something which was burdening her,” The middle-aged woman spoke thoughtfully.
“I don’t quite understand, how did those two go from being perfectly fine together a few days ago to bitter enemies in the blink of an eye?” Ha Li Ka was confused.
“The matters of youth… En, never mind, we shouldn’t get involved, since Lady Xue’er has made her stance clear, we can only follow her will. It’s a pity, that boy has such terrifying strength, if we had been able to understand that earlier, we might have been able to keep him here to cultivate.”
Ha Li Ka nodded a few times, also feeling it was a shame. A Third Order Saint Realm cultivator being able to kill three Saint Kings, such aptitude and strength was incredibly rare even taking the entire Star Field into consideration.
However, if they were to meet again the future now, the three of them could only follow Lady Xue’er’s instructions to capture him alive.
…..
Amidst the endless expanse of the Starry Sky, the only light came from the distant twinkling stars.
Yang Kai had been wandering through the Star Field now for six months.
Since leaving Rainfall Star, he had been heading towards another Cultivation Star. The massive Star Chart above his Knowledge Sea provided him with many conveniences, and at minimum, he knew where his goal was and that he wouldn’t get lost in the Starry Sky.
For others, it was likely that after six months flying through the Starry Sky aboard a Star Shuttle they would be hopelessly lost.
But Yang Kai, who had the massive Star Chart at his disposal, didn’t need to worry about that.
The distance between one Cultivation Star and another varied greatly. Some were close together and could be travelled between by Star Shuttle in less than a month or two while others were extremely remote and even by Starship, the journey could take years.
Yang Kai’s destination was relatively far away, and although he had been travelling for six months already, according to his estimations, it would still be another three months before he arrived.
This was the sorrow of poverty, if one was unable to purchase a Starship and a crew to operate it, they had no choice but to rely on Star Shuttles to traverse the Starry Sky, an act that consumed a massive amount of time.
Fortunately, Yang Kai had found ways to not waste this time.
The Heavenly Spirit Ghost Orchid was helping Yang Kai draw in the surrounding World Energy at all times, but as there was very little World Energy in the Starry Sky so it couldn’t play much of a role.
Yang Kai had been depending on High-Rank Saint Crystals during this time to restore himself and cultivate.
While cultivating, Yang Kai busied himself by studying the Alchemy books he had received from Old Zong, familiarizing himself with the medicinal effects and cultivation environments of various spirit grasses and spirit medicines. Yang Kai also studied Zong Ao’s research material on Spirit Arrays and Alchemy techniques.
After committing this knowledge to memory, Yang Kai began to explore the Dao of Space again.
Fighting with those three Saint King Realm cultivators allowed him to discover more magical uses for the Dao of Space.
By attaching his insights into the Dao of Space to his Divine Sense, Yang Kai was able to let threads of his Spiritual Energy leap across space and explore the situation at far greater distances than would ordinarily be possible. On top of that, these threads of Divine Sense were incredibly difficult to detect and even if they were, tracing them back to Yang Kai’s location was impossible.
This was an application of the Dao of Space Yang Kai had long ago comprehended.
But now he had learned that the Dao of Space could be used in conjunction with his Saint Qi to launch attacks.
During his last battle, Yang Kai had relied on his comprehension of the Dao of Space to allow his Nine Heavens Divine Skills to break through space and strike at the enemy from places they could not have anticipated.
This inadvertent discovery had allowed his combat power to soar.
As a Second-Order Saint, back on Water Moon Star, battling a First Order Saint King had left him quite exhausted, but now, killing three cultivators at the same realm had been quite easy.
This was an advantage brought about by the flexibility of the Dao of Space.
Having gotten a taste of these benefits, Yang Kai was naturally determined to study this application in much greater detail.
As he flew forward, Yang Kai contemplated and comprehended many of the mysteries of the Dao of Space, allowing some previously obscure notions to become clear.
Since entering the Star Field, he had encountered too many powerful masters, a number of whom had truly awe-inspiring strength, making Yang Kai realize just how vast the gap between himself and those people was.
To survive in this place, great personal strength was essential. Fortunately, he had a number of advantages others couldn’t hope to obtain.
Conflagrated Knowledge Sea, Demon God Golden Blood, his massive stockpile of Saint Qi, his aptitude which had been tempered to the limit, all these advantages convinced him that as long as he was given enough time, he would be able to surpass any of this world’s masters.
On top of that, Yang Kai had traversed this path before and was experienced in what he had to do. Back on Tong Xuan Realm, he had also risen from obscurity to fame, from being alone to commanding millions, so he was no stranger to this life. Now he simply had to continue forging ahead, it would take longer this time for sure, but that wasn’t a problem.
As the Star Shuttle flew forward, Yang Kai didn’t waste a moment of time.
At one point, Yang Kai suddenly opened his eyes and frowned, glancing sideways with some surprise.
More than a dozen azure lights were quickly approaching from afar, each one of them clearly a Star Shuttle. They moved swiftly in a type of pack, their leader apparently a member of the Monster Race with two short horns on his head. Yang Kai couldn’t identify which lineage this man belonged to but from his short cut hair and ruddy face, it was apparent he was quite a rough character.
This Monster Race man was surrounded by cultivators from various races, each of whom was exuding the energy fluctuations corresponding to the Saint King Realm, holding artifacts of different shapes, their eyes cold and sharp.
Yang Kai had been immersed in his own meditation and by the time he had noticed these newcomers, it was too late for him to avoid them.
He hadn’t expected to encounter a group of cultivators also flying through the Star Field by Star Shuttle.
The dozen or so azure lights approached quickly and arrived in front of Yang Kai a short while later, each of their riders directing curious looks towards him. After discovering that Yang Kai was just a Third Order Saint though, many of these people’s gazes became dismissive, some of them even openly laughing at him.
The leading Monster Race man seemed to have been born with a pair of narrow snake eyes and was holding a silver spear decorated by blue patterns that gave off a rich Water Attribute aura.
His gloomy eyes swept Yang Kai as he used his own Divine Sense to probe this unfamiliar youth, seemingly wanting to investigate all of Yang Kai’s details.
Yang Kai’s face remained unchanged, still sitting quietly atop his Star Shuttle.
“Boy, did you see anyone else pass by here?” The Monster Race man asked in a booming voice that rang in Yang Kai’s ears.
Yang Kai shook his head.
“Did you really not see anyone?” The Monster Race man didn’t seem to believe Yang Kai and directed a doubtful look towards him, “That group of people clearly came this way, we’ve been tracking them the whole time, so how could you not have encountered them? What kind of benefits did they provide to you in exchange for not revealing their whereabouts?”
He obviously felt that Yang Kai was lying to him.
Yang Kai however just shrugged. “You’re really the only living people I’ve encountered for the past few months, no one came here before you.”
Yang Kai spoke in a calm and genial tone, not wanting to stir up trouble in this place, all he wanted to do was reach his destination a bit sooner and settle down on that Cultivation Star.
Always drifting through the Starry Sky, was not a pleasant experience, and the Heavenly Spirit Ghost Orchid’s medicinal effects were nearly exhausted.
“Di Ji, the courage of this little boy isn’t small,” A woman next to the leading man commented.
A Third Order Saint facing so many Saint Kings yet still being able to remain indifferent was either crazy, bold or had something he could rely on to get him out of this situation; the woman though the second possibility was the most likely.
The Monster Race man named Di Ji nodded.
“What’s this brat smiling about? He doesn’t look trustworthy, he definitely saw that group of people and is deliberately not telling us,” Another person interjected, glaring maliciously towards Yang Kai, seemingly wanting to rush forward and attack him.
Di Ji just stared at Yang Kai coldly, his eyes flashing slightly, not expressing an opinion either way.
“Why bother trying to talk with him? After we kill him and search his Soul everything will become clear won’t it?” Another person called out, looking rather impatient as he shouted, “Brat, if you don’t cooperate, don’t blame us for being heavy-handed.”
Yang Kai glanced over at this man and smiled lowly, and wisp of cold light flashing across the depths of his eyes.
“Forget it, we don’t have time to waste stirring up trouble, he doesn’t seem to be lying anyways,” The Monster Race man named Di Ji shook his head and suddenly said. It wasn’t apparent what he was thinking but it seemed he didn’t have any intention to act openly against Yang Kai, simply calling out in the next moment, “Kid, our group has been out here for quite some time, but we still haven’t been able to track down our targets. We’ve consumed a lot of Saint Crystals and now don’t have much left, give us some of yours as well as some restorative pills and we won’t embarrass you further.”
Yang Kai frowned slightly; he had thought this group would act against him, yet now things had taken a sudden turn for the better.
Nodding lightly, Yang Kai replied plainly, “Fine!”
Saying so, the Space Ring on Yang Kai’s finger flashed and he openly sent out a thousand or so High-Rank Saint Crystals towards this group.
When these people saw these Saint Crystals fly over towards them, their eyes all went red with greed and the quickly began snatching them, big grins appearing on their faces as they worked.
They had truly been wandering through the Star Field for quite some time and were low on supplies, otherwise, with their strength, it would have been impossible for them to become this happy after only receiving this amount of Saint Crystals.
Yang Kai suddenly couldn’t help remembering the two sisters He Zao and He Miao of Sword Union. Back in the Chaotic Abyss, the two sisters had also had to find an asteroid to hide inside to avoid the power of the Starry Sky and if Yang Kai hadn’t sent them some supplies, they would have died long ago.
When one spent extended periods of time in the Starry Sky, having enough Saint Crystals and restorative pills was essential to survival.
Seeing Yang Kai scatter a thousand High-Rank Saint Crystals without blinking, Di Ji couldn’t help showing some surprise, not having expected this youth to be so rich.
Being able to toss out a thousand High-Rank Saint Crystals meant for certain there were more Saint Crystals in his Space Ring, and for a time, Di Ji became excited.
Not only him, the cultivators who had caught Yang Kai’s Saint Crystals also now had greed looks on their faces as they stared at the ring on Yang Kai’s hand, wishing they could rush out and snatch it.
Several people from this group had quietly shifted their positions and secretly condensed their strength, only waiting for Di Ji to give the order to take Yang Kai’s life.
The woman who had spoken earlier also turned to look at Di Ji, her eyes flashing a subtle light, silently inquiring about his opinion.
A look of struggle appeared on Di Ji’s face for a moment before he suddenly grinned and nodded to Yang Kai, “Seems you understand your own weight kid, this time we’ll let you off, let’s go!”
And with that said, the group reluctantly followed behind Di Ji, many of them wondering why they had let go of such a fat sheep. To them, Yang Kai was just a weak kid with more Saint Crystals than were good for him.
But since Di Ji had spoken, none of them dared to refute him and simply let out a series of sighs.
The group soared off, and only after they had left Yang Kai far behind did the woman ask, “Di Ji, this isn’t your style, what are you so concerned about?”
Di Ji snorted and turned his head back to see that everyone in his team was looking at him, silently asking for an explanation, causing him to shout angrily, “I’ve seen people acting tough, but that brat wasn’t simply putting up a front. Didn’t any of you notice that he was completely unafraid of us? He was just a Third Order Saint, so why wasn’t he even the slightest bit anxious when he was facing us? He’s out here, all alone in the vast Star Field, if we were to kill him, no one would know, so why didn’t he look the least bit worried?”
Many people wore pensive looks and one of them soon muttered, “Does he have an Elder protecting him in secret nearby?”
“Fuck! You stupid pig, you should just die early so you can quickly be reincarnated!” Di Ji shouted furiously, “I really wonder how you managed to survive until now.”
The scolded man turned red but didn’t dare to retort, only whispering under his breath in a tone so small no one could hear him.
The woman thoughtfully spoke up next, “Do you mean to say that boy was had enough confidence that even if we attacked him it wouldn’t matter?”
Di Ji nodded, “It should be like that.”
“How can that be? He’s just a Third Order Saint. With so many of us, could it be he was confident he could kill us?” The woman shouted in disbelief.
“He wouldn’t be able to kill us, but we may not be able to kill him either. There must be a powerful master behind that kid and he’s probably carrying a number of powerful artifacts. If we tried to act against him, he would be able to escape by taking advantage of those artifacts and in the end, we’ll have gained nothing and instead created a life or death enmity. Once his Elders or Sect find out and come to seek revenge, how are we supposed to resist?”
After listening to Di Ji’s words, the woman and the others showed frowned deeply, and the more they thought about it, the more what Di Ji said made sense to them. If he didn’t have something to rely on, how could a Third Order Saint Realm kid face so many cultivators above his realm and remain completely indifferent?
“Then why did you demand he hand over those Saint Crystals?” After the woman understood what had just happened, she couldn’t help feeling a cold sweat drip down her back, “Isn’t that also setting up a grudge between us?”
“It’s nothing so serious,” Di Ji waved his hand, “A few Saint Crystals isn’t something worth holding a grudge over. Since he has a powerful backer to depend on, naturally he won’t care about such a small amount of wealth. On top of that, it seemed like he knew I was trying to find a way to take a step back, otherwise once our group made such a big scene yet flew off without gaining the list bit of advantage, where would our face be? Didn’t you see him so easily toss out those Saint Crystals? That kid is definitely a worldly person who knows how to settle matters. Shit, are all brats so difficult to handle nowadays? Is there any space left for us in this world?”
The woman pursed her lips and laughed, playing with the Saint Crystals in her hand. After noticing that all of these Saint Crystals were High-Rank, she immediately knew what Di Ji was talking about.
A mere Third Order Saint youth possessing such wealth could only mean it had been gifted to him by his Elders.
“Forget about that kid, the people we’re looking for must be hiding around here. Let’s split up, you take your team that way and I’ll head this way, whoever discovers them will send out a signal and we’ll all converge on their location. The sooner we finish this up the sooner we can go back, damn it, after drifting around for a half a year I really don’t want to say here any longer!”
“Yeah,” The woman nodded, taking half of the group with her and soaring off in a different direction from Di Ji.
Atop his Star Shuttle, Yang Kai remained unperturbed, this kind of minor disturbance made no impact on him.
As Yang Kai’s understanding of the Dao of Space improved, so did his ability to escape. Currently, as long as he didn’t meet with a master in the Origin Returning Realm, he had nothing to fear as he could just tear space and flee, no one would dare chase him into The Void.
If he could spend a thousand Saint Crystals to save himself some trouble though, he would happily do so.
As time passed, Yang Kai continued to move closer to his goal.
One day, Yang Kai arrived at an Asteroid Sea, and at a glance, he could see countless asteroids spread out across a vast area, some as large as mountains while others were as small as plates.
In the Starry Sky, there were many, many Asteroid Seas like this one which could blot out the sky, some of them large enough that it would take months to traverse via Star Shuttle. Generally speaking, these Asteroid Seas didn’t simply drift about freely, not following any kind of set course.
When Starships sailed the Starry Sky, they would take care to avoid regions where there were large Asteroid Seas as they could not only affect the speed of navigation, but also posed a danger to the Starship itself. If a Starship was to be hit in a bad spot there was even a risk that it could be sunk.
Excellent Chart Masters would draw up Star Charts to avoid such regions in order to allow Starships to reach their destinations safely.
Arriving here, Yang Kai couldn’t let the Star Shuttle fly forward on its own because one bad hit from an erratic asteroid could destroy it, so he had no choice but to temporarily put down other matters and concentrate on flying.
Travelling through the dense asteroids, after about ten days, Yang Kai reached a central position in the Asteroid Sea, ahead of which he could still see endless asteroids though.
Yang Kai wasn’t anxious though, he wasn’t in a hurry to get where he was going.
Amidst the dark Asteroid Sea, a bloom of light suddenly appeared in front of Yang Kai, causing him to frown and quickly release his Divine Sense to investigate.
A number of strong and weak life auras came from a position ahead of him and Yang Kai could detect energy fluctuations that could only be associated with battle.
Were there other people in this place?
Yang Kai felt the situation was a little strange, but looking at the scene in front of him, it was clear that some kind of conflict had broken out.
Suddenly, Yang Kai thought about the group he had met a few days ago.
This probably wasn’t a coincidence. Yang Kai had been wandering the Starry Sky for half a year now and had not met a single other person besides them, so it was more than likely it was the same group.
When they last met, Yang Kai was able to understand from their words that they were pursuing some kind of enemy, and judging from the current situation, that group seemed to have caught up with their target.
Yang Kai quietly flew over, concealing his aura, landing atop a rather large asteroid a moment later, using it to hide himself as he took a closer look, soon discovering that his conjecture was correct.
On one side of the battle was the group of cultivators lead by Di Ji; they had nearly twenty people, but at this moment less than half that number remained. From the nearby asteroids that were filled with blood stains and broken limbs, it was obvious the other half of their group had suffered a disaster.
The group that was fighting Di Ji and his allies wasn’t much better off. Everyone was going all out, panting for breath as they swung their artifacts and sent out various different attacks, many people cursing loudly as they fought.
Both sides were in a tragic state with the number of injuries and deaths constantly climbing.
Yang Kai hid well enough that no one was able to find him then began absorbing the Soul remnants of the fallen cultivators into his Knowledge Sea.
Everyone here was a master at the Saint King Realm so each of their remnant Souls was very helpful to Yang Kai. These people’s perceptions and insights into the Martial Dao and Heavenly Way would enhance Yang Kai’s own comprehensions, giving him a joyful feeling as he quietly moved closer towards the centre of the battlefield, hoping to draw in more of these remnant Souls.
Di Ji’s group wasn’t anything good. It was obvious from their previous attitude towards Yang Kai that if not for Di Ji having some scruples, they would have openly attacked.
So even if these people died, Yang Kai wouldn’t care.
On the other hand, the people fighting against Di Ji’s group were complete strangers to Yang Kai, so he naturally wasn’t about to step forward to help them.
Yang Kai didn’t mind sitting on a mountain top, watching the tigers fight while waiting to reap the fisherman’s benefits.
Yang Kai didn’t know how long this battle had been going on for, but from the extent of their consumption, he figured it had been at least a day or two, with their battlefield continuously shifting and drifting through the Asteroid Sea.
Yang Kai stealthily moved along with them, secretly praying that the remaining cultivators would quickly die.
As time passed, fewer and fewer people could hold on to their lives. Both sides now only had a handful of people left, even powerful Third Order Saint Kings couldn’t resist the call of death.
However, Yang Kai was keenly aware that even after they saw their comrades die, none of these people showed any regret, all of them shuttling through the Asteroid Sea as they found, inspecting the asteroids one by one, seemingly searching for something.
The deaths of so many of their comrades and their excessive consumption had gradually cooled the two parties’ heads, restoring their ability to reason. Now, both sides no longer completely disregarded their safety and were fighting in a cautious and reserved manner.
Seeing this development, after having spectated for so long, Yang Kai couldn’t help feeling a bit disappointed.
If no one else died, he couldn’t reap any benefits, so staying here any longer would just be a waste of time.
As such, he quietly left the asteroid he was hiding behind and prepared to continue on his way while processing the Soul remnants of the dozen or so Saint King Realm cultivators he had previously absorbed.
Both groups of cultivators were far too busy dealing with their remaining opponents so no one noticed him.
After the time it would take to make a cup of tea, Yang Kai was already a few hundred kilometres away from the battlefield and was preparing to summon out his Star Shuttle when a subtle yet mysterious energy fluctuation behind him suddenly caught his attention.
Yang Kai quickly turned around just in time to see a bright light flash amidst the field of asteroids, one that faded and disappeared as quickly as it had appeared.
Yang Kai stopped as a look of astonishment appeared on his face. The energy fluctuation just now gave him a very familiar feeling; it was clearly a fluctuation due to the manipulation of space. In other words, it is very likely that someone had torn space at the point where he had spotted the flash of light.
This discovery immediately drew Yang Kai’s attention. It had been a few years now since he came to the Star Field and he had learned that out of the nearly infinite number of cultivators out there, those proficient in the Dao of Space were incredibly few.
The Dao of Space itself was an esoteric field of study, one that was difficult to become introduced to, and even more difficult to master. As for reaching the pinnacle of comprehension, that was neigh impossible.
Having inadvertently stumbled upon such a location related to the Dao of Space, Yang Kai was inclined to explore it to see who the person who tore space was and whether or not he could hold a dialogue with them, preferably gaining an opportunity to learn from one another.
Releasing his, Divine Sense, Yang Kai soon swept the area in front of himself all the way up to the previous battlefield, yet to his surprise, he found no human figures in the place from a moment ago, only a faint distortion in space.
[What happened?]
Yang Kai couldn’t repress his curiosity and decided to rush back and investigate more thoroughly.
After a short while, Yang Kai once again arrived at the previous battlefield and looked around. There was indeed no one here, the several cultivators who had been fighting up until a moment ago all seemingly having disappeared, with no bodies or corpses nearby.
Yang Kai followed the distortion in space to a mountain-sized asteroid upon which a gate-like structure had been built. This gate was extremely simple, and at first glance was obviously quite old. Also of note was the fact that this gate was covered in a thick layer of Space Spirit Crystals.
At the base of the gate, there were two grooves where Saint Crystals could be placed. Looking down, Yang Kai noticed two High-Rank Saint Crystals which had been thoroughly exhausted of energy.
“A Space Array?” Yang Kai’s eyes widened as he exclaimed.
He hadn’t expected this kind of development. The slight distortion in space had clearly not been created by someone tearing space, but had instead propagated as a result of this Space Array being activated.
The two drained Saint Crystals were a clear sign that the Space Array had been turned on.
But why was there a Space Array in this place? Did this mean that what the two sides who had been fighting before were constantly looking for was this Space Array?
Where did this Space Array lead to?
The two groups having gone missing must be because they entered this Space Array and were teleported away. Yang Kai stood in front of the Space Array, his expression changing frequently as he weighed his options.
After a while, Yang Kai pulled out the two spent Saint Crystals from the Space Array’s base and replaced them with fresh ones, the Qi stored inside them quickly pouring into the array and starting it up.
A bright light suddenly appeared and rippled appeared at the centre of the gate, after which an illusory image gradually began to form.
Yang Kai sent Divine Sense threads into the gate and using his own Dao of Space comprehension sent them out ten thousand kilometres in every direction.
He didn’t see anyone, only a strange and wild piece of land with lush vegetation and bright sunlight. At a glance, Yang Kai could tell this place was a vibrant mainland.
Yang Kai withdrew his Divine Sense threads and without hesitation stepped into the Space Array.
In the blink of an eye, Yang Kai appeared in the strange world he had never seen before.
The World Energy aura around him was rich to a shocking degree; Yang Kai even estimated that it was denser than the average aura on Rainfall Star. Although it couldn’t be compared to the floating continent, it was definitely much better than other Cultivation Stars.
The Heavenly Spirit Ghost Orchid on his chest finally began playing its proper role, its gloomy face actively drawing massive amounts of the ambient World Energy into Yang Kai’s body.
Yang Kai couldn’t help revealing a look of happiness; he even considered entering secluded retreat here until the Heavenly Spirit Ghost Orchid’s medicinal effects ran out.
The Heavenly Spirit Ghost Orchid was too rare. Ha Li Ka would not have given this precious treasure to Yang Kai if it weren’t out of consideration for Xue Yue’s face, and although its effect would gradually disappear over two or three years, only half that amount of time had passed so far.
Yang Kai really didn’t want to waste this opportunity.
Thinking about it for a moment though, Yang Kai suddenly cursed in frustration.
While flying through the Starry Sky, Yang Kai could perfectly hide, but in this strange continent, it was a different story. Even if he could conceal his own aura, the Heavenly Spirit Ghost Orchid’s constant inhalation of World Energy would easily be noticed.
Sure enough, no sooner had these worries occurred to him did the cultivators who had arrived here first fly over to investigate.
There weren’t many of them left, only three or four from each side. They seemed to be quite wary of others entering this place.
It didn’t take long for all of these cultivators to assemble, the two groups who had been locking in a life or death struggle now all staring curiously at Yang Kai, everyone wondering which side he belonged to.
The monster race man named Di Ji wore a stunned look and let out a chuckle a moment later, “Kid, how did you arrive here?”
The woman who had been following beside Di Ji also stared at Yang Kai strangely, her eyes filled with a look of vigilance, apparently thinking Yang Kai had been tailing them.
“Don’t misunderstand, I don’t know them, I just happened to meet them once while travelling across the Starry Sky,” Yang Kai ignored the Di Ji and explained himself to the other group of people who were eying him dangerously.
The head of the other group was also a man who appeared to be in his late forties. This man was a Third Order Saint King, possessing similar strength to Di Ji.
This middle-aged man stepped out from his team and loudly interrogated, “How did you find this place?”
Yang Kai shrugged and responded plainly, “I was passing by when I saw some flashes of light amidst the Asteroid Sea. I followed those lights to investigate but I never expected to find a Space Array and out a curiosity, I decided to activate it and see what was on the other side. If your groups have business in this place, you should go about it with a free hand, no need to pay any attention to me. Now that I’ve had a look, I’ll leave.”
While he spoke, Yang Kai was secretly on guard. Although the number of cultivators left in these two groups had shrunk greatly, both sides still had Third Order Saint Kings and were paying close attention to him. One wrong word would land him in a dangerous situation.
He had to adopt a submissive stance here. Yang Kai was trying to find a way to have these two groups continue their previous fight, hopefully resulting in their mutual annihilation. As long as all of these people died, he would then be free to explore this strange continent and see if there was anything good to pick.
The middle-aged man stared at Yang Kai deeply, as if he wanted to look into the depths of his Soul, only nodding after a long time, his eyes suddenly flashing as he wore a kind smile, “I believe you.”
“Many thanks,” Yang Kai nodded.
“Kid, since you’ve found your way into this place, you don’t need to be in such a rush to leave,” Di Ji laughed, “Before, in the Starry Sky, Father here didn’t want to stir up any unnecessary trouble so I didn’t bother acting against you there, but here, I’d like to see where you can flee!”
Saying so, he turned and yelled at the middle-aged man, “Gui Che, you and I have consumed the vast majority of our restorative pills and Saint Crystals, but this brat is a fat sheep. The last time we met, he gave us a thousand pieces of High-Rank Saint Crystal without even blinking an eye. I’m certain there are more Saint Crystals in his Space Ring, how about we split them fifty-fifty?”
“That’s a good proposal,” The middle-aged man named Gui Che nodded slightly, looking at Yang Kai with a chuckle.
Yang Kai also stared back at him with a smile, the look on his face indifferent.
Di Ji laughed, “Gui Che, although I despise you, I do admire your easy-going personality. Since it’s settled, do you want to do it, or should I? Either that or we could both do it to avoid there being anything suspicions between us after the fact.”
Gui Che slowly shook his head, “I won’t.”
Di Ji gawked for a moment, but before he could understand what Gui Che was playing at, the middle-aged man turned to Yang Kai and said, “Little brother, would you like to join us?”
“Join you?” Yang Kai frowned, “Join you to do what?”
“To explore this place of course. No one has been here for a very long time, and there are no doubt many good things waiting for us to find. As long as you follow us, you’ll be able to obtain some benefits, how about it?” Gui Che asked in a seemingly sincere manner.
After hearing what he said, everyone looked stunned, not able to understand why Gui Che would invite a measly Third Order Saint Realm brat to join them. Not just those on Di Ji’s side, but even Gui Che’s allies were equally suspicious.
Only Di Ji, who seemed like a brute but actually had quite a sharp wit, was able to instantly understand Gui Che’s intentions, cackling as he openly said, “Gui Che, aren’t you being too shameless? If you want to let this kid explore the way for you when you come across some kind of danger, just come right out and say it, don’t use some petty trickery to win him over. Kid, don’t listen to his nonsense, I can guarantee that if you agree to his proposal, not only will you not obtain any benefits, you’ll definitely die without a complete corpse.”
When Di Ji exposed the truth, everyone understood what was going on.
Gui Che didn’t show the slightest bit of embarrassment however and instead wore an even more sincere expression as he nodded and said, “Indeed I had such ideas, but little brother, with your low strength, how could you obtain benefits without paying a little price? If you follow me, you’ll still have a chance to survive, I won’t make you go into places that are clearly too dangerous. On the other hand, if you follow Di Ji, en, I guarantee you won’t live to see tomorrow.”
“Can I act alone? Just pretend you never even saw me,” Yang Kai said with a distressed look.
Everyone let out a burst of mocking laughter.
“Good, it looks like if I don’t choose a side, I’ll die right here and now, right?”
Di Ji and Gui Che did not speak; the former snickering menacingly with his intentions obvious.
Yang Kai’s eyes moved between Gui Che and Di Ji for a time before he eventually pointed towards Gui Che, “I’ll go with you.”
Gui Che nodded in satisfaction.
Di Ji wore an indifferent expression on his face. Although failing to obtain a pawn to help explore the way was regretful, Yang Kai’s strength was so low that he didn’t really care either way. A mere Third Order Saint would undoubtedly die as soon as their groups encountered any real danger so he wasn’t of much use in the first place.
The only real regret Di Ji felt was that the Saint Crystals in Yang Kai’s Space Ring did not land in his hands, but with the richness of the World Energy aura in this place, it didn’t really matter if he could obtain those Saint Crystals or not. Letting out a snort, Di Ji shot Yang Kai a malicious glare, “Brat, your death will be very ugly, don’t blame Father here for not reminding you.”
“Following you will only make me die faster,” Yang Kai replied bluntly.
Of the people here, Yang Kai didn’t fear anyone. Even if he couldn’t beat them in a fight, couldn’t he just escape? The Third Order Saint King Gui Che’s desire to capture him was nothing more than a fool’s dream, which was why Yang Kai so easily compromised to explore the mysteries hidden here.
Since these two groups had been searching for this place all along, they clearly had a better idea of its layout and what treasures were hidden inside.
“Don’t worry, when this is all over I’ll collect your corpse for you!” Di Ji taunted Yang Kai before waving his hand and shouting, “Let’s go!”
Saying so, he led his group and flew off in a certain direction. After losing so many of their allies already, it was obvious Di Ji had no intention to continue fighting with Gui Che.
“We should also go,” Gui Che said with a smile, not making any attempt to stop Di Ji, turning in a different direction and flying off with his three remaining followers and Yang Kai bringing up the rear.
No words were exchanged along the way as Gui Che and his group didn’t seem to be in the mood for conversation. The previous battle had caused their group countless deaths and injuries and all of them were currently immersed in the sorrow of losing their friends and relatives, so they had no interest in making trouble a weak outsider like Yang Kai.
Yang Kai was also happy with the current situation and simply followed behind the group silently while observing his surroundings.
Among the people he was travelling with four, in addition to Gui Che being Third Order Saint King, a man with scars on his face was also a Third Order Saint King. Gui Che called him Gan Ji.
There was also a young woman with a pair of peach eyes and enchanting eyes as well as a slender youth who looked around the same age as Yang Kai. Both of these cultivators were Second Order Saint Kings but Yang Kai had yet to learn their names.
Against such a lineup, Yang Kai had absolutely no chance of defeating them face to face, but if he wanted to leave, Yang Kai was completely confident they wouldn’t be able to block him. Observing carefully, Yang Kai recognized the young man who was as thin as a bamboo pole as the one who had been searching around the asteroids before. The Space Array should have been found by him.
Along the way, the young man would take out a piece of old-looking animal skin with a number of strange symbols and patterns drawn on it from time to time.
Under the leadership of this youth, the group swiftly moved forward.
This world was rich in World Energy, so naturally the material wealth was also quite astonishing, spirit herbs and spirit grasses with medicinal ages in the hundreds and even thousands of years were everywhere. Yang Kai was delighted by this sight and spared no effort to collect these treasures.
Gui Che didn’t stop him and even helped to collect these herbs along with his team mates, stuffing various grasses, fruits, and flowers into his Space Ring.
Yang Kai gave them a few pointers, telling them how to harvest these herbs in order to maintain their complete medicinal efficacies, immediately earning him the attention of the four Saint Kings.
“Are you Alchemist?” The young woman couldn’t help asking.
“Yes,” Yang Kai easily admitted.
Alchemists were few in number and rarely seen out in public. In general, Alchemists focused on exploring the Alchemic Way and their cultivation realm was only a secondary concern, causing their combat effectiveness to be quite low. Hearing Yang Kai’s words, the four people’s vigilance towards him obviously relaxed a lot.
“What grade of pills can you refine?” The young woman asked curiously.
“Saint Grade High-Rank pills.”
“Not bad,” Gui Che interjected with a smile, “A Third Order Saint able to refine Saint Grade High-Rank pills. It looks like you’ll be able to refine Saint King Grade pills within a few years. Such an Alchemist would actively get snatched up by many forces, you best work hard kid.”
Yang Kai smiled and nodded.
“Can you explain something to me? Why is your body constantly absorbing World Energy? It’s quite noticeable; what pill did you eat?” The cultivator called Gan Ji looked at Yang Kai suspiciously.
Not only him, but the others in the group had also taken notice of this anomaly. Yang Kai’s was clearly not circulating his Secret Art to cultivate, but the World Energy around him was still continuing to flow into his body, improving his cultivation.
This not only aroused their curiosity but also their greed, naturally, they wanted to learn more.
“It’s not the effect of a pill, it’s because of this,” Yang Kai took the initiative to open his shirt and reveal his chest. The four pairs of eyes stared towards him and saw the gloomy baby face open its mouth and swallow a lot of World Energy.
“What is this?” The young woman reached out and touched it but was unable to discover anything about it.
“Heavenly Spirit Ghost Orchid?” Gui Che’s face changed slightly as he muttered to himself, apparently seeing through the identity of this item at a glance.
“Heavenly Spirit Ghost Orchid?” The other three called out in alarm, the slender youth’s eyes flashing with greed as his face filled with excitement, “That rare treasure that helps one cultivate? Did you really take a Heavenly Spirit Ghost Orchid?”
“En,” Yang Kai nodded calmly.
“Where did you get this thing?” Gui Che hurriedly asked, “Do you have any others?”
The Heavenly Spirit Ghost Orchid was such a rare and precious treasures that even Gui Che couldn’t suppress his desire to possess it. With this thing, he could save himself several years of cultivation time, allowing him to achieve twice the results with half the effort.
“No, this was a gift from a Senior,” Yang Kai said as he organized his clothes again. He wasn’t afraid to expose the existence of the Heavenly Spirit Ghost Orchid because once this kind of treasure was refined by someone, it could not be snatched by another.
Sure enough, upon hearing Yang Kai’s answer, all four of the others showed a pained expression, as if he was wasting the Heaven’s precious gifts.
A Third Order Saint actually using such an exotic treasure to assist his cultivation, moreover not entering secluded retreat but instead flying across the Starry Sky, it was simply the definition of waste. No matter which one of them it was, they were certain that if they were able to obtain a Heavenly Spirit Ghost Orchid, they would find a place with rich World Energy and seclude themselves until its medicinal effects were depleted.
For a time, the eyes of the four people stared at Yang Kai with clear resentment. Gui Che even trembled in anger, seemingly wanting to kill Yang Kai to vent his frustration.
“There are so many rare herbs here, perhaps one or two Heavenly Spirit Ghost Orchids can be found,” Yang Kai said casually.
The young woman just glared at him, “The environment required to breed Heavenly Spirit Ghost Orchids is extremely specific, how could it be so easy to find one? I’m afraid there is no such treasure in this place.”
“Enough nonsense, kid. Lead the way, if there is any danger that you can’t handle, speak up quickly,” Gan Ji was obviously dissatisfied with Yang Kai’s wasteful use of the Heavenly Spirit Ghost Orchid and was venting his anger by yelling.
Yang Kai nodded indifferently.
This place was a little different from the floating continent. Although both places had extremely rich World Energy and material wealth, there were clearly traces of the existence of Monster Beasts here, and these Monster Beasts were all high-order Monster Beasts. Occasionally, some Seventh or Eighth-Order beasts would appear and Sixth-Order beasts were a common sight.
Gui Che and the others clearly didn’t know much about this place, and although they possessed the animal skin that served as a guide, the drawings on it were quite vague.
Yang Kai explored the road ahead but did not encounter much danger. He could easily kill Sixth-Order Monster Beast but once he discovered any trace of Seventh-Order or Eighth-Order Monster Beasts, he would immediately turn back and inform Gui Che and his people about the situation.
Such cowardly behaviour caused the group of four to hold a very disdainful view of him, each of them feeling like this little brat was fearful and incompetent.
Yang Kai, of course, was consciously hiding his true strength, only displaying the capabilities of an ordinary Third Order Saint while helping to fight these Monster Beasts.
Gui Che and his team observed Yang Kai for many days, but found nothing suspicious and gradually relaxed their vigilance.
A mere Third Order Saint was no cause for concern to them. Gui Che had openly declared he would make Yang Kai explore the way when he invited him to travel with them.
But he had clearly overestimated how dangerous the place was, and until now the only threat came from the various Monster Beasts.
Time passed, and Yang Kai gained a great deal. In addition to the herbs he collected, the various Monster Beast parts such as their claws, fur, and cores also landed in his hands.
Gui Che wasn’t stingy, and after each Monster Beast was killed, he would distribute its valuable parts according to everyone’s contributions. Of course, Yang Kai was given the least.
Yang Kai had no complaints though.
He gradually got acquainted with this group of people, and although he knew they were harbouring ill intentions towards him, no one had made a move as of yet.
This group also didn’t seem to come from a single force. Although everyone treated Gui Che as their leader, it was obvious that Gui Che and Gan Ji were from different backgrounds while the young woman and the slender youth seemed to have come from the same force as they often supported and helped each other in battle.
Yang Kai didn’t understand why such a disparate group of people would come together to explore this place.
Yang Kai didn’t ask any question though to avoid drawing unwanted attention to himself.
After another battle that was slightly more challenging, Gui Che distributed the loot. The Eighth-Order Monster Beast’s Core was thrown to Gan Ji while the Monster Beast’s blood was collected into several jars and distributed amongst the group while its teeth, claws, and fur were all pocketed by Gui Che.
Yang Kai stuffed a jar of blood indifferently into his Space Ring.
Monster Beast blood was also very useful. It could be used for Alchemy or in laying out Spirit Arrays, and was even sometimes used for Artifact Refining.
After the battle, it was natural to take a break. The group of four had taken many Saint Crystals from Yang Kai without a hint of politeness, each of them obtaining two or three hundred pieces. Now taking out these Saint Crystals, they began to restore themselves.
Yang Kai was able to restore himself the quickest and it wasn’t long before he was back at his peak.
After an hour, the young woman also opened her eyes, put the unused Saint Crystals back into her Space Ring, then walked over to a small lake nearby to wash her face in the water.
Yang Kai glanced around and found that the other three were still meditating, so he walked over to the lake as well, crouched down beside the young woman, and took a sip of the clear water.
Although Yang Kai was still young, he could still be considered a veteran flower purveyor. From a woman’s demeanour and words, he could infer what that woman’s personality was, whether her nature was charming, seductive, cold, elegant, passionate…
When he first saw this young woman, he had thought she belonged to the seductive category. Generally, a woman with such beguiling eyes was one who wasn’t willing to remain lonely and often engaged in promiscuous behaviour.
So at the beginning, he hadn’t dared to approach this woman to avoid any kind of unwanted entanglement.
However, after slowly becoming familiar with her, Yang Kai discovered that this woman named Luo Yao had a very different personality than he originally thought. She was quite unlike Purple Star’s Bi Ya and had a noble air beneath her flirtatious appearance while her personality was calm and solemn.
This contradictory combination of appearance and demeanour created an unusually powerful appeal and Yang Kai had repeatedly found the slender man often staring at Luo Yao’s gently swaying bottom and willow-like waist, often forgetting to even blink.
Even Gui Che, when distributing the spoils from victories, would deliberately allocate more to her.
Gan Ji, a man who gave off the impression of a stalwart warrior, also paid a lot of attention to Luo Yao during each battle to protect her safety.
It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that Luo Yao had it easiest amongst this group of people.
“Little brother, do you have something to ask? If you do, just speak up,” Luo Yao as cleaned her face before turning a slightly meaningful smile to Yang Kai, obviously having seen through his intentions in approaching her.
“I just want to know, what are you guys looking for here? How did you find that Space Array?” Yang Kai made a clean break when he saw her see through his act.
The place where the two spoke was not too far from the other three, and if Gui Che and the others wanted to hide this information, they would naturally be able to step in.
But when Yang Kai asked this question, all three of these men maintained a state of meditation, which meant they didn’t care whether their purpose was exposed or not, emboldening Yang Kai significantly.
Hiding his strength and feigning weakness all this time had finally paid off, allowing this group of people to lower their guard towards Yang Kai.
“We’re looking for a place to temper our bodies,” Luo Yao replied succinctly, a faint glow appearing in the depths of her beautiful eyes, “As long as we can find that place, we can improve the strength of our physical bodies. Although you’re an Alchemist, you are also a cultivator; you should know the benefits of having greater physical strength, yes?”
Yang Kai nodded, of course he knew the advantages of having an intrepid physique, far more so than these four at least.
Without his unusually strong physique, Yang Kai would not have been able to store and utilize so much Saint Qi, nor would he be able to fight opponents above his realm so easily. A solid body was the foundation of a cultivator, no matter how profound a cultivator’s Secret Art or Martial Skills were, or how potent their Saint Qi was, if their physical body couldn’t withstand the impact of using these attributes, they would remain mediocre at best.
“Where is this place that allows you to quench your flesh?” Yang Kai couldn’t help wondering.
“I don’t know,” Luo Yao shook her head, “This is the first time we have come here. You should have heard Gui Che that day; no one has entered this place for many years. The only reason we were able to find this place at all was that Ji Peng’s ancestor left a map behind in an ancient record we accidentally found.”
“Ancient records?” Yang Kai frowned.
“My ancestor has been here before,” The tall man named Ji Peng also completely his meditation and walked over to the lake to join the conversation, “He obtained many benefits from this place and left some clues behind when he passed on. By following those clues I was able to find the Space Array hidden inside that Asteroid Sea!”
Luo Yao chuckled and looked back towards Yang Kai to say, “Boy, don’t think it was easy to find that Space Array. You also stepped through it so you should know that the Space Array itself was built atop a great asteroid, one that no doubt drifts about randomly with the Asteroid Sea, constantly changing direction. If one isn’t careful, they might pass right by it and never notice. Fortunately, Ji Peng’s ancestor was able to calculate approximately where and when the asteroid upon which the Space Array was built would appear, and as long as we conducted a thorough search of that region, we would be able to find it. Even so, it took us nearly an entire year before we finally found it. The problem is that Di Ji; I don’t know where they got wind of this news, but after they did they began relentlessly pursuing us, causing a lot of our comrades to die.”
“We will get our revenge for this in the future!” Ji Peng coldly snorted, his thin face filled with ruthlessness as he turned unceremoniously to Yang Kai, “Little brat, we’re only letting you hear all this because you’ve been quite obedient this whole time, and as long as you continue to be so, when we find that place, naturally you’ll get a share of the benefits.”
“En, I know my place,” Yang Kai responded sincerely.
After half an hour, everyone was fully restored and Ji Peng continued to study the animal skin drawing while giving out directions to everyone. No real dangers appeared along the way.
One day, as Gui Che was leading the way, he suddenly stopped and stared towards the front with a dignified expression.
A couple of dozen kilometres or so in front of him was a vast expanse of yellow sand with a storm whipping about that blotted out the sky, creating a barren landscape seemingly devoid of any vitality.
An inexplicable yet dangerous aura pulsed from this land, and when Gui Che and the others released their Divine Senses to investigate, they were surprised to discover that they could not explore into this region, as if the yellow sand storm was somehow blocking their Divine Senses.
Gui Che turned his eyes to Yang Kai and motioned for him to check it out.
Without saying a word, Yang Kai nodded and proceeded cautiously towards the yellow sand storm.
After a short while, he came to the edge of the yellow sand storm, circulated his strength to guard his body, then stepped inside.
The flying yellow sand was like a million tiny blades that banged into and cut at Yang Kai, giving him a rough beating even though he was protecting himself with his Saint Qi. Yang Kai managed to keep his eyes open to survey his surroundings, but he could barely see a meter in front of his face.
Gui Che and his group had noticed the danger of this place, so how could Yang Kai not have detected it?
Yang Kai then released his Divine Sense enhanced with his comprehension of the Dao of space to leaping quickly cover the surrounding region. Yang Kai quickly learned everything about this place, including how it stretched out roughly thirty kilometres in every direction and was filled with Earth and Wind Attribute Energy.
These two energies wove together to form a large airtight net, blocking Gui Che and his group’s Divine Senses.
Yang Kai thought this was a natural phenomenon, but when a fierce aura suddenly approached him from a certain direction, he realized he was wrong.
There was a powerful aura that pulsed with malicious intent hidden inside this world of yellow sand which clearly belonged to a living creature.
Yang Kai stood motionless as he stared with widened eyes in the direction of the aura’s source, trying to determine what it was that was moving towards him.
The earth began to tremble as the fierce aura drew closer and closer to himself. At the same time, Yang Kai smelt a stench that nearly made him faint.
Yang Kai couldn’t see anything clearly and was only able to notice that the earth was constantly subsiding as more and more yellow sand was kicked up and swept into the air by the strong winds, blurring his vision even further.
Silently, two huge pincers stretched out towards Yang Kai’s head. As these pincers opened and closed, they seemed like they were slicing through space, causing a sense of crisis to well up in his heart and prompting Yang Kai to quickly withdraw. The moment he left the yellow sandstorm, Yang Kai saw two scarlet eyes staring at him from within.
An invisible pressure came from inside the sandstorm, making it difficult for Yang Kai to even breath.
His Wind and Thunder Wings opening, Yang Kai’s speed increased to its maximum in an instant and he flew out a dozen kilometres in an instant. A pair of purple pincers passed through the spot Yang Kai was originally at, slicing apart his afterimage.
Cold sweat dripped from Yang Kai’s forehead as he flew over to Gui Che and the others without looking back.
A moment later, he arrived in front of Gui Che with a completely pale face.
“What did you find?” Gui Che hurriedly asked, with Gan Ji, Luo Yao, and Ji Peng also staring at him expectantly.
“An ominous beast!” Yang Kai frowned, “It can resist the power of the wind and earth, has two large pincers, and crimson red eyes. It also looked like it had a barbed tail and could perfectly camouflage itself in the sandstorm. Even if one was standing right next to it, it would be difficult to discover, it’s clearly very dangerous.”
“Was the surface of its body purple?” Gui Che expression changed, asking urgently.
Yang Kai thought for a while and nodded, “Yes, just as I left, it’s pincers emerged from the sandstorm and they were indeed purple. Do you know what it is?”
The other three also turned expectant eyes towards Gui Che.
Gui Che suddenly grinned and put on a smug look, “Scarlet Tailed Purple Armoured Scorpion, have you heard of it?”
Hearing this name, the faces of the other three lit up and excited light flashed across their eyes.
Gan Ji even yelled, “Seriously? Is it really a Scarlet Tailed Purple Armoured Scorpion?”
“From what Yang Kai saw, plus my own judgment, it should be a Scarlet Tailed Purple Armoured Scorpion. En, we’ve finally found something good! Hahaha, even if we can’t find that body tempering place now, as long as we kill that Scarlet Tailed Purple Armoured Scorpion, this trip will have been worthwhile,” Gui Che laughed.
“But the Scarlet Tailed Purple Armoured Scorpion is a Ninth-Order Monster Beast, equivalent to an Origin Returning Realm master. Can the few of us really kill it?” Luo Yao’s peach blossom eyes flashed with concern.
“There shouldn’t be a problem,” Gan Ji thought for a while before responding confidently, “Monster Beasts are just Monster Beasts in the end, moreover, after having lived in this place for so long, it probably has very limited fighting experience. If it can only move against us on instinct, we can definitely take it down.”
“Fair enough,” Ji Peng didn’t have an opinion, an eager look appearing on his face.
“Is that Monster Beast valuable?” Yang Kai asked suspiciously.
Gui Che grinned, “More so than a low-level Tenth-Order Monster Beast at least! Most Monster Beasts don’t have anything of value on them besides their Monster Cores. Although sometimes a beast’s claws, teeth, or skin have some use, their value is still quite limited, but this Scarlet Tailed Purple Armoured Scorpion is completely different. Whether it is its carapace, tail, or pincers, they can all be used to refine artifacts, and those artifacts will definitely be at least Origin Grade, its blood and poison are also useful for Alchemy and its Monster Core can allow a cultivator to improve their strength, its whole body is a treasure! The most valuable item though is its Monster Core, because it is a Monster Beast that wields two different yet perfectly fused attributes. If a cultivator can refine its core, they will be able to gain insight into both the Wind and Earth Attributes, very likely allowing them to comprehend a more profound type of strength; do you think it’s valuable now?”
After hearing all that, even Yang Kai became interested.
Generally speaking, a cultivator’s body could only contain one attribute of energy at a time. It wasn’t that this was a hard limit, but rather that achieving more than that was prohibitively difficult.
Achieving mastery over a single attribute was often more than enough for a single cultivator to dedicate their entire lifetime to.
However, most cultivators could use multiple different attributes with the help of Martial Skills or artifacts. For example, beforehand, Yang Kai was able to use Yang Attribute and Yin Attribute energies with the help of his Unyielding Golden Skeleton.
He could also use Wind and Thunder Attribute energy with the assistance of his Wind and Thunder Wings.
Of these four attributes though, the primary ones were the Yang Attribute and Yin Attribute energies and Yang Kai had dedicated most of his life as a cultivator comprehending their mysteries. In the end, he had managed to fuse these two attributes together to create the monstrous Demonic Flame which was capable of incinerating all creation.
As for the Wind and Thunder Attributes, Yang Kai could only use them when he summoned his Wind and Thunder Wings.
The Core of the Scarlet Tailed Purple Armoured Scorpion, which innately contained two different yet perfectly fused attribute strengths, was of immense value.
Gui Che’s group of four gathered together, each of them displaying soaring fighting intent as they discussed they planned out their attack.
The Scarlet Tailed Purple Armoured Scorpion was a Ninth-Order Monster Beast, equivalent to an Origin Returning Realm cultivator. The four Saint Kings would have to bear a certain amount of risk if they wanted to kill it, but from their confident appearances, it was apparent they felt their odds of success were high.
None of these four people were foolish though, so naturally, they wouldn’t charge in without a plan.
Yang Kai was not included in this discussion. As a Third Order Saint, he wasn’t qualified to participate in this battle, and he didn’t try to force his way in either, simply standing to the side looking bored.
After an hour, everything had been discussed and Gui Che let out a snicker. Immediately, he rushed towards the area covered by the yellow sandstorm with Gan Ji and Ji Peng exchanging a stern look before following after him. Luo Yao wore a charming smile as she brought up the rear.
The four people wore varying looks but all of them ignored Yang Kai, soaring off like bolts of lightning, soon disappearing from sight.
After a while, Yang Kai noticed strong energy fluctuations coming from the distance as the sandstorm seemingly became more violent. Even from several dozen kilometres away, Yang Kai could smell the toxic scent of the Scarlet Tailed Purple Armoured Scorpion.
Brilliant flashes from Martial Skills and artifacts blossomed, sometimes mixed with the shouts of the four Saint Kings. Obviously they were engaged in a fierce struggle.
Yang Kai squinted his eyes and stared towards their direction, but he could see nothing but blurry figures darting in and out of the sandstorm.
With the passage of time, the ominous aura gradually became weaker, and the energy fluctuations emitted by the four cultivators led by Gui Che became stronger and stronger. Obviously, they were preparing to put down this Ninth-Order Monster Beast.
Thinking it was about time, Yang Kai flew over to the other side in an unhurried fashion, a light smile of satisfaction appearing on his face.
When he arrived, he found that atop the yellow sand was a house-sized beast lying down motionless, its vitality extinguished.
Gui Che and others were all wounded and even though they were still standing they were panting for breath. The man named Gan Ji was in an especially miserable state with a long wound across his thigh that was bone-deep.
This wound had nearly cost him his manhood, and as Yang Kai looked in his direction, he couldn’t help feeling a sense of sympathy.
Without even thinking about processing the spoils of victory, the four people took out pills to help restore themselves.
Yang Kai walked up to the Monster Beast carcass and after circling a few times, he reached out and knocked his fist on its hard carapace, marvelling at its toughness.
He could tell that Gui Che and the others were right. The carapace of this Scarlet Tailed Purple Armoured Scorpion, as well as its pair of pincers and its barbed tail, were all excellent materials for Artifact Refining, and as long as they were supplemented with some suitable ores and an appropriate Artifact Refiner could be found, creating an Origin Grade artifact would be guaranteed.
It was no wonder they all got excited when they heard about this Scarlet Tailed Purple Armoured Scorpion.
After half a day of hard work, the four of them gradually finished restoring themselves from their great battle.
Gui Che first consulted with the other three before walking over to the Scarlet Tailed Purple Armoured Scorpion, tearing open its carapace plates on its more fragile abdomen, then exploring its interior with his hand for a moment before taking out its green and yellow Monster Core.
Gui Che laughed, “This Core along is worth no less than 50,000 High-Rank Saint Crystals. Good, I’ll hold on to it for now, and when we get out of this place, we’ll find someone to sell it, then everyone will get an equal share of the Saint Crystals.”
Saying so, regardless of whether the others were willing or not, he put it directly into his Space Ring.
Yang Kai could clearly see that all three of the others were frowning, apparently a little unhappy at Gui Che’s conduct, none of them objected.
Gui Che then proceeded to divide up the Scarlet Tailed Purple Armoured Scorpion into eight pieces.
He himself took away the hard shell on the back of Monster Beast, which could be used to create an excellent Artifact Armour while Gan Ji obtained the scorpion’s tail while the two huge pincers were evenly divided between Ji Peng and Luo Yao.
Yang Kai stood aside and watched. He did not participate in the battle so naturally he was not qualified to obtain any of the spoils.
The small amount of blood that was left was also pocketed by Gui Che, allowing Yang Kai to come to some conclusions.
Although this kind of distribution was somewhat selfish, it could reluctantly be considered fair. Even if these people had some objections, they weren’t big enough to voice them. As for Yang Kai’s opinion, none of them would care.
“Let’s take a break,” Gui Che commanded and everyone began meditating again.
Ji Peng took out the animal skin again and began carefully studying it with a frown.
Suddenly, Ji Peng let out a cry of surprise, startling everyone else who turned to look at him only to see him in a jubilant state, nearly dancing and jumping for joy.
“What did you discover?” Gui Che hurriedly asked.
“I believe we’re not far from our goal,” Ji Peng said with a face full of smiles, any dissatisfaction with the distribution of the scorpion by Gui Che swept far, far away.
After hearing what he said, everyone raced over to Ji Peng, with Yang Kai also wearing an expectant look.
The animal skin was filled with all kinds of strange symbols, but at the topmost position was a huge mark which seemed to be their ultimate destination. In other places on the animal skin, there were pictures that seemed to represent special locations.
“Look at this yellow area, I didn’t know what it meant before, but now I understand, it must represent where the Scarlet Tailed Purple Armoured Scorpion made its nest,” Ji Peng pointed to the animal skin and explained.
“If this mark is where we are, isn’t this cyan area, the jungle we just passed through?” Gui Che asked thoughtfully.
“Then this is the lake we stopped at,” Luo Yao also pointed to a place to express her opinion.
“It should be, so as long as we continue to move forward, we should be able to reach our goal in a few days.”
As soon as these words came out, everyone’s mood became excited.
“It seems there’s danger up ahead,” Yang Kai interjected, pointing to a mark on the animal skin that looked like a flying bird, understanding at first glance that it wasn’t an existence they should provoke.
Flying beasts were always more difficult to contend with than those restricted to the ground, they were both fast and agile. In the same Order of Monster Beasts, flying beasts could always display superior combat power than their land counterparts.
“One step at a time, if there really is danger in that place, we’ll just bypass it,” Gui Che declared.
After resting for a while, everyone restored themselves to their peak condition and the group set out again.
The flying bird picture on the animal skin made everyone in the group somewhat nervous so they raised their vigilance as they travelled, looking up into the sky from time to time, but even after travelling quite some distance, they did not spot any traces of Monster Beasts. This development caused some confusion among the group and even made them worry that they had gone the wrong way.
Suddenly though, a brilliant arc of light appeared up ahead and a rampaging thunder and lightning aura surged up, causing everyone’s expression to become solemn.
Looking around, the group soon spotted a relatively short tree standing about a dozen kilometres away from them with sparse leaves constantly flickering with white lightning.
The Divine Senses of the five all rushed out to investigate their surroundings and after confirming there was no danger around them for a hundred kilometres, they slowly approached the tree under Gui Che’s leadership.
A short time later, the group of five stopped in front of the tree and stared at it curiously.
The tree, as tall as a human, contained a potent Thunder and Lightning Attribute energy and the few dozen leaves it had all seemed to be condensed out of the purest lightning essence. These leaves seemed like they were crafted from fine crystal or translucent jade and shimmered with light.
“What kind of tree is this?” Luo Yao asked curiously.
With the exception of the unlearned Yang Kai, everyone in this group could be considered relatively well-informed, but none of them could recognize this tree.
“Isn’t it recorded in the ancient record your ancestor left behind?” Gan Ji turned to look at Ji Peng who slowly shook his head, “No, perhaps this tree didn’t exist when he came here.”
“Such a strange tree couldn’t have been formed for no reason, are you hiding something from us?” Gan Ji stared Ji Peng with clear traces of disbelief.
Ji Peng coldly snorted and replied unpleasantly, “Why would I need to hide anything?”
“This is a Bird Wood!” Gui Che suddenly shouted with a look of excitement filling his eyes.
“Bird Wood?” The three parroted in surprise, Ji Peng quickly turning around and staring at Gui Che, “You mean…”
“The bird pattern on the animal skin map should be a bird species of Monster Beast which died here. Its flesh and Monster Core then gave birth to this Bird Wood!” Gui Che shouted, his look becoming somewhat frantic.
Ji Peng also seemed to think of something and quickly said, “It is recorded in the ancient books my ancestor left behind that he saw a giant bird clad in thunder and lightning, he even mentioned that this beast was likely a Thunder Luan!”
Gasps of shock echoed all around as everyone’s face couldn’t help showing expressions of fear, with Gui Che and the other three glaring towards Ji Peng angrily.
Ji Peng just shrugged, “If I told you about it earlier, none of you would have come. In any case, now that Thunder Luan is dead, there’s no need to worry about it.”
“You knew there was a Thunder Luan in this place, yet you dared lie to us about it? When we leave this place, we’ll settle this account,” Gui Che ground his teeth.
Hearing the four of them quarrelling, Yang Kai soon realized that the so-called Thunder Luan was an exceptionally rare Tenth-Order Monster Beast, and after it died, the vitality and energy of its body and Monster Core would breed a Bird Wood.
Bird Woods only sprouted in the places where powerful bird type Monster Beasts died, and the chances of one appearing were very small. Out of every ten thousand high-order bird type Monster Beasts that fell, perhaps only one Bird Wood would appear.
The characteristics of each Bird Wood were different and depended entirely upon the attributes of the Monster Beast which bred it.
The Thunder Luan was a Thunder Attribute Beast, so naturally the Bird Wood its corpse had given rise to also had a strong Thunder Attribute to it.
Although Ji Peng concealing the existence of this Thunder Luan had caused his partners some dissatisfaction, with Gui Che even swearing to settle accounts with him afterwards, the immense value of this Bird Wood still made all of their eyes red with greed.
After entering this place, besides Yang Kai, who only obtained a few herbs and some minor benefits, each of them had reaped a huge harvest, but with this Thunder Attribute Bird Wood bred from a Tenth-Order Monster Beast standing in front of them, all of them found it difficult to conceal their excitement and they temporarily put aside Ji Peng’s deception.
The group of four started to dig up the surrounding area.
A cold light flashed across the depths of Ji Peng’s eyes which only Yang Kai, who happened to be observing him, noticed, but he feigned ignorance while helping with the excavation.
After a while, a huge pit appeared inside of which lay a huge skeleton over three hundred meters in length. From the appearance of the skeleton, it was clear it belonged to a bird type Monster Beast but all its flesh and blood had long ago disappeared and its Monster Core was nowhere to be seen. Even its bones had become withered and frail.
All the vital energy of this Tenth-Order Monster Beast Thunder Luan had been transferred to the small Bird Wood.
Gui Che pushed his Saint Qi to protect his entire body before carefully pulling up the entire Bird Wood, not daring to damage even the smallest of its roots.
Seeing that he was going to put such an incredibly precious treasure into his Space Ring again, the other three immediately wore frowns.
Gui Che ignored them though and proceeded to stuff the Bird Wood into his Space Ring. Although he vowed to fairly distribute the profits from this treasure’s sale after they left, anyone could see that he simply wanted to take sole possession of this Bird Wood.
All of a sudden, the celebratory mood became somewhat subtle. Yang Kai stayed out of these matters as he was secretly guessing that if more benefits appeared before them, the other three wouldn’t hesitate to act against Gui Che.
However, with their destination not far away, the three others could only suppress their anger and wait until they achieve their objective before making their next move.
The atmosphere of this team became tense and Yang Kai followed behind them without a word, trying to be inconspicuous.
The further the group of five travelled, the more desolate the landscape became.
It seemed like starting from the area where the Scarlet Tailed Purple Armoured Scorpion lived, the land became barren and the once lush environment transformed into a wasteland where even the World Energy was thin.
After flying forward for some time, everyone suddenly felt a strange energy fluctuation coming from up ahead. At the same time, the blood in each of their bodies became somewhat agitated, dying their skin red. Their surging pulses and rising temperatures caused each of them to feel excited and agitated, their eyes gradually becoming bloodshot as their breathing became heavy.
“We’ve found it!” Ji Peng shouted and without hesitation flew his Star Shuttle towards the source of the energy fluctuations with the others chasing after him closely.
The strange waves of energy became more and more intense, stimulating everyone’s blood flow; Yang Kai could even hear his own heart violently throbbing inside his chest.
This situation was very abnormal, and Yang Kai immediately became vigilant.
A moment later, the group of five rushed to a spot above a great pit filled with bright red liquid which looked as thick as blood. This liquid reflected the bright sunlight which beamed down on it, giving it a strange yet beautiful appearance.
“Is this the Body Tempering Divine Pond?” Gui Che turned to Ji Peng.
Ji Peng nodded heavily, his eyes full of joy.
“How do we use it?” Gan Ji hurriedly asked. They had paid a huge price and suffered many losses just to find this pool, so now that it was so near, he couldn’t wait to temper his body with it and enhance his physique.
The root of any cultivators was their body, and minor benefits obtained along the road could never be compared to a fundamental improvement of one’s aptitude.
“There’s no special method to use this thing,” Ji Peng laughed before plunging into the blood-red pool with a great splash. Ji Peng’s head soon re-emerged and he let out a groan, seemingly suffering from some pain.
But soon, the pain disappeared and was replaced by endless joy, his face showing a look of ecstasy as if he was receiving massive benefits, his Second Order Saint King aura involuntarily bursting out.
Anyone could detect that his vitality was rapidly improving.
Gui Che, Gan Ji, and Luo Yao had all been acting vigilantly up until now, for fear that Ji Peng was still hiding something from them, but after seeing him so easily jump into the blood-red pond, none of them hesitated any longer and jumped into the Body Tempering Divine Pond, lest the benefits be snatched up by Ji Peng alone.
The pond was not too big, only about a hundred meters in diameter, and it was impossible to tell how it came to be, but regardless of all this, when the three of them entered it, they all showed happy expressions.
Yang Kai stood still without moving. Ji Peng opened his eyes and gave him a glance while yelling, “Kid, just sit at the edge, you won’t be able to withstand the impact from the middle section.”
“I can come in too?” Yang Kai looked surprised.
Ji Peng laughed, “We told you when we first met, didn’t we? As long as you cooperated with us honestly, there will naturally be benefits for you. That time has come.”
Yang Kai frowned and didn’t wish to rush in rashly, but know he could not avoid this situation, he walked to the edge of the pond and sat down as Ji Peng told him to.
The moment he entered the pond, Yang Kai’s face changed.
From all directions, fierce pressure bombarded him, causing him a great deal of pain, as if his five viscera and six organs had all suffered a heavy blow, causing his face to suddenly go pale.
But in the next moment, the pain disappeared and was replaced with indescribable comfort.
An inexplicable force filled the pond and immediately began penetrating into Yang Kai’s body. Under the impact of this force, Yang Kai clearly felt that his blood was undergoing some subtle changes.
Just like Ji Peng earlier, Yang Kai’s vitality began surging and his life aura became stronger.
Yang Kai quickly used his Divine Sense to examine himself.
Saint Qi flowed quickly through his meridians while his golden blood surged through his vessels, absorbing the strange power from the pond which was pouring into his body.
Fantastical changes began happening. Yang Kai noticed that among his golden blood, a faint point of brilliant golden radiance appeared. This needle-tip sized drop of radiant golden blood seemed to contain unimaginable energy.
Yang Kai was shocked.
This newly formed blood was somewhat almost identical to the blood of Great Demon God.
Because of the Unyielding Golden Skeleton, Yang Kai’s blood had gradually changed to a golden colour over his years of cultivation. In the beginning, this change wasn’t obvious, and his blood would only contain faint hints of golden light.
But with the improvement of his cultivation, these faint wisps of gold began replacing the original red in his vessels.
A few years ago, the blood in Yang Kai’s body had lost all red pigmentation and only a shimmering golden colour remained.
However, Yang Kai knew better than anyone that although his golden blood possessed strong restorative abilities, it was still several grades worse than Great Demon God’s Demon God Golden Blood.
Yang Kai didn’t know how to transform his Golden Blood into a more purified and powerful form and could only continue to cultivate and increase his strength in the hopes that as he did so, his Golden Blood would become purer.
This time, following Ji Peng and the others to this so-called Body Tempering Divine Pond, Yang Kai had reaped an unexpected gain.
Yang Kai instantly realized that this Body Tempering Divine Pond was not designed to quench one’s flesh, but rather to enhance their blood; increasing one’s vitality this way would subsequently make one’s body stronger. Ji Peng may have misunderstood the true role of this place.
This quenching was actually better and more thorough than a simple quenching of the flesh.
At this point, Yang Kai no longer hesitated and began actively trying to draw in the strange power which flooded the pond, his consciousness constantly observing the newly born Golden Blood in his veins, watching as it grew in size from a large needle tip to a grain of rice, then a large bean.
When a single drop of Golden Blood was finally formed, and Yang Kai was able to fully appreciate its splendour, Yang Kai grew very excited.
The power contained in this drop of Golden Blood was incomparable to his previous Golden Blood, it was true Demon God Golden Blood.
Another drop of Golden Blood slowly began forming, repeating the previous sequences of events.
After an hour, Yang Kai had managed to form three new drops of Golden Blood in his body. He didn’t know how much the others had gained, but he was certain they had benefited just as much as he had.
Just as Yang Kai was immersed in his enjoyment, he heard Gan Ji suddenly call out in shock, “Where is Ji Peng?”
This shout awakened all the people who were immersed in the joy of their blood’s enhancement and after they all took a glance around, they confirmed that Ji Peng was indeed missing.
Yang Kai’s face sank and he quickly released his Divine Sense to search the area, soon noticing Ji Peng’s life aura near the bottom of the pond.
“I knew you were up to something!” Gui Che roared as he swiftly dove down into the pond to see what Ji Peng was doing.
His body had just disappeared though when Ji Peng suddenly leapt out of the blood-red pond and stood mid-air overlooking the group beneath him in a calm and composed manner.
On his face was a smug look of satisfaction.
Yang Kai didn’t even think about it and immediately tried to leap out from the pond, but before he could act, an irresistible suction appeared from the bottom of the water, as if two giant invisible hands had grasped his ankles and refused to let him move.
At the same time, an endless stream of bubbles began breaking through the surface of the blood-red pond, bursting with resounding pops. The strange omnipresent pressure in the water suddenly became a thousand times more intense than before and began flooding into the bodies of everyone still inside it.
The drop of Demon God Golden Blood that had just started to form in Yang Kai’s body grew at an incredible rate and was soon completed.
Submersed in the Body Tempering Divine Pond, Gui Che, Gan Ji, and Luo Yao all shivered and paled. Even if they were masters at the Saint King Realm, they couldn’t bear such intense pressure.
Yang Kai was also in great pain and couldn’t help feeling as if he was being crushed to death.
But the rapidly condensing Demon God Golden Blood in his body provided him with some relief, causing his condition to actually be the most relaxed of the group.
The other three were all on the verge of collapsing.
“Ji Peng, what are you doing?” Gan Ji growled angrily.
Ji Peng just stood high up in the sky and stared down dismissively at them, not saying a word, as if he was looking at a dead man.
Gui Che yelled, “Ji Peng, you better pray I don’t escape from this otherwise I swear I’ll give you a fate worse than death!”
Ji Peng let out a laugh and confidently replied, “I’ve already activated the Sacrificial Altar at the bottom of the Divine Pond, all of you will be its offerings. No matter how strong you are, you won’t be leaving from here.”
“Sacrificial Altar?” Gui Che’s face changed as he roared indignantly, “You were still hiding things from us!”
Ji Peng sneered, “If I had told you everything about this place, I’m afraid I’d be the one being sacrificed right now! I’m well aware of your sinister and treacherous nature, Gui Che. Did you think I brought you here out of goodwill? In the face of such great benefits, who wouldn’t want to monopolize them? It’s laughable how you fell for such a simple trick. I’ll tell you now, this Body Tempering Divine Pond contains all kinds of incredible mysteries. It can indeed quench one’s flesh, but if one wants to thoroughly temper their body, they need to offer it enough sacrifices. After you die, you’ll serve the same role as that Thunder Luan, your vitality and cultivation all transforming into pure energy I can absorb to enhance my own strength.”
After hearing what he said, the faces of everyone else present turned even whiter, only now realizing Ji Peng’s true intentions and completely recognizing his sinister nature.
Although Gui Che and Gan Ji weren’t the most cunning of people, they weren’t fools either, ordinarily, it would have been impossible for them to fall for such a simple and obvious trap. On the way here, they had constantly been on guard against Ji Peng, but having obtained so many great benefits along the way, their vigilance had become lax and once they saw Ji Peng jump so carefreely into the Body Tempering Divine Pond, they had followed without giving it much thought, and it was only after the trap had been sprung did they understand they had been played.
It was too late for regrets though, so all of them went all out to struggle free from the Body Tempering Divine Pond’s grip, but the harder they struggled, the more intense the force holding them down became. All of them were only capable of keeping their heads floating above water while their bodies were forced to accept the potent effects of the Tempering Divine Pond as they waited for death.
“Ji Peng, you even plotted against me?” Luo Yao asked in a pitiful voice as she directed a sad look towards Ji Peng.
Ji Peng’s expression slowly became solemn as he glanced over at Luo Yao with some pity, only a long time later letting out a sigh, “Although we have only known each other for a few years, I don’t want you to die. I like you quite a bit and I planned on sharing the benefits of this Body Tempering Divine Pond with you.”
Luo Yao immediately wore a smile upon her charming face, thinking that Ji Peng was going to spare her.
But in the next moment, Ji Peng slowly shook his head, “Unfortunately it’s too late for such thoughts now. With the Sacrificial Altar already activated, you cannot come out, and I won’t go in. The number of sacrifices is too small as it is. When my ancestor came here originally, there were a dozen people in his group. My ancestor’s aptitude wasn’t very high, and when he came here, his cultivation was the same as that little brat’s…”
Saying so, he pointed at Yang Kai, “Only a Third Order Saint, and the weakest out of his entire team. Anyone else could bully or order him around, and when they discovered the benefits of this Body Tempering Divine Pond, he wasn’t even granted a share. The rest of his group occupied the Divine Pond to reap the benefits for themselves, but who could have known that being forcefully excluded actually saved my ancestor’s life. After everyone else died, my ancestor waited until the Divine Pond had calmed down completely and then proceeded to enjoy all the benefits here alone. He recorded in my family’s ancient records that if not for this Divine Pond, even if he had cultivated desperately, at most he could have become a Second or Third Order Saint King, but do you know what realm he ultimately achieved? Third Order Origin Returning Realm, just one step away from the Origin King Realm!”
Ji Peng’s tone of voice rose higher and higher as he became emotional, his hands waving in an exaggerated manner, “My aptitude is also not great, but it is still much better than that old man’s, so with the help of this Body Tempering Divine Pond, I will have a chance to reach the Origin King Realm in this lifetime!”
“Origin King Realm!” Gui Che suddenly let out a peal of wild and dissolute laughter as blood flowed from the corners of his lips, nose, eyes, and ears. Ignoring his own distress, he stared at Ji Peng contemptuously, “With just the benefits of this place you believe you can reach the Origin King Realm? The Origin King Realm isn’t something so cheap.”
Ji Peng didn’t show any annoyance though and simply declared, “After you all become part of me, you will be able to bear witness to my rise. Luo Yao, although it saddens me to see you die here, I take comfort in knowing you will soon be joined to me forever as a part of me. En, I will also set up a tablet in your memory. Don’t worry though, my future is still long, and I believe I will meet another woman who I can fall in love with.”
“Insane, you’re completely insane!” Luo Yao’s face went pale as he called out hoarsely.
“Say whatever you like,” Ji Peng said as all traces of pity left his expression, leaving behind only a cold glint in his eyes as he overlooked the group below him on the verge of death. Before, he had simply been waxing nostalgically, and now that he was done, there was nothing more to say.
With the exception of Yang Kai, the condition of everyone in the pond was gradually getting worse. Blood began to boil, meridians began to break, and flesh began to tear, causing red blood to flow into the Body Tempering Divine Pond, dying it an even darker shade of crimson.
On the other hand, Yang Kai only felt uncomfortable while his life wasn’t currently in danger.
A person’s body had a natural capacity, just like how only a certain amount of Saint Qi could be stored in one’s dantian, only a certain amount of vital energy could be stored in one’s body. If this capacity was forcefully exceeded due to some external factor, dire consequences would be incurred and in the worst-case scenario one could even explode.
Yang Kai was an exception to this rule, however. In the past, he could condense Yang Liquid to store in his dantian and currently he could store excess Saint Qi directly in his physique. His physical body was all but bottomless.
The strange force present in the Body Tempering Divine Pond was similar to Saint Qi in the air, both of which could be used to cultivate. Ji Peng activating the Sacrificial Altar at the bottom of the Divine Pond greatly enhanced the effects of this strange force and it was currently hammering Gui Che, Gan Ji, and Luo Yao’s bodies to death.
However, Yang Kai could transform this strange energy into pure Demon God Golden Blood, essentially allowing him to undergo a limitless amount of tempering. Quickly, he had condensed ten drops of Demon God Golden Blood, each one containing a terrifying amount of energy.
With a tragic sound, Gan Ji’s body suddenly swelled up as a pulse of energy burst from his body, battering his surroundings as blood poured out of his seven orifices, giving him a miserable appearance.
*Peng…*
A muffled noise rang out and a giant splash emerged from the Body Tempering Divine Pond. After the blood-red water fell back to the pond, Gan Ji had disappeared and in his place, on the surface of the pond, was a large amount of minced flesh and broken limbs. Soon after, these remnants sank into the water and dissolved, transforming into a massive amount of pure vital energy.
After Gan Ji died, the Body Tempering Divine Pond boiled up even more and the surge of bubbles coming from its depths increased in intensity. Yang Kai clearly felt a massive amount of the strange force pour into his body from all around, nearly causing him to cry out in pain.
Ji Peng calling them sacrificial offerings wasn’t just idle talk but instead a true fact. With Gan Ji’s death, the effects of the Body Tempering Divine Pond became even stronger.
The next moment, Luo Yao’s scream echoed through the air and the enchanting yet dignified young woman followed in Gan Ji’s footsteps.
Before she died, Luo Yao’s beautiful eyes sent an unforgettable glare of hatred towards Ji Peng, seemingly wishing to imprint his ugly countenance into her soul.
The two exploded one after the other, with no bones left. The effectiveness of the Body Tempering Divine Pond suddenly increased by one level.
Soon after, even the strongest Gui Che found himself unable to handle the increase pressure and shamelessly called out, “Ji Peng, save me and I’ll give you everything inside my Space Ring!”
Ji Peng simply stared at him though and said, “Once you die, and the Body Tempering Divine Pond calms down, I’ll naturally obtain your Space Ring and everything inside it.”
“You’ll suffer Heaven’s punishment for this!” Gui Che raged angrily.
Ji Peng laughed wildly, “Maybe, but you won’t be around to see it.”
As soon as he spoke those words, Gui Che’s body burst open and his Space Ring flew up into the air before landing back into the pond, disappearing beneath its surface.
Ji Peng’s eyes flashed with greed, but he didn’t rush out to collect it.
After waiting for a while, he suddenly wore a strange expression and muttered, “How come their Souls didn’t come out?”
Ever since Gan Ji died, Ji Peng had been on guard against his former teammate’s Souls escaping. He had been waiting to ruthlessly extinguish them as soon as they appeared.
But to his surprise, when his former companion’s died, no trace of their Souls could be seen, as if they had been destroyed and become sacrifices when their bodies exploded.
After thinking about it for a moment but not coming up with an answer, Ji Peng turned his attention towards Yang Kai, frowned, and asked, “Kid, why are you still not dead?”
Yang Kai’s forehead was filled with veins as sweat poured down his skin, seemingly enduring unimaginable pain and torment as he haltingly spoke, “I don’t know. Maybe because my strength is too low and I had to sit at the edge of the pond. Do you want to step inside and check for yourself?”
Ji Peng coldly snorted, “Do you think I’m an idiot?”
Yang Kai nodded firmly, “You really must be an idiot, standing there so smugly, not even realizing that someone is sneaking up to attack you from behind.”
Ji Peng’s face changed immediately as he rapidly turned around to see a twin-horned blood-stained man who was concealing his aura while rapidly approaching.
“Di Ji?” Ji Peng’s face paled greatly when he saw who it was.
But after noticing the condition of this Monster Race master, Ji Peng calmed down greatly. He didn’t know what danger Di Ji had encountered, but at this moment his body was filled with wounds and he looked quite exhausted. Most importantly, Di Ji was currently all alone, all of his former companions had disappeared.
Yang Kai had been following Ji Peng’s group around for several days and although they had run into a few bumps along the way, they had not encountered too much danger because Ji Peng had the records left behind by his ancestor, allowing them to travel a relatively safe route.
But Di Ji was different. In order to acquire the treasures hidden in this place, his group had run into several dangers which had killed most of them. Now, only Di Ji remained and even he was in poor condition.
He had wanted to sneak up and kill Ji Peng from behind, but he hadn’t expected Yang Kai to suddenly expose him.
Di Ji shot Yang Kai a vicious look, annoyed that he spoiled his good deed.
“How did you find this place?” Ji Peng asked coldly.
Di Ji snorted heavily, “I’m not deaf, did you think I wouldn’t hear so many agonized screams?”
Saying so, his expression became fierce as he stared at Ji Peng and asked, “Is what you just said true? Can this Body Tempering Divine Pond really improve one’s physique? Did your ancestor really cultivate to the Third Order Origin Returning Realm?”
“What of it?” Ji Peng didn’t bother making any denials as Di Ji had obviously been listening in for a while now. Di Ji had absolutely heard what Ji Peng was saying to the others, lying served no purpose now.
“Good, good!” Di Ji was overjoyed, “Half a year ago when we started pursuing you guys, I had no idea what you were up to, only that there must be some huge benefits to be had, but now I understand completely. Ji Peng, you’re not my opponent, if you want to survive, leave obediently. Otherwise, don’t blame me for acting ruthlessly.”
A trace of panic flashed across Ji Peng’s face. He was only a Second-Order Saint King while Di Ji was a Minor Realm higher than him. Ordinarily, he would not be Di Ji’s opponent, but soon after, that panic disappeared and Ji Peng sneered, “Are you sure about that? If you could easily kill me right now, you wouldn’t bother saying anything. The truth is you don’t know which of us would come out on top if we were to fight right now, do you?”
“You saw through me?” Di Ji smiled lightly, without the slightest bit of embarrassment as he nodded, “Since you understand then I won’t waste any more time. There’s just the two of us here now, and neither of us is confident he can beat the other, so why don’t we sit down and talk it out?”
“What do you want?” Ji Peng looked at him angrily.
Although Ji Peng knew that Di Ji had brought people into this place, he hadn’t expected to run into him at the last moment. Ji Peng couldn’t wait to rush out and kill Di Ji, but he didn’t dare act rashly as he wasn’t certain he could win.
“Simple, we share. In any case, this pool is so large that the two of us can both temper our bodies. Both of us gain some benefits while not making things awkward for the other,” Di Ji proposed positively.
“Good, I agree. Since the situation is currently like this, I don’t want there to be any more complications, giving you a few benefits rather than risking everything is fine with me,” Ji Peng nodded happily.
“So it’s settled?” Di Ji chuckled.
Ji Peng nodded again.
The two stared at each other across the several dozen meter gap between them, both seemingly quite satisfied with this quick negotiation.
Suddenly, a dark golden Artifact Armour appeared on Ji Peng and he slashed forward with his hand, sending out a series of sharp Saint Qi blades towards Di Ji.
At the same time, a burst of silver light appeared in Di Ji’s hand and a silver spear appeared. The patterns on the spear seemed to come alive and a heavy Water Attribute aura burst out from it, crashing into Ji Peng’s attack like a tsunami.
A battle had instantly broken out between these two men who had just a moment ago seemingly reached a compromise.
Yang Kai sat in the Divine Pond with a sneer on his face, he knew that from the start these two could not coexist peacefully, because Ji Peng would absolutely not allow Di Ji any time to restore himself. Once Di Ji recovered, Ji Peng would definitely not be his opponent, so he had no choice but to go all out with Di Ji even if he wasn’t confident he could win.
Although Ji Peng’s cultivation was inferior, Di Ji’s condition was poor, so neither side knew who would emerge victoriously.
After spectating for a moment, Yang Kai lost interest in this battle and instead focused all of his attention on his own matters, stopped resisting the force trying to drag him down, and submerged himself into the pond.
He wanted to see what was hidden beneath the surface.
The dark red water churned violently, just like a rolling boil, the strange energy contained within it constantly smelting Yang Kai’s blood.
Yang Kai squinted slightly as he allowed himself to be pulled under. It wasn’t long before his feet touched the bottom of the pond, and when they did, the suction which was restricting his movements disappeared.
Deep in the pond’s depths, it was too dark to see anything, the blood-red water obscuring all light from the surface.
Yang Kai had to take out a luminous stone and hold it in his hand to see around himself. Releasing his Divine Sense, Yang Kai quickly discovered something which appeared to be the source of the strange power flooding the water and assumed it was the Sacrificial Altar Ji Peng had mentioned.
Instead of rushing to the Sacrificial Altar though, Yang Kai began to look around the bottom of the pond.
After a while, Yang Kai found a Space Ring lying quietly on the ground. Retrieving the Space Ring and probing it with his Divine Sense, Yang Kai wore a grin on his face.
Inside this Space Ring was the Thunder Attribute Bird Wood that had been formed after the death of the Tenth-Order Monster Beast Thunder Luan, the carapace of the Scarlet Tailed Purple Armoured Scorpion, countless herbs, and the Monster Cores of several Seventh and Eighth-Order Monster Beasts.
It was Gui Che’s Space Ring!
Yang Kai placed the ring in his sleeve pocket with great satisfaction.
Because Space Rings had their own independent spaces inside them, they could not be stored inside the Demon Mystic Tome. Although Space Rings couldn’t be loaded into the Demon Mystic Tome, the Universe Bags could. Yang Kai didn’t understand the principle behind this but didn’t spend much time thinking about it.
Gui Che’s Space Ring had most of the good things that had been harvested from this little trip, but after finding it, Yang Kai determination did not waver and he continued his search.
The Body Tempering Divine Pond wasn’t very big, only about a hundred meters in diameters, but surprisingly it was more than a thousand meters deep.
It wasn’t difficult to find a few Space Rings in such a place, and soon, the ones that belonged to Gan Ji and Luo Yao were also pocketed by Yang Kai.
Above the pond, blasts of energy filled the air as the shouts of Ji Peng and Di Ji rang out. The two were obviously fighting a fierce battle. Yang Kai paid attention to them for a while but quickly figured the two of them wouldn’t be able to reach a conclusion for quite some time and shifted his attention to the Sacrificial Altar.
A moment later, Yang Kai arrived in front of the strange altar and silently began examining it. There was an extremely profound Spirit Array engraved on this altar and was surrounded by a number of brilliant Saint Crystals that gave off a sensational energy fluctuation.
However, as he examined them closer, Yang Kai soon realized that these weren’t Saint Crystals.
They possessed an even denser and richer concentration than High-Rank Saint Crystals.
Were these things an even higher grade of Saint Crystal? Yang Kai wondered to himself, uncertain of what the call these things.
Atop the altar were visible, densely packed Spirit Array lines that crisscrossed with one another. It was extremely complicated.
This place was obviously not naturally formed, but instead artificially arranged; as for which master had created it, that was unknown.
Countless points of light, like the fireflies in the night sky, floated around this Sacrificial Altar in a beautiful dance. These wisps of light seemed to compose a stream of energy that was constantly pouring into the altar.
Atop this Sacrificial Altar were innumerable rare and precious treasures that Yang Kai couldn’t even begin to identify.
Under the action of this Sacrificial Altar, the effects of these precious treasures were activated, creating the strange energy which tempered Yang Kai’s blood and allowed him to create the purest Demon God Golden Blood!
Yang Kai was ecstatic and immediately sat cross-legged beside the Sacrificial Altar in order to obtain the fiercest tempering.
However, Yang Kai hadn’t imagined though that the moment he sat down, the Sacrificial Altar would begin shaking and the entire Body Tempering Divine Pond would become stimulated. Suddenly, all the blood-red liquid in the Divine Pond began swiftly gathering towards the Sacrificial Altar.
Yang Kai paled, not having anticipated such a development. He tried his best to move away from the Sacrificial Altar, but under the raging torrent of the crimson water, he was unable to even lift a finger.
Releasing his Divine Sense, Yang Kai clearly noticed that the water level of the entire Body Tempering Divine Pond was rapidly decreasing. It wasn’t that the amount of water was reducing, but rather that the liquid itself was being compressed due to the attraction of the Sacrificial Altar.
This anomaly also alarmed Ji Peng and Di Ji, who stopped their life or death battle and turned towards the Body Tempering Divine Pond in shock.
When he discovered that the Divine Pond was rapidly drying up, Ji Peng let out a mad scream and recklessly threw himself towards it to try to stop whatever was happening.
He had worked so hard and schemed against so many people just for the opportunity to temper his body in this pond and was just about to achieve his wish. Although Di Ji had interfered at the last moment, Ji Peng wasn’t about to compromise, but if the Body Tempering Divine Pond disappeared, all his previous efforts would be for nought.
Ji Peng completely ignored Di Ji and crazily tried to stop the water level from falling again, but no matter what he tried, it had no effect.
Di Ji, on the other hand, was dumbfounded and simply stood still.
In less than ten breaths of time, the Body Tempering Divine Pond, which was over a thousand meters deep, had completely dried up, with all the crimson liquid compressing itself down into a small blood-red crystal cocoon.
When Ji Peng arrived at the bottom of the pond, he saw Yang Kai trapped inside the blood-red cocoon while the Sacrificial Altar, which was supposed to be right there, had actually disappeared.
He stood in place, his eyes dull, as if he had lost his soul.
A moment later, Ji Peng let out a crazed shout and began furiously attacking the crystal cocoon, the full force of his Second Order Saint King cultivation bursting out, causing Di Ji, who was standing far away, to be slightly startled.
He couldn’t afford to take on Ji Peng’s desperate outburst.
But weirdly, the blood-red crystal cocoon was seemed to be forged from the hardest steel and forget about destroying it, Ji Peng’s attacks couldn’t even leave a scratch on it.
The ground suddenly trembled and began to split, sending the native Monster Beasts into a panic as they noticed the impending crisis, all of them trying to take shelter or flee for their lives.
Di Ji’s expression also changed greatly and he didn’t dare to remain, swiftly flying off.
Ji Peng also stopped his attacks and after releasing his Divine Sense realized that something was wrong. Finally recovering a bit of his sanity, he made one final effort to break open the crystal cocoon before preparing to leave.
However, he was once again too late. From the blood-red crystal cocoon, an irresistible suction force broke out and all living things in this strange isolate world, from the beasts to the plants, had their vitality drawn out of the bodies, transformed into wisps of glowing light, and sucked into the cocoon.
Ji Peng was forced to watch as his skin dried up and his body withered, his vitality rapidly passing and after a short time, which to him felt like thousands of years, his bones broke down into dust and were scattered to the wind.
Before he died though, he managed to meet eyes with a terrified Di Ji who had also been drawn back.
Amidst the vast Starry Sky, a Starship carefully avoided the stray asteroids as it sailed towards its goal.
The Starship wasn’t big, less than two hundred meters in length, the smallest type in the entire Star Field, barely Saint King Grade Low-Rank. The hull of such a Starship wasn’t very sturdy, and from the dents and scrapes on its hull, it was clear it had suffered damage from numerous asteroid hits.
If it was a higher grade Starship, such damage would never have been possible.
This small Starship sailed extremely cautiously and seemed to be full of cargo, so its overall speed was quite slow.
Inside the ship, there were about sixty cultivators of varying strength, each one performing their routine duties.
For this expedition, they had been ordered to go out to mine some ore from a nearby Ore Star for half a year, and it wasn’t until a few days ago when they had filled their cargo hold that they had set sail for home.
There were originally a hundred of them, but now only a bit more than half of them remained. They didn’t know why, but the Ore Star they had travelled to had many ferocious beasts appearing and disappearing, resulting in the deaths of many of their companions while they were mining.
The survivors were all just happy to be returning alive so they spoke no words of complaint.
Six months of hard work could be exchanged for many years of freedom, so they were quite satisfied. After this trip, they would receive a large amount of remuneration and could use that money to purchase better Secret Arts and Martial Skills while possibly even acquiring higher grade artifacts. Everyone aboard the Starship felt a sense of accomplishment as they imagined such a bright future.
Wu Yi, a First Order Saint King, was this Starship’s captain. At her age, having such cultivation on Shadowed Star made it clear her aptitude wasn’t bad. The Elders in her family had asserted that as long as she cultivated diligently, she would definitely reach the Origin Returning Realm in the future.
Her strength wasn’t the strongest on the Starship though, that title belonged to her family’s Foreign Elder who possessed a Third Order Saint King cultivation. This Foreign Elder was very old though and besides sitting in the Starship to ensure its safety, he was aloof to all other matters, even Wu Yi wasn’t qualified to command him.
There were other Saint Kings around as well; after all, this mining expedition required a certain amount of strength to protect itself.
Wu Yi stood in the Starship’s power room at this moment and was gazing out the transparent window, staring at the Starry Sky, a sense of longing flashing across her beautiful eyes.
Shadowed Star was her home, but the World Energy on Shadowed Star couldn’t be compared to other major Cultivation Stars in the Star Field. It was a barren place with scarce resources and supplies, lacking in high-grade precious treasure and powerful masters alike.
The strongest masters on Shadowed Star were just Second-Order Origin Returning Realm cultivators and many of them were already over two thousand years old. It wasn’t even clear how much battle strength these masters had.
Shadowed Star was also situated in a relatively remote part of Heng Luo Star Field and was surrounded by countless Dead Stars nearby. To find an Ore Star to mine, a several month long journey was necessary. During this period, everyone onboard the Starship was constantly on edge, fearing that the ship would be destroyed.
Because of its remoteness and barrenness, the great forces in the Star Field rarely paid any attention to this area, and even the ruthless Galaxy Ridge and Abandoned Lair didn’t run over to engage in plunder and bloodshed.
Although Shadowed Star was technically part of the Star Field, it had almost become its own independent world, forgotten by everyone else.
Wu Yi very much wanted to leave Shadowed Star and take a look at the outside world. When she was young, she had listened to many stories of the wondrous sights and scenes of the other Cultivation Stars in the Star Field as well as the great masters at the Origin King Realm. The unimaginable beauty and splendour of those other Cultivation Star where one could cultivate many times faster than on Shadowed Star, all the various different kinds of people, the Saint Crystals and pills that could never be used up.
Compared to those other Cultivation Stars, Wu Yi felt like a little countryside girl who had never seen the world.
She yearned for everything in the outside, but the status of her family severely limited her freedom, and since she was quite sensible, she had soon begun focusing on making contributions to her family instead of her childhood dreams, offering to lead this dangerous trip to the nearby Ore Star. For every ten Starships that were sent out, it would be fortunate if five returned from this task, so no one dared to take on this job if at all possible. In the eyes of the Elders of the family, this was almost akin to punishment rather than a duty.
However, with Wu Yi being a woman, in her family’s eyes, even if she were to accidentally die outside, it wouldn’t damage the foundation of the family, so they had easily agreed to her leading the expedition.
If it was instead a male direct descendant of the family, the Elders would never have allowed him to take on such a dangerous mission.
[A group of old short-sighted fools, no wonder they can only wait to die on Shadowed Star!]
[So what if I’m a woman?] Wu Yi snorted softly, clenching her fists while secretly vowing that one day she would leave Shadowed Star and escape from this suffocating prisoner’s cage, find her own freedom, and bask in the wider and more exciting world.
“Young Lady!” A Third-Order Saint hurried over, his eyes greedily lingering on Wu Yi’s splendid mountains and enchanting valleys before he quickly lowered his head and focused his gaze on his feet.
“What is it?” Wu Yi turned to look at him, “I just saw Yu Feng taking some men with him outside, what are they up to?”
“Senior Yu Feng just discovered a blood-red ore nearby and thought it might be something of value, so he took some people with him to retrieve it, but who could have known it was actually something much stranger than expected,” The cultivator quickly explained.
“Hm? What’s the situation?” Wu Yi immediately became curious. While she was staring out the window, she had indeed seen Yu Feng lead a team of people out on their Star Shuttles. Now it turns out they had brought back some kind of strange red ore.
“I think it would be best for Young Lady to go and see for herself, this subordinate also isn’t quite clear what happened,” The cultivator let out a hollow laugh.
Wu Yi’s delicate brow furrowed before she nodded, “Lead the way.”
Staying inside this Starship all day long was driving her crazy with boredom so now that there was a new novelty around, naturally it attracted Wu Yi’s interest. Perhaps Yu Feng was having similar thoughts, which lead him to rashly leave the Starship to bring back the strange blood-red ore.
Somewhere in the Starship’s hold, a large group of people stood around a large crimson crystal about ten meters in diameter, all of them marveling at this strange treasure. Although they were all curious about what this crystal was, none of them dared to approach it except for the one who had originally retrieved it, Yu Feng.
Yu Feng glanced around at the companions with a look of disdain and snorted, “So what if there’s a dead man inside this thing? What’s there to be afraid of?”
Saying so, he lightly patted the huge blood-red crystal with his palm.
“Yu Feng, what good thing did you find?” A clear and pleasant sounding voice called out from nearby and upon hearing it, all the crew members who were just lazily standing around straightened up their backs and fixed their sloppy faces. Even Yu Feng stood up tall and tried to wear a mature and reliable expression.
The crowd automatically separated and allowed Wu Yi to step forward. The light, floral scent which seemed to waft from her figure caused this group of men to greedily and joyfully sniff the air.
Wu Yi shook her head helplessly. On this Starship, she was literally the only woman. This group of wolf-like men, after many months of hard labour, were by now starved for companionship, and Wu Yi couldn’t bring herself to care about them showing such an ugly performance because even if she reprimanded them, they would all just wear stupid grins on their faces as if receiving her scolding was an honour for them. Wu Yi had long ago resigned herself to this kind of display.
Over time, she had simply begun turning a blind eye to these situations, and the more she ignored them, the more presumptuous they became.
Yu Feng, on the other hand, stood up to enforce justice, punching a few of the bolder ones who had openly sniffed the air before putting on a fierce expression and shouting, “I’ll kill anyone who dares act so disrespectfully to the Young Lady, stand back and show some manners!”
While he was shouting though he too was taking down big gulps of air like a drowning fish.
“It’s fine,” Wu Yi waved her hand casually as she walked over the blood-red crystal and asked, “Is this the thing you found?”
“Yes, Young Lady,” Yu Feng rushed over to Wu Yi and pointed at the giant crystal, “At first I thought it was some kind of treasure, but I didn’t realize until I actually obtained it that there was actually a dead person inside it. The poor bastard, I don’t know how he died, but when I saw him drifting through the Starry Sky, I couldn’t bear to just leave him there, so I brought him back and was planning to find a place to bury him on Shadowed Star.”
Wu Yi nodded gently, “Having a charitable disposition is good, especially considering your usual irritating behaviour. En, I didn’t expect you to have such a side.”
After being praised, Yu Feng’s mouth curled into a grin that stretched from one ear to the other, clearly not knowing the meaning of the word shame as he openly boasted, “In fact, I just look a little rough on the outside while in truth I am a true gentleman on the inside.”
Unscrupulous snickers and sneers echoed through the hold.
Wu Yi wanted to laugh as well, but felt doing so was too shameful, so she covered her mouth with her delicate hand while resisting her urge to smile and said, “Are you sure the person inside is dead?”
Yu Feng was stunned for a moment before asking, “Can someone in this kind of state actually survive?”
Wu Yi carefully looked at the people who were sealed inside the blood-red crystal. This man looked quite young, around thirty years old at most, and although he wasn’t too handsome, compared to the worthless lot on this Starship, he could be considered quite good looking. Even though his eyes were shut tight at the moment, this young man’s face seemed to have an inexplicable charm to it.
Releasing her Divine Sense, Wu Yi wanted to check if this young man had any signs of vitality, but to her surprise, the blood-red crystal seemed to be able to block her probing.
“Go invite Foreign Elder Chang Qi to come and see if this young man has truly died or not,” Wu Yi quickly said.
Immediately, one of the crew left the hold. Foreign Elder Chang Qi was the strongest person on the Starship. A Third Order Saint King, Chang Qi was the strongest master on the Starship, and if he weren’t already so old, he might have had hope of breaking through to the Origin Returning Realm. Perhaps he would know what this blood-red crystal was.
“Why bother inviting Foreign Elder Chang to come?” Yu Feng laughed walking over to the crystal and patting it gently, “Even if this guy is alive, he can’t come out. I just tried a moment ago, no matter how hard I strike this crystal, I can’t even leave a scratch on it. I really wonder what it’s made off.”
Yu Feng laughed as he continued patting the blood-red crystal and boasting shamelessly.
Wu Yi nodded in agreement. Yu Feng was also a First Order Saint King, but he was much older than she was and had broken through much later in life. However, his strength was genuine, and since he couldn’t scratch this blood-red crystal, it was obvious how tough it was.
But only moments after those words left Yu Feng mouth, a cracking sound inexplicably rang out, and turning in the direction the sound was coming from, Yu Feng’s laughter caught in his throat, as if someone was choking him. His two eyes bulged as he stared at the scene in front of him, swiftly moving in front of Wu Yi to guard her as directed a vigilant gaze at the blood-red crystal.
The cultivators in the surrounding also raised their guard and no longer wore their sloppy, relaxed expression.
Wu Yi poked her head out from behind Yu Feng’s burly back and after seeing what was happening, she couldn’t help exclaiming, “Yu Feng, did you break it?”
At this moment, on the seemingly indestructible crystal, crisscrossing spider-web like patterns were rapidly spreading on its surface, and within a few breaths, the originally pristine crystal had become filled with cracks. It seemed as if it would break at any moment.
Yu Feng called out helplessly, “I didn’t use any strength just now, how could I have known it would suddenly start breaking apart? It wasn’t at all like this when I found it outside; no matter how many of us bombarded it, none of us could leave a mark on it. Young Lady, please step back, there’s something not right about this situation.”
Wu Yi nodded lightly and backed up a bit, but her eyes never left the blood-red crystal as she was quite eager to see what would happen next.
“Foreign Elder Chang is here,” Someone shouted excitedly.
Everyone looked back and saw Foreign Elder Chang Qi quickly walk in while stroking his neatly combed goatee. The group of cultivators in the ship’s hold all saluted. When Chang Qi arrived beside her, Wu Yi asked, “Foreign Elder Chang, do you know what this is? Why would someone be sealed inside such a crystal?”
Chang Qi frowned and released his Divine Sense to investigate but moments later shook his head, “Young Lady, this old master’s vision is limited. I cannot determine what kind of material this is, but perhaps it is something from beyond our Shadowed Star.”
“From the outside?” Wu Yi’s eyes brightened.
“It should be.”
*Kacha…*
A much louder cracking sound came from the blood-red crystal all of a sudden and in the front of everyone’s eyes, it shattered into a million pieces, scattering debris all over the hold, forcing the gathered cultivators hurriedly cover their faces.
In the next instant, the man inside the crystal fell to the ground and calmly opened his eyes. He seemed to want to stand up, but was too weak to do so, eventually settling for sitting on the floor.
“He’s really alive?” Many cultivators paled and even Wu Yi, who was extremely curious, wore a solemn look.
A man who should be long dead suddenly appearing alive and well was something beyond this group’s ability to understand.
Multiple Divine Senses burst out and swept this young man from all directions, but after realizing this person seemingly had no strength, everyone felt relieved.
Without any strength, he posed no danger, so naturally, there was no need for them to be vigilant.
“He’s no ordinary person,” Chang Qi slowly shook his head, “It’s impossible for an ordinary person to emerge safe and sound after being sealed in crystal. He’s most likely just temporarily weakened. His cultivation is unknown, so if we allow him to restore himself…”
Yu Feng’s face changed and he took a step forward, his Saint Qi bursting out as he yelled, “I’ll kill him!”
The realm of this person who emerged from the blood-red crystal was unknown, and his origins were also unknown, Yu Feng naturally dared not take him lightly.
“There’s no need to kill him, is there?” Wu Yi quickly interceded, “Just looking at him it’s obvious he’s still young, so even if his background is suspect, his cultivation shouldn’t be too high, restricting his movements should be enough.”
“Is Young Lady curious about him?” Chang Qi glanced over at Wu Yi thoughtfully.
“Isn’t Foreign Elder Chang curious as well?” Wu Yi smiled and stepped around Yu Feng, walked up the unknown young man, and squatted down to ask, “Can you understand what we’re saying?”
Seeing this young man nod, Wu Yi asked again, “What’s your name? Where do you come from?”
“Yang Kai, from Rainfall Star,” Yang Kai answered honestly.
“Rainfall Star?” Wu Yi raised her brow slightly, “It seems you really came from the outside. Rainfall Star is several years journey from here though, how did you manage to come here?”
Yang Kai slowly shook his head, “The last thing I remember was entering some strange place then coming across a blood-red pool. I accidentally activated some kind of Spirit Array and then fainted. When I woke up, I was here.”
Wu Yi knit her brow thoughtfully, “Then you’re saying you drifted all this way?”
“I think so. Where is this place?” Yang Kai frowned slightly, he wasn’t used to being questioned like this.
“Brat, just answer our questions honestly, don’t speak unless you’re spoken to!” Yu Feng yelled at Yang Kai, raising his huge fist as if to warn him what the consequences would be if he didn’t cooperate.
“You’re currently near Shadowed Star, heard of it?”
Yang Kai shook his head again, he really had never heard of Shadowed Star.
“It’s understandable that you haven’t heard of it. Shadowed Star is relatively remote, most people from the Star Field wouldn’t know about it. Hehe, your courage isn’t small, you don’t seem nervous at all.”
“What’s there to be afraid of? You don’t look like you have any malicious intent towards me,” Yang Kai grinned.
“Whether or not that’s true will depend on you. Haven’t you heard that a woman’s heart is impossible to know? Perhaps in the next instant, I’ll have you killed; after all, we know nothing about you, and keeping a stranger aboard our Starship is an unnecessary risk,” Wu Yi said lightly.
The smile on Yang Kai’s face immediately disappeared.
Wu Yi giggled, seemingly very satisfied, “That’s better. En, good, next question, what’s your cultivation?”
“Third Order Saint.”
Upon hearing this, everyone couldn’t help breathing a sigh of relief, they didn’t need to worry themselves over a mere Third Order Saint. Although there was a possibility that Yang Kai was lying, considering his age, even if he wasn’t telling the truth, his strength shouldn’t be much higher.
“I still have a lot of questions to ask, but it looks like you’re quite exhausted so we’ll end things here for today. Yu Feng, take him to one of the rooms to rest and get him something to eat,” Wu Yi saw that Yang Kai’s complexion was pale and decided to restrain her curiosity for now.
Yu Feng nodded before shouldering Yang Kai and taking him out of the hold.
Not long after, when they came to an empty room, Yu Feng kicked open the door and tossed Yang Kai inside before shooting him a vicious look, “Brat, stay here quietly and don’t try anything funny, if I see you acting the slightest bit out a line, I’ll take your life immediately!”
“I know,” Yang Kai nodded, “I’ll behave.”
Yu Feng turned around and was about to leave when he suddenly turned back to Yang Kai and said, “What’s in your Space Ring?”
“Some Saint Crystals and pills,” Yang Kai replied.
Yu Feng glanced around, confirmed there was nobody nearby, and was just about to say something when Yang Kai took the initiative to throw his Space Ring over.
Yu Feng caught it and swept its content with his Divine Sense, immediately breaking out into a grin and nodding to Yang Kai, “Brat, seems you know what you should do. Good, wait here a bit, I’ll get you something delicious to eat.”
Saying so, Yu Feng ran out of the room.
Yu Feng grinned as he strode off. Although Wu Yi insisting that Yang Kai be spared had made him a bit uneasy, being able to easily obtain so many Saint Crystals made Yu Feng very happy.
After turning a corner though, Yu Feng saw Wu Yi standing there with a smile.
Quickly hiding the Space Ring behind himself, Yu Feng wore a big smile on his face.
“Hand it over!” Wu Yi stretched out her hand to him.
“What could Young Lady be talking about?” Yu Feng feigned ignorance.
“That person’s Space Ring is in your hands now, right?” Wu Yi smiled sweetly.
Yu Feng sighed while putting on a depressed look before slowing walking over to Wu Yi and placing Yang Kai’s Space Ring in her hand, saying in an exasperated tone, “Young Lady, can you not be so smart? Us men won’t be able to hold our heads up if you keep acting like this.”
“We’re not robbers, snatching someone else’s possessions will only create unnecessary grievances. If people like you were running the family, would it be able to survive?” Wu Yi rebuked him firmly.
When Yu Feng heard these words, he obediently lowered his head and sincerely apologized.
After Wu Yi reprimanded him fiercely, Yu Feng confessed to his crimes seriously and swore to not commit such offences again before walking off in a distressed manner. Only after he left did Wu Yi search the Space Ring with her Divine Sense, a wry smile appearing on her pretty face as she muttered to herself, “No wonder people say that there are so many Saint Crystals in the outside world that people never run out of them, a mere Third Order Saint actually carries so many High-Rank Saint Crystals on him, the Heavens are truly unfair. Although we can’t snatch this, it should be alright if he willingly gives it to me, in any case, I did save his life.”
A short time later, Wu Yi took back her Divine Sense from the Space Ring and decided to discuss it the next time she saw Yang Kai.
Inside the room, Yang Kai remained indifferent. The Space Ring he wore on his hand was just a guise; after all, in the Star Field, as long as one had a bit of strength, they would also have a Space Ring.
The one on Yang Kai’s hand only contained about five hundred High-Rank Saint Crystals as well as a few bottles of commonly used pills, nothing he would care about losing.
However, the approach of the man named Yu Feng made Yang Kai raise his vigilance, quickly searching his sleeve pocket and only breathing a sigh of relief after confirming the presence of three other Space Rings.
Although Yang Kai didn’t know how much time had passed, the three Space Rings belonging to Gui Che and his group had fortunately not been lost.
After confirming that no one was watching him, Yang Kai quickly transferred the contents of the three Space Rings to the Demon Mystic Tome.
If these three Space Rings were lost, Yang Kai would definitely be distressed.
Finishing doing all this, Yang Kai had time to investigate his situation.
After waking up, Yang Kai discovered that his body was devoid of all Saint Qi as if he no cultivation to speak of, worrying him greatly.
If a cultivator had no cultivation, they would just be an ordinary mortal.
After a careful inspection though, Yang Kai calmed down.
But, I was a little curious as to why there were so many people 2 hours after this was suppose to be released, to the point that the upgraded server was crashing. I wonder if it was because a ton of people were refreshing or a bot that is trying to scrape the site was like DAMN this guy! Give me them chapters!!!!
But well, the chapter is here.
Sorry for the wait.
Enjoy~
It wasn’t that Saint Qi didn’t exist in his Yang Kai’s body however, it was just that all the strength he had accumulated over his years of cultivation had currently been exhausted. After discovering that his foundation was still intact, Yang Kai tried circulating his Secret Art and immediately found that he was able to absorb and refine the ambient World Energy, allowing him to breathe a sigh of relief.
As long as his foundation remained, it would only cost him some time to restore his strength, and with the help of his numerous pills and Saint Crystals, that time wouldn’t be too long. After at most a few days, Yang Kai would return to his peak state, but in order to replace his once inexhaustible supply of energy would require a long period of accumulation.
On the other hand, Yang Kai’s Spiritual Energy had not diminished and instead was stronger than ever.
Using his Divine Sense to examine his body, Yang Kai quickly became pleasantly surprised.
The golden blood flowing through his veins now seemed far purer and denser than before.
On top of that, he now possessed nearly a hundred drops of the most orthodox Demon God Golden Blood, each one of them containing a terrifying amount of power. This was true Demon God Golden Blood, equal in might to the blood of Great Demon God himself. These hundred drops of blood had even greater restorative strength compared to the rest of Yang Kai’s already formidable blood.
These hundred drops of Golden Blood also seemed to contain Yang Kai’s insights into the Heavenly Way and Martial Dao as well as his understanding of his own strength and its utilization.
The former restlessness in his heart was instantly replaced with joy.
Yang Kai had no idea what had happened in the Body Tempering Divine Pond, but he surmised that he had triggered some kind of Spirit Array linked to the Sacrificial Altar which then caused the entire pool to compress into the blood-red crystal which had encased him. Afterwards, he had obviously drifted through the Starry Sky while his blood and body had been tempered, ultimately winding up in his current situation.
His Saint Qi had not disappeared for nothing and had likely been refined into his blood to assist in the formation of these hundred drops of Golden Blood.
Now that his blood had become purer, Yang Kai believed his vitality had also risen greatly and the resilience and restorative strength he could display in battle would be far great than before.
In order to verify his conjecture, Yang Kai gathered what little strength he had just managed to restore and gave himself a bone-deep wound on his palm.
Golden light shone from the wound and before blood could even flow out, the terrible wound sealed itself and in less than half cup of tea’s time, not even a scar remained on his palm.
Yang Kai took a deep breath to suppress his inner excitement.
In the past, although he wouldn’t consider such an injury serious, it would still have taken at least an hour or two to fully heal, but now, half a cup of tea’s worth of time was sufficient.
His restorative abilities had indeed increased exponentially.
After examining his body and determining that his current situation was only a short-term problem, Yang Kai put down his worries and took out a piece of Saint Crystal. Holding this crystal in his hand, Yang Kai began circulating his Secret Art to draw out power from it while at the same time he stuffed a handful of restorative pills into his mouth. Refining these medicinal efficacies and Saint Qi, feeling his strength slowly returning, Yang Kai couldn’t help feeling like he was being reborn.
The Heavenly Spirit Ghost Orchid’s mark on his chest had long ago disappeared, so Yang Kai was able to infer that he had been in a comatose state for a long period of time, as for how long exactly, he had no way to judge.
The woman he had spoken with before said they were currently near Shadowed Star, and that this Cultivation Star was several years away from Rainfall Star. That meant that Yang Kai might have been sealed in that blood-red crystal for several years. During that period, the energy in the blood-red crystal had combined with his own Saint Qi and promoted the quality of his blood. When the energy in the crystal and his own Saint Qi were exhausted, the effects of the Sacrificial Altar ended and the crystal shattered. Yang Kai didn’t see any trace of the altar itself.
The precious treasures which had been placed on the Sacrificial Altar should also have been refined into pure energy to help promote the quality of his blood.
Although the whole affair had been somewhat haphazard and unpredictable, Yang Kai had gained a lot of benefits.
Although Yu Feng was a bit rude and thuggish, he was still a man of his word and really brought over something good for Yang Kai to eat. Yang Kai didn’t stand on ceremony and quickly swallowed down the food to assist him in his restoration.
With his Third Order Saint Realm cultivation, it didn’t matter if Yang Kai ate or not, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have any appetite whatsoever, and the food Yu Feng had brought also contained a large amount of energy which was beneficial to him, so Yang Kai didn’t hesitate to consume it.
Over the next night, Yang Kai consumed three High-Rank Saint Crystals and accumulated a good deal of Saint Qi in his meridians; of course, it was nothing compared to his peak.
The next day, footsteps sounded in the hall outside and the young woman who had spoken to him yesterday soon pushed open the door and walked inside, not even bothering to knock. Another cultivator who had accompanied her quickly pulled up a chair for her and set it down in a flattering manner.
After Wu Yi took a seat, she waved at the cultivator, signalling that he could leave.
The cultivator hesitated before asking, “Young Lady, is leaving you alone with him appropriate?”
“What’s the problem?” Wu Yi glanced over at him unhappily, “Or do you think that you’re stronger than me and can offer me some kind of protection?”
The cultivator wore an embarrassed look and dared not remain, respectfully bowing before walking out and quietly closing the door.
Taking a look at Yang Kai sitting on the ground, leaning against the wall, Wu Yi giggled, “Feeling better?”
“En,” Yang Kai nodded, not knowing what this woman wanted to ask him. He felt that the cultivators on this Starship didn’t hold any malicious intentions towards him. Although Yu Feng clamoured about killing him, it was obvious he was just acting vigilantly.
“You look better. I don’t know how long you’ve been drifting through the Starry Sky, but this time if it weren’t for my subordinate saving you, perhaps you would have gone on floating forever. If you had accidentally encountered a powerful Star Beast, being swallowed up is entirely possible,” Wu Yi casually spoke, clearly trying to frighten him, “If you were swallowed by a Star Beast, your fate would have been quite miserable.”
Yang Kai saw that she was playing with a Space Ring while speaking to him and immediately understood the point she was trying to make, grinning as he nodded, “You saved my life, so naturally I must offer my thanks. Unfortunately, I currently have nothing on my body as my only Space Ring was taken away by that guy named Yu Feng yesterday…”
“So, you’re offering me this Space Ring as thanks?” Wu Yi was overjoyed, “Great, then this ring and its contents are now mine, no going back on your word.”
“I won’t,” Yang Kai shook his head.
Wu Yi extracted the contents of the Space Ring and stuffed them into her own ring before returning the empty one to Yang Kai.
“You’re really rich, there were actually five hundred High-Rank Saint Crystals in that ring. Don’t you understand that excessive wealth easily attracts unwanted attention? Fortunately, you ran into my Starship. If it was anyone else’s you likely wouldn’t be alive right now.”
“Does that much make me rich?” Yang Kai scratched his head.
“It doesn’t?” Wu Yi asked helplessly, “En, that’s right, you outsiders possess a lot of Saint Crystals, but on Shadowed Star it’s not the same. There are only a few Saint Crystal mines, and they are all occupied by big forces, holding one is impossible for a small family like mine so we can only risk our lives by mining outside Ore Stars, each time resulting in many deaths.”
“Are you all so poor?” Yang Kai was utterly shocked. Since coming to the Star Field, he had never had to worry about Saint Crystals. On the floating continent, he had robbed all the Purple Star and Sword Union cultivators, obtaining a lot of Saint Crystals. On Rainfall Star, he had robbed the treasure of the Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce branch.
He really didn’t know that someone could be so happy about obtaining a measly five hundred High-Rank Saint Crystal. What’s more, it didn’t seem like this young woman’s identity was low.
“You said you came from Rainfall Star? As far as I know, that Cultivation Star is owned by a force called Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce, right?”
“En.”
“Is Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce big? How many masters does it have? Are the strongest really Origin Kings? I heard that they build palaces entirely out of Saint Crystal and that they eat precious pills as snacks, is that true? Is it?” Wu Yi let out a barrage of questions that nearly made Yang Kai’s head spin.
Hesitating for a moment, Yang Kai asked, “Have you ever been outside?”
Wu Yi shook her head, “I’ve only moved about Shadowed Star, everywhere else is too far away from this place. I heard that Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce does business all over the Star Field, but you won’t find them on Shadowed Star. It’s really annoying, they look down on us far too much.”
“Why can you only stay on Shadowed Star? Since you want to see the outside world, why not just go yourself?” Yang Kai suddenly felt that this woman was a bit pitiful, she obviously longed for adventure but was clearly fettered by something which made it impossible for her to leave.
“Do you think it’s easy to leave this place?” Wu Yi glanced at him meaningfully, causing Yang Kai to unconsciously straighten up a bit.
“Without a suitable Star Chart, a solid enough Starship, and a sufficient amount of resources, how can a several year-long voyage be made? People here rarely go outside, and outsiders basically don’t come over, Shadowed Star seems destined to become a forgotten place.”
After hearing what she said, Yang Kai couldn’t help thinking of Tong Xuan Realm.
There were many similarities between the two, both were extremely remote, but Shadowed Star was obviously better than Tong Xuan Realm, at least they knew about the Star Field whereas Tong Xuan Realm was completely isolated, not even qualified to explore the Starry Sky.
Throughout the vast Star Field, existences like Tong Xuan Realm and Shadowed Star were definitely not rare, it was likely there were many such Cultivation Stars tucked away in unknown corners.
For a moment, Yang Kai actually felt a subtle connection to this woman, and thinking about it, he muttered, “Actually, you’re much better off than me.”
“How so?” Wu Yi asked curiously.
“Do you know where I came from? A place where the strongest masters were Third Order Saints…”
Wu Yi’s jaw dropped.
“Don’t believe me?” Yang Kai smiled, “It’s the truth though. We didn’t know about Star Shuttles or Starships or even that there were other Cultivation Stars in the Star Field. We would sit beneath the stars and think that the Third Order Saint Realm was the peak of the Martial Dao. If I hadn’t accidentally obtained a broken down Star Shuttle and possessed enough skill to leap out from my world, no one would have even known such a feat was possible. I am the first and only one from the homeland to reach the Star Field, most others still live their lives completely ignorant of this place’s existence.”
Wu Yi stared at Yang Kai and only after a long time said, “You’re quite pitiful.”
Melancholy was a strange thing, once one found out that there was someone more miserable than them, their grief would immediately lesson. Yang Kai’s words had given Wu Yi a sense of comfort.
Compared to the homeland of this man named Yang Kai, Shadowed Star was nothing short of paradise.
Having learned that Yang Kai had leapt out of Tong Xuan Realm all alone to explore the Star Field, Wu Yi’s beautiful eyes filled with admiration. She obviously appreciated this kind of fearless behaviour, and if she had the chance, she imagined she would make a similar choice.
Unfortunately, all kinds of burdens kept her tethered to this place.
As the two chatted, the atmosphere became harmonious. Wu Yi didn’t have any hostility towards Yang Kai in the first place, and Yang Kai was the carefree sort, so he naturally didn’t mind sharing some trivial things with her. It wasn’t until Yu Feng came over to tell her something that Wu Yi unwillingly departed.
After she left, Yang Kai continued to take out Saint Crystals and pills while circulating his Secret Art to restore his strength.
Time passed by and a month later, Yang Kai finally restored his full Third Order Saint Realm strength, but he had yet to accumulate much Saint Qi in his body compared to the massive quantity he had originally possessed.
As such, Yang Kai continued to refine Saint Crystals to replenish his energy stores.
Having become accustomed to an inexhaustible reserve of strength that no matter how much he squandered could never be used up, Yang Kai was a little uncomfortable with his current condition.
The energy contained within each Saint Crystal was quickly transformed into Yang Kai’s strength. Saint Qi flowed rapidly through his meridians while his heart remained calm and steady. While cultivating, Yang Kai would constantly send his Divine Sense through his veins to examine his hundred drops of pure Demon God Golden Blood.
These hundred drops of Golden Blood were formed from the combination of the Sacrificial Altar’s strange energy and Yang Kai’s own massive Saint Qi reserves, but it was inevitable that these hundred drops would be used up and if he wanted to generate more, what method was he supposed to use?
The Sacrificial Altar from the Body Tempering Divine Pond was no longer around and Yang Kai could not completely remember the complex Spirit Array which was portrayed on it. Even if he wanted to reproduce it, it was impossible.
As he focused on the Golden Blood flowing through his body though, it suddenly became stimulated and began madly devouring his Saint Qi.
Yang Kai, who had just managed to restore himself after so much effort, suddenly turned pale again and couldn’t help feeling like he was about to collapse.
Quickly checking himself, Yang Kai was startled.
In an instant, he had lost more than half of the new Saint Qi he had just refined. This mass of Saint Qi had seemingly been swallowed up by the Golden Blood in his veins and in return produced a needle tip-sized drop of radiant gold.
Naturally this was the beginnings of a drop of pure Demon God Golden Blood that had previous not existed!
Yang Kai thought about it for a while and soon understood. Relaxing his control, Yang Kai allowed his Golden Blood to continue devouring his Saint Qi.
His hard cultivated Saint Qi abruptly decreased but in return, the needle-tip like drop of Golden Blood became larger.
Sure enough!
Yang Kai couldn’t help silently celebrating. Pure Demon God Golden Blood could be generated inside his body simply by consuming his own Saint Qi, this also confirmed his previous speculations about why his vast reserves of Saint Qi had completely disappeared, they had literally be replaced by the hundred drops of Golden Blood.
In the future, if Yang Kai wanted to condense more pure Golden Blood, he only needed to consume a sufficient amount of Saint Qi.
However, the consumption involved in this process was enough to cause Yang Kai a lot of distress. An entire month of restoring his Saint Qi had only allowed Yang Kai to condense a single rice grain-sized drop of pure Golden Blood, which meant that he would need to cultivate for at least three months before he could form a complete drop.
Despite this, however, Yang Kai remained calm.
Saint Qi could be restored through cultivation, taking pills, and refining Saint Crystals, so as long as he found the right place and method, it wouldn’t be difficult to obtain Saint Qi, but Demon God Golden Blood was an entirely different matter. Now that he had a method to convert Saint Qi into Golden Blood, Yang Kai had nothing to complain about. Although this transformation only worked one way, and the results weren’t as flexible as his previous Yang Liquid, at least he wouldn’t have to worry about running out of Demon God Golden Blood.
There were still a hundred drops of Golden Blood in the body, and Yang Kai wasn’t in a hurry to produce more, so his current focus was to accumulate as much Saint Qi as possible.
With his mood improved, Yang Kai was able to cultivate even faster than before, consuming ten Saint Crystals in a single day.
Wu Yi soon appeared again.
Over the past month, she would run over to Yang Kai whenever she had free time. The stories Yang Kai told fascinated her to no end and she would listen to any information or news he had no matter how dull or inane. The more she listened, the more she looked forward to the outside world. If she could, she would order the Starship to change direction immediately and head towards that wondrous world.
Seeing her sitting in front of himself like an eager young child, Yang Kai couldn’t help feeling a slight headache and said helplessly, “Wu Yi, I only entered the Star Field a few years ago, so everything I’ve seen and heard I have already told you about.”
Yang Kai really couldn’t bear it anymore and he couldn’t tell if a person’s curiosity flourishing to such an extent was his misfortune or hers.
“If you think hard enough, I’m sure there will be something you haven’t told me about. As long as it’s related to the outside world, anything will do,” Wu Yi stared at Yang Kai with undisguised enthusiasm. The first few times she had said these words Yang Kai had racked his brain to come up with a few trivial things to satisfy her curiosity before sending her way, but today he was not going to compromise.
This little lady was simply an insatiable wolf, if he compromised today, she would no doubt be back tomorrow for more.
“No, I really don’t, other than the sex I had with women, what else haven’t I said?”
“Then tell me about that, I want to know if there’s any difference between how men and women interact with each other in the outside world compared to Shadowed Star,” Wu Yi immediately became intrigued and completely ignored the pitch-black grimace on Yang Kai’s face.
Fortunately, at the critical moment, Yu Feng arrived to save Yang Kai.
Seeing his panicked look, Wu Yi’s face also became serious as she asked, “What happened?”
“The Starship is being pursued by a group of Black Rock Beasts.”
Wu Yi’s face suddenly went pale and she hurriedly stood up, rushed over to the window, and looked towards the rear. After seeing the situation outside, her expression became even uglier.
No longer caring about digging into the most intimate details of Yang Kai’s life, she hurried out of the room together with Yu Feng.
After they left, Yang Kai also went to the window and looked around, soon discovering a large group of black coloured Monster Beasts chasing after the Starship. There were at least three or four hundred of these beasts within Yang Kai’s field of vision with the distinct possibility there were more outside his line of sight.
During this past month, Yang Kai had heard about Black Rock Beasts from Wu Yi. This Monster Beast lived amongst the Starry sky and had incredibly tenaciousness vitality. On top of that, it fed upon minerals and ores, so among Asteroid Seas, Dead Stars, and Ore Stars, Black Rock Beasts were a common sight.
Wu Yi called these Monster Beasts, Star Beasts.
Black Rock Beast’s weren’t very strong, the weakest only being Fifth-Order which was equivalent to Human Race Immortal Ascension Boundary cultivators. The strongest were Seventh-Order, equal to Saint Kings, while the majority were Sixth-Order.
However, what gave Wu Yi the biggest headache was that Black Rock Beasts lived in large packs, and not only did they enjoy feeding on raw ores, they also ate Starships!
Starship hulls were forged from a variety of rare and precious ores and were nothing less than a delicacy to Black Rock Beasts. With their thick and strong skins, Black Rock Beasts were difficult to kill. Most of the Starships that were lost sailing around Shadowed Star were not destroyed by Starry Sky Storms but rather by Black Rock Beasts.
When a Starship was consumed by these Star Beasts, the cultivators inside no longer had any place to take shelter, and mass casualties would result. For many years, the major forces on Shadowed Star suffered heavy losses because of these Star Beasts and had once tried to wipe them out, but Black Rock Beasts were like bamboo shoots after the rain, after cutting one crop, another would soon emerge.
It could be said that Black Rock Beasts were the biggest enemy of the cultivators on Shadowed Star, and also an obstacle preventing them from entering and integrating into the Star Field. If they weren’t dealt with, truly joining the Star Field was impossible.
Wu Yi’s Starship was only Saint King Grade Low-Rank and could not resist the teeth of Black Rock Beasts.
So when she heard that Black Rock Beasts had been spotted, Wu Yi’s demeanor had immediately darkened.
Yang Kai thought about it for a while before also leaving his room.
Over the past month, although he had failed to integrate into this Starship’s crew, no one had come to cause trouble with him despite his cultivation not being low. Wu Yi had also allowed him to walk around the Starship as long as he didn’t enter any restricted areas.
In the corridor, cultivators rushed out, each of them emitting thick murderous intent with Yu Feng taking the lead to organize them.
Many people were cursing and clamouring to fight to the death against the Black Rock Beast, vowing to live and die with their Starship.
Everyone turned a blind eye to Yang Kai.
At that moment, the Starship suddenly shook, and a sensational wave of energy erupted, causing all the hurrying cultivators to grin. Yang Kai looked out a nearby window and saw a white stream of light shoot out from the Starship and blast open a hole in the Black Rock Beast group.
Dozens of Black Rock Beasts instantly turned into blood mist. Wherever the beam of light passed, space became empty, with not even dust remaining behind.
Crystal Cannon!
These powerful offensive artifacts were a common feature on Starships and were powered by large amounts of Saint Crystals. Although they had tremendous power, their consumption was equally immense.
With the financial resources available to Wu Yi and her crew, a single shot was likely their limit.
Sure enough, after the first Crystal Cannon round, the hot-blooded cultivators aboard the Starship charged out of its hatch and followed Yu Feng into battle.
Even Wu Yi, wearing a fiery red Artifact Armour that covered her entire body, was no exception. The clusters of red flames on her Artifact Armour pulsed with Saint Grade Low-Rank intensity, illuminating her beautiful face in a dazzling blaze.
After these cultivators left, the hatch slowly closed again.
Yang Kai released his Divine Sense and swept the Starship, soon discovering that aside from himself, less than ten people remained aboard the Starship. These ten people were the minimum number needed to keep the Starship running, everyone else had gone out to engage the Black Rock Beasts in a fierce battle.
After experiencing the affluence of Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce, suddenly seeing such a motley crew desperately trying to protect a small Saint King Grade Low-Rank Starship, Yang Kai’s mood was a bit complex.
If this Starship belonged to Xue Yue instead of Wu Yi, she wouldn’t have even left her room, her safety was far more valuable than a single Starship.
But then again, if this was Xue Yue’s Starship, instead of a single round from the Crystal Cannons, that crazy woman would likely continue firing until the entire swarm of Black Rock Beasts was wiped out.
Outside the Starship, dazzling bursts of light from artifacts and Martial Skills lit up the Starry Sky as the cultivators released wave after wave of varied attribute attacks towards the dense pack of Black Rock Beasts.
Even though the Black Rock Beasts possessed extremely hard skins, they weren’t able to withstand such violent attacks and only moments after the battle began, more than twenty Fifth and Sixth-Order Black Rock Beasts had been slaughtered.
The cultivators from the Starship coordinated with one another, acting as a single unit while keeping their distance from the main Black Rock Beast pack under Wu Yi’s command.
There were only fifty to sixty of them in total, many times fewer compared to the huge number of Black Rock Beasts. Face with such a numerical disadvantage, there was no other tactic the cultivators could use in this fight.
Yang Kai’s ears rang with the sound of shouts of cheers as the people who stayed behind to operate the Starship encouraged their companions. These people’s cultivations were the lowest amongst everyone so they weren’t eligible to participate in such a battle.
A pitiful scream suddenly echoed and a Third Order Saint was torn to pieces by a Black Rock Beast, resulting in his death.
Immediately, someone took his place on the battle line and pushed back the Black Rock Beast which had broken through, and then in the next moment, dozens of attacks raced over and exploded the Black Rock Beast.
Wu Yi’s commands were orderly and efficient, making it clear this was not her first time handling such a battle. Everyone was experienced and so long as this situation continued, even if Wu Yi’s group was small in number, victory would ultimately be theirs.
But Yang Kai was keenly aware that everyone who was fighting outside was anxious, seemingly knowing what this pack of Black Rock Beasts would do next and understanding that it would not be an action they could resist.
Another scream came out and a cultivator at the outermost position of the formation was set upon by several Black Rock Beasts which quickly bit him to deaths, raising the death toll to two.
The Black Rock Beasts didn’t devour this cultivator’s body, spitting out his broken flesh and bone after biting him to death. Black Rock Beasts only fed on minerals and ores, not flesh and blood.
*Xiu xiu xiu…*
Suddenly, a dark green liquid spewed out of the Black Rock Beasts’ mouths, and in the blink of an eye, Wu Yi and her team were surrounded by this turquoise wave. All of them wore grim expressions as they quickly avoided this wave under Wu Yi’s command.
One unlucky cultivator was accidentally contaminated by the green liquid and smoke immediately burst from his figure. The majestic Artifact Armour worn on his chest was quickly melted away and the flesh beneath it was also corroded, exposing his white bones.
This turquoise liquid was too corrosive!
Yang Kai’s brow furrowed and couldn’t help worrying for Wu Yi and the others.
At present, his strength had not been completely restored, and at most he could display the combat effectiveness equivalent to an ordinary Third Order Saint. If Wu Yi and her group were defeated and the Starship was destroyed, everyone would suffer disaster and it was uncertain if any of them would be able to survive.
Yang Kai suddenly felt that he had to do something.
*Dong dong dong…*
A series of muffled thuds came from the ship’s hull, and Yang Kai saw that a number of Black Rock Beasts had actually circumvented Wu Yi’s defence perimeter and directly begun spraying the Starship with their corrosive green liquid while taking bites out of the hull.
The sounds of twisting and cracking metal echoing throughout the Starship was enough to send cold chills up the spines of everyone inside.
Wu Yi could no longer afford to concentrate her forces and split them up into groups of three to five cultivators to intercept these Black Rock Beasts. Many cultivators fearlessly leapt towards the Starship to slaughter the attacking enemy.
With each passing moment, more people died, with dozens of Black Rock Beasts surrounding each team of cultivators.
Yu Feng joined forces with three others to protect Wu Yi, using their own Saint Qi to block the enemy from harming her.
Wu Yi cultivated a Fire Attribute Secret Art and brandished a pair of flaming rings on her hands, swaying her body in a mesmerizing yet deadly dance, condensing flames into dragon-like shapes that deterred most Black Rock Beasts from approaching her closely while incinerating the ones who got too close.
These Black Rock Beasts seemed afraid of fire.
The pack of Black Rock Beasts noticed this anomaly quickly and more began rushing over.
Yu Feng and his comrades did their best but couldn’t stop the crashing tide of beasts. To make matters worse, there were several Seventh-Order Black Rock Beasts attacking them now.
Seventh-Order Monster Beasts were equivalent to Saint King Realm cultivators. Two Seventh-Order Black Rock Beasts were pinning down Yu Feng while the others in the pack were confronting Wu Yi and her guards, surrounding them in an airtight formation.
An even more intense flame aura erupted from Wu Yi’s rings and a blast of heat rushed out to hit one of the Seventh-Order Black Rock Beasts, resulting in a fiery explosion that sent the beast reeling in pain, but failed to kill it.
Black Rock Beasts were thick-skinned and possessed extremely tenacious vitality, Wu Yi could easily kill those that were Fifth or Sixth-Order, but she had no way to kill a Seventh-Order one in short span of time.
Having suffered this flame attack, the Seventh-Order Black Rock Beast seemed to become enraged, opening its mouth wide to reveal its rows of irregularly serrated fangs and thick corrosive acid.
Using its companions for cover, this Seventh-Order beast bit towards Wu Yi’s delicate waist while she was distracted.
As long as this attack succeeded, Wu Yi wouldn’t be able to avoid death or serious injury as the potent acid from the Black Rock Beast’s mouth would immediately corrode her body.
Wu Yi saw this clearly but was unable to resist.
Yu Feng and the others also went all out to help but were ultimately powerless.
A sense of desperation rose in Wu Yi’s heart as she stared stunned at the Seventh-Order Black Rock Beast biting towards her.
At that moment, a drop of golden light suddenly appeared in front of her. There was no sign of this golden radiance the instant before, as if it had simply come into existence. As soon as this golden light appeared, it transformed into a great spear that exuded an energy fluctuation so astonishing it caused everyone nearby to pale.
The spear shot forward towards the open mouth of the Seventh-Order Black Rock Beast like a bolt of lightning, blasting a hole in its head as if it were made from rotten wood.
The golden spear continued on unabated, piercing through more than a dozen Black Rock Beasts. None of these thick-skinned Star Beasts was able to resist this attack, with those in the Fifth and Sixth-Order bursting into blood mist the instant they were struck, disappeared right before everyone’s eyes.
The stunned Yu Feng froze up, forgetting the dangerous situation he was in as he stared at the golden spear which was rapidly approaching him, an icy feeling gripping at his heart.
He was certain he would soon be dead.
But to his surprise, the golden spear seemed to have its own spirituality and as it rushed in front of him, it suddenly swerved, brushed past his body, and ran through the Black Rock Beast behind him.
All the cultivators on the scene stared blankly, their heads filled with fog, wondering who this golden spear belonged to.
Wu Yi also couldn’t help staring. The situation which was supposed to have resulted in her death had been easily resolved by this golden spear, allowing her to escape. Still shivering slightly, she began sweeping her eyes over her surroundings, her pretty face filled with doubt.
She wanted to find the owner of this spear. She had no idea there was such a powerful master among her subordinates. This spear alone would be more than enough to make that subordinate a pillar of her family.
Wu Yi naturally placed extreme value on this cultivator and his profound method.
After searching for a while though, she was unable to find any likely candidates. Suddenly, she saw Yang Kai standing next to one of the Starship’s windows. Yang Kai appeared to be waving towards her while saying something. Wu Yi couldn’t tell what he was saying, but she could tell that he didn’t have any trace of nervousness on his face. He seemed to be cheering her and the others on.
Wu Yi shook her head and didn’t pay any more attention to Yang Kai, instead pulling Yu Feng and the others out of their stupor and leading them to attack the Black Rock Beasts again while quietly observing the golden spear.
With the appearance of this strange golden spear, the course of the battle shifted.
The cultivators who had originally been at an absolute disadvantage were now re-invigorated, each of them desperately pushing their strength as they slowly regained the initiative.
The golden spear swam through the battlefield, as if it had a mind of its own, each thrust it made sweeping through and killing several Black Rock Beasts, often times saving the lives of cultivators who were on the verge of death.
Everyone recognized this peculiar golden spear’s fierceness and began coordinate with it, cleaning up the scattered and injured Black Rock Beasts which were thrown into chaos by its attacks. Wu Yi also took decisive action and ordered all her remaining subordinates to fall in behind the spear, allowing it to act as the vanguard while they mopped up the remnants. In this way, it would only be a matter of time before this pack of Black Rock Beast was exterminated.
The Black Rock Beasts that had jumped onto the Starship were swiftly cleaned up. As this was happening, the other Black Rock Beasts seemed to become aware of the threat from the golden spear and fell back to consolidate their group. The pack withdrew slightly while glaring towards the Starship, but none of the beasts dared to launch an attack at will.
Wu Yi also raised her hand, also ordering her subordinates to fall back.
There were too few of them while there were still hundreds of Monster Beasts in the Black Rock Beast pack, rushing in would only result in more casualties.
The scene suddenly froze, with the Black Rock Beast now acting cautiously, not willing to come forward, and Wu Yi’s group not eager to provoke them.
The deadlock, however, was soon broken by the golden spear. Before anyone realized it, the energy fluctuations from the golden spear suddenly soared in intensity and the three-meter long spear rapidly grew to over twenty meters in length.
The giant spear next flickered, disappearing from everyone’s sight, as if it had never even existed.
Just as everyone began searching for traces of the giant spear though, a brilliant burst of golden light emerged from the centre of the Black Rock Beast pack. This burst of light swiftly engulfed the entire pack, causing many Fifth-Order and Sixth-Order Monster Beasts to instantly disintegrate. Even the Seventh-Order Black Rock Beast began howling in pain as their black flesh was torn apart and red blood flew from their bodies.
When the golden radiance finally dissipated, the massive Black Rock Beast pack had shrunk significantly, with over a hundred of them now nowhere to be seen.
The remaining Black Rock Beats didn’t dare linger any longer and led by the several remaining Seventh-Order Monster Beasts fled in fear.
The group of cultivators stood frozen in place, and only after the Black Rock Beasts had long disappeared into Starry Sky did an eruption of cheers resound, everyone’s face filled with the joy and happiness appropriate for surviving a life or death disaster.
The cultivators cheered and shouted, celebrating their victory, and even Wu Yi wore a faint smile, her pair of beautiful eyes slowly sweeping over her all too familiar subordinates, seemingly inspecting them for the first time, trying to see into the depths of their hearts and discover if they had been hiding something. After a while, with a thoughtful look still on her charming face, she waved her hand and ordered, “Return!”
As she flew towards the Starship, all the other cultivators followed close behind. The main hatch of the Starship slowly opened and those who had remained aboard stood there to welcome the triumphant return of their crewmates.
Never before had any of them experienced such a battle. The Black Rock Beast pack they encountered this time were the largest they had ever seen and all of them had lost hope that they would be able to survive, but to their great surprise, they had actually emerged victorious without even paying that great a price, only a dozen dead in battle with the others having some minor wounds.
Such a victory was worth celebrating!
“Yu Feng, get some of the uninjured to repair the damage to the Starship. Two hours from now, I want everyone who was involved in the battle to assemble in the main hall, I have something to say,” Wu Yi said quietly.
Grinning widely, Yu Feng was boasting about how brave and gallant he had just been when he heard this order and immediately nodded, “I’ll see to it.”
After watching Yu Feng assign a few people who were familiar with repairing the Starship to the task, Wu Yi walked towards her own room. The victory just now was completely unexpected, so naturally, she had to figure out what had happened, but before that she wanted to clean up her bloodstained clothes.
Inside his room, Yang Kai sat cross-legged, his Divine Sense carefully examining his body, particularly the hundred drops of Golden Blood, unable to hide the joy and surprise on his face even though his eyes were closed tight.
He had no idea that the power of a single drop of Golden Blood would be so massive.
When he saw Wu Yi and the others fighting just now, Yang Kai had suddenly come up with the idea to use a drop of his Golden Blood. He had only wanted to provide them with a bit of help while testing out the power and usage of his Golden Blood, but the results had wildly exceeded his expectations and directly resolved the crisis.
Yang Kai had used a single drop of Golden Blood to display the Heaven Punishing Spear from his Nine Heavens Divine Skills while employing his Divine Sense and comprehension of the Dao of Space to deftly control its movements even as he remained on board the Starship.
What most satisfied Yang Kai though, was that even if the drop of Golden Blood had separated from his body, it still felt like a part of himself, like one of his hands or feet, allowing him to control it without any kind of obstruction even across a great distance.
A drop of Golden Blood was the result of three months of Yang Kai’s hard work. The Saint Qi he could cultivate over the course of three months was all condensed into a single drop, which explained how it could possess such power.
This kind of Golden Blood was thousands of times more precious than his previous Yang Liquid, and its might was also incomparable.
However, using a drop meant losing a drop, and unlike his Yang Liquid, which could be replenished casually, the pure Golden Blood required a long period of accumulation to condense, making Yang Kai feel a little distressed.
Yang Kai also wanted to know what other uses the Golden Blood had other than as a weapon. If Great Demon God was alive still, perhaps Yang Kai might have been able to obtain some inspiration from him; after all, Great Demon God’s comprehension of the Golden Blood was definitely more profound than his own. Unfortunately, Great Demon God was long dead, so Yang Kai could only rely on himself to slowly explore the Golden Blood’s mysteries.
While Yang Kai was studying his Golden Blood, all the cultivators who had previously participated in the battle gathered in the Starship’s main hall. Many people assembled were smiling and discussing whether the Young Lady was going to grant them some kind of special reward and were all looking forward to what would happen next.
Only Yu Feng and Foreign Elder Chang Qi exchanged a glance and guessed what Wu Yi’s intentions were, bringing all these people together.
After waiting for a short time, Wu Yi appeared in an enchanting long green dress, her arrival catching everyone’s attention as shallow smiles began creeping onto their faces while a fascinated look flashed across their eyes, one they couldn’t extricate themselves from.
Even while not concealing his own enraptured gaze, Yu Feng began slapping the heads of a few of his ruder companions while gnashing his teeth and shouting, “Wipe those grins off your faces you fools! Since when did you all degrade into horny dogs?”
“Brother Yu Feng, why are you hitting us? Your face ain’t any better than ours,” Some people held their heads and complained.
“Father here only admires the Young Lady, it’s different from you lot! Don’t you understand what appreciation is?” Yu Feng coldly snorted, and having said so, with a flattering smile on his face, he rushed over to Wu Yi and said, “Young Lady, everyone has been gathered, please speak your mind.”
“En,” Wu Yi nodded gently, her pair of beautiful eyes sweeping across her group of uncouth and rowdy subordinates. As her eyes passed over them, each of these delinquents puffed up their chests and restrained their smiles, putting on their best heroic look.
Yu Feng diligently brought over and offered a chair, allowing Wu Yi to take a seat and say, “You’re all quite fierce, why didn’t I notice before? I always thought you were just a bunch of mixed fish waiting for death to take you, but it seems I’ve been very mistaken.”
Many people didn’t comprehend the not so subtle ridicule in Wu Yi’s words and began grinning broadly; trying to act humble by saying that the Young Lady was praising them too much.
Wu Yi snickered, watching her subordinates bragging about themselves while faking humility when it was obvious that each and every one of them was growing more pompous by the breath. Unable to take it, Wu Yi slammed her fist against the arm of her chair, smashing it to bits as she ground her teeth and shouted, “Are you all not clear why all of us are still standing here? Do you think I‘m really praising you? One crowd of mindless fools!”
Even though Wu Yi was reprimanding them like this, everyone was still laughing merrily, not showing the least bit of shame or anger.
Being scolded by a beautiful woman was an honour, and all of them knew that although Wu Yi’s words were harsh, they didn’t reflect what she felt in her heart.
“Whoever it was, step forward and reveal yourself, don’t think you’ve managed to conceal yourself, this Young Lady already knows who you are. Don’t think you can play tricks in front of me,” Wu Yi shouted as she gazed at the crowd. Everyone present felt she was looking at himself.
Everyone’s expression immediately became serious as they remembered the golden spear which had suddenly appeared in the previous battle, finally understanding why Wu Yi had ordered them here.
The Young Lady clearly wanted to uncover the owner of that golden spear!
*Hualala…*
At least a dozen people stepped out from the crowd, each of them wearing an apologetic expression as they fidgeted restlessly and shamelessly proclaimed, “Young Lady, in fact, I didn’t want to say anything, but since you’ve found me out, I won’t hide it anymore. “
Wu Yi rubbed her temples in frustration as her pretty face filled with helplessness because she found that even Yu Feng had included himself among these dozen or so people, realizing that she had still been underestimating the shamelessness of these bastards.
The crowd immediately fell into chaos as these dozen or so men began clamouring about how that golden spear was their own masterpiece which they secretly cultivated, none of them willing to give in, raising a huge ruckus.
“Young Lady,” Foreign Elder Chang Qi, who was very old, walked over to Wu Yi with crossed arms and as the corner of his brow twitched declared, “Do you not know what quality of goods this lot is? That golden spear could not possible belong to any of them.”
Wu Yi let out a sigh, “Then who did it belong to? In addition this group of blowhards, there is only Yang Kai aboard our Starship, but during the fight with the Black Rock Beasts, Yang Kai was still inside, and he is only a Third Order Saint. It couldn’t possibly have been him.”
Chang Qi thought about it for a while before proposing, “Perhaps a great master who happened to be passing by unintentionally saw our plight and took action to help us.”
“A passing master?” Wu Yi frowned, “Does Foreign Elder Chang know of any master on Shadowed Star who uses such an artifact?”
Chang Qi shook his head, “Young Lady, that golden spear didn’t seem to be an artifact.”
“Not an artifact? Then was it a Martial Skill?”
“It’s also not like a Martial Skill. This old master was paying close attention to that spear during the fight and noticed that it exuded an amazing vitality. Although it was in the form of a spear, this old master always felt it was closer in nature to a living creature.”
“I also noticed its shocking vitality,” Wu Yi nodded, “But why didn’t that master who saved us make an appearance? They could have at least let us know who our saviour was.”
Chang Qi smiled slightly, “There are many powerful masters who do not like publicizing their names, perhaps in his opinion saving us was only a slight effort.”
“En, but his slight effort managed to save several dozen of our lives.”
“Young Lady doesn’t need to worry, as long as that person is from our Shadowed Star, we will one day come to know his identity, and it won’t be too late to offer our thanks at that time. Our family isn’t one that cannot understand gratitude, but Young Lady, if in the future you come to know the identity of this master, you must be careful when speaking with them, such powerful masters are often subject to shifting moods, on top of that, this time’s matter may not even be remembered by them.”
“What Foreign Elder says makes sense,” Wu Yi nodded slightly, glancing back at the still-arguing crowd who were trying to snatch up credit, snorting in the next moment as she shouted, “If you continue acting so shamelessly, I’ll confiscate all your rewards for this time’s expedition!”
Once these words came out, the several arguing men went silent, none of them daring to let out a single squeak as they bowed their heads.
“We still have a month’s journey back to Shadowed Star, so remain vigilant, I won’t tolerate any mistakes!” Wu Yi reprimanded before getting up and leaving.
After she left, Yu Feng snorted before turning to the crowd, “Good, now there’s nothing left to fight over. You fools, why did so many of you come forward all at once? Couldn’t you have left this credit for Father to eat up? Calling you all comrades is this Yu Feng’s greatest disgrace!”
The dozen or so people who had just been clamouring rolled their eyes and ignored the outraged Yu Feng, quickly leaving to take care of their own business.
Inside his room, Yang Kai was in a state of meditative cultivation when Wu Yi rushed in and without a hint of politeness sat on her usual chair, her full chest bouncing slightly as she sat, making for a spectacular view.
Yang Kai opened his eyes to glance at her for a moment before closing them again and continuing to meditate.
After waiting for a while, Wu Yi saw him remain motionless and took the initiative to say, “I’m quite angry.”
Yang Kai sighed, knowing there was no way he could continue to cultivate. This young lady was a beauty, but her persistence was another matter altogether, each time she came, she wouldn’t give up until she drew out some stories from him, as if she had been starved for conversation for hundreds of years.
Seeing Wu Yi sitting there with a sour face waiting for him to ask her about it, Yang Kai sighed helplessly and spoke, “Who provoked you?”
“That group of stinky men! Why are they all so brain dead? All they could think about was snatching up the credit for themselves. Yang Kai, are people in the outside world like this too?”
Yang Kai thought about it for a moment before saying, “I don’t know about others, but I do know one situation where men become incredibly stupid.”
“What situation?”
“When they’re facing the woman they like, they’ll often do stupid things just to attract her attention.”
Wu Yi contemplated his words for a while before bursting into laughter and nodding, “What you said makes sense, in fact, they’re usually not that stupid, at least not to that extent, but every time I pass by, their intelligence seems to drop.”
“If they didn’t act that way, how else could you show off your smarts?”
“Do you mean that I’m stupid? You want to say that the only way I can look better is if they act dumb?” Wu Yi immediately became unhappy.
“I didn’t say that, you’re thinking too much. If you weren’t smart enough, no one would dare let you take charge of this Starship, much less entrust their lives to you.”
“As long as you know,” Wu Yi snorted, apparently quite satisfied with Yang Kai’s answer, suddenly changing the subject, “Did you know that just now, while we were fighting outside, I thought we would all die. We’ve never encountered such a large pack of Black Rock Beasts before. If they had destroyed the Starship, perhaps less than thirty percent of us would be able to escape with our lives, but suddenly a golden spear appeared to help us resolve the crisis. Yang Kai, what kind of person do you think the master of that golden spear is? You were watching the whole time right? Did you notice anyone suspicious?”
“Nope,” Yang Kai shook his head.
Wu Yi stared at him deeply, seemingly unintentionally saying, “If that person was willing to identify himself, I would offer him my sincere thanks.”
Yang Kai sat in place, his expression completely unmoved, as if he was an old monk who had found enlightenment and was indifferent to the world around him.
After a long time, Wu Yi simply sighed, “One month later we will return to Shadowed Star. Take a good rest; I can see that you still haven’t completely recovered. Was your foundation damaged? I’ll have someone bring you some pills and Saint Crystals.”
Yang Kai nodded, not refusing her kindness.
Shortly after Wu Yi left, a cultivator came and delivered Yang Kai ten High-Rank Saint Crystals and a few Saint Grade High-Rank pills, saying it was the Young Lady’s hope that Yang Kai could restore himself before they returned to Shadowed Star.
Yang Kai thanked him for this before accepting it.
Looking at the ten Saint Crystals and handful of Saint Grade High-Rank pills, Yang Kai couldn’t help feeling a bit complicated.
Previously, Wu Yi had ‘accepted’ five hundred High-Rank Saint Crystals from him, but Yang Kai was fairly certain she had not taken sole possession of those and had instead split them up amongst all her subordinates.
Although everyone hadn’t received much, for a time they were all wearing beaming smiles.
From this display alone, Yang Kai could tell that these people lived very poor lives.
Now Wu Yi had directly delivered him ten Saint Crystals, fully demonstrating her innate kindness.
And so, Yang Kai continued his silent cultivation. After storing up on Saint Qi for a time, he would come out and walk around the Starship. Although this ship was small and seemed to be quite old, it was clearly well maintained by Wu Yi and her crew, even the floors and windows were cleaned daily. It was obvious they valued the Starship more than their lives.
Yang Kai wasn’t one of Wu Yi’s subordinates, so there were some restricted areas on the Starship, such as the power room, he couldn’t go, but other than that, he was able to move about freely. The other cultivators onboard also gradually became familiar with Yang Kai, and as a foreigner, he was often subject to their curiosity and forced to tell them stories of the outside world.
Time flew by and the Starship drew closer and closer to Shadowed Star. As they approached home, the mood of the several dozen cultivators onboard became more and more joyful.
They had all set out on a dangerous journey to mine the nearby Ore Star and experienced many hardships along the way, so now that they were about to return home with a full load, naturally they were quite happy.
Even Wu Yi was infected with this kind of celebratory mood and in recent days had not run over to pester Yang Kai.
Finally, the huge Shadowed Star appeared in everyone’s eyes and within the Starship, loud cheers rang out.
Yang Kai, who was meditating in his room, was shaken awake and quickly walked outside to take a look through the corridor window.
An unimaginably large star soon appeared in his eyes, causing Yang Kai quite a surprise, “So big?”
Shadowed Star was enormous to a ridiculous degree. Yang Kai had spent several years in the Star Field now and had been to a number of different Cultivation Stars, but none could compare to the grandeur of Shadowed Star. It was at least ten times bigger than Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce’s Water Moon Star, a true behemoth amongst the Starry Sky.
At a distant location, an even larger sun star gave off a radiant glow that bathed Shadowed Star in light.
Orbiting Shadowed Star were seven or eight Moon Stars, each one at least the size of Rainfall Star.
“I heard that Shadowed Star was the largest Cultivation Star in the entire Star Field, is that true?” Wu Yi asked suddenly, having arrived beside Yang Kai at some unknown point, a somewhat smug look on her face as she saw his surprised expression.
No matter how much she wished to leave Shadowed Star and explore the vast outside world, this Cultivation Star was still her homeland and she took great pride in it.
“I don’t know if that’s true, but I’m certain it would be difficult to find another Cultivation Star comparable to this Shadowed Star,” Yang Kai answered seriously.
“In fact, the World Energy of Shadowed Star isn’t bad, it’s just that its size is too immense, so compared to other Cultivation Stars, the aura’s density seems a bit thin,” Wu Yi said quietly, “I also heard that long ago, there were many other Cultivation Stars in our region of the Star Field and we had not been cut off from the outside world, but due to some unknown reason, a great change occurred in the Starry Sky and those smaller Cultivation Stars disappeared, leaving behind only the largest Shadowed Star. A series of crises followed that strange change and with the lack of materials, especially Saint Crystals, it became impossible for us to reproduce the glory of our ancestors and even communication with the outside world was gradually cut off. Now it is only outsiders who come to us; it is very rare for those from Shadowed Star to go venture outside.”
While she was narrating this story, Yang Kai didn’t interrupt, simply standing there and listening quietly.
Suddenly Wu Yi turned towards Yang Kai and said with a face filled with confidence, “My dream is to reconnect Shadowed Star with the outside world, so that any time our people want to go see the outside world, they will have an opportunity to, never having to worry about lack of Saint Crystals or cultivation materials again.”
Yang Kai turned to meet her gaze and gave her a big thumbs up.
Those who have ideals were worthy of respect. Compared with Wu Yi, Yang Kai couldn’t say he had much of a purpose in life right now, he simply wanted to get stronger as quickly as possible.
“My family is not strong, and I do not have much status or support within it, so Yang Kai, I want to ask you to help me.”
The look of appreciation on Yang Kai’s face stiffed as he heard Wu Yi’s proposal, a bitter smile soon appearing on his face as he asked, “Your last words were your true purpose, right?”
Wu Yi cutely spat out her tongue, silently acknowledging her guilt.
Yang Kai laughed dumbly, wondering why Wu Yi had been speaking so sentimentally today, it turns out she was having ideas about recruiting him. Mulling over various thoughts for a moment, Yang Kai soon shook his head and said, “I’m just a small Third Order Saint, what can I do to help you?”
“I don’t know what you can help me with, but at the very least, you come from the outside and know far more about it than I do. You’ll know which forces we can look for to cooperate with and supplement the knowledge I lack. It’s alright even if your strength is a bit low,” Wu Yi said sincerely to Yang Kai.
Yang Kai’s brow furrowed. He had quite a good opinion of this woman who looked gentle and weak on the outside but was in fact strong on the inside and determined to pursue her own ideals. Unfortunately, he really didn’t want to get mixed up with others at this point. Yang Kai felt he was just a passing traveler to Shadowed Star and perhaps it wouldn’t be long before he set out again.
Hastily agreeing to Wu Yi’s request here would be too irresponsible, but looking into her pure eyes, Yang Kai couldn’t bear to outright reject her.
After silently grumbling to himself for a while, Yang Kai finally said, “I heard you say that your family is attached to a Sect called Shadow Moon Hall, right?”
“Yes, Shadow Moon Hall is one of the biggest forces on Shadowed Star. My Hai Ke Family are attached to Shadow Moon Hall. There are many small clans and families like ours on Shadowed Star that have no way to survive without the shelter of such great forces.”
“I understand,” Yang Kai nodded slightly, this kind of thing was also commonplace on Tong Xuan Realm. The Hai Ke Family that Wu Yi belonged to was just a peripherally attached force, so Yang Kai estimated their status was quite low and their family’s strength shouldn’t be too strong.
“What’s the level of the strongest masters in your family?” Yang Kai asked again.
Although she didn’t quite understand why Yang Kai had suddenly taken an interest in such matters, Wu Yi quickly answered, “Foreign Elder Chang Qi is one of my family’s strongest.”
Yang Kai was stunned, “Do you not even have an Origin Returning Realm master?”
Wu Yi couldn’t help rolling her eyes at his question, “Do you think Origin Realm masters are cabbages? Can you help me?”
Yang Kai smiled bitterly, “It seems your dreams are quite far from your grasp. It will be impossible to achieve what you want without enough manpower and powerful masters. En, become the Matriarch of your family first. When you accomplish that, I’ll consider helping you.”
“You’ll consider helping me?” Wu Yi trembled with anger upon hearing this. She had sincerely invited him, yet even she could tell that Yang Kai was simply being perfunctory here. Grinding her teeth, Wu Yi even wished she could viciously bite him.
“Good, when you gain control of your family, if you still have such ambitions, I will help you!” Yang Kai stared back at her burning look without any fear.
“Since you’ve said it, you better mean it!” Wu Yi smiled immediately, extending her delicate white hand to Yang Kai.
Yang Kai helplessly shook his head and shook her hand, sealing the agreement.
“Just you wait, within two or three years, I’ll definitely become the family’s leader,” Wu Yi declared with full confidence.
Seeing her like this, Yang Kai couldn’t bear to tell her that when she became head of her family and considered many others issues from that position of authority, she would quickly discover that her priorities were very different from her current thoughts.
Right now, she was simply pursuing her dreams without any other concerns, but in the future, she would have to consider the livelihood of her entire family and those burdens and restrictions would even more ruthlessly shackle her wings.
Time would grind down a person’s spirit and force even the most hot-blooded person to mature.
The Starship broke through the cloud layer of Shadowed Star and descended slowly to a large landing square.
At the square, someone who had already received word of their return was waiting to receive them, and when Wu Yi saw who this figure out the Starship’s window, she couldn’t help waving both her hands and calling out happily, “It’s Uncle Hao An!”
Yu Feng also grinned broadly, “Our trip is also considered an important task. Senior Hao An will naturally come out to meet us in person. Young Lady, after we get back, we’ll be properly rewarded, right?”
“All you think about is your reward!” Wu Yi rolled her eyes before laughing lightly, “Rest assured, the ore we mined this time is quite precious, there’ll definitely be enough compensation.”
Hearing her say this, the cultivator gathered nearby immediately cheered.
With a dull thud, the Starship landed and the hatch slowly opened. With Wu Yi at the head, and Chang Qi following close behind, a large crowd filed out with their heads held his, like soldiers returning in triumph from the battlefield, bringing honour and glory with them.
The old man named Hao An greeted them quickly while a number of cultivators from the Hai Ke Family who were standing behind him also approached and saluted, “Many thanks for Young Lady’s hard work!”
“It is what I should do, Uncle Hao An is too polite,” Wu Yi smiled.
“This old man can finally rest easy knowing Young Lady has returned safely,” Hao An declared with a look of lingering worry. Everyone understood just how dangerous it was to navigate the Star Field aboard a Starship. Wu Yi’s trip this time had lasted longer than a year, and many people who cared for her safety had not slept well since she left; Hao An was one among them and enthusiastically greeted, “Young Lady, please come back to the family, Patriarch and the other Elders are very worried about you, I’m sure they will be happy to know you’ve returned safe and sound.”
Wu Yi smiled but shook her head lightly, “There’s no rush, and we’ll first unload the ore from the Starship before heading back.”
Hearing this, Hao An’s face froze up, but he quickly fixed his expression and put on a strong smile, “Such matters do not need the Young Lady to handle personally, someone will naturally process it.”
Wu Yi stood for a moment before nodding, “Fine.”
Saying so, she shouted to the crowd behind her, “You lot stay here and help transport the ore back.”
“Yes!” Yu Feng and the others shouted loudly.
“No need, we’ll take care of it ourselves,” A voice suddenly called out, and the moment Wu Yi heard who it was, her smile disappeared and was replaced with a strong look of disgust, her beautiful eyes glancing over towards the side.
From the direction of the sound, Wu Yi spotted a group of cultivators rushing over towards them headed by a young man of short stature. This young man was impishly short, his head only reaching partway up Yang Kai’s chest, but although he was short, he took highly exaggerated steps and threw out his chest like he was a mighty expert, the smug look on his face fully illustrating his undisguised disdain for those around him.
“Xie Hong Wen?” Wu Yi’s eyes narrowed dangerously as she angrily shouted, “Why are you here?”
“Why can’t I be here?” The young man named Xie Hong Wen grinned meaningfully, “Although this is your Hai Ke Family’s land, it can also be regarded as my Shadow Moon Hall’s territory, if I want to walk here that is my business. En, Little Sister Wu Yi must have worked hard this time, I heard you even went deep into the Star Field, you must have collected a lot of rare ores.”
“What does that have to do with you?” Wu Yi immediately became vigilant.
“What doesn’t it have to do with me?” Xie Hong Wen laughed before pointing towards the Starship, “The ore inside this thing is now the property of my Shadow Moon Hall, didn’t anyone tell you?”
Wu Yi’s face paled, and Yu Feng and the others also fumed with anger.
Wu Yi turned her head towards Hao An, expecting him to give her an explanation. Hao An met her gaze with a guilty look and only after a long silence let out a long sigh, “Young Lady, let us first return, the Patriarch will give you an explanation.”
“An explanation?” Wu Yi sneered, immediately understanding what was happening here, her blood running cold as she icily spat, “In order to collect these ores, we set out with more than a hundred people, but only half of us were able to return. Do you know what kind of dangers we encountered? Do they how many waves of Black Rock Beasts we had to fend off? Do you know we were almost wiped out and unable to return? Who do you think we went out to collect these ores for? Now we return home with a full load and you want to tell us we can’t even enjoy the fruits of our labour? What kind of explanation do you plan on giving us?”
This series of questions made Hao An close his mouth tightly, the shame on his face only growing thicker, as if he couldn’t wait to find a hole to crawl into and disappear.
Not only was Wu Yi incredibly anger, her tender body trembling with rage, the fifty or so cultivators behind her were also spewing murderous intent as all their eyes stared menacingly towards Xie Hong Wen, their strength secretly condensing.
Xie Hong Wen remained motionless though, his disgusting smile still plastered all over his face as he looked provocatively at Yu Feng and the others, as if he couldn’t wait for them to attack and make the situation even bigger.
“Young Lady, this is the family’s decision!” Hao An finally managed to put out a few words while turning an imploring look towards Wu Yi and all but begging, “Please take the bigger picture into consideration, Young Lady!”
Wu Yi was not a little girl who didn’t understand propriety. She knew that the family had made such a decision because it was powerless to do otherwise and that if she remaining unyielding here, it would only bring greater disaster to her and the people behind her. Her delicate hands balling up into tight fists, the anger on her face gave way to helplessness as she let out a heavy sigh, “I understand.”
“Young Lady!” Yu Feng called out loudly and seemed to want to say something more.
“Enough! Your rewards won’t be short, even if the family can’t provide it, I will find a way to compensate you!” Wu Yi gave him a stern glance.
Tears began dripping from Yu Feng’s eyes as he lowered his head.
Xie Hong Wen clapped his hands lightly, sarcastically giving his approval of this show as he let out a laugh, “I heard that Little Sister Wu Yi possesses a noble spirit, en I’ve certainly see so today, truly deserving of your reputation, having so many unruly men act so obediently to you, Big Brother here is impressed!”
“Who is your Little Sister? Who is my Brother?” Wu Yi glared at him in disgust, “Xie Hong Wen, I’ll tell you now, this Starship’s ore is soaked with the blood of my Hai Ke Family’s clansmen, it was mined with our very lives, I hope you won’t have nightmares after being haunted by the grieving dead after seizing this from us!”
Xie Hong Wen’s face went cold for a moment but his smile soon returned, “Wu Yi, I know you’re dissatisfied, but what of it? If you want to blame someone, blame your family for being so weak, en, one day though your surname will be Xie and you will be this Xie’s woman, just wait and see.”
Saying so, he let out a peal of even more dissolute laughter and waved his hand, “Whoever dares to stop us from taking this ore, kill without mercy!”
The cultivators behind Xie Hony Wen immediately put on aggressive looks as they rushed into the Starship.
“Return!” Wu Yi didn’t want to stay and see this ugly display, and a deep coldness filled her pretty face as she led the several dozen cultivators behind her away.
After over a year of hard work, travelling deep into the Star Field to mine this ore, it had actually fallen into another’s hands the moment they returned to Shadowed Star; this was nothing less than torture for everyone present.
The mood of Wu Yi’s team was completely depressed, but Yang Kai could clearly see that all of their eyes were red with madness. He believed that as long as Wu Yi gave the order, all of them would not hesitate to attack Xie Hong Wen in order to defend their precious cargo.
Yang Kai had originally planned to part ways with Wu Yi as soon as they arrived on Shadowed Star, but leaving right now really wouldn’t be appropriate, so with no other choice, he simply followed along with the others.
After thinking about it for a moment, Yang Kai whispered to Yu Feng, “Does that Xie Hong Wen have some kind of grudge with your Young Lady?”
Yu Feng’s anger had not subsided yet, and when he heard these words he couldn’t help shooting Yang Kai a glare before shaking his head, “There’s no enmity between them, it’s just that he wanted to marry the Young Lady a few years ago, but was rejected by her. After that, he became angry out of shame and began oppressing our family at every chance he could.”
“Is that guy so strong?”
“He is nothing!” Yu Feng spat disdainfully, “Without the protection of Shadow Moon Hall, I can kill him instantly! But his father is an important figure in Shadow Moon Hall, so he can act unscrupulously! My Hai Ke Family is just a minor attached force of Shadow Moon Hall, so no matter how he bullies us, no one will try to uphold justice… Brat, you’re a bit too curious about this, aren’t you? Let me warn you, don’t even think about trying to take Wu Yi from me otherwise I’ll beat you bad enough your mother won’t recognize you! “
Yang Kai gawked for a moment before smirking, “Rest assured, I won’t steal her from you, en, I already have many women.”
Yu Feng’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets as he stared in shock towards Yang Kai, glancing over him as he asked, “Is that true? With just your pitiful strength, how many women could you have? What do you use to protect them?”
Yang Kai shrugged and didn’t say any more.
Yu Feng seemed to have discovered something of great importance and immediately rushed over to Wu Yi’s side, acting mysterious as he whispered something to her.
After a moment, Wu Yi looked back at Yang Kai, his brow furrowed slightly as a look of disbelief spread across her face.
Yang Kai’s face turned black, knowing that Yu Feng was trying to smear him, but after hearing this strange anecdote, Wu Yi’s mood seemed to improve slightly and her tight expression gradually relaxed, a slight smile even reaching her lips.
The Hai Ke Family’s manor was not far from the square where the Starship had landed, only about fifty kilometres away, so after a short while, the crowd had arrived.
Wu Yi, Hao An, and Chang Qi naturally separated from the group to report to the other Elders of the family while at the same time ask them to give her an explanation. Everyone else also dispersed into the manor and soon disappeared.
A moment later, only Yu Feng and Yang Kai remained.
Yu Feng scratched his head and muttered, “En, Young Lady told me to entertain you well, but after thinking it over, I don’t know what to do, I’ve never had any experience in this area!”
Yang Kai laughed dumbly and waved his hand, “You can go about your own business, and I’ll just take a stroll around.”
“Do as you like, Father here also happens to have something to do. En, don’t go to the local village, that’s the place where the family lives, you can stroll around anywhere else. If you get bored, you can go check out Tian Yun City, it’s about two hundred kilometres in that direction.”
“Sure,” Yang Kai nodded.
Shadowed Star was very different from other Cultivation Stars in that it had an incredibly strong gravity.
Yang Kai previously discovered that the larger the Cultivation Star, the greater the gravitational pull, there seemed to be a direct relationship between the two. The force of attraction Shadowed Star put out was particularly violent; incomparable to any other Cultivation Star Yang Kai had visited before.
Cultivating in this environment would result in greater benefits than other Cultivation Stars.
On top of that, the World Energy here wasn’t as thin as Yang Kai had expected. While it wasn’t as good as Rainfall Star or Water Moon Star, compared to Tong Xuan Realm, it was nothing short of paradise.
Yang Kai was quite satisfied with this place.
After struggling aimlessly through the Star Field for several years, Yang Kai felt he should find a place to settle down for a while and properly cultivate. Only when he was strong enough would he be able to act freely.
Wanting to find Su Yan in this vast Star Field was like finding a needle in a haystack.
But Yang Kai had come up with a feasible method to accomplish this, one he had successfully used before.
That was to make his name known, so that it echoed throughout the entire Star Field, that way, no matter where Su Yan was, she would be able to find him, drastically decreasing the amount of blind searching the two of them had to do.
Back on Tong Xuan Realm, Hu Jiao’er and He Mei’er had quickly been able to find Nine Heavens Holy Land and obtain Yang Kai’s help because of his great fame.
This process would take a long time, but it was much more reliable than flying about like a headless fly. Yang Kai was prepared to spend dozens or even hundreds of years to achieve this wish.
He doesn’t care about time, because no matter how long it was, he believed the bond between him and Su Yan would not weaken.
The same was true of Little Senior Sister. When Yang Kai was strong enough, he would return to Tong Xuan Realm and bring her and the rest of his loved ones out into the Star Field.
Shadowed Star would be the place where Yang Kai took the first steps on this endeavour.
After walking around the Hai Ke Family’s manor for a while, Yang Kai became somewhat bored and was just about to set out for Heavenly Fate City when he saw a Star Shuttle soar out from the grounds.
Yang Kai clearly saw Wu Yi’s figure standing on that Star Shuttle.
Thinking about it for a moment, Yang Kai summoned out his own Star Shuttle and followed after Wu Yi.
Yang Kai didn’t know what happened, but from Wu Yi’s look, he could tell she was in considerable distressed. Even flying a couple kilometres behind Wu Yi, Yang Kai could make out the sound of her sobs. Wu Yi didn’t seem to be flying aimlessly and after a while she landed on a barren mountain and sat down alone at its summit, curling her head down into her green dress as she held her knees with both her hands.
Yang Kai landed behind her but didn’t know how what to say to comfort her, so he simply stood there silently waiting for her to calm down.
Wu Yi’s delicate shoulders trembled, seemingly realizing that someone was approaching her, looking back to discover it was Yang Kai, then crying even louder.
Yang Kai immediately became more flustered.
It took a while, but eventually Wu Yi stopped crying and after wiping the corners of her eyes, she stared pitifully at Yang Kai and said, “Don’t tell anyone else!”
Yang Kai quickly nodded.
“It’s too unfair,” Wu Yi said, choking on her words, “So many of us died to collect that ore, yet after only a few words the family handed all of it over to that bastard Xie Hong Wen, not even preparing a decent reward for us!”
“Small families have the sad fates of small families, hasn’t this happened more than once or twice before?”
“Why do powerful people like to bully the weak? Is there no fairness or justice in this world? If I stood in a high position, I would never do such a thing,” Wu Yi shouted indignantly, venting the frustration in her heart, “Don’t they understand what chilling the hearts of the people mean? Once the will of the people runs cold, the family will be no more, why are they so short-sighted? Is acting so servile just to maintain their feeble existence worth it?”
“When you really stand in such a position, you may be able to appreciate that helplessness.”
“Which side are you on?” Wu Yi glared at Yang Kai in annoyance, angry that he was not agreeing with her.
Yang Kai quickly raised his hands, “Alright, alright, alright. You speak, I’ll just shut up and just listen.”
As if obtaining his permission freed her somehow, Wu Yi opened the floodgates and began talking about all the grievances and injustices she had suffered over the years, and regardless of whether Yang Kai was willing to or not, he was forced to listen to how her family was too weak, how Shadow Moon Hall was too overbearing, and how she felt such great frustration with her own weakness. She seemed to have endured a lot of pressure and torment.
After going on for quite some time, Wu Yi’s mood finally eased up, though her eyes were now swollen like peaches.
Turning to stare into Yang Kai’s eyes, she then asked, “Was that golden spear your doing?”
Yang Kai shook his head decisively.
This woman really had some suspicions; after all, she knew her subordinates’ abilities well, the only one she wasn’t clear about was Yang Kai who they had picked up halfway.
“It really wasn’t you?” Wu Yi seemed a little unconvinced, “Why do I always feel like you’re not as weak as you appear?”
Yang Kai had to admit that the intuition of this woman was quite terrifying, but he still smiled and said, “I am just a Third Order Saint, even if I have some hidden means, how much strength could I possibly display?”
Wu Yi stared at him for a moment before slowly shaking her head, “I don’t know, it’s just that when I face you, I can’t help feeling a sense of pressure. I have a feeling that If we were to fight, the one who would suffer defeat would be me, I believe my instincts.”
“You think too highly of me,” Yang Kai continued to deny, quickly changing the subject, “I actually came here to say goodbye to you.”
“Goodbye?” Wu Yi was stunned, “Where do you want to go? Do you know anyone on Shadowed Star?”
“No, but don’t try to recruit me, I won’t join your family.”
Wu Yi smiled, “Presumably my little family cannot enter your eyes. Although your cultivation isn’t high, in the end, you come from the outside and have clearly weathered your share of great storms. Good, so be it, if you insist on departing, I won’t try to detain you, but between us, we still have an agreement. Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten?”
“Of course I haven’t forgotten.”
“Then don’t leave,” Wu Yi stood up and stretched her waist exaggeratedly, letting out a sigh as she unconsciously showed off her fantastic body line, not even paying the weird look in Yang Kai’s eyes any mind, tapping her foot a few times and saying, “How about if I give you this barren mountain?”
“Give it to me?” Yang Kai was stunned.
“This Dragon Cave Mountain is part of my personal territory. It has a long history in my family, and although there are no precious treasures or rare ores, the World Energy here doesn’t lose out to other places. I often come here to enter secluded retreat. The scenery here is also very good. Yu Feng and his gang often come over as well. In any case, since you have nowhere to go, you might as well just stay here. If you want, from now on, this place is yours.”
Yang Kai frowned and observed Wu Yi for a while and after discerning that she wasn’t joking, he asked in surprise, “Are you really willing to just deliver me such a big piece of land?”
Wu Yi laughed playfully, “Clearly you don’t know, on Shadowed Star, such a piece of land isn’t worth anything at all. Shadowed Star is far too big, so even if my Hai Ke Family is just a tiny force, our territory stretches several thousand kilometres in every direction, what does a trivial mountain count as? Haven’t you encountered similar situations on other Cultivation Stars?”
Yang Kai nodded, realizing that such a piece of land was truly worthless on Shadowed Star.
“Why are you trying so hard to have me remain? You couldn’t have taken a liking to me, right?” Yang Kai became somewhat vigilant.
Wu Yi gawked for a moment before bursting into a fit of laughter.
Yang Kai’s face went dark, “What are you laughing at?”
Wu Yi waved her hands and said, “I know you have a lot of women, and those women like you, but you shouldn’t think too highly of yourself. I… I’m just thinking about supporting my family, I haven’t even considered the matters between men and women yet, but even if I did, I wouldn’t look at a man who already has many women.”
“That would be best,” Yang Kai snorted slightly, suddenly feeling a bit disgruntled.
“So it’s settled?” Wu Yi smiled at him.
“I’ll stay here for the time being. As you said, I have nowhere to go anyway,” Yang Kai shrugged.
“Actually, this place is quite good, Heavenly Fate City is only about fifty kilometres in that direction, so if you ever want to buy anything, it will be quite convenient. Right, you probably don’t have any living goods on you now; I’ll have Yu Feng bring some things over to help you set up some proper accommodations. You can live here with peace of mind. Don’t think too much about it, just treat it as a kind of stopover, when the day comes that I take command of the family, don’t try to back out!”
Yang Kai grinned and somewhat disagreed. He felt that it would take at least several dozen years for Wu Yi to take charge of the Hai Ke Family.
Yang Kai followed Wu Yi across a few mountains before coming to a deep cave where traces of someone sitting in meditative cultivation remained. Wu Yi explained that this was her handiwork.
The cave seemed quite deep and extended straight into the mountain belly. There was a small spring nearby that converged into a pool with crystal clear water inside the cave.
“The conditions here are somewhat harsh but it’s at least quiet and spacious. En, if you want, you can actually live in my house together with Yu Feng and the others.”
“No, this place is good,” Yang Kai shook his head. In any case, it was just a place to stay, so it didn’t really matter where it was. Although this cave was a bit solitary, the World Energy aura was far richer, making Yang Kai very satisfied.
“Then I’ll leave you to get familiar with this place. I have to go back, I still need to distribute the rewards I promised those guys,” Wu Yi said before flying off.
After Wu Yi left, Yang Kai carefully examined his new home.
Although the mountain spring ran through the cave, the environment was not humid or damp and was very suitable for living. This cave was formed naturally and was twisted and confused with no decent stone rooms carved out.
Releasing his Divine Sense, Yang Kai examined the surrounding thousand-kilometre radius and quickly discovered that what Wu Yi said was not an exaggeration, there were no spirit grasses, spirit medicines, or mineral lodes worthy of attention. Apart from the slightly rich World Energy aura, it was just a mountain.
No wonder she had given it away so freely.
Yang Kai knew that Wu Yi was trying to retain him because he had come from the outside and knew far more about it than anyone else she could come across. This was what Wu Yi valued the most. As for his strength, she probably didn’t even think about it.
Wu Yi had great ambition to allow her family to rise to prominence, but Yang Kai also had a lofty goal, to become famous throughout the Star Field. The two had different aspirations, but both would need to work hard at them for many years to achieve results.
Yang Kai suddenly felt that this might be a good springboard, through the Hai Ke to Shadow Moon Hall, and then to Shadowed Star, then to the rest of the Star Field, he would promote his name. When that time came, he wouldn’t have to worry about Su Yan not knowing about him or coming to find him.
Thinking so, Yang Kai was suddenly filled with hope for the future.