After walking far away, the man who invited Yang Kai to accompany him looked back, a strange expression upon his face as he muttered to himself, “A First-Order Saint King can stand the heat here without using his Saint Qi? How strange…”
Even he, a Third-Order Saint King, was having some difficulty coping with this environment, his clothes quickly become soaked in sweat. When he saw Yang Kai looking perfectly fine, on the other hand, he had sent out an invitation.
Because he subconsciously felt that Yang Kai wasn’t as simple as he seemed.
However, the other party seemed a bit impersonal, simply declaring he wasn’t interested before refusing to say anymore. In this kind of place, a casual slip of the tongue could lead to one’s death, so acting cautiously was for the best. Who knew what kind of character that First Order Saint King had? If he were to say something to annoy the other party, it might have even turned into a fight. The Flowing Flame Sand Field had last opened over four hundred years ago, so it could be said that treasures were everywhere, what was most important right now was to search for benefits.
After this man left, Yang Kai stood in place for a while, thinking that the voice of the cultivator who had just invited him sounded familiar, as if he had heard it somewhere before, but Yang Kai was sure he hadn’t met this person until now.
How could he know the voice of someone he had never met?
Thinking about it for a while but unable to come up with anything, Yang Kai put this issue aside and took out the Yuan Magnetic Compass from his Space Ring.
There seemed to also be some Divine Sense fluctuations coming from the communication artefact. It should be Wei Gu Chang’s message. Yang Kai examined this message and confirmed his suspicions. In fact, not only had Wei Gu Chang sent out a message, Dong Xuan’er and several other Shadow Moon Hall disciples were also exchanging messages, seemingly trying to determine each other’s whereabouts and where to meet up.
Yang Kai directly ignored these messages and threw the communication artefact into his Space Ring. Then he confirmed which way led deeper into the Flowing Flame Sand Field with the Yuan Magnetic Compass before departing.
About three hundred kilometres away from Yang Kai, Wei Gu Chang stood below a large mountain. This mountain was very conspicuous, and even if one was far away, they would be able to see a trace of its outline. He and several Core Disciples from Shadow Moon Hall had agreed to rendezvous here, believing that as long they weren’t idiots they would be able to quickly find this place.
Dong Xuan’er actually appeared the closest to him so after a half cup of tea’s time, she arrived first.
“Senior Brother!” Dong Xuan’er shouted happily as she landed, a pale blue halo surrounding her body. This halo was emitting a faint cold aura completely isolating her from the surrounding heat. It was obviously created by the Origin Grade Low-Rank defensive artefact Yang Yan had refined for her.
Wei Gu Chang, like Yang Kai, did not immediately use any artefacts or Saint Qi to protect himself, standing tall in the hot air, even seemingly enjoying the temperature. After seeing Dong Xuan’er arrive, he immediately smiled mildly.
“Senior Brother, the few Junior Brothers and Junior Sisters who were supposed to accompany us to the Treasure Area all responded quickly, but Senior Brother Yang hasn’t sent any reply. Could he have appeared too far away, outside the range of our communication artefacts?” Dong Xuan’er asked with some worry.
“Probably not,” Wei Gu Chang shook his head, “Our communication artefacts were refined by Grandmaster Ge Lin himself, the distance they can relay messages across is over five hundred kilometres. There wasn’t much time between when we and he entered, so even if we were all scattered, he should still be nearby. Brother Yang not responding… is probably intentional.”
“Senior Brother, do you mean Senior Brother Yang wants to act alone? He’s not willing to join us?” Dong Xuan’er was also a beautiful and intelligent woman. Listening to Wei Gu Chang’s words, she immediately understood Yang Kai’s plan.
“Those who are skilled like to adventure alone!” Wei Gu Chang grinned.
“Does Senior Brother want to act on his own as well? To wander about freely?” Dong Xuan’er asked faintly.
Wei Gu Chang laughed, “Senior Brother naturally wants to travel together with you! The two of us love and understand one another, so spending time with each other even in this Forbidden Zone naturally makes me happy!”
Hearing what he said, Dong Xuan’er couldn’t help spitting out her tongue cutely, but even that couldn’t hide the happiness on her face.
However, Wei Gu Chang soon snorted coldly, “Of course, if it were possible, I’d rather it just be the two of us, but there’s no way we can do that. Martial Uncle Wang and Martial Uncle Yan specifically ordered me to take good care of those Junior Brothers and Junior Sisters so I can’t just leave them behind. It’s truly ridiculous, when I invited Brother Yang before, all of them were obviously dissatisfied. How could they understand Brother Yang’s true strength? I would rather go travel together with Brother Yang than have to look after those burdens.”
“When you belong to a Sect, there are always some unsatisfactory responsibilities one needs to deal with, Senior Brother shouldn’t let it bother him!” Dong Xuan’er comforted softly.
This was Dong Xuan’er’s greatest strength, and what Wei Gu Chang liked most about her. She could always find the right words and the right timing to soothe his heart. Every time he fell into a foul mood, she only needed to say a few words to calm him down immediately.
“Of course I understand. Forget it, let’s not discuss it any further, they should be arriving soon, it’ll be bad if they heard,” Wei Gu Chang smiled and shook his head, instead discussing what course and direction they should take next with Dong Xuan’er.
At this moment, Yang Kai was encountering his first Fire Spirit Beast.
He had thought that Fire Spirit Beasts would be the same as Monster Beasts, easy to discover, so he had been searching around ever since he entered, eager to see what kind of strange being this creature unique to Flowing Flame Sand Field was like. On top of that, he was interested to learn what was so special about that Fire Crystal Stones these creatures carried.
With no clue where to find Fire Spirit Beasts, Yang Kai had simply been searching randomly when suddenly a burst of fire came from the ground beneath his feet and a fiery tiger-like Fire Spirit Beast appeared in front of him.
Yang Kai didn’t rush to attack and observed it carefully.
Just as Wei Gu Chang had said before, this Fire Spirit Beast’s body seemed illusionary and ethereal, its aura perfectly matched with the atmosphere inside the Flowing Flame Sand Field, so even though Yang Kai had been incredibly vigilant, he hadn’t detected it until it leapt from the crack beneath him.
This tiger-like Fire Spirit Beast looked weak and fragile though, probably as strong as a Fifth-Order Monster Beast at best. Fifth-Order Monster Beasts were equivalent to human race Immortal Ascension Boundary cultivators. In fact, this creature didn’t even have a complete body, only a majestic tiger head and half a body while the rest was only a ball of fire.
Yang Kai was immediately disappointed. Seeing this tiger-like Fire Spirit Beast take the initiative to attack, Yang Kai simply threw out a casual punch, Saint Qi spewing from his fist.
In a burst of flame, the tiger-like Fire Spirit Beast disappeared and a dark red grain of sand replaced it.
Yang Kai reached out and grabbed it.
Was this the Fire Crystal Stone he had heard about? Even if Yang Kai was seeing it for the first time, he was able to recognize it at a glance as Wei Gu Chang had enthusiastically described it to him.
However, this thing was too small, and while the aura contained in it was pure enough, the amount it had stored was quite pitiful. Yang Kai casually circulated his Saint Qi and absorbed the energy inside it clean.
Shaking his head with dissatisfaction. Yang Kai estimated that the size of the Fire Crystal Stone should be directly related to the level of the Fire Spirit Beast.
The higher the level of Fire Spirit Beast, the larger the Fire Crystal Stone would be. This sand sized Fire Crystal Stone was just the crystal of a Fifth-Order Fire Spirit Beast. Sixth-Order Seventh-Order and Eighth-Order First Crystal Stones may be different.
The outermost region of the Flame Area posed no challenge to him, so Yang Kai quickly lost interest in carefully investigating it. Concentrating for a moment, a burst of wind and thunder manifested and a pair of beautiful wings suddenly opened behind Yang Kai. These wings were somewhat transparent and faint arcs of lightning rippled across them. It was the Wind and Thunder Wings that Yang Kai had not used for a long time.
Back on Tong Xuan Realm, the Wind and Thunder Wings had helped him many times, but after obtaining the Star Shuttle flight type artefact, the usefulness of the Wind and Thunder Wings had gradually decreased.
After arriving in the Star Field, he had never used his Wind and Thunder Wings again.
Yang Kai hadn’t expected they would come in handy in such a place.
Injecting Saint Qi into his Wind and Thunder Wings, the intensity of the wind and thunder increased, allowing Yang Kai’s speed to soar as he transformed into a streak of light, disappearing from where he once stood.
Yang Kai looked pleased. He found that his conjecture was actually correct. Although Star Shuttles couldn’t be used and cultivators couldn’t fly inside the Flowing Flame Sand Field, his Wind and Thunder Wings were usable. As long as he didn’t leave the ground, he wouldn’t receive any kind of suppression.
However, once Yang Kai tried to fly, an incredible pressure would force him back down.
After a few fruitless attempts, Yang Kai gave up and simply relied on the Wind and Thunder Wings to improve his running speed.
This Forbidden Zone was quite strange. Yang Kai couldn’t tell what kind of profound laws of Heaven and Earth were at work here, but the number of restrictions they applied wasn’t small.
Along the way, Yang Kai didn’t meet anyone, as if he was the only one exploring this huge Flowing Flame Sand Field. Of course, he knew that this was just an illusion. The Flowing Flame Sand Field was simply too large. As a giant circular boundary, the outermost layer was obviously broader, meaning there was less of a chance of running into people, but as he dove further inside, the chances of him encountering other cultivators would naturally increase. After all the elites gradually migrated towards the centre regions, meetings with others would become commonplace and conflicts would also start occurring.
Fire Spirit Beasts were indeed a common existence in this Flame Area. As Yang Kai hurried along, from time to time, one or two Fire Spirit Beasts of varying strength would pop up from the cracks in the ground. Some of these beasts tried to hinder his progress while others were simply wandering about.
Yang Kai didn’t have any interest in killing these Fifth or Sixth-Order Fire Spirit Beasts so for the most part he ignored them.
The further he went, the higher the ambient temperature became. Not only was did the temperature rise though, causing the stinging sensation on Yang Kai’s skin to become stronger, but even the fire poison contained in the air also became more potent. Through Yang Kai’s pores, this poison slowly began seeping into his body, hindering his physical functions and the circulation of his Saint Qi.
This fire poison was incredibly resilient and even if Yang Kai circulated his Secret Art, he couldn’t refine it. If he continued allowing it to accumulate, it would pose a significant danger, so Yang Kai could only force it out of his body.
As the temperature and heat increased, Yang Kai was forced to use his Saint Qi to protect his body while simultaneously resisting the intrusion of the fire poison.
Three days later, Yang Kai arrived at the mouth of a mountain valley-like area. During these three days, he had been hurrying along, and with the help of his Wind and Thunder Wings, his speed was much faster than others. Besides spending some effort to kill an Eighth-Order Fire Spirit Beast, nothing else of note had happened.
That Eighth-Order’s Fire Spirit Beast had solidified to a certain extent, and when it suddenly emerged from the cracks in the ground, it really surprised Yang Kai. If it wasn’t for his rapid response, and the speed boost his Wind and Thunder Wings provided him, this sneak attack might have injured him.
It was at that point that Yang Kai realized the real threat of Fire Spirit Beasts weren’t their strength, but their ability to perfectly integrate into the environment of the Flowing Flame Sand Field. As long as they did not appear of their own accord, cultivators wouldn’t be able to find them.
However, when one did appear, they would immediately launch a deadly sneak attack.
Eighth-Order Fire Spirit Beasts were equivalent to Saint Kings, and if it had been any other cultivator, that sneak attack would have claimed their life.
Fortunately, Yang Kai managed to kill it and acquired a Fire Crystal Stone the size of a pigeon egg for his efforts.
This piece of Fire Crystal Stone was far larger than the one he first obtained and its value was certainly not low. As long as an Alchemist or Artifact Refiner perfectly integrated the pure fire aura contained inside this Fire Crystal Stone into the pill or artifact they were refining, they could improve the grade and quality of that pill or artefact.
This small harvest pleased Yang Kai, and he couldn’t help wanting to search for other Eighth-Order Fire Spirit Beasts to kill; after all, he was an Alchemist, this thing was quite useful to him.
Inside the mountain valley, Yang Kai used his Divine Sense to cover a three hundred meter radius around him to guard against sneak attacks from powerful Fire Spirit Beasts.
The terrain here was strange. In all directions, there were bare mountains, and the whole mountain valley itself looked like a giant pit. This valley was also quite large, and from the entrance, one could not see the end, only an endless expanse of crisscrossed gullies and cracked crevices, almost like a deep abyss that made one shudder at the mere sight.
Yang Kai, however, didn’t care and promptly used his Wind and Thunder Wings to continue deeper into the valley.
He and Wei Gu Chang had the same idea, to rush to the Treasure Area as soon as possible and collect some spirit grasses and spirit medicines before others arrived en masse. Once the elites from all the great Sects made their way over, there would be fewer chances to obtain good things.
Everyone should be hurrying right now, but with his Wind and Thunder Wings, Yang Kai had a big advantage.
Half a day later, Yang Kai reached the interior of the mountain valley, but surprisingly, he had not encountered a single Fire Spirit Beast along the way. Earlier, no matter how good his luck was, Yang Kai would run into at least one or two Fire Spirit Beasts every hour, but now half a day has passed without any Fire Spirit Beasts appearing, making him feel quite puzzled.
It was as if this mountain valley was some kind of restricted area that Fire Spirit Beasts wouldn’t enter.
Yang Kai was pleased with this development though and simply continued onwards.
But all of a sudden, Yang Kai’s face changed as he instantaneously dodged to the side.
Just now, his Divine Sense had detected traces of abnormal energy fluctuations. This type of energy fluctuation was something he was now quite familiar with as it was a sign that Fire Spirit Beasts underground were about to launch an attack.
Sure enough, the instant after he dodged, the place Yang Kai had originally been standing was set upon by a number of different shaped and different levelled Fire Spirit Beasts.
Yang Kai didn’t want to bother with them, he just wanted to keep moving, but before he could even come to a halt, more abnormal energy fluctuations appeared beneath his feet.
Yang Kai frowned and changed position again.
A third set of energy fluctuations appeared…
At the same time, in all directions, the whole mountain valley seemed to boil as chaotic flows of energy burst forth and streams of fire erupted from the cracked ground, transforming into various strange and grotesque Fire Spirit Beasts.
The number of flames which leapt from the earth were innumerable and more were appearing in the distance with every breath.
Yang Kai’s face finally changed.
There was something off about this mountain valley!
He never thought that so many Fire Spirit Beasts would appear in a single location. This place was completely different from what he had imagined. Rather than a restricted area for Fire Spirit Beasts, it was clearly their paradise.
Who knew how many Fire Spirit Beasts had gathered here? In just a few breaths, Yang Kai found himself completely surrounded by Fire Spirit Beasts, all of them eyeing him menacingly.
Sweeping his surroundings with his Divine Sense, Yang Kai’s face sank.
Tens of thousands of Fire Spirit Beasts had filled the surrounding thousand-meter radius around him alone. Although the majority of these Fire Spirit Beasts were Fifth or Sixth-Order, there were some Seventh-Order and Eighth-Order ones mixed in. On top of that, more Fire Spirit Beasts were arriving with every passing moment.
Yang Kai felt like he had accidentally broken a bee-hive and the look on his face became extremely ugly.
Since he couldn’t fly, he could only kill his way out of this encirclement, but against so many Fire Spirit Beasts, could he really do that?
As Yang Kai stood in a daze though, a beastly roar rang out and the Fire Spirit Beasts surrounding him began their assault, all of them swarming towards him in large groups, baring their fangs and flashing their claws as some even launched Fire Attribute energy attacks from a distance. Fireballs spewed from a number of Fire Spirit Beasts’ mouths while others materialized arrows of flame that they shot towards Yang Kai at speeds that split the air apart.
Thankfully, these energy attacks could only be sent out by the Seventh-Order Fire Spirit Beasts.
Yang Kai also let out a war cry as he pushed his Saint Qi to its limits, condensing a giant Demonic Flame sword in his hand and swept it around fiercely, sending out a shocking sword wave that sliced apart any Fifth or Sixth-Order Fire Spirit Beast it touched.
Yang Kai waved his hands again and sent out a dozen Demonic Flame spears in all directions, each one piercing the bodies of countless Fire Spirit Beasts before gradually disappearing.
Yang Kai repeatedly displayed the Profound Heavenly Sword and Heaven Punishing Spear, using these two Nine Heavens Divine Skills to slaughter the Fire Spirit Beasts around him.
If others had come across so many Fire Spirit Beasts, even if they were in a large group, they would likely resign themselves to death immediately, because there were simply too many of them. Even if most of these Fire Spirit Beasts collapsed in a single blow, the amount of energy it would take to kill all of them was simply unfathomable.
Before a cultivator could kill them all, they would likely run out of strength and simply be drowned in the sea of Fire Spirit Beasts.
Yang Kai was different though, he never worried about how much strength was stored in his body. Before, he stored Yang Liquid in his dantian, but now that his Saint Qi had taken on the form of Demonic Flames, he directly stored it in his body.
The amount of Saint Qi Yang Kai possessed was hundreds or even thousands of times greater than any Saint King. Even Origin Returning Realm masters couldn’t compare to him in this aspect.
Recklessly releasing his own Saint Qi let these Fire Spirit Beasts who were coming for his life understand that he wasn’t some easily had prey.
Soon, however, Yang Kai frowned.
When such a massive number of Fire Spirit Beasts appeared just now, he had truly been startled for a while, but soon he actually became excited.
Because with so many Fire Spirit Beasts, he could harvest an enormous amount of Fire Crystal Stones. Even if the Fire Crystal Stones from Fifth-Order or Sixth-Order Fire Spirit Beasts weren’t very useful, the ones from those at the Seventh-Order and Eighth-Order were different, each one of these Fire Crystal Stones could definitely be useful for Alchemy or Artifact Refining.
But now, Yang Kai noticed a strange phenomenon. After these Fire Spirit Beasts were destroyed by him, he discovered a fundamental difference between them and the Fire Spirit Beasts outside the strange valley: They didn’t have Fire Crystal Stones in their bodies.
After the time it would take to boil a cup of tea, Yang Kai killed at least three hundred Fifth and Sixth-Order Fire Spirit Beasts. He had even killed a dozen or so at the Seventh-Order but strangely, no matter Order they were, after their bodies dissipated, not a single Fire Crystal Stone appeared
Something was drastically wrong here! Yang Kai only became more confused as he continued killing, but suddenly he set his sights on an Eighth-Order Fire Spirit Beast not far away.
He wondered if the same thing would happen with this guy!
The Demonic Flame sword in his had traced a wide arc, contaminating the Fire Spirit Beasts around him with Demonic Flames, causing them to instantly collapse and dissipate. He then dashed out through the gap he had created and went straight towards the Eighth-Order Fire Spirit Beast.
Before he even arrived, Yang Kai hurled a Heaven Punishing Spear.
This Eighth-Order Fire Spirit Beast actually possessed some skill and swiftly retreated into the herd, using the bodies of more than a dozen companions to resist the Heaven Punishing Spear, sending out a blast of flames from its mouth before Yang Kai could launch another attack.
Yang Kai didn’t even try to evade, condensing his Saint Qi in front of him and diving straight into this blast of flame, emerging on the other side a moment later and swinging down the Demonic Flame long sword in his hand.
The Eighth-Order Fire Spirit Beast could not avoid this strike and was instantly decapitated. After suffering this blow, the Eighth-Order Fire Spirit Beast fizzled out of existence.
Yang Kai searched carefully but quickly found that no Fire Crystal Stone had appeared.
Seeing this, Yang Kai couldn’t help cursing out loud. There were countless Fire Spirit Beasts trapping him here, but even after killing them, he didn’t obtain a single thing; it was simply intolerable.
If he could harvest a large number of Fire Crystal Stones here, Yang Kai would still feel that killing these Fire Spirit Beasts was worthwhile, but with no prospective benefits, how could he retain any interest in slaughtering these creatures.
After letting out an angry cry, a hundred-meter long dragon suddenly leapt out of Yang Kai’s body. It was the Golden Dragon Tattoo on his back.
However, after Yang Kai poured his own unique Saint Qi into it, this Golden Dragon had become jet black, the Demonic Flame composing its body surging about as its giant pair of eyes swept over the herd of beasts.
This black dragon shook its head and waved his tail as it rushed into the crowd of Fire Spirit Beasts, rampaging as it destroyed wide swaths of them in short order.
At the same time, Yang Kai took out the purple shield refined for him by Yang Yan and used it to resist the attacks of the Fire Spirit Beasts behind him. He also took out the Hundred Mountains Picture which originally belonged to the Xu Family and used one the phantom mountains contained within to smash the Fire Spirit Beasts in front of him.
Yang Kai’s strength was much higher than Xu Zhi Shen’s was at that time, so while Xu Zhi Shen was only able to reluctantly summon six mountain peaks, Yang Kai was easily able to bring out eight in an instant.
While the Hundred Mountains Picture was a good artefact overall, it was most suited to mass killing.
The eight huge mountain phantoms look illusory and misty, but each one possessed the weight a mountain should. There was no need to add any additional force to them, simply allowing them to fall from the sky was impactful enough. Being madly stimulated by Yang Kai’s Saint Qi, these giant mountains had already begun to give off traces of Demonic Flame. Soon, the entire mountain valley was shaking from the falling mountain peaks, with countless Fire Spirit Beasts being smashed and dissipating with every breath.
This was the first time Yang Kai has used the Hundred Mountains Picture in battle, and he was quite satisfied with its killing power. At the very least, it was much faster at clearing out these Fire Spirit Beasts than him using Profound Heavenly Swords and Heaven Punishing Spears. Dismissing his Demonic Flame sword, Yang Kai began focusing on releasing the power of the Hundred Mountains Picture.
*Hong Hong Hong…*
Thunderous noises echoed through the mountain valley as the very ground around it trembled.
At the same time, from the direction Yang Kai had come, a group of three people appeared at the mouth of the mountain valley. Two of these three were Third Order Saint Kings while the last was a First Order Saint King. The two Third Order Saint Kings stood in front and behind the First Order Saint King cultivator, seemingly protecting him.
When they came to the mountain valley, the cultivator who was walking in front suddenly stopped, a look of suspicion appearing on his face as he examined the scene in front of him.
With him coming to stop, the two behind him naturally stopped as well, the cultivator in the rear immediately becoming vigilant, but the young man in the centre, who was at least a head shorter than the other two, still wore a loose and aloof expression, as if he wasn’t exploring the dangerous Flowing Flame Sand Field but was instead out for a casual stroll.
After the lead cultivator spent a cup of tea worth of time examining the mountain valley, not showing any intention to continue forward, the short young man couldn’t help shouting in annoyance, “Xie Yong, what are you gawking at, hurry up and move.”
The cultivator called Xie Yong looked back at the young man and said, “Young Master, please wait a moment, there’s something off about this mountain valley.”
Saying so, he beckoned to the other Third Order Saint King and the two of them both went forward to investigate their surroundings more carefully, whispering to each other from time to time.
Even after seeing them acting in such a serious manner, the young man just coldly snorted with dissatisfaction, “Aren’t you two making too much of a fuss over nothing? This entire way we have not encountered anything slightly dangerous. Weren’t all the Fire Spirit Beasts that jumped out easily killed by this Young Master? It seems the rumours about the Flowing Flame Sand Field are all nothing but nonsense, all that talk about it being dangerous instead must have been spread to frighten away those ignorant fools. Hmph, unfortunately those fools can’t scare this Young Master!”
This young man was none other than the Xie Hong Wen who had grievances with Yang Kai. The other two Third Order Saint King cultivators were naturally disciples the Xie Family had sent to protect him.
Qian Tong had previously told Yang Kai specifically that these two cultivators weren’t from Shadow Moon Hall.
After hearing Xie Hong Wen’s words, Xie Yong and the other cultivator looked at each other and shook their heads secretly. They also knew that Xie Hong Wen had been used to riding roughshod, never encountering the slightest inconvenience, so naturally he didn’t understand the dangers of the outside world. On top of that, they truly hadn’t encountered anything too dangerous these past few days, so Xie Hong Wen was now underestimating this place.
Although the two of them had also never entered the Flowing Flame Sand Field before, since this was one of Shadowed Star’s Three Great Forbidden Zones, it was undoubtedly dangerous.
If someone else had said these words, these two wouldn’t even bother to pay attention to them, if because they let their guard down they died, then that would be that. Unfortunately, the two of them were responsible for protecting Xie Hong Wen’s safety, and if he were to die because of his own carelessness, even if they survived and returned to the Xie Family, they would certainly have grim futures.
The other square-faced cultivator felt that it was necessary to explain to Xie Hong Wen and said seriously, “Young Master, this is still the outermost edge of the Flowing Flame Sand Field, and we were lucky to have only met some Fifth or Sixth-Order Fire Spirit Beats. With Young Master’s divine might, killing them was naturally easily.”
Listening to this praise, Xie Hong Wen’s look of impatience eased a lot, puffing out his chest and holding his head high as if to say that beneath the Heavens only I am supreme.
The cultivator then continued, “But Young Master, you must not take this place too lightly, it’s still fine if we just encounter Fifth or Sixth-Order Fire Spirit Beasts, but there are also Seventh-Order and Eighth-Order ones out there…”
After hearing this, Xie Hong Wen narrowed his eyes and stared at the square face cultivator, sneering, “Xie Yun, it is you who is underestimating this Young Master, with all the artefacts on this young master, as well as his exquisite Divine abilities, let alone Seventh -Order or Eighth-Order, who cares if even Ninth-Order Fire Spirit Beasts appear? This Young Master can still easily kill them! This young master is most afraid he will not be able to meet those so call High-Order Fire Spirit Beasts. En, quickly find a few of them for this Young Master so you can bear witness to this Young Master’s might!”
He couldn’t wait to prove himself.
Xie Yong and Xie Yun were calm on the surface, but in their heads they were cursing out Xie Hong Wen with all they could.
The two of them had heard that Xie Hong Wen was an idiot, but it wasn’t until now that they realized the rumors were drastically understating the stupidity of this Young Master.
He was a trivial First Order Saint King, let alone kill a Ninth-Order Fire Spirit Beast, even a Seventh-Order or Eighth-Order could easily kill him, yet he still insisted on so shameless boasting.
There was no way to reason with such a fool, so Xie Yun and Xie Yong stopped even trying. They just wanted to make Xie Hong Wen satisfied, and not hold them accountable for staying here. While nodding repeatedly, “You may rest assured, as long as this Young Master can get his revenge this time, when we return, I will have my father report your great deeds to the Patriarch. The benefits you receive won’t be small.”
Xie Yun and Xie Yong’s eyes brightened as they both nodded.
They had only taken this job because Xie Hong Wen’s father, Xie Li, had promised them a huge reward of three hundred thousand Saint Crystals per person after they succeed. If not for such generous compensation, why would they have accompanied Xie Hong Wen to the Flowing Flame Sand Field?
What’s more, the family wouldn’t ask them to turn over the gains they made in the Flowing Flame Sand Field, as for how much they could harvest, that was up to them.
A few months ago, when the Xie Family first announced this mission, countless Xie Family disciples boiled with enthusiasm with Xie Yong and Xie Yun eventually becoming the ones to win the right to participate.
They also knew that the one Xie Hong Wen wanted to seek revenge upon was just a First Order Saint King cultivator named Yang Kai.
According to Xie Hong Wen, Yang Kai was nothing more than an uncivilized, arrogant, weakling who wasn’t even capable of beating him in a fair fight and had only forced him to withdraw with the help of Elder Qian Tong.
Xie Yong and Xie Yun certainly didn’t believe such nonsense. There was no such thing in this world as a Saint King Xie Hong Wen could defeat, even if it was only one who had just broken through. Defeating trash like Xie Hong Wen for such a person would still be child’s play.
The two of them had learned the truth from Xie Li.
The young man called Yang Kai, despite his low cultivation, was capable of killing Third-Order Saint Kings, a so-called genius cultivator, an elite who could fight and defeat others far above his own realm.
However, Xie Yong and Xie Yun were also elites, among the best disciples in the entire Xie Family. They had absolute confidence in killing cultivators like Yang Kai.
“Are you sure that waste went this way?” Xie Hong Wen suddenly asked, “Why is it that after chasing him for a few days we haven’t seen him? Is this the wrong direction?”
Xie Yong grinned and proudly said, “Young Master need not worry, this is definitely the path he took. No one can escape from my pursuit.”
It was precisely because Xie Yong was good at tracking, along with his high combat abilities, that he was able to stand out from all the other Xie Family disciples and win this assignment.
After determining the location where Yang Kai entered, the three of them had gathered with the help of their communication artefacts and begun tracking Yang Kai’s footsteps.
“Why haven’t we found him yet then?” Xie Hong Wen asked, puzzled.
“Because he entered this mountain valley,” Xie Yong pointed forward.
Xie Hong Wen immediately looked pleased, “Really?”
“I’m certain.”
“What are you waiting for then? Hurry up and follow him, I want him dead!” Xie Hong Wen shouted before quickly shaking his head, “No no, first we need to capture him so this Young Master can torture him well. Simply killing him would be letting him off too easy, I’ll make him experience a life worse than death!”
“Young Master, perhaps there’s no need for us to even act anymore,” Xie Yong said was a strange expression.
“What do you mean?” Xie Hong Wen squinted at him.
Xie Yong smiled faintly, “Since he entered this mountain valley, even if he has ten lives he would still have died! There’s no need for us to follow him any further, he can never walk out of this mountain valley alive. In fact, he’s probably dead already.”
“Why? How do you know?” Xie Hong Wen became even more confused.
Xie Yun also smiled and explained, “Before we came here, the Patriarch gave us some information about the Flowing Flame Sand Field, and this mountain valley was also mentioned. It seems that the last time the Flow Flame Sand Field opened, one of our Xie Family Seniors also arrived here, but less than an hour after entering this mountain valley, he suddenly noticed that there were countless Fire Spirit Beasts gathered inside, surrounding and killing a group of people. That group was completely composed of elite cultivators from a great force and their number was no less than thirty. At that time, the situation was incredibly dangerous, so the Senior of our Xie Family did not want to get involved and quietly exited the mountain valley. Afterwards, when the Flowing Flame Sand Field closed, he asked around and learned that no more than thirty cultivators he saw trapped in this mountain valley survived, none of them even reached the Treasure Area.”
“They all fell in this mountain valley?” Xie Hong Wen’s face changed slightly. Unlike when he was bragging just a moment ago, when he thought about facing countless Fire Spirit Beasts, he couldn’t help going pale.
“It’s true, those cultivators all perished in this mountain valley, and the reason they fell was only known to that Senior of our Xie Family. In other words, besides our Xie Family, no one else has any information about this mountain valley. Since that Yang Kai entered, naturally it is impossible for him to survive. I stopped just now because I had some doubts about this place, and after confirming with Xie Yong, we’ve determined that the terrain here is exactly the same as the information left by our Xie Family Senior. That is to say, this is the exact mountain valley he entered four hundred years ago.”
After hearing this, Xie Hong Wen stomped his foot fiercely and sighed, “Damn it, why did he die like this? This Young Master wanted to capture him alive.”
Being unable to kill Yang Kai personally made him sigh with regret.
As soon as Xie Hong Wen’s words came to an end, the three of them suddenly heard a booming sound coming from inside the mountain valley.
The source of the sound seemed to be quite far away, but it was still extremely clear in their ears. On top of that, the ground beneath their feet seemed to shake slightly with each sound.
Xie Yun and Xie Yong looked at each other and couldn’t help showing slightly surprised looks. Although they didn’t see for themselves what was happening, being able the feel the fallout this far away showed just how terrifying the battle taking place in the depths of the mountain valley was.
Xie Hong Wen, on the other hand, thought about it for a moment before letting out a cry of joy, “Could it be that piece of trash?”
Xie Yong frowned and answered hesitantly, “It should be, after all, he was the only person who walked this way. He should be surrounded by Fire Spirit Beasts right now.”
“Good good good, hahaha, the Heavens are helping this Young Master!” Xie Hong Wen laughed wildly and waved his hand, “Let’s go in and see, this Young Master must see that bastard die without burial, otherwise, I won’t be able to soothe the hatred in my heart!”
“Young Master…” The faces of Xie Yong and Xie Yun changed greatly, the former hurriedly urging, “This mountain valley is definitely a Restricted Area inside the Flowing Flame Sand Field, one can enter but not leave. Since that person has already waked inside, he will die without doubt, why should we take on any unnecessary risk? It doesn’t matter if something happens to us two, but if any harm were to come to Young Master…”
Xie Yong knew that Xie Hong Wen most liked listening to flattery, so he tried to persuade him this way instead of trying to forcefully stop him as doing so would definitely just lead to Xie Hong Wen resenting him.
Sure enough, Xie Hong Wen also felt there was some truth in these words, but a look of unwillingness still filled his face. Compared to those invisible dangers, he was more interested in seeing how Yang Kai died.
All his life, no one had dared to shame him like Yang Kai, much less threaten his life. Xie Hong Wen often felt like he was sleeping on pins and needles, filled with grief and indignation towards that old bastard Qian Tong. At that time, instead of avenging him, he was clearly favouring that damn outsider Yang Kai, even acting all polite to him.
Xie Hong Wen swore that sooner or later he would make Qian Tong pay for this insult!
Xie Hong Wen’s way of thinking was truly warped. Last time, Qian Tong had saved his life from Yang Kai, yet not only was he not grateful, but he was even holding a grudge against Qian Tong.
Remembering all this, the anger in Xie Hong Wen’s heart flared up and his desire to see Yang Kai die a miserable death could not be suppressed. His expression became firm as asked, “If we just watch from afar, there should be no problem right?”
Xie Yong was shocked and was just about to persuade him again, but Xie Hong Wen quickly cut him off, “Since my Xie Family’s Senior was able to retreat without suffering any harm, there’s no reason we can’t as well, or do you two not have any confidence in yourselves? If that’s the case, you can stay here, this Young Master will go in alone, just don’t expect to collect those three hundred thousand Saint Crystals when this is all over.”
Was this even a choice? Xie Yong and Xie Yun immediately became anxious. The only reasons they had accepted the task of protecting Xie Hong Wen were those three hundred thousand Saint Crystals and the benefits they could obtain inside the Flowing Flame Sand Field. If they couldn’t obtain those three hundred thousand Saint Crystals, their gains from this trip would be cut in half!
For a moment, Xie Yong and Xie Yun hesitated. The danger of this mountain valley was something they knew better than anyone. Before coming here, Xie Li had told them clearly that they must not enter this mountain valley. Xie Li naturally wasn’t worried about their safety, but rather that they wouldn’t be able to protect Xie Hong Wen.
If something were to happen to Xie Hong Wen, neither of them would be able to survive.
But now, with Xie Hong Wen acting so obstinate, they couldn’t refuse.
Seeing the two of them still look hesitant, Xie Hong Wen snorted and added, “As long as you can take me in and allow me to watch that bastard die from afar, after going back, I will personally give you some benefits. En, the two of you shouldn’t be qualified to learn the Xie Family’s Asura Palm, right? About this Martial Skill, this Young Master knows a thing or two.”
Hearing the words ‘Asura Palm’, Xie Yun and Xie Yong hesitation disappeared; looking at each other, their intentions were clear.
Xie Hong Wen continued struck while the iron was hot, “You need not worry, we just need to watch from a distance, this Young Master doesn’t want you to go up and kill him. After he dies, we will immediately leave the mountain valley!”
Xie Yong sighed heavily and looked at Xie Yun and asked, “What do you think?”
Xie Yun frowned for a moment before helplessly replying, “What else can we do?”
They had no other choice but to do as Xie Hong Wen’s words. Although listening to him would mean taking a risk, the benefits they would obtain would be greater. There was no other way than accepting Xie Hong Wen’s proposal, unless they didn’t want any benefits at all.
The two reached an agreement and Xie Yong nodded, “Good, Young Master, we will take you there, but you must promise not to act recklessly. If we notice anything wrong, we will immediately take you away. Please agree to this, Young Master.”
“Fine. I agree. Now enough nonsense, hurry up, if we delay any longer that bastard will die before we get there,” Xie Hong Wen urged impatiently.
With no other choice, the two Xie Family cultivators could only continue to protect Xie Hong Wen as they headed deeper into the mountain valley.
As they moved forward, the shaking of the mountain valley grew more and more intense. In the beginning, Xie Yong was still acting cautiously and moving slowly, but with Xie Hong Wen constantly pestering him, plus there not seeming to be any danger around them, he couldn’t help speeding up.
After half a day, the trio saw a reddish glow from a distance.
These fiery red lights were clearly different from the ambient colour of the Flowing Flame Sand Field, and all seemed to be gathered into a single large fire-filled area.
Taking a closer look, they realized this wasn’t the light of a fire at all, clearly, it was a massive amount of Fire Spirit Beasts which had gathered together to seemingly attack someone they had surrounded.
From time to time, huge illusionary mountain peaks flew up from the centre of this horde of Fire Spirit Beasts before pounding down fiercely. Each time one of these mountains fell, the earth would tremble fiercely.
Xie Yong and Xie Yun were both shocked!
Although the two of them had received information from Xie Li that there were countless Fire Spirit Beasts in this mountain valley, they didn’t realize just how exaggerated this matter was until they saw it with their own eyes.
No wonder four hundred years ago more than thirty elites from that great force had been annihilated here. With so many Fire Spirit Beasts swarming about, even if an Origin Returning Realm master were to rush in, they wouldn’t be able to survive, not to mention only Saint Kings were able to enter the Flowing Flame Sand Field.
Xie Hong Wen’s performance was even more unbearable. He was used to running his mouth and acting superior to others, but after seeing the sea of Fire Spirit Beasts, he couldn’t help feeling faint, his face paling as his legs froze up, refusing to move.
“Hide!” Xie Yong’s swiftly caught Xie Hong Wen and pulled him behind towards a few several dozen meters tall hills nearby. At the same time, he summoned an artefact that created an invisible barrier around the trio, isolating their auras.
Climbing up one of the hills, the trio carefully looked over towards the battle and were astonished by what they witnessed.
There must have been tens of thousands of Fire Spirit Beasts in front of them, and both Xie Yong and Xie Yun were certain that if they were the ones surrounded by this horde, they would be dead within a cup of tea worth of time.
But this cultivator named Yang Kai, even surrounded like this, was still engaged in a fierce battle.
If had been more than half a day since the three of them first heard the violent rumblings and rushed to this place. After such a long time, how much Saint Qi would be consumed to use the artefact which was creating those giant mountain shadows? How was he restoring himself? How many Fire Spirit Beasts had he killed?
As soon as one of the illusory mountains fell, all the Fire Spirit Beasts beneath it disappeared.
What shocked them even more though was that after the three of them spent another two or three hours hiding behind this hill, such reckless slaughter had continued without the slightest signs of abating. Yang Kai was still surrounded by Fire Spirit Beasts, but he showed no signs of exhaustion. Odder still though, was that the number of Fire Spirit Beasts surrounding Yang Kai did not seem to decrease no matter how many he killed, always maintaining a strange kind of balance.
This strange battle seemed as if it would until the end of the world.
“Why isn’t he dead yet?” Xie Hong Wen muttered impatiently. The person in front of him surrounded by Fire Spirit Beast was no doubt the Yang Kai he hated so much. After arriving here, Xie Hong Wen had thought Yang Kai would immediately die, but even now this bastard was alive and well, frustrating Xie Hong Wen greatly.
“He’s amazing!” Xie Yong praised sincerely. Although they knew that Yang Kai was an elite, they had thought that because his realm wasn’t high, even if he was some kind of genius, his true combat power would be limited.
But now, Xie Yong discovered that he had completely underestimated this young man. If he were to fight him alone, Xie Yong had no confidence he would win.
“Xie Yun, kill him for me now. This Young Master can’t wait anymore!” Suddenly, Xie Hong Wen shouted loudly.
Both Xie Yong and Xie Yun were chosen by Xie Li for this task because of their unique abilities. The former was proficient in tracking; as long as it was not an Origin Realm master, he could find some clues to trace them, almost no one could escape his pursuit. His ability to find someone in a place like the Flowing Flame Sand Field was essential.
Xie Yun, on the other hand, had a different kind of ability, a certain death strike!
Against an elite like Yang Kai, sneak attacks were undoubtedly the best option, and this was Xie Yun’s strongest point, which was why he was also selected.
After hearing Xie Hong Wen’s words, Xie Yun shook his head and lowered his voice, “No, Young Master. There is no problem hitting him from this distance, but that guy is surrounded by too many Fire Spirit Beasts; moreover, that purple shield behind him is a powerful defensive artefact, I can’t guarantee a one-hit kill under these circumstances.”
Even if he were to attack now, he would only be able to wound Yang Kai at best. If they couldn’t kill him in a single blow, rather than alerting him to their presence, it would be best to wait. Xie Yun was also concerned about disturbing the horde of Fire Spirit Beasts, causing them to be the next ones surrounded.
He and Xie Yong didn’t have the ability to kill tens of thousands of Fire Spirit Beasts.
“Then what are we supposed to do?” Xie Hong Wen asked in an aggravated tone. His hated enemy was alive and well in front of him, yet he couldn’t find an opportunity to exact his much-sought revenge. This fact obviously annoyed him to no end.
“Please be patient Young Master,” Xie Yong smiled lightly, “He has been fighting for so long, so even if he has some special method to restore himself in combat, it’s impossible for him to continue maintaining his peak form. If those Fire Spirit Beasts can kill him, that would be best, but even if he manages to kill his way through these Fire Spirit Beasts, he will definitely wind up like an arrow at the end of its flight. At that time, it won’t be too late for Xie Yun to take his shot. Presumably, he won’t even be able to put up any resistance at that time. For now, why doesn’t Young Master just sit back and watch him desperately struggle?”
“En, it is indeed as you say!” Xie Hong Wen immediately showed a satisfied look as he stared towards Yang Kai, doing just as Xie Yong had said, revelling in Yang Kai desperately cling to life.
When Xie Yong and Xie Yun looked at each other, they saw the helplessness and ridicule in each other’s eyes. Only an idiot like Xie Hong Wen could be deceived so easily, if it were anyone else, they wouldn’t have been fooled by such simple words.
While the three of them continued to lie in ambush, Yang Kai, who was surrounded by the Fire Spirit Beasts, was feeling extremely gloomy.
He had actually not discovered he had been followed all the way to this mountain valley and that his pursuers were quietly lying in wait for him atop a nearby hill, ready to attack at any moment.
All of his energy at this moment was focused on this swarm of Fire Spirit Beasts; he didn’t have the spare energy to care about anything else.
After nearly a full day of killing, he had still only managed to push forward about ten kilometres. At this rate, if he wanted to kill his way out of this mountain valley, Yang Kai estimated it would take at least half a month!
After half a month, the elites from the various big Sects and families would have already broken through the Flame Area and entered the Treasure Area to collect spirit grasses and spirit medicines. At that point, what good things would he be able to obtain?
However, he also understood that becoming anxious was useless now. Even though the strangeness of this mountain valley had far exceeded his expectations.
The Fire Spirit Beasts in this place were endless, and no matter how many he killed, none of them dropped any Fire Crystal Stones.
However, after such a long time, Yang Kai had finally noticed something amiss with these Fire Spirit Beasts’ behaviour. Although they seemed to emerge from the cracks in the earth in all directions, they all seemed to be originating from one specific direction.
It was as if something from that direction was able to endlessly produce new Fire Spirit Beasts.
Yang Kai spread his Divine Sense in that direction. If this were anywhere else, with his proficiency in the Dao of Space, he could easily locate this unseen source, but inside this Flowing Flame Sand Field, his Divine Sense was so severely suppressed that it took quite some effort to try to find it.
Fortunately, after half a day of investigation and observation, Yang Kai finally determined the location of the Fire Spirit Beast source.
It was a huge crevice. Using his Divine Sense, Yang Kai saw how flame-like snakes were constantly springing from this crevice and quickly making their way over towards Yang Kai along the other cracks in the ground, transforming into Fire Spirit Beasts when they got close enough and proceeding to attack him.
Having found the root of the problem, Yang Kai no longer entangled himself with the Fire Spirit Beasts and in a flash, recalled all eight illusionary mountain peaks, gathering them together before smashing them forward fiercely while the purple shield continued guarding his back. Black Demonic Flames surged in Yang Kai’s palm, condensing into a giant sword that he viciously thrust forward.
The Fire Spirit Beasts in front of him were hit hard, and although it was difficult to tell, Yang Kai’s strike just now had killed a large number of Fire Spirit Beasts; the problem was that there were simply too many of them. Immediately after Yang Kai released this focused attack, a number of Sixth and Seventh-Order Fire Spirit Beasts rushed in to claw at him, ripping his clothes to shreds with some even managing to leave shallow scars on his body.
As soon as they saw Yang Kai suddenly dart in the direction of the massive crevice, all the Fire Spirit Beasts suddenly became even more frenzied and violent, the Seventh and Eighth-Order Fire Spirits Beasts recklessly throwing themselves at him to block his path.
Yang Kai put more strength into his charge, pushing the eight illusionary mountain peaks in front of him while using his purple shield to guard his back, he did not need to worry about his defence. The Demonic Flame sword in his hand slashed through all the Fire Spirit Beasts who were in his way, cutting them down as easily as crushing dry weeds and smashing rotten wood.
After finally arriving at the huge crevice, Yang Kai saw the same scene as he had previously with his Divine Sense investigation. From somewhere down inside this crevice, all the flame auras were flying upwards, each one of them soon transforming into a Spirit Beast to block his advance.
Yang Kai’s figure flickered as he leapt into the crevice, tens of thousands of Fire Spirit Beasts chasing after him.
This scene was not missed by Xie Hong Wen’s group, who were secretly observing from the nearby hill.
They didn’t know why Yang Kai suddenly jumped into a crevice and could only watch as the entire mountain valley turned quiet. The swarm of Fire Spirit Beast from before all disappearing and the only roars now coming from that large crevice.
“What is he doing?” Xie Hong Wen frowned.
“I don’t know, but he should come out soon. If he doesn’t, it means he is dead!” Xie Yun thought for a while before pointing to a hill which was closer to the crevice Yang Kai had disappeared into and saying, “Let’s set up an ambush there, if he doesn’t come out, it’s fine. If he does, we can just kill him. From that position, even if it was an Origin Returning Realm master, he wouldn’t be able to avoid my certain kill strike!”
“Good!” Xie Hong Wen saw Xie Yun being so proactive and quickly agreed, the group of three then quietly moving to the designated hill.
Below ground, Yang Kai descended several thousand meters. His goal was simple, he just needed to search for the position where the streams of fire aura were originating from. He was quite interested in unravelling the mystery of this mountain valley and how it could actually continuously spawn Fire Spirit Beasts that did not have Fire Crystal Stones!
He had wasted an entire day here while consuming a massive amount of Saint Qi, so wouldn’t it be too much of a waste if he didn’t manage to fish some kind of benefit from this place?
Whatever it was that was allowing these Fire Spirit Beasts to continuously be created, it would certainly be rare and valuable.
After descending quite a distance, killing numerous Fire Spirit Beasts along the way, Yang Kai’s eyes flashed.
He found that he had finally reached the source, because, from a cave-like location, he found saw many snake-like auras emerge, the same ones that were taking on the form of Fire Spirit Beasts.
Landing on a rocky outcropping, Yang Kai prepared to dive into this cave.
At that moment though, an unusual flame suddenly flew out from the cave. This flame aura was far richer and substantial than any Yang Kai had previously seen.
This fire aura flickered and transformed mid-air, in the blink of an eye becoming a python-like Fire Spirit Beast.
“Ninth-Order!” Yang Kai’s face changed as he discovered to his amazement that this Fire Spirit Beast was actually a complete physical entity, completely different from those at the Seventh or Eighth-Order, it was like a living python!
This python materialized in an instant, attached itself to the rock wall, then opened its great maw towards Yang Kai and spat out a red beam of light. Even before this beam of light reached him, Yang Kai felt an incredible and unstoppable heat, forcing him to hurriedly defend himself with his Saint Qi.
At the same time, a loud dragon roar rang out and the black dragon appeared once again.
The Golden Dragon Tattoo on Yang Kai’s back contained the aura of an ancient True Dragon, so how could a trivial python compared to it? Above snakes were Flood Dragons, and above Flood Dragons were True Dragons! There was an insurmountable gap between the two.
The black dragon and the python Fire Spirit Beast immediately clashed, causing the rock walls of the crevice to crack and collapse, sending them both falling further into the abyss.
Yang Kai took this opportunity to leap into the cave, but what he saw inside caused his expression to drop once more.
There were two other abnormal flame auras in front of him, both of them undergoing a metamorphosis that would seemingly transform them into Ninth-Order Fire Spirit Beasts.
Yang Kai cursed in his heart. His black dragon could entangle one of them, but there was absolutely no way he could deal with three of them at the same time. If these two flame auras fully materialized, Yang Kai knew his only option would be to flee.
Once he was forced to escape, all the hard work he had put into this little expedition would be wasted. Worse, he couldn’t fly in this damned place, so even reaching the surface to escape might not be possible.
Just as he was growing anxious, Yang Kai suddenly spotted a huge dark red stone.
At that moment, Yang Kai’s eyes were widened. This dark red stone exuded an aura exactly the same as that of the Fire Crystal Stones he had collected before, but purity and density were on a completely different scale. The Eight-Order Fire Crystal Stone that Yang Kai obtained earlier was only the size of a pigeon egg, incomparable to the one in front of him. Comparing the two, that Eight-Order Fire Crystal Stone was simply trash.
This dark red Fire Crystal Stone was as big as a plate, and was simply sitting there not far from Yang Kai.
Almost as if it were a conditioned reflex, Yang Kai sprang forward, grabbed this giant Fire Crystal Stone, stuffed it into his Space Ring, then withdrew. He wanted to take advantage of the fact that these two Ninth- Order Fire Spirit Beasts had yet to form to escape from the cave.
However, just before he left the cave, Yang Kai suddenly noticed that the two Ninth-Order Fire Spirit Beasts which were about to materialize had suddenly begun dissipating and soon disappeared altogether.
A thought occurred to him at that moment and Yang Kai quickly became overjoyed.
The python which was being tied down by his black dragon had also disappeared.
Even the tens of thousands of Fire Spirit Beasts which had been chasing him down were gone.
Yang Kai suddenly understood what was going on.
These Fire Spirit Beasts were clearly generated from this plate-sized Fire Crystal Stone, so no matter how many Yang Kai killed, he wouldn’t be able to obtain any Fire Crystal Stones, because their true core was inside this cave.
Now that Yang Kai had thrown the plate-sized Fire Crystal Stone into his Space Ring though, the Fire Spirit Beasts it had spawned lost their source of power and naturally dissipated.
After understand this, Yang Kai couldn’t help laughing.
This day’s worth of work and delay had finally proven worthwhile. This massive Fire Crystal Stone was enough to make this entire trip worthwhile. In fact, even if he was unable to obtain anything else, this expedition could already be considered a success.
What’s more, the Flowing Flame Sand Field had only opened a few days earlier and everyone was still rushing about inside, who could guarantee that there wouldn’t be even better treasures to be had?
Immensely satisfied, Yang Kai put away his Hundred Mountains Picture and recalled his black dragon before taking a breath.
Today’s long battle had caused him a great amount of consumption. Fortunately, the Saint Qi reserves in his body were incredibly large, so this kind of loss was still acceptable for Yang Kai.
After resting in the cave just long enough to restore a bit of his physical strength and Spiritual Energy, Yang Kai began the long climb back up to the surface.
It was extremely frustrating being unable to fly. Having descended several thousand meters, even if Yang Kai climbed as fast as possible, it would still take him about half an hour to reach the surface. Fortunately, he had the benefit of being in a good mood at the moment.
After half an hour, Yang Kai finally returned to the ground again. Standing in place, he took a light breath before pulling the Yuan Magnetic Compass out from his Space Ring to determine which direction led deeper into the Flowing Flame Sand Field.
But before he could move forward again, an incredible sense of crisis suddenly gripped his heart.
This feeling was like death was upon him.
Hurriedly, Yang Kai pushed his Saint Qi and tried to leap to the side.
An astonishingly quick bolt of red light suddenly shot out from a nearby location and pierced through the right side of Yang Kai’s chest.
The huge force behind this blow sent Yang Kai flying as every bone in his chest cried out in pain. Suffering this unexpected attack, Yang Kai discovered that he had actually been injured, and seriously at that!
Before his body even landed, Yang Kai’s powerful Divine Sense spread out madly and instantly locked onto the source of the attack.
The moment he saw who his attackers were, Yang Kai’s killing intent erupted!
It was that idiot Xie Hong Wen and his two Third-Order Saint King guards Yang Kai had seen earlier. These two had obviously been sent by the Xie Family to protect this delinquent Young Master but at this moment, one of them was kneeling on the ground exhausted as he held a crossbow-shaped artefact. This artefact gave off a strange aura and seemed to be madly absorbing the man’s Saint Qi, causing his aura to become more and more unstable. Yang Kai also clearly saw that the cultivator holding this strange crossbow artefact was leaking blood from his hands and lips, blood that was actually flowing down into the crossbow. This strange crossbow was like a fierce beast and was actually swallowing all of this fresh blood, giving it a blood-red colour.
The other Third-Order Saint King saw this and quickly took out several pills from his Space Ring before shoving them into the mouth of the weakened cultivator.
As for Xie Hong Wen, seemingly thinking Yang Kai had been killed, he leapt to his feet and stood atop the hidden hill in excitement, looked towards the site of the deed while joyfully dancing and applauding loudly.
However, after seeing Yang Kai hit the ground but not actually fall down, Xie Hong Wen froze up.
Yang Kai didn’t immediately try to counterattack. Xie Hong Wen wasn’t worth worrying about and the cultivator that had used that powerful crossbow artefact to launch a sneak attack on him was clearly an arrow at the end of its flight, possibly unable to even move. In Yang Kai’s eyes, these two were already dead. As for the remaining Third Order Saint King, Yang Kai believed that he wouldn’t have any difficulty killing him.
Right now, it was more important for him to check his injuries.
Right now, in his right chest, there was a small but sharp arrow that gave off a powerful aura. This sharp arrow had sunk ten centimetres into his chest and probably punctured his lung, making it feel like he was breathing fire every time he inhaled.
In his heart, Yang Kai was secretly shocked while at the same time thankful. He was shocked that the other party actually possessed such a strange artefact that could send out such a powerful attack, but thankful as well that he had sensed danger in advance and managed to avoid a fatal blow.
It was obvious to Yang Kai that his enemy had aimed at his heart, but because he had dodged at the last instant, this arrow had only managed to hit his right chest and injure his lungs.
It was mainly thanks to his tough physical body that Yang Kai was able to resist this attack. If not for his physique being so intrepid, such a blow would have blown a hole straight through his chest!
Yang Kai’s face became gloomy as murderous intent permeated the air around him. He stretched out his hand wanting to remove the arrow inserted into his right chest, but before he could, it actually disappeared without a trace, leaving behind a gaping wound out of which his Golden Blood flowed. The incredibly vitality contained in his Golden Blood soon began to repair the wounded at a rate visible to the naked eye.
He then turned his eyes towards the nearby hilltop and walked step by step towards it.
Xie Hong Wen fell to the ground as his legs gave out, his face completely pale as he called out, “Xie… Xie…”
Even after all this time, he actually didn’t know the names of either of these two cultivators who had been sent to protect him.
Xie Yun thought he was worried about his weakened appearance and reluctantly smiled, “Young Master does not need to concern himself about it, I’ll be fine after a month or two of rest and recuperation. This is simply the price I must pay to use this artefact!”
It was because of this strange artefact that he had absolute confidence in assassinating Yang Kai.
As soon as Xie Yun finished these words, the strange crossbow artefact that had been pulling blood from his wounds finally stopped and fell from his hands.
Hearing this, Xie Hong Wen wanted to curse Xie Yun out. [How could this Young Master care about you, even if you died? What difference did it make to this Young Master?]
Filled with anxiety, he turned his head back and called out in fright, “He’s here.”
“What?” Xie Yun and Xie Yong’s looks both changed greatly as they too turned to look in the direction Xie Hong Wen was staring. The moment they did so though, they saw Yang Kai slowly walking towards them, a malevolent aura radiating from his form. With every step he trod, it felt like he was stepping on their hearts, causing the trio’s frail nerves to all but break.
“Impossible!” Xie Yun’s eyes stared in horror and disbelief, “He couldn’t possibly have survived that!”
He knew better than anyone about the power of his artefact’s attack.
Moreover, he had timed his attack perfectly. Although he didn’t quite understand how Yang Kai was able to escape from that crevice alive, the other party had been fighting non-stop for more than a day so his Saint Qi should have been completely exhausted. On top of that, Yang Kai’s clothes were tattered and his body scarred all over, looking thoroughly dishevelled, so Xie Yun had launched his attack without hesitation.
Facing such a powerful blow, Xie Yun was confident no one below the Origin Returning Realm could resist! Even if it was an Origin Realm master, if they weren’t skilled enough in the use of Shi, they would also die to such a sneak attack. The only thing that could resist this crossbow’s strike was the condensed Shi of a powerful Origin Returning Realm master!
However, no matter how much he didn’t believe what he was seeing, the facts in front of him wouldn’t change. Yang Kai was indeed alive, and the wound he suffered didn’t even seem that significant.
This made Xie Yun, who was already so weak, suddenly lose all strength and collapse to the ground.
[What kind of existence had this stupid pig Xie Hong Wen provoked? Xie Hong Wen had wanted to exact revenge upon a monster that even my certain kill strike couldn’t defeat? Even if Xie Hong Wen wanted revenge, why did he have to drag me down with him?]
“Xie Yong… what are you doing?” Xie Hong Wen suddenly called again.
Xie Yun turned his head weakly to the side and smiled miserably.
Xie Yong had actually escaped without a word. It seemed that he also understands that this guy named Yang Kai wasn’t someone he should be messing with, so he had decisively fled. When one’s strength reached a certain height, their ability to sense crisis became quite strong. Xie Yong must have realized this and taken off.
“Xie Yong, you get back here!” Xie Hong Wen didn’t dare to face Yang Kai, but he had no reason to act polite to Xie Yong, he just wanted to get him to stay behind so he could seek some sense of security, thus he shouted vigorously, “If you dare to escape, when this Young Master gets back he will tell his father and you will face the Family Law’s punishment!”
Xie Yong ignored him and ran even faster.
“Don’t waste your energy. If you want to survive, run away quickly, if you can that is,” Xie Yun said lightly. He knew he would die here no matter what, so he immediately calmed down greatly and even began to snicker, “En, I’d say it’s impossible for you to run away actually. You’ll die here without a doubt. Hahaha, I didn’t expect that I, Xie Yun, would have to accompany a stupid pig like you to the Underworld. It’s really a shame!”
In the original plan, after Xie Yun used his certain kill strike, he would depend on Xie Yong’s protection to survive, but now that Xie Yong had fled, even if by some miracle Yang Kai didn’t kill him, there was no way he could survive alone in such a state in the Flowing Flame Sand Field.
Naturally, he didn’t expect Xie Hong Wen to take care of him.
Xie Hong Wen froze up upon hearing this before turning to look at Xie Yun in a rage, “What do you call me? You dare call this Young Master a stupid pig? You…”
Suddenly, Xie Hong Wen couldn’t say anything more, because he saw this Xie Family disciple, who had always been deferential and obedient toward him was at this moment, staring at him with a look filled with mockery and disdain, it was almost like… he was looking at an ant crawling around the ground, unworthy of even a passing glance.
A whistling sound suddenly rang out, causing Xie Hong Wen to scream and fall to the ground. When he looked up, he suddenly found Yang Kai standing quietly in front of himself, the pressure coming from him as heavy as a mountain.
The atmosphere in the Flowing Flame Sand Field was incredibly hot, but right now, all Xie Hong Wen could feel was an infinite chill, as if he had fallen into a frozen hell that could even freeze his soul, causing him to tremble uncontrollably.
A loud dragon roar suddenly filled the air and Xie Hong Wen’s eyes widened as he saw a black dragon leap out from Yang Kai body and soar off in the direction of the escaping Xie Yong.
A short while later, Xie Yong’s shouts and the sounds of battle reached Xie Hong Wen’s ears.
Gradually, the fallout from this battle became smaller and Xie Yong’s shouts grew weaker, eventually disappearing.
The black dragon then swiftly returned and disappeared inside Yang Kai’s body.
There was no need to even think about it, Xie Hong Wen knew that Xie Yong was gone. Xie Hong Wen suddenly began weeping as he stared at Yang Kai with an imploring look. His lips wriggled a few times, seemingly wanting to beg for mercy but unable to make any sound.
His courage had been completely drained at this moment.
Yang Kai stared back at Xie Hong Wen, his eyes ice-cold, like he was staring at a disgusting piece of garbage, angry this kind of waste had actually brought people to ambush him and had even managed to wound him.
“You managed to survive last time only because of Qian Tong’s mercy, but unfortunately you didn’t cherish that gift. Since you court death, I’ll help deliver it to you!” Yang Kai was too lazy to continue staring at Xie Hong Wen’s disgusting face and simply sent out a burst of Demonic Flame to engulf him, burning him to ashes in the blink of an eye.
From the beginning to the end, Xie Hong Wen had never thought about putting up some kind resistance, it was really a wonder why he had even bothered cultivating all these years.
The Demonic Flames were capable of burning everything in existence, so even Xie Hong Wen’s Soul was burnt down, literally destroying him in body and soul.
Yang Kai then turned to Xie Yun. This person was actually a bit interesting. Even knowing he would die, he didn’t show the slightest bit of fear, only some slight shock when Xie Yong had died.
He hadn’t expected that Yang Kai would be able to kill Xie Yong without even having to make a move personally.
The difference in strength between them was even bigger than he had imagined!
Inside the mountain valley, Yang Kai looked down indifferently at Xie Yun. Instead of killing him immediately though, he said, “Tell me, how did you know I was here? It’s impossible you found me by chance. The Flowing Flame Sand Field is so big that if you didn’t use some special method, there’s no way you could have traced my location. If you can give me a satisfactory answer, I’ll leave you a whole corpse.”
His expression then turned frigid as he continued coldly, “But if you dare try to conceal anything, I’ll let you know what it means to beg for death. Believe me, I can ensure you recover and torture you slowly!”
Xie Yun smiled bitterly as he panted for breath before replying, “It’s quite simple actually, we just had one of the Shadow Moon Hall disciples inform us about where you entered the Flowing Flame Sand Field. Everyone here follows the guidance of their Yuan Magnetic Compass as they proceed further, as long as we could determine where you entered, it wasn’t difficult to track your movements. Xie Yong who you killed was a master in this field!”
Yang Kai nodded slightly, thinking this explanation matched with his expectations.
After discovering that Xie Hong Wen was the one who had attacked him, Yang Kai had some speculations.
He had entered the Flowing Flame Sand Field by himself, and so far, had only encountered two other people, the pair he had met when he first came in. One of those two was wearing the uniform of Shadow Moon Hall while the other was a disciple from some other Sect. Yang Kai didn’t know who that other person was but his voice was somewhat familiar.
In order to pursue Yang Kai so quickly and accurately, Xie Hong Wen had to have received word from someone about his position, and that person must have been one of the two he had met when he first entered this place.
Now it turns out that it was really the case. No wonder that Shadow Moon Hall disciple, after noticing Yang Kai, had immediately shown a weird expression. It must have been that Xie Hong Wen had sent word to him in advance, which was also why he so anxiously left. Obviously, he had reported to Xie Hong Wen at that time.
Yang Kai was also certain that Xie Hong Wen had not only sent word to that person. There were seventy disciples from Shadow Moon Hall who had entered the Flowing Flame Sand Field, so there were definitely a lot of people who could be tempted with money.
Since ancient times, money was what had moved people.
“Let me die in peace.” After Xie Yun finished speaking, he lay on the ground indifferently without moving.
Yang Kai nodded and, using a precise burst of strength, puncture Xie Yun’s forehead.
Yang Kai was a man of his word. Since he said he would leave the other side a whole corpse, he naturally wouldn’t burn him down with his Demonic Flame.
Yang Kai stooped and picked up the strange crossbow artefact. After probing it for a moment, he couldn’t help raising a brow. This artefact was really quite powerful, it had even managed to directly wound him, but it definitely had drawbacks as well. Just seeing Xie Yun’s state after using it once, Yang Kai could infer that this crossbow not only consumed a massive amount of Saint Qi from its user but also a large quantity of their blood.
This was no doubt an evil artefact.
Yang Kai wasn’t interested in it as using it was nothing less than harming oneself to kill another. This artefact could only be used when there were others around to protect them after the fact.
Tossing it into his Space Ring, Yang Kai then picked up Xie Hong Wen and Xie Yun’s Space Rings. After some investigation, he couldn’t help feeling a little disappointed.
The two of them had nothing but a few pills and Saint Crystals use to restore strength.
However, that was only to be expected. Unlike Yang Kai, who had brought along all of his valuables, other cultivators who entered the Flowing Flame Sand Field would leave their precious items outside, otherwise, once something happened, the loss suffered would be overwhelming.
Among the pills, the only thing that made Yang Kai a bit happy was a single bottle with five Snow And Ice Pills.
All of his Snow And Ice Pills had been given to Chang Qi and Hao An, and there had been no time since he entered this place to refine more, so picking some up now was actually quite handy. Perhaps he would have a use for them at some point.
After seeing how poor Xie Hong Wen and Xie Yun were, Yang Kai didn’t even have the heart to find Xie Yong’s Space Ring, so he simply turned and walked deeper into the Flowing Flame Sand Field.
Without the obstruction of the Fire Spirit Beasts, Yang Kai took advantage of the speed boost his Wind and Thunder Wings provided to leave the mountain valley completely in just over two days.
The further forward he went, the greater the ambient heat of the Flame Area became. Yang Kai physique was different from ordinary cultivators, and his Saint Qi was incredibly pure and dense; additionally, he had formerly cultivated a Yang Attribute Secret Art and now the powerful and abstruse Demonic Flames coursed through his body, so he only had to slightly circulate his Saint Qi to resist the invasion of the fire poison.
He didn’t know how vast the Flame Area was, so Yang Kai simply continued forward, not once encountering even a shadow of another person. His harvest along the way was also quite desolate. After half a month, all he had managed to collect was a few Seventh-Order Fire Spirit Beast’s Fire Crystal Stone and ten or so Fire Attribute spirit herbs.
Only now did Yang Kai realize the preciousness and scarcity of Fire Crystal Stones. He happened to have killed an Eighth-Order Fire Spirit Beast before and harvested a Fire Crystal Stone the size of a pigeon egg, and in the strange mountain valley, he had obtained one the size of a plate. It could be said that in terms of Fire Crystal Stones, Yang Kai’s harvest had already outstripped all others who had ever entered the Flowing Flame Sand Field before.
Because of the scarcity of Fire Spirit Beasts above Seventh-Order, Fire Crystal Stones were incredibly valuable.
The Fire Crystal Stones from Fifth-Order and Sixth-Order Fire Spirit Beasts were too small to serve any kind of Alchemy or Artifact Refining purpose, so they could only be absorbed by cultivators to cultivate.
Those dozen or so Fire Attribute spirit herbs also weren’t too precious, most of them Saint King Grade with one or two reaching the Origin Grade. There were so few of them mainly because very few types of herbs could even grow in the Flame Area. The only thing that made Yang Kai somewhat satisfied was that their medicinal properties were quite potent. No one had entered this place for over four hundred years, so naturally, these herbs had plenty of time to grow and mature.
One day, as Yang Kai was hurrying along, a flash of light suddenly rushed past him, like a shooting star soaring across the sky. It moved at such phenomenal speed that even though Yang Kai spread out his Divine Sense the instant he noticed it, he still failed to capture its movement.
In the blink of an eye, it disappeared entirely from Yang Kai’s field of vision.
“Flowing Flame Flying Fire?” Yang Kai’s eyes narrowed as he instantly understood what it was.
Wei Gu Chang had mentioned to him about the oddity of Flowing Flame Flying Fires. Yang Kai also wanted to capture one of these Flowing Flame Flying Fires in order to strengthen his Conflagrated Knowledge Sea, but Wei Gu Chang had told him that these things were extremely rare. Even with over ten thousand people entering the Flowing Flame Sand Field, most would never even catch a glimpse of a Flowing Flame Flying Fire for the entire half a year they were inside. Some people who encountered them wouldn’t even be able to realize it.
Yang Kai didn’t think Wei Gu Chang had been exaggerating at the time, but now he discovered that he was still greatly underestimating the speed of these Flowing Flame Flying Fires.
Almost instantly, Yang Kai chased after it, the sound of wind and thunder echoing behind him as he pushed his Saint Qi to the limit, promoting his running speed so high it was as if he had transformed into lightning.
He wanted to see if he could catch up to that Flowing Flame Flying Fire.
Yang Kai was quickly disappointed though, after chasing it for half an hour, he discovered that the Flowing Flame Flying Fire had completely vanished, causing him to stop and stand on the spot with a bitter smile.
With such speed, who could possibly capture one of them?
Yang Kai didn’t know how the cultivators on Shadowed Star came to know that a Flowing Flame Flying Fire could allow one’s Knowledge Sea to mutate, but since such information had become widespread, someone must have tried it before, that is to say, someone had managed to catch a Flowing Flame Flying Fire.
How did they do it? Yang Kai couldn’t think of any other way than some accident or opportunity.
Yang Kai didn’t believe that anyone else in this Flowing Flame Sand Field could match his speed, so if he couldn’t catch up with a Flowing Flame Flying Fire, it was certainly impossible for others as well.
Standing there dejected for a while, Yang Kai reluctantly took out his Yuan Magnetic Compass, found his bearings, then continued deeper into the Flowing Flame Sand Field.
Six days later, Yang Kai stood in a certain position, looking at a few red weeds in front of him with a strange look upon his face.
He then went up and reached out to touch these weeds and found that they were indeed hard and sharp, just like blades.
He had seen this kind of weed once three days ago, and they were extremely similar in appearance to the ones in front of him now, practically identical in fact. Even if they were weeds, the fact that they could survive in the Flowing Flame Sand Field at all indicated that they weren’t a simple as they appeared. Previously, Yang Kai had wondered what spirit grass or spirit medicine he had run into, but after investigating them for a while, he discovered they really were just weeds with no Alchemy value at all, so he simply moved on.
However, their sharpness and toughness surprised Yang Kai.
He had seen them three days ago and now he was seeing them again.
Did he get lost? Yang Kai frowned and took out his Yuan Magnetic Compass again and confirmed he was heading in the right direction; he had taken out his Yuan Magnetic Compass every now and then to check his direction these past few days, so becoming lost would have been quite a feat.
Chuckling to himself as he shook his head, Yang Kai continued to move forward.
Before he left though, he made a mark next to these strange weeds just in case.
Three days later, Yang Kai stood in front of the same patch of weeds again with a gloomy complexion, his expression extremely ugly.
Only now did he understand that it had not just been his imagination a few days ago, he really was lost!
The mark next to the weeds was untouched, just as he had left them before on the remote possibility his hunch back then was right.
However… how did he become lost? Wei Gu Chang had said that as long as he followed the direction indicated by the Yuan Magnetic Compass, he would be able to arrive at the Treasure Area.
Was this Yuan Magnetic Compass broken?
Yang Kai didn’t believe such an artefact could be so easily damaged. There had to be some other reason why he was continuing to wander around in a giant circle, wasting nine days of time already.
Yang Kai’s brow furrowed as he was filled with confusion, standing still while contemplating what was happening.
Suddenly, he thought of a possibility and brought his thumb to his mouth, bit it, then wiped it across his left eye.
The golden blood dripped into his left eye and instantly, it became a brilliant golden colour and was filled with a sense of immense majesty, making anyone who saw it shudder in fear.
Demon Eye of Annihilation!
Yang Kai looked around and immediately found a flaw. The world seen by his two eyes now showed some subtle differences. His right eye saw the same scenery as before, but his left eye now saw an almost imperceptible flow of energy in the air. Some of the hills and soil banks in the distance also became illusory and indistinct.
A Spirit Array?
Yang Kai was quite frightened when he saw this and his heart clenched up tightly.
His Demon Eye of Annihilation can see through all illusions in this world, and although Great Demon God only managed to cultivate to the Saint King Realm, this Divine Ability of his obviously far exceeded the level of Saint Kings.
As soon as Yang Kai used his Demon Eye of Annihilation, he immediately understood what was going on. He had accidentally stepped into the range of a Spirit Array, most likely a naturally formed Bewildering Array.
Yang Yan was extremely proficient in arranging Spirit Arrays, and Yang Kai had been around her for some time now, so he had learned some knowledge about them.
The only Spirit Array that could lead him around in circles like this was a Bewildering Array. On top of that, a Spirit Array appearing in this kind of place could not have been artificially arranged.
This Bewildering Array was incredibly large; the Saint King Realm cultivators who entered this place didn’t have the ability to arrange such a vast and profound Spirit Array, so it being naturally formed was the only possibility.
After understanding this, Yang Kai secretly felt bitter.
Yang Yan had said that artificially arranged Spirit Arrays were very different from naturally-formed Spirit Arrays. Those that were artificially arranged would always have traces one could follow and exploit while naturally-formed Spirit Arrays were like solid walls without vulnerabilities, that is, they did not have things like cores, nodes, or flaws. It was basically impossible to break a naturally-formed array by searching for its core.
Not to mention, Yang Kai wasn’t very familiar with Spirit Arrays in the first place.
The Demon Eye of Annihilation could illuminate all falsehoods and help him see through the essence of this place, but it didn’t provide him with any help breaking it.
If he wanted to break through this array, he could only rely on himself!
This was the reason why Yang Kai was feeling bitter. If Yang Yan was here, based on her understanding of Spirit Arrays, it would be easy for her to break free from this one, but by himself, Yang Kai would find this exercise far more difficult.
After a short bout of frustration, Yang Kai calmed down. Since he had stumbled into this place, his only option was to find a way out.
The most effective and appropriate way to do this was of course to tear space!
Yang Kai was proficient in the Dao of Space, so tearing space would be the best way for him to escape.
Thinking of this, Yang Kai tore a crack in space and leapt inside. Immediately after Yang Kai disappeared, the Void Crack disappeared.
A moment later, in the exact same location, another Void Crack appeared and Yang Kai emerged.
Glancing around at his surroundings, Yang Kai’s face turned black.
After tearing space and entering The Void, Yang Kai knew something was wrong, because the normally turbulent Void was actually incredibly calm and quiet. And sure enough, after tearing space to return from The Void, he found himself back where he started.
This Bewildering Array not only had the effect of misleading the senses of those who fell into it, it was even capable of blocking space! In other words, Yang Kai could not escape by tearing space.
Thinking it over for a while, Yang Kai came to the conclusion that the only way for him to escape this array now was through brute force. Since there is no other suitable method, he could only break this array forcibly; Yang Kai only hoped he had enough strength to do so otherwise he might be trapped here forever.
Making up his mind, Yang Kai opened his eyes and looked around carefully. Half an hour later, he settled on a specific location where the scenery looked a bit more illusionary than the everywhere else, hoping it was a weak spot in this Spirit Array where he could successfully break out.
Taking out the Hundred Mountains Picture, Yang Kai summoned ten peaks in one breath and smashed them against that position.
*Hong Hong Hong…*
A fierce rumbling echoed as the entire world seemed to shake.
Yang Kai paid close attention to the place he attacked with the Hundred Mountains Picture, and after a short while, he wore a pleased look. He found that under the attack of the Hundred Mountains Picture, the scenery there became even more distorted and seemed to be on the verge of collapsing.
[It’s possible!] Yang Kai thought to himself as he condensed more of his Saint Qi.
But before he could attack again, his expression stiffened before filling with disappointment.
Because the illusory region had been restored to its original state almost instantly, rendering his previous attack useless.
This Bewildering Array could even repair places which were broken all on its own! This was simply a deathtrap for anyone who fell inside it.
Yang Kai grit his teeth and pushed the power of the Hundred Mountains Picture to the limit, gathering together twenty phantom mountain peaks and smashing them down all at once.
……
Half a day later, Yang Kai stared at the scenery in front of himself in dismay, clear resentment flashing across his eyes.
The resilience of this Bewildering Array far exceeded his original expectations. No matter how much strength he used or what kind of attack he launched, it would immediately repair itself. The Hundred Mountains Picture had already been taken back into his body. Twenty phantom mountain peaks were his current limit, so there was no need to try using it any further, doing so would just waste his energy.
If he couldn’t put out a single decisive attack, there was no way Yang Kai could break open this weak spot. In other words, he needed to unleash a single powerful blow, like the one Xie Yun’s launched from his evil artifact, to tear through this weak point in the Bewildering Array with absolute strength.
Yang Kai didn’t have the time to sit and refine that strange crossbow artifact, nor did he even want to refine it. Not to mention, Yang Kai estimated that even with that artifact, it would be impossible to break the Spirit Array in front of him.
He could only use his Golden Blood.
Yang Kai sighed deeply. A drop of Golden Blood was the sum total of three months of cultivation, so he was unwilling to use it unless it was absolutely necessary.
After being encased in the blood-red crystal and spending several years in deep sleep while drifting through the Starry Sky, Yang Kai had amassed a total of nearly a hundred drops of Golden Blood. Now, after having used those drops intermittently several times, and without consciously trying to replenish them, Yang Kai had about ninety drops left.
However, now was not the time to care about such things.
With a dignified expression, Yang Kai held out a finger and slowly condensed a drop of pure Golden Blood at its tip.
Suddenly, a terrifying surge of vitality from this drop of Golden Blood was revealed.
This Golden Blood was far more pure and gave off a more brilliant light than the ordinary golden blood which flowed through Yang Kai’s veins. It quietly condensed at Yang Kai’s fingertip, trembling slightly like a small golden bean.
Yang Kai thoughts flashed, and this drop of Golden Blood swiftly transformed into a small, sharp arrow that without any pause, shot out, seemingly breaking through the constraints of space, and rushed towards the weak spot in the Bewildering Array.
A golden radiance erupted; one so bright Yang Kai could barely keep his eyes open.
He was forced to close his right eye and squint his left while nervously watching the scene in front of him.
The sound of something being torn apart rang out as Yang Kai clearly saw the weak spot in the Bewildering Array pierced directly by the small golden arrow. The drop of Golden Blood then exploded and torn open this small crack, rapidly expanding it.
At the same time, the illusory scenery around Yang Kai violently twisted, the many hills and mounds of earth flickering before disappearing.
The entire Bewildering Array seemed to have been greatly affected.
Yang Kai’s face was full of joy and he was just about the rush forward when a fiery red light suddenly rushed towards him from all directions, covering up the golden radiance. On top of that, this fiery red light was rapidly repairing the tear in the Bewildering Array and it was showing signs of closing completely. It seemed this red light was specifically repairing the damage to this natural Spirit Arary.
Yang Kai immediately became anxious, he had already used a drop of Golden Blood to get this far, so how could he just stand back and allow the Bewildering Array to repair itself again?
Acting decisively, he forced out another drop of Golden Blood.
With the additional explosion of a second drop of Golden Blood, the red light was finally pushed back and melted like snowflakes under the sun, soon disappearing altogether.
Where the weak spot in the Bewildering Array once stood, a golden entrance took shape.
Yang Kai didn’t hesitate anymore and leapt through it.
After he left, the golden light gradually weakened, and the Bewildering Array repaired itself again.
Leaving his original position, Yang Kai found that he had suddenly set foot on a straight pathway. This pathway was paved with small, smooth, stone blocks. Both sides of this pathway were filled with the same fiery red weeds that Yang Kai had encountered before, but these weeds were a little different from the ones he had previously come across. The ones inside the Bewildering array seemed somewhat ill, as if they were near death, but the ones surrounding Yang Kai now had more vibrant colour and seemed to have a slight bloody air to them. Yang Kai scanned his surroundings and soon noticed many bones among these weeds.
Startled, Yang Kai immediately understood that these bones should have belonged to cultivators who had previously entered the Flowing Flame Sand Field, accidentally stumbled upon this place, became trapped and eventually died.
As for why these bones had appeared here and not inside the Bewildering Array, Yang Kai didn’t know.
While he was immersed in his shock, Yang Kai suddenly saw the weeds on both sides of the passage actually grow at a rapid pace, in the blink of an eye going from less than a meter tall to several dozen meters in height…
These long, blade-like leaves appeared soft and flexible, like long whips, and all of them swiftly struck towards Yang Kai.
Yang Kai was startled. He didn’t expect these weeds could exhibit such behaviour. A few days ago, he had taken note of the hardness and sharpness of these weeds, so even he didn’t dare block these blades of grass head on as doing so would inevitably leave scars on his body. On top of that, these blades of grass were incredibly elastic and difficult to sever, making them even more difficult to deal with.
If not for the difficulty of handling them, Yang Kai would have liked to take some of these weeds back for Yang Yan to see. Yang Yan was a strange woman who seemed to have an infinite fountain of knowledge, perhaps she would be able to recognize what these weeds were.
But now, the countless weeds on both sides of the passage had transformed into ten thousand sharp whips, setting off alarms in Yang Kai’s head.
However, before Yang Kai could even put up his defenses, a strange energy film appeared on both sides of the path and blocked all the sweeping grass blades from reaching him.
Seeing this scene, Yang Kai’s expression became strange.
He had thought that the Bewildering Array he was trapped inside of was naturally formed, and if not for his current encounter, he would still be thinking so; after all, that Bewildering Array was far too profound, to the point where even his Demon Eye of Annihilation couldn’t discover its core.
The scene in front of him though had shaken his original conjecture. It was impossible for an energy barrier that only protected this small paved channel to be naturally formed.
This was definitely artificially arranged. It was even possible that Bewildering Array was artificially arranged!
Who possessed such great ability though?
Only Saint King Realm cultivators could enter the Flowing Flame Sand Field. Was there a cultivator of such realm capable of arranging such a profound Spirit Array? Only someone with knowledge and skill comparable to Yang Yan could accomplish that!
But what reason would someone have for arranging such Spirit Arrays here?
While Yang Kai walked forward at a leisurely pace, he contemplated this mystery, ignoring the weeds which were still trying to attack him as if they weren’t even there.
It didn’t take long for Yang Kai to reach the end of the path where he discovered a small house.
Figuring that since he had come all this way he might as well see things through to the end, Yang Kai stepped into the small stone house.
Now he is certain that this path and everything he had encountered before was artificially arranged because it was clear that they were here to protect this stone house.
When he entered, Yang Kai raised his vigilance, condensing his strength in case he needed to quickly react, or in case he countered someone or something inside the stone house that was against him. But soon, Yang Kai found that this stone house was actually empty, and there weren’t any decorations much less treasure, besides a stone table in the centre of the house, there was literally nothing else.
Yang Kai frowned slightly and searched the stone house carefully a few times but ultimately failed to discover anything worthy of note. It was as if after breaking the Bewildering Array and walking through the stone path, one’s only option was to enter this stone house and wait for death.
Using his Demon Eye of Annihilation again still yielded nothing.
In the end, all Yang Kai found inside the house was a small seed which was laid upon the stone table.
Reaching out and picking it up to have a closer look, Yang Kai found that this seed was blood red and contained a strange aura inside it. This aura was quite similar to the one possessed by the rioting weeds outside.
He didn’t know how many years this thing had sat here, but Yang Kai could still clearly feel a rich vitality coming from it. If he were to plant it somewhere, it should be able to sprout and thrive.
After thinking about it, Yang Kai tossed it into his Space Ring. Having paid the price of two drops of Golden Blood to break through the weak spot in the Bewildering Array to arrive here, he couldn’t just leave empty-handed.
This seed provided a modicum of comfort in that respect.
Next, Yang Kai checked once more around the stone house before finally determining there was no way out.
Was it necessary for him to go back the way he came and delve deeper into the Bewildering Array to find another way out? When thinking about the self-restoring function of the Bewildering Array, Yang Kai wanted to curse.
Although reluctant, Yang Kai had to accept this cruel reality and dejectedly walked out of the stone house.
But as soon as he stepped out of the stone house, a flash of light appeared in front of his eyes and the weeds and stone pavement disappeared, leaving behind only an empty red expanse.
In the air, there was a constant flow of flame auras and nothing but reddish-brown dirt stretched out beneath his feet.
Flame Area!
Yang Kai was shocked and, out of fear he had fallen into another illusionary Spirit Array, he quickly used his Demon Eye of Annihilation for the third time. After confirming that he hadn’t been sent into another Bewildering Array, Yang Kai scanned his surroundings carefully but was unable to find any trace of the stone house. All he could see were barren hills and plains, as if everything he had encountered before was just an illusion.
However, Yang Kai knew that it was not an illusion, because that fiery red seed was still inside his Space Ring.
In any case, after finally coming out of that damned place, Yang Kai secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
If he had been trapped back in that Bewildering Array again, his only option would be to find another weak link and blow it open. If it had been any other Saint King, once they fell into that trap, only if they were extremely proficient in Spirit Arrays would they stand a chance of survival, otherwise their only option would be to sit there and wait for death.
Word about this Bewildering Array had never spread out, probably because anyone who fell into it didn’t have the ability to escape and died inside. If that was the case, it made sense why no one knew about it, and since this Bewildering Array could even isolate space, blocking messages from being sent out wouldn’t be a problem.
Therefore, Yang Kai estimates that the great forces on Shadowed Star were completely unaware of this Bewildering Array’s existence.
Yang Kai hoped Wei Gu Chang, Dong Xuan’er, Chang Qi and Hao An hadn’t travelled the same way as he had, otherwise they would undoubtedly fall into this death trap.
Just as Yang Kai was secretly feeling thankful, he suddenly discovered a few figures travelling at great speed a few kilometres away from his position. It seemed these people were in a rush to get somewhere.
Yang Kai gawked for a moment before suddenly remembering that he had been trapped by the Bewildering Array for a number of days, so the lead he had managed to obtain with his Wind and Thunder Wings may have already disappeared and elites like Wei Gu Chang and Dong Xuan’er should have already overtaken him.
Taking out his Yuan Magnetic Compass and checking it, Yang Kai found that the direction this group of people was travelling wasn’t towards the Treasure Area.
Now, there was no meaning in rushing ahead. Yang Kai had been planning to arrive at the Treasure Area first so he could search for treasures before anyone else arrived, but after being delayed for so long by the Bewildering Array that was no longer possible.
This group of people must have found something good, otherwise, they wouldn’t be in such a hurry.
Yang Kai thought about it for a while before deciding to follow after this group of people.
Following others inside the Flowing Flame Sand Field was quite easy because there wasn’t much vegetation here. Except for barren hills and cracked earth, there really was nothing else, so although Divine Sense was greatly suppressed here, the distance one could see with their eyes was quite far, so there was no need to worry about losing sight of someone.
The further he went, the more cultivators Yang Kai discovered travelling in the same direction as him. It was as if everyone had gotten news about something and were converging towards a certain place.
Yang Kai became more curious. If something valuable hadn’t been discovered, it would be impossible for some many cultivators to gather together; after all, when many people came together, there would naturally be conflicts.
Not far away from where Yang Kai currently was, there were two cultivators at the Second Order Saint King Realm. These two wore matching uniforms, but Yang Kai didn’t recognize which force they belonged to. Thinking these two didn’t look particularly vicious or wicked, Yang Kai immediately turned towards them with the hope of inquiring about what was happening. If there wasn’t something good up ahead, he wouldn’t bother going.
This pair noticed Yang Kai’s actions and quickly raised their vigilance, a middle-aged man among them frowning as he swept his eyes over Yang Kai, but after discovering he was just a First Order Saint King, he relaxed.
There was no need to fear a single First Order Saint King so the vigilance on his face quickly converged.
“Two friends,” Yang Kai rushed to them, cupped his fists, and smiled, trying to look as friendly as possible.
The pair didn’t turn Yang Kai away, simply nodding lightly as they continued running forward, the middle-aged man asking, “Is there something wrong?”
“I just wanted to ask why everyone is running this direction. Have you found something good?” Yang Kai asked bluntly.
The middle-aged man was slightly surprised but still smiled and replied, “We’re not completely clear about the situation up ahead and only heard some rumours, but those rumours say that someone found some Brilliant Fire Crystal. Whether it’s true or false we can’t say.”
“Origin Grade High-Rank Brilliant Fire Crystal?” Yang Kai’s eyes brightened.
“Right, it seems that friend has a clear understanding of the grade of this material,” The middle-aged man looked at Yang Kai with some surprise.
“En, I heard about it from a Senior before,” Yang Kai replied casually. Brilliant Fire Crystal was indeed a good material, not only could it be used for Artefact Refining, it could also be used by those who cultivated Fire Attribute Secret Arts and even as a material in some special types of Spirit Arrays.
Yang Yan should be interested in these things. Yang Kai himself didn’t care either way, but since he was already here, it was fine to take a look. If there really was some Brilliant Fire Crystal, he wouldn’t mind collecting some; after all, Origin Grade High-Rank materials were hard to find and often couldn’t be purchased even if you had money.
Yang Yan had often complained that the grade of materials she had to arrange Spirit Arrays was too low and although the materials sent by Qian Tong were all Origin Grade, there were too few at the High-Rank. As for Origin King Grade materials, there were even fewer.
“Although there may be good things up ahead, one must have the skill to obtain them,” The middle-aged man spoke somewhat ambiguously before stating clearly, “There are many people rushing over to that side now, so its likely conflicts will start occurring soon. Friend, are you sure you want to go?”
He seemed to think that Yang Kai’s cultivation realm was too low so he was trying to persuade him against taking such risks.
This man spoke without any malice or ill intent, he was simply acting out of goodwill.
This middle-aged person had an upright character, Yang Kai thought secretly, but without stopping he simply chuckled, “Naturally I must go take a look, even if I can’t obtain anything in the end, gaining some experience shouldn’t be too hard.”
Seeing Yang Kai insist on this, the other party didn’t say anything anymore. He had simply met Yang Kai by chance and spoke to persuade him out of good intentions, but since the other side paid it no heed, why would he waste his breath?
None of the three gave their names, seemingly not planning on associating with each other for long.
Within a short time, the trio finally arrived at the place they were searching for and began looking around.
In front of them was a giant hill, at least a hundred meters tall and several thousand meters in diameter. At this moment, there were at least thirty cultivators scattered across the hill, all of them seemingly have received word of there being treasure here. These cultivators were all digging around the hill currently.
Every now and then, someone would let out a laugh after digging up a chunk of red crystal.
Yang Kai could clearly see that it was indeed Brilliant Fire Crystal.
This hill was quite inconspicuous, but it actually contained a deposit of Brilliant Fire Crystal. It was really a wonder who the first person to discover this place was and also how word about it leaked out.
However, it was clear that the excavation work had been going on here for more than a few hours. The hill was already full of pits and caves, with the figures of cultivators moving in and out of them.
Some people wore happy expression while others wore sad ones. Some cultivators found nothing in the spots they were looking and would change location frequently.
Although the scene was lively, there were no conflicts. Everyone coexisted in peace. They each found a place to look for Brilliant Fire Crystal and went about their task in a relaxed manner. The great fight Yang Kai had imagined occurring over these Brilliant Fire Crystals was nowhere to be seen.
“Let’s go to that side!” The middle-aged man who arrived with Yang Kai suddenly pointed to an empty spot and quickly moved towards it with his fellow Sect Brother, the two of them summoning out their artefacts and actually using them like shovels to dig through the dirt.
Yang Kai sighed slightly and walked over as well, looking for a place that was empty to try his luck.
If the Stone Puppet was here, Yang Kai wouldn’t need to do anything, he could simply release it and all the Brilliant Fire Crystal hidden in this hill would surely fall into his hands.
However, Yang Yan needed the Stone Puppet for various important tasks so Yang Kai had not brought it with him.
After searching around for less than an incense stick worth of time, Yang Kai leapt out of the hole he had been digging with a frown on his face.
He had determined that finding Brilliant Fire Crystal here was all a matter of luck.
Because the Fire Attribute energy was too rich here, the aura given off by Brilliant Fire Crystals were completely covered up. It was impossible to search for them using one’s Divine Sense, so one could only dig blindly and hope for the best. This reality greatly reduced Yang Kai’s interest.
While other cultivators would be enthusiastic about an Origin Grade High-Rank material, Yang Kai wasn’t. There was no need for him to waste time here for a few pieces of Brilliant Fire Crystal.
It would be better for him to head straight for the Treasure Area. Considering all this, Yang Kai didn’t bother digging anymore.
Before leaving, Yang Kai took a casual look over at the middle-aged man he had arrived with and discovered that he had actually struck it lucky, both he and his fellow Sect Brother were celebrating that they had some gains.
Not thinking of disturbing them, Yang Kai left the hill alone. As he walked further, he would occasionally run into cultivators who had obtained word of the Brilliant Fire Crystals, many of whom would call out to him and ask if the news was true, annoying him somewhat.
These people clearly saw that Yang Kai was and his cultivation wasn’t high, so they didn’t consider him a threat; otherwise, how could so many have pulled him aside?
However, these people were just asking him a few questions, so Yang Kai didn’t feel it was right to kill them. The best he could do was try to avoid others while continuing forward.
Yang Kai didn’t use his Wind and Thunder Wings at this time because they were too conspicuous, if they were seen by other people, it might cause him some unnecessary trouble. Yang Kai wasn’t afraid of trouble, but he didn’t want to be delayed by it either, so he used his own two feet to hurry along.
Two days later, Yang Kai was still walking along when suddenly he heard the sound of clothes swishing behind him. It seemed as if someone was running at full speed towards him.
On top of that, from what Yang Kai could tell, this person was coming from the direction he just left, causing him to frown, look back to check.
Turning around, Yang Kai saw a figure jumping down from the undulating hills he had just passed and land right in front of him.
When their four eyes met, Yang Kai immediately recognized this person. It was actually the middle-aged Second-Order Saint King who had a jade pendant hanging from his hat he had met a few days ago. This middle-aged man had given Yang Kai a fairly good impression; after all, the other party had tried to persuade him to not take risks purely out of goodwill when they met.
Yang Kai couldn’t help but chuckle and was about to say hello, but suddenly his face sank.
He found that there was something wrong with the other party. This middle-aged man’s Saint Qi was chaotic and he wore a tense look upon his face. He also seemed to be injured heavily on his shoulder, his wound still bleeding, staining his clothes red.
On top of that, this man’s eyes were bloodshot and full of anger and unwillingness.
After seeing Yang Kai, the middle-aged man froze slightly, as if he hadn’t expected to run into someone here. A hint of guilt and annoyance flashed across his eyes as he stomped his foot and hurriedly said, “Hurry up and run if you don’t want to die!”
Having said this, he dashed off in a different direction.
Yang Kai was confused, but soon he understood what was going on. Thirty breaths after the middle-aged man ran off, a group of six cultivators wearing dark green robes appeared behind Yang Kai.
The one leading this group was a young man who looked almost the same age as Yang Kai; however, his true age wasn’t clear. This young man’s complexion was cold and he made no attempt to conceal his Third Order Saint King cultivation. The men and women following this young man were all Second-Order Saint Kings.
As soon as he saw this young man, Yang Kai found that the other party seemed very familiar, as if he had seen him somewhere before.
Just as he was wondering about this, the young man arrogantly called out, “Tell me which way that man went.”
Yang Kai’s face went cold. This person’s impolite way of questioning made him quite upset. Forget about Yang Kai having a good impression of that middle-aged man, even if it was a complete stranger, being asked so rudely about their whereabouts, Yang Kai wouldn’t have answered.
“Senior Brother Meng, that way!” A young woman among the group suddenly pointed to one side, the direction in which the middle-aged man had escaped. It was easy to tell because there were a few conspicuous drops of blood leading off in that direction.
“Hmph!” The young man called Senior Brother Meng coldly snorted before leading everyone off to chase after that man. Before he left though, he waved his hands and a golden radiance suddenly shot towards Yang Kai.
Yang Kai was furious, lifting his hand and condensing a Grand Heavenly Shield in front of himself to block this attack.
However, the Grand Heavenly Shield Yang Kai condensed actually failed to completely resist the golden radiance, cracking and nearly shattering on impact.
Yang Kai was shocked, but by the time he had recovered, the other party had already run off. As for Senior Brother Meng, he too seemed surprised he had failed to kill Yang Kai, a mere First Order Saint King, turning a cold glare back toward him as if he was trying to remember his appearance.
However, chasing after that middle-aged man right now seemed to take precedence in his mind so he didn’t bother with Yang Kai any further.
Within moments, the group of six had disappeared in the direction the middle-aged people fled.
Yang Kai stood in place, thinking back carefully. He was certain he had met that young man somewhere before, otherwise, he wouldn’t have felt such a strong sense of familiarity. After a while, he finally remembered, and couldn’t help raising his brow before quickly chasing after this group.
Whether it was because of that young man’s actions, or his slight relationship with that middle-aged man, Yang Kai wasn’t prepared to simply let things end like this.
The middle-aged man was truly a righteous character. Earlier, he had persuaded Yang Kai to not take risks with his life, and just a moment ago, when he met Yang Kai again, he had again warned him to quickly flee. The look of guilt in his eyes at that time was clearly because he had run into Yang Kai and involved him accidentally. If that had not been the case, he wouldn’t have changed the direction he was escaping.
Having been shown such goodwill, Yang Kai naturally wanted to reciprocate.
Chasing after them for a short time, Yang Kai was easily able to catch up.
The middle-aged man was already an arrow at the end of its flight, so he wasn’t able to run far. At this moment, that Senior Brother Meng and his several Junior Brothers and Junior Sisters had gathered around this man and were attacking him. The middle-aged man’s cultivation wasn’t high, but the defensive Artifact Armour he was wearing was actually quite good and was prevented him from suffering any fatal injuries so far.
Unfortunately, this Artifact Armour had also reached its limit and its aura was now quite dull, its protective effects had diminished severely.
Senior Brother Meng was acting aloof, not even participating in this battle and instead standing aside with his arms crossed and a sullen look of ridicule on his face as he watched.
It was fortunate he hadn’t taken action personally, otherwise the middle-aged man would already have fallen.
“Meng Hong Liang, you will die like a dog!” The middle-aged man spat blood and roared in anger as he suffered a blow from the young woman who had spoken a moment ago.
These words made the young man named Meng Hong Liang wear an even colder look as he commanded, “Don’t rush to kill him, play with him until he’s completely broken so he understands the fate those who dare offend my Imperial City Sect must suffer.”
“Yes!” The Imperial City Sect cultivators besieging the middle-aged man heard this and immediately lightened their attacks, intentionally adding wounds to this middle-aged man like cats playing with a corner mouse. Each of their attacks was designed to cause him the maximum amount of pain while not fatally wounding him.
“Meng Hong Liang, I already surrendered that Brilliant Fire Crystal Essence to you, why must you act so ruthlessly? What need is there to kill me and my Junior Brother?” The middle-aged man was doing his best to avoid these attacks but the number of wounds he suffered was still gradually increasing. His face was also growing pale from excessive blood loss.
“Hmph!” Meng Hong Liang coldly snorted, “Do you have the qualifications to possess a treasure as valuable as that Brilliant Fire Crystal Essence? As for why you must die, the fewer people who know about such a treasure the better, if you want to blame someone, blame yourself and your Junior Brother for having the good fortune to dig up such a good thing and the misfortunate of having me learn of it. Haha, this Brilliant Fire Crystal Essence can only be owned by me, but don’t worry, you and your Junior Brother can accompany each other on the road to the next world, so that he isn’t lonely.”
“Even if I must become a ghost I won’t let you off!” The middle-aged man roared as the last ray of light from his Artifact Armour faded and crumbled.
This Artefact Armour had been thoroughly destroyed and could no longer be repaired.
“Kill him, any delays now would only leads to more problems!” Meng Hong Liang wasn’t in the mood to play with this middle-aged man anymore and ruthlessly commanded.
The other Imperial City Sect disciples surrounding the middle-aged man simultaneously pushed their Saint Qi and unleashed killing blows upon hearing this.
The middle-aged man also seemed to feel he could no longer escape this calamity and did not put up any pointless resistance. Before dying, he simply stared at Meng Hong Liang with bloodshot eyes, seemingly wanting to engrave his figure into his soul so that after he reincarnated he could find him to seek revenge!
Just when the middle-aged man was about to die though, a number of shields formed from jet black flames appeared all around him, blocking all of the fatal strikes.
One of the Imperial City Sect disciples saw this and was unwilling to relent and slammed his palm onto the black flame shield. The shield remained unscathed under this attack while the cultivator leapt back like a frightened rabbit and as he shrieked loudly.
The crowd all stared dumbstruck at this scene, their eyes immediately filling with fear and terror.
The black flames were rapidly spreading from this man’s palm up to his arm and towards his body. Wherever this flame passed, everything was reduced to ash, and it was obvious that as soon as it reached his chest, he wouldn’t be able to survive.
“Senior Brother Meng, save me!” The cultivator realized that he wasn’t strong enough to resist these black flames and immediately begged for rescue from Meng Hong Liang, hoping the latter had some method that could save him.
But how could Meng Hong Liang allow this man to get any closer to him? Those black flames were simply too frightening.
Seeing his fellow Sect disciples rushing over towards him, Meng Hong Liang’s expression became cold as a ruthless light flashed across his eyes. Retreating a few steps, he raised his hand and shot a golden ray of light towards the head of the approaching cultivator. This cultivator immediately fell to the ground after having his brow pierced by this golden light, a look of complete shock covering his face, seemingly never having imagined his Senior Brother would act so callously towards him.
In the blink of an eye, this man’s body was completely devoured by the Demonic Flames.
The remaining young men and women paled, partly because of the incredible power of Demonic Flame, and partly because they had witnessed Meng Hong Liang coldly killing a fellow member of their sect. For a moment, all of them stared at this Senior Brother of theirs in shock and disbelief.
“Cruel and merciless, friend has some good methods,” Yang Kai stepped forward with a smirk as he stared coldly at Meng Hong Liang. He too had not expected this person to turn such a poisonous hand against his fellow Sect Brother. Clearly, he wasn’t anything good.
When Yang Kai came up to the middle-aged man, he simply nodded to him lightly.
The middle-aged man was dumbstruck. Just when he thought he would die without a doubt, someone had unexpectedly run out to save him.
On top of that, the person who had saved him was actually Yang Kai, a stranger he had only met twice, making the whole situation seem even more surreal.
“You stand aside and heal yourself first,” Yang Kai said as he looked at the miserable state this man was in, tossing him a healing pill and saying casually.
“But you…” The middle-aged man caught the pill and looked hesitant. Yang Kai’s cultivation was too low, so he was afraid that this young man who rushed out to save his life would suffer disaster; after all, Meng Hong Liang wasn’t someone to be trifled with.
But when he remembered about the power of the black flames and upon seeing Yang Kai’s calm look, the middle-aged man suddenly nodded, “Understood!”
Saying so, he stepped back, swallowed the pill, and began meditating silently.
He didn’t know what Yang Kai was relying on to face so many people from the Imperial City Sect, but since the other party had dared to reveal himself, he must not put Meng Hong Liang and the others in his eyes.
Subconsciously, he thought Yang Kai was the son of some important Elder from a great Sect or force. If this was the case, he only needed to report his name and Meng Hong Liang wouldn’t dare to provoke him.
Although Imperial City Sect wasn’t bad, it wasn’t even a first-class force on Shadowed Star, barely in the high second-class level actually. Meng Hong Liang was the type who only knew how to bully the weak and naturally wouldn’t dare provoke strong opponents.
Sure enough, Meng Hong Liang’s look became uncertain as he stared at Yang Kai carefully. Comparing this young man’s face and demeanour to the well-known young talents on Shadowed Star in his heart, he still couldn’t find a matching figure. In addition, his fellow Sect disciples were also wearing uncertain looks, so Meng Hong Liang quickly shouted, “What intentions does Your Excellency have by suddenly killing my Junior Brother?”
Yang Kai sneered and slowly shook his head, “I think you’re mistaken there. I didn’t kill him, you did… En, well, even if you didn’t kill him, he would still have died, but regardless of what might have happened, the truth was he died at your hand, it has nothing to do with me.”
Meng Hong Liang’s face went from blue to red as he ground his teeth and shouted, “If you had not used such despicable methods to sneak attack him how could I have been forced to act so?”
After saying this, his expression calmed down and he nodded, “That’s right, I killed Junior Brother Qi, but only because I couldn’t bear to see him slowly burn to death. I simply ended his suffering.”
Having unexpectedly found a justification for his actions, Meng Hong Liang did not hesitate to make use of it, causing the remaining men and women from Imperial City Sect to secretly breathe a sigh of relief. Although all of them still felt it wasn’t appropriate to kill someone from their Sect, as soon as this reason was spoken, they felt a lot better in their hearts. All of them had witnessed their Junior Brother Qi’s condition with their own eyes and knew that even if Meng Hong Liang hadn’t acted, he would have died without a doubt. Having settled their disturbed hearts, they all gathered towards Meng Hong Liang.
Meng Hong Liang secretly sneered as he had managed to escape from the crime of killing his fellow Sect Brother so easily. Although it was mere sophistry, he could now overlook Yang Kai from a superior position and coldly declare, “Which Sect does this friend come from, can you tell me if it’s convenient? Although my Imperial City Sect isn’t a great force, many of the Sect’s Elders have a wide range of friends. If your Sect is a friend of mine, I hope you can not involve yourself in this matter.”
“Senior Brother Meng, I know who this person is,” The same young woman from before called out with a slight frown between her brow. Moving closer to Meng Hong Liang, her beautiful eyes remained focused on Yang Kai with a slight look of dread.
After hearing what she said, Meng Hong Liang immediately asked her in a low voice.
The young woman did not conceal anything, explaining how before the Flowing Flame Sand Field had officially opened, there was a conflict between Yang Kai and Blue Sparrow Sect’s Yin Jian. At that time, this young woman had been nearby and observed the entire matter, so after a moment she was able to recognize Yang Kai.
“Shadow Moon Hall?” Meng Hong Liang was startled, his brows wrinkling slightly, an ugly look appearing on his face.
Although Shadow Moon Hall wasn’t a true top power, it was still far superior to Imperial City Sect. There were many Third Order Origin Returning Realm masters in Shadow Moon Hall, something Imperial City Sect could not hope to match.
The two Sects were separated by hundreds of thousands of kilometres, and usually had no interactions, but when the young woman said that the first genius of Shadow Moon Hall, Wei Gu Chang, had stood up personally for Yang Kai, Meng Hong Liang suddenly had to consider acting cautiously lest he stir up unwanted trouble.
If he were to anger Wei Gu Chang and the latter ran over to Imperial City Sect to seek retribution, he wouldn’t get off easy.
However, now that things had reached this point, and his Junior Brother had died by his own hand, Meng Hong Liang couldn’t just withdraw, not to mention he didn’t want news of the Brilliant Fire Crystal Essence leaking out. It was for this reason that even after obtaining this treasure he had decided to kill both this middle-aged man and the latter’s Junior Brother.
Dead people don’t reveal secrets!
“But at the time he said he wasn’t from Shadow Moon Hall,” The young woman’s expression became puzzled as she murmured.
“Not from Shadow Moon Hall?” Meng Hong Liang’s expression lightened.
“That’s right, I’m not from Shadow Moon Hall,” Yang Kai stood there defiantly, as if he was unafraid of death. He hadn’t interrupted Meng Hong Liang and the young woman’s conversation until now but decided to speak up at last, “I only have some small friendship with Wei Gu Chang, so you don’t have to worry about him seeking trouble with you when this is all over.”
Meng Hong Liang’s thoughts being seen through so easily by Yang Kai caused his eyes to grow cold, but he was still hesitating whether to act or not.
As for the middle-aged man who was meditating to restore his wounds, he nearly spat blood when he heard Yang Kai speak these words!
The situation had been all but resolved, and the middle-aged man was secretly rejoicing that his guess had been right. The young man who had come to save him really had a powerful background. If this young man didn’t say anything more, with Meng Hong Liang’s personality, he would definitely become more cautious in his actions and likely withdraw in the end.
If that was the case, he and this young man who came to save him would be able to escape safely. As for seeking revenge, that would naturally have to wait for later.
But now, in one breath, this young man had actually gone and destroyed his cover. How could Meng Hong Liang let him go now? Without a strong backer, and with just a First Order Saint King cultivation, there was no doubt Yang Kai would have died here.
For a moment, the middle-aged man became anxious and angry, he really didn’t know why he had to run into such a stupid kid.
However, the other party had indeed come to save him, he had been dragged into this by him, so the middle-aged man could only sigh and secretly decided to restore as much of his strength as soon as possible. Once Meng Hong Liang decided to act, he would do his best to delay him to let Yang Kai escape.
On the other side, Meng Hong Liang, whose ace had been constantly changing, finally made a decision, and his expression gradually became firm, staring at Yang Kai coldly he declared, “So what if you have a connection to Shadow Moon Hall, so what if you know Wei Gu Chang? Today, I must kill you, so you won’t live to see tomorrow! “
As soon as these words fell, he waved his hand and shouted, “Be careful of his black flame, don’t give him a chance to send out a message!”
Meng Hong Liang had decided to dispense will all pretence and silence the witness to the crime. It had to be said that he was a cautious man, so when he ordered his Junior Brothers and Junior Sister to attack, a golden light also appeared in his hand.
Meng Hong Liang was extremely fearful of the Demonic Flame and was planning on using his Junior Brothers and Junior Sister to draw Yang Kai’s attention while he stood back and shot him while denying him an opportunity to take out his communication type artefact. If he couldn’t accomplish this, all his previous efforts would go to waste.
Receiving Meng Hong Liang’s order, the four Second-Order Saint Kings rushed towards Yang Kai aggressively, pushing their Saint Qi as the summoned their defensive artefacts to guard their bodies.
Of those who dared to enter the Flowing Flame Sand Field, most wore Artefact Armour, and these Artefact Armours were naturally designed to resist the ambient fire poison while also having a strong defensive strength. At the very least, while fighting cultivators of the same level, they could rely on these Artefact Armours to prevent some injuries.
The black flames were too terrifying though, so although all four of these cultivators rushed forward, none of them dared to approach Yang Kai too closely, the young woman among them summoning a long whip artefact and cracking it, sending it out a cyan light towards Yang Kai, a ruthless expression filling her pretty face.
The other three also used long-range attack artefacts or Martial Skills to bombard Yang Kai’s location.
At the same time these four attacked, the golden light which had been brilliantly shining in Meng Hong Liang’s hand vanished. It was impossible to tell what kind of trick he had used, but the moment he released the golden shot, it had stealthily concealed itself.
Four Second-Order Saint Kings and one Third Order Saint King attacked a First Order Saint King together. How it would turn out, anyone would be able to tell.
After releasing his attack, Meng Hong Liang’s mouth curled into a grin.
But in the next instant, the smile on his face stiffened.
He saw a sword condensed from black flame appear in the hands of the besieged young man chop forward and seemingly devour all light in its path. Not only did this sword swing destroy two of his Junior Brother’s attacks as easily as crushing dry weeds and smashing rotten wood, it also cleanly sliced through them as well.
Their Artefact Armour seemed as fragile as paper and the Saint Qi they had been using to protect their bodies weren’t able to play the slightest defence role.
The bodies of his two Junior Brothers were cut in half instantly.
It wasn’t over yet though as a black spear then appeared in this young man’s hand and was immediately tossed out, piercing through the whip of the young woman without even slowing down before puncturing a hole through her abdomen.
From start to finish, the young woman didn’t even have time to react.
Simultaneously, a purple shield appeared next to Yang Kai and with a metallic ping and a series of sparks, the golden light bounced off the shield without even leaving a scratch on it. The golden light faded greatly as it flew back to Meng Hong Liang’s location.
Yang Kai frowned seeing this, realizing that the artefact Meng Hong Liang was using was really quite extraordinary. He had been attacked by this golden light before and almost had his Grand Heavenly Shield broken as a result. Yang Kai naturally didn’t dare underestimate this artefact and had immediately used his purple shield to defend himself.
Glancing over leisurely at it, Yang Kai realized that this golden light was actually a flying needle artefact as thin as a cow’s hair.
This type of artefact was quite rare because flying needles generally had very little power. An Artefact Refiner needed to continuously refine and enhance one in order for it to have any killing potential, and this series of refinements made them difficult to produce.
Flying needle artefacts were rare, but it was undeniable that they were the best choice for breaking through defensive artefacts and cultivators’ Saint Qi protections.
Yang Kai realized why this golden light had almost broken through his Grand Heavenly Shield upon seeing its true form.
This brief moment of shock was enough to allow the only Imperial City Sect disciple that had not been killed to react. Four of them had attacked Yang Kai, but three of them had been instantly killed, and if it wasn’t for Senior Brother Meng’s sneak attack, the one survivor knew he too would be dead.
How could this man dare to remain? Immediately, he withdrew a hundred meters bit before he was able to breathe a sigh of relief, a black rope suddenly descended upon him, sealing off all avenues of retreat, rendering him unable to flee.
In the blink of any eye, the black rope had entangled him and he could finally clearly tell that rather than some kind of physical material, this rope was actually condensed from pure black flame. Suddenly remembering the fate of his Junior Brother Qi, this man’s face went pale.
Opening his mouth to scream, the man was unable to make a sound before the Demonic Flame burned his body into slag along with his Soul.
The Imprisoning Heaven Chain from the Nine Heavens Divine Skills already had the ability to restrain one’s Soul, it was a skill specially used to capture fleeing enemies. When it was displayed with Yang Kai’s unique Saint Qi though, the Imprisoning Heaven Chain’s power rose to a whole new level.
In a flash, without exception, the four who had besieged Yang Kai had been wiped out.
Meng Hong Liang’s eyes shrank violently as an expression of disbelief and panic filled his face.
The middle-aged man who had been meditating to restore his injuries had rushed over to Yang Kai at this time.
The moment the four Imperial City Sect disciples launched their attack, this man had also taken action in hopes of saving Yang Kai, but how could he have known there was simply no place for him in this battle? By the time he ran over, all four attackers were dead and even Meng Hong Liang’s sneak attack had been dealt with.
The expression of the middle-aged man wasn’t much better than Meng Hong Liang’s, the only difference being he wasn’t afraid of Yang Kai; however, that didn’t stop him from staring at this young man as if he was some kind of monster.
Only now did he understand that Yang Kai wasn’t acting thoughtlessly, nor did he need to rely on Shadow Moon Hall’s name to protect himself, from the beginning, he had the ability to kill everyone present.
“You… could you be…” Meng Hong Liang suddenly went completely white, half forming a sentence before failing to complete it. Yang Kai didn’t know what he wanted to say, but after saying these few words, Meng Hong Liang hurriedly cupped his fists and bowed deeply, “This Meng has offended this friend greatly but begs Friend to not take offence. What happened today, no one else will ever come to know, this Meng swears to not disclose it to another person! I only ask that friend be willing to spare this Meng’s pour life!”
Saying so, he didn’t even wait for Yang Kai to reply before immediately turning around and running off, avoiding Yang Kai like a viper, his face still filled with terror.
“You think you can just leave?” Yang Kai sneered as he thrust out his palm. With things having gotten to this point, how could he simply allow Meng Hong Liang to walk away? Whether it was because of his previous attitude and murderous intent towards him, or because he wanted to silence the witness to the crime afterwards, Yang Kai had already marked Meng Hong Liang for death.
Meng Hong Liang was the one who provoked him, he had only himself to blame.
A huge palm print fell from the sky, seemingly covering the Heavens themselves as it threatened to engulf Meng Hong Liang.
This palm contained Heaven Destroying and Earth Shattering power, causing Meng Hong Liang to go absent-minded for a moment, but as the aura of death approached, he let out a desperate cry and shot the golden light from his hand once more.
Countless thin flying needles as thin as an ox’s hair were summon, each releasing a grating sound.
Immediately after the golden light was released, the numerous flying needles converged and condensed into a long sword, its tip vibrating violently as it stabbed towards Yang Kai’s Heaven Covering Hand.
*Hong…*
An eruption of golden light occurred and the Heaven Covering Hand was seemingly punctured by the radiance, the irresistible pressure it was exerting suddenly dispersing, allowing Meng Hong Liang to free himself from its restraint and quickly escape.
He had only gone ten steps however, before scalding hot yet simultaneously frigid cold aura suddenly appeared behind him. Turning his head, Meng Hong Liang was shocked to discover that before he knew it, the enemy had closed the distance between them and had already stabbed a sword condensed of black flame through his chest.
His body felt like it was invaded by a scalding heat and a icy cold all at once, and Meng Hong Liang finally realized why his Junior Brother Qi had panicked so much before dying.
Looking down, he could only see the tip of the black flame sword emerge from his chest, but centring on that position, the black flames were rapidly spreading out across his body…
Before Meng Hong Liang’s body was completely incinerated, Yang Kai snatched his Space Ring and impatiently searched it with his Divine Sense, immediately letting out a great laugh, seemingly very happy.
Similar to the ones Yang Kai had taken from the Xie Family trio before, there weren’t many good things in Meng Hong Liang’s ring, only some pills and Saint Crystals as well as a dozen or so Fire Crystal Stones of varying size.
However, Meng Hong Liang’s ring also contained a different kind of crystal that was emitting scorching hot flames.
This wasn’t a Fire Crystal Stone from a Fire Spirit Beast, but rather a piece of Brilliant Fire Crystal Essence, an Origin King Grade material. Brilliant Fire Crystal was only an Origin Grade material, and depending on its innate quality, it could be High, Mid, or Low-Rank.
Beneath the hill Yang Kai visited before, there should be a Brilliant Fire Crystal lode.
That Brilliant Fire Crystal lode should have had a very small chance to produce Brilliant Fire Crystal Essence, a material an entire grade higher.
From the aura this Brilliant Fire Crystal Essence gave off, it should only be Origin King Grade Low-Rank, but even so, such a treasure was rarely seen on Shadowed Star. No wonder Meng Hong Liang had decided to snatch it from this middle-aged man and even silence the witness to the crime.
Yang Kai threw this piece of Brilliant Fire Crystal Essence into his own Space Ring before next taking out an old map fragment.
This was what really made Yang Kai happy as it was the same ancient map fragment that had appeared in the Treasure Trove Pavilion auction!
At that time, this map fragment had been won by a random Second-Order Saint King who before the auction ended had tried to quietly slip away. Unfortunately for him, he was followed by a large number of people and was eventually robbed of this fragment by a young man. That young man was none other than Meng Hong Liang.
When Yang Kai saw Meng Hong Liang a short time ago, he hadn’t remembered where he had seen him before, only feeling that he was familiar, but Yang Kai soon remembered what had happened outside Heavenly Fate City that day.
At that time, after the map fragment was taken away by Meng Hong Liang, Yang Kai did not make any attempts to search for it; after all, could whatever this ancient map led to be found with just a fragment or two? It was impossible to know if this map even led to anything good at all. With so many unknowns, Yang Kai felt there wasn’t any need to waste energy and effort to retrieve it.
He hadn’t expected though that this map fragment would eventually land in his hands.
Yang Yan had another fragment of this map, so if Yang Kai put the two pieces together, he might be able to find some clues about where it led. If he found some free time in the future, he could follow those clues and perhaps obtain some kind of opportunity.
While Yang Kai was searching through the Space Ring, on the side, the middle-aged man couldn’t hide his surprise, as the young man in front of him was completely behaving like an experienced bandit.
However, this middle-aged man also didn’t see anything wrong with this. It was all too normal for people to kill others and take their treasures in this world. After Yang Kai finished his pillaging, the middle-aged man walked up to him weakly and cupped his fists, “Extreme Path Sect Huang Xi Ran thanks this friend for rescuing him. If it weren’t for this friend, this Huang would not have been able to escape death today, please accept my deepest gratitude.”
Saying so, he bowed deeply to Yang Kai.
“Brother Huang is too polite,” Yang Kai waved his hand with a smile.
Although Huang Xi Ran’s face showed some hints of joyfulness, the large majority of his expression was bleak as he said in a dull tone, “It is only how I should be, if this friend had not taken action, my Junior Brother would never have obtain revenge and perhaps no one in this world would have known Meng Hong Liang killed my brother and I.”
Yang Kai gently nodded, “How could you be so careless to reveal the existence of that piece of Brilliant Fire Crystal Essence?”
Speaking of this matter, Huang Xi Ran’s face grew darker as he smiled bitterly, “It is not that we weren’t careful enough. My Junior Brother and I had good luck as the place we started digging happened to have a lot of Brilliant Fire Crystals, and shortly after Friend left, we even managed to obtain a piece of Brilliant Fire Crystal Essence. Naturally we hid is carefully and my Junior Brother and I immediately left, but how could we have expected to encounter Meng Hong Liang along the way? He had seen many people digging through the hill and decided to stop and rob people who tried to leave. He demanded we hand over our Space Rings, but with the Brilliant Fire Crystal Essence in his ring, my Junior Brother naturally refused. Once he refused though, Meng Hong Liang immediately killed my Junior Brother and the Brilliant Fire Crystal Essence fell into his hands. This Huang knew he was not their opponent and could only shamefully escape.”
“I see!”
This is the kind of thing was beyond anyone’s ability to predict, it was just a matter of bad luck for Huang Xi Ran and his Junior Brother really.
“I haven’t asked for this friend’s honoured name!” Huang Xi Ran cupped his fists once more and said. Yang Kai had rescued him and allowed him to exact his revenge, so Huang Xi Ran was naturally grateful. On top of that, it was obvious Yang Kai was no ordinary cultivator so Huang Xi Ran wanted to make friends with him.
“Yang Kai.”
“So it is Brother Yang! En, is Brother Yang…” Huang Xi Ran suddenly paused before letting out a laugh, “Haha, no, this Huang was too disrespectful, Brother Yang doesn’t need to pay it any mind.”
Yang Kai looked at him strangely, completely confused.
Meng Hong Liang had also started to say something a moment ago, and now Huang Xi Ran was also hesitating over something. Did the two of them have the same misunderstanding? What kind of misunderstanding was it?
Whatever misunderstanding it was, Yang Kai wasn’t interested, so he simply said, “Does Brother Huang have any plans now?”
Huang Xi Ran thought about it seriously before replying, “I need to find a place to heal my wounds first, in my current state, I cannot proceed deeper into the Flame Area, going forward recklessly will only worsen my injuries. I’ll decide what to do next after recovering, Brother Yang doesn’t need to mind about me. I can also contact some of my other Sect members, perhaps some of them are nearby.”
“Good,” Yang Kai nodded before cupping his fists and saying, “If that’s the case, I’ll be going on ahead.”
“Please do so, Brother Yang! If there is a chance in the future, Brother Yang should visit Extreme Path Sect, this Huang will surely welcome you!”
With a slight smile, Yang Kai turned around and walked towards the Treasure Area.
Looking at the back of Yang Kai, Huang Xi Ran was inexplicably excited. Like Meng Hong Liang, he had determined that Yang Kai was a person from that place. Besides that place, who could cultivate a First Order Saint King capable of easily killing five cultivators who had higher cultivations than his own?
This kind of monstrous talent could only have come from that place, which was why Meng Hong Liang had panicked so much at the last moment.
It was rumoured that people from that place always acted indifferently towards everyone else, but now it seemed that it is not the case, at least this guy named Yang Kai was quite approachable.
It seems that rumours were just rumours after all.
Regarding the Brilliant Fire Crystal Essence, Yang Kai didn’t mention it, and Huang Xi Ran didn’t ask, both of them silently reaching an agreement.
For Huang Xi Ran, it was enough to be able to get revenge, how could he then reach out for a yard after taking an inch and ask Yang Kai for the Brilliant Fire Crystal Essence? After all, he had already lost it to someone else, so he had no right to it anymore.
When Yang Kai’s figure disappeared, Huang Xi Ran hurriedly picked up the few Space Rings scattered around, stuffed all the Saint Crystals and pills inside into his own, then quickly left this place, preparing to find a hidden place to heal himself. Along the way, he also tried to contact his fellow Sect members to help guard him.
Five days later, Yang Kai passed through the Flame Area and arrived at a place where World Energy was extremely rich. There was no omnipresent heat like in the Flame Area, and there was no fire poison which threatened to invade his body at all this time. Instead, the scenery here was beautiful and refreshing like a spring day, the air was clean and crisp, it was nothing short of a paradise.
Treasure Area!
Yang Kai was somewhat shocked as he stepped from the First-Layer Flame Area and into the First-Layer Treasure Area.
The Flowing Flame Sand Field was truly strange, the boundary between the first Flame Area and the first Treasure Area was clearly defined and the environments were extremely different. None of the heat or fire poison from the Flame Area spilled into the Treasure Area at all.
After separating from Huang Xi Ran of Extreme Path Sect, Yang Kai had constantly moving for five days.
As he advanced inward, he had encountered several cultivators from, most of them in small groups who were searching for Fire Spirit Beasts in the Flame Area or Fire Attribute spirit grasses and spirit medicines. Of course, if they were able to find something precious like the Brilliant Fire Crystal, these people would be extremely happy.
Basically, most of the cultivators who entered would remain in the Flame Area to carry out this kind of task while the rest would enter the Treasure Area to search for spirit grasses and spirit medicines. Those who were eligible to enter the Treasure Area were elites from big Sects.
It didn’t seem fair on the surface, with those possessing low aptitude and poor strength forced to fight outside while those with high aptitude and good strength treasure hunted in the Treasure Area, but that was simply the way things were. Those with high aptitude and high strength always received better treatment than their cohorts.
The rich became richer while the poor became poorer for this exact reason.
To obtain good resources, one needed to first improve their strength.
Yang Kai had nothing to do along the way as he didn’t run into anyone like Meng Hong Liang who was looking for trouble with him. Everything was fine with the exception of the strange looks all the other cultivators kept giving him.
Those cultivators could all see Yang Kai’s low cultivation and the fact that he was walking around alone in the Flame Area and could only conclude he was a reckless kid who didn’t know how to write the word death. Most people simply took the attitude of aloof observers or interest spectators; however, there was one young woman who actually ran over to Yang Kai and tried to persuade him to turn back and stop courting destruction.
In fact, due to this person’s kindness, Yang Kai simply gave a few perfunctory replies. The young woman soon saw that Yang Kai was determined to continue forward and no longer wasted her breathe, simply shaking her head and sighing as she thought this world really had a lot of fools in it.
The Flame Area, which he should have been able to cross in about ten days, had taken Yang Kai a month to traverse thanks to the delays he suffered in the strange mountain valley and the Bewildering Array.
There were certainly quite a few people already inside the Treasure Area by now, so Yang Kai didn’t act impatiently, releasing his Divine Sense all around him as he began searching for spirit grasses and spirit medicines.
Wei Gu Chang had said that although there were no Fire Spirit Beasts in this Treasure Area, there were many Monster Beasts here so he had to remain vigilant.
For the first few days, Yang Kai did not meet anyone.
His harvest was also not great, possibly because others had rushed here ahead of him. Whatever the case was, over the past few days, Yang Kai’s expectations for this place have gradually diminished; after all, he had already experienced the great bounty of the floating continent.
The floating continent was a place where materials incredibly abundant, with spirit grasses and spirit medicines everywhere one looked, many of them Origin Grade or even Origin King Grade.
The herbs Yang Kai harvested in the Treasure Area were mostly Saint King Grade High-Rank with a few being Origin Grade. Such a harvest would be huge for anyone else, but Yang Kai was indifferent to it.
Worst of all, he couldn’t find the herbs he wanted.
After the Flowing Flame Sand Field closed this time, he planned to refine some pills for Wu Yi, Yu Feng, and the others because their strength was simply too weak.
On this day though, Yang Kai was walking when he suddenly stopped and sniffed the air.
He smelled a familiar aroma that while fresh and a hint of bitterness to it.
Emerald Silk Grass! Yang Kai’s eyes brightened.
Obtaining Emerald Silk Grass was one of Yang Kai’s objectives for this trip. It wasn’t that Emerald Silk Grass wasn’t found elsewhere on Shadowed Star, but once it appears, it would be snatched up by the major forces because it was the primary ingredient required to refine Origin Condensing Pills.
Although the highest level of Alchemist on Shadowed Star was only Origin Grade Low-Rank, these people could still attempt to refine Origin Condensing Pills, possibly even succeeding once or twice out of ten attempts. Any success, however, represented a great chance of producing an Origin Returning Realm master.
Because of this, Emerald Silk Grass simply wasn’t available on the market at all as it was one of the most sought-after herbs.
Yang Kai could only place his hopes on this trip to the Flowing Flame Sand Field.
However, he didn’t expect he would actually find some.
This faint bitterness could only be emitted by Emerald Silk Grass, and judging from the richness of this scent, there seemed to be quite a few stalks, otherwise, it would have been impossible for the fragrance to travel so far.
Yang Kai didn’t even need to use his Divine Sense, all he had to do was breathe in to quickly determine where the medicinal fragrance was coming from, dashing off in that direction as soon as he had.
About half an hour later, Yang Kai finally arrived, but instead of rushing out to collect the Emerald Silk Grass, he concealed his aura and scanned his surroundings.
Because he knew that where there was Emerald Silk Grass, there was likely one or more special of Monster Beasts lurking nearby.
He decided to see if there were any traces of such Monster Beasts here.
Looking around though, Yang Kai’s heart leapt wildly, and he was barely able to contain his joy.
Because in front of him were more than a dozen green stalks, each with seven small leaves, spread out across a wide area.
When an Emerald Silk Grass grew seven leaves, it meant they were fully mature and had medicinal ages of at least five hundred years. In Yang Kai’s hands, that means it could make more than a dozen Origin Condensing Pills.
Not far from the dozen or so Emerald Silk Grasses though, there was a large cave that had a foul odour wafting from it as well as some traces of sticky looking slime around a wide entrance.
Seeing this, Yang Kai understood exactly what type of Monster Beast was guarding these Emerald Silk Grasses.
Silver Horned Lightning Python!
The Silver Horned Lightning Python was a Seventh-Order or Eighth-Order Monster Beast. When it reached its peak, it could evolve further into a species of Flood Dragon which was a Ninth-Order Monster Beast. Silver Horned Lightning Pythons liked the bitter aura given off by Emerald Silk Grass so it wasn’t a surprise one had chosen to live here.
Yang Kai knew this information because he had seen it in the ancient books Zong Ao had given him back on Rainfall Star, otherwise, he wouldn’t have known so much about herbs in the Star Field.
Whether it was a Seventh-Order Monster Beast or an Eighth-Order Monster Beast though, Yang Kai didn’t care much. He believed that with his speed, he could quickly leave here after collecting those Emerald Silk Grasses.
Using his Divine Sense to sweep the cave, Yang Kai immediately noticed that there were two Silver Horned Lightning Pythons inside, both of them were Eighth-Order!
These two Monster Beasts had clearly lived here for many, many years, so them reaching the Eighth-Order wasn’t unexpected.
However, what made Yang Kai a little bit concerned was that there were actually two other cultivators here as well.
Obviously, the other two knew the Monster Beasts inside the cave weren’t to be trifled with so even though they had arrived here earlier than Yang Kai, they hadn’t dared to act rashly and were even now seemingly discussing how to collect those Emerald Silk Grasses.
The best way would naturally be for one person to lead the pythons out from the cave, pulling the tiger away from the mountain, while the other person collected the spirit herbs.
But these two were both just Second-Order Saint Kings. Even if they couldn’t defeat a single Silver Horned Lightning Python, running away wouldn’t be a problem, but if either of them had to deal with two of these beasts, they would face great danger, therefore they were still debating.
However, before these two could resolve their discussion, they saw a man in black robes walk straight out from nowhere and quickly approach the dozen or so Emerald Silk Grass stalks.
The two of them gawked slightly but soon realized that someone was trying to snatch their prize.
The man in black robes seemed to now be aware of the danger he was in and simply rushed out with a happy smile on his face.
After a short pause, the two hiding cultivators couldn’t hold back anymore. Whether this person could collect the Emerald Silk Grass or not, once he stepped forward and alerted the two pythons, all hope they had of succeeding would disappear.
As such, both of them swiftly rushed out.
Yang Kai frowned after he noticed the movements of these two men, and he too raced out, faster than anyone else, and immediately arrived at the Emerald Silk Grasses.
Quickly plucking the dozen or so stalks of Emerald Silk Grass, Yang Kai tossed them directly into his Space Ring.
Only then did the two Silver Horned Lightning Pythons seem to realize something was wrong and two faint blue bolts of lightning shot out from the cave directly towards Yang Kai.
At the same time, a washbasin size python head emerged from the cave and two triangular snake eyes stared towards Yang Kai coldly, crackling lightning dancing around a single silver horn atop its head.
With a rumble, this Silver Horned Lightning Python’s huge and imposing body slithered out from the cave. Yang Kai plucking the Emerald Silk Grass had obviously enraged it.
The other Silver Horned Lightning Python swiftly followed suit.
Yang Kai’s figure flickered as he avoided the first bolts of lightning and was about to run away when he suddenly heard a rage-filled voice shout, “Leave the Emerald Silk Grass if you don’t want to die!”
As soon as these words rang out, Saint Qi erupted, condensed into a majestic tiger head, and bit towards Yang Kai.
How could something he had snatched for himself be so easily given away? Yang Kai knew that these two were quite anxious, otherwise, they would not have rushed out so suddenly, but Yang Kai’s response was simply to casually dodge this tiger head attack.
The tiger’s head coincidentally continued forward and attacked the second Silver Horned Lightning Python which was crawling out of the cave. Lightning flashed atop this Silver Horned Lightning Python’s horn, and although it hadn’t been injured, suffering this attack had angered it further.
With a crackling sound, a dark ball of lightning appeared atop the horn of the angered Silver Horned Lightning Python. With a flourish of its head, the python sent out this black ball of lightning towards the cultivators at a speed barely visible to the eye.
One of them paled and hurriedly dodged while the other seemed to have all his attention focused on Yang Kai who was about to run away, but in his distracted state, he was unable to avoid the lightning sphere and was instantly enveloped by it.
Lighting flashed about as this unfortunate cultivator twitched, his hair standing on end. In a panic, he pushed his Saint Qi to resist the current from invading his body.
However, a massive whip-like object suddenly struck him, nearly knocking the soul from his body.
Having been struck by the lightning ball, this man had already been paralyzed and had no way to avoid this blow, so he was struck dead on and flung out several dozen meters.
The sound of bones shattering rang out as this man was sent flying, his chest caving in and blood spurting from his mouth as his face became unnaturally pale. Only now was he able to tell what it was that had struck him, it was the Silver Horned Lightning Python’s tail!
After hitting the ground, he convulsed a few times but somehow managed to get to his feet before staggering and falling over again, this time not getting up.
Suffering a direct hit from an Eighth-Order Monster Beast’s lightning attack, followed by a heavy tail whip, this Second Order Saint King cultivator only had death to look forward to.
The remaining cultivator’s face changed greatly as he had never imagined the situation would end up like this. In his head, after his first attack killed Yang Kai, he would snatch his Space ring then take advantage of the Silver Horned Lightning Pythons attacking Yang Kai to escape with his companion, allowing them to reap all the gains without facing any of the danger.
However, the course of events deviated greatly from his expectations.
Yang Kai remained unharmed while his companion had suffered calamity and died on the spot.
Now he had no thoughts of finding trouble with Yang Kai because he was in the same boat. Both of them were being entangled by one of the Silver Horned Lightning Pythons, and with only a Second-Order Saint King cultivation, facing an Eight-Order Monster Beast, he was barely able to protect himself. He didn’t dare to remain and fight, so he decisively chose to withdraw, drawing one of the Silver Horned Lightning Python’s out of Yang Kai’s sight.
Before leaving, however, the glare filled with resentment he shot towards Yang Kai let the latter know he had contracted an inexplicable and irresolvable grudge.
The other side had attacked first, attempting to kill him and steal his treasures, yet now Yang Kai was the one being blamed for everything. Naturally, Yang Kai had no plans to let this situation end so simply. Besides settling this grudge, Yang Kai also needed to silence this man otherwise once word of these Emerald Silk Grasses spread, he would only have more trouble to deal with.
Here wasn’t a good place to silence witnesses to the crime though as the Silver Horned Lightning Python was quite difficult to deal with. Yang Kai found that his Demonic Flame didn’t actually cause this python much damage because its scales were as hard as armour and were resistant to the elements.
This Monster Beast was clearly at the peak of the Eighth-Order, on the verge of evolving to the Ninth-Order and becoming a Flood Dragon.
If it were given a dozen years or so, it would definitely succeed.
On top of that, this Silver Horned Lightning Python seemed to have undergone some kind of mutation and was not only capable of using Thunder Attribute Divine Abilities like shooting lightning bolts from its horn, it was also able to spit a green poisonous mist from its mouth which caused Yang Kai much headache.
Yang Kai would have to expend a lot of effort to kill it!
Contemplating it for a moment, Yang Kai gave up the idea of killing it. Even if he killed such a Monster Beast, all he would get was an Eighth-Order Monster Core plus some low-grade Artefact Refining materials, it really wasn’t worth it.
Eliminating the fleeing source of trouble took precedent.
Thinking so, Yang Kai immediately withdrew from the fight and dashed off in the direction the other cultivator escaped, soon losing the Silver Horned Lightning Python far behind.
Along the way, Yang Kai saw the other Silver Horned Lightning Python which had gone to chase the fleeing cultivator returning to the cave. Seeing this, Yang Kai understood that his target had, like him, managed to shake off this difficult opponent.
In the jungle, a certain Second-Order Saint King leaned against a huge tree, his Divine Sense spread out around himself, panting heavily as he guarded against anyone or anything that tried to approach, cursing under his breath the whole time.
More than a dozen Emerald Silk Grasses had been within his grasp, but it seemed the Heavens had other plans; not only had he failed to pick those precious spirit herbs, his companion had also died.
He directed all his hate towards Yang Kai, feeling that if it weren’t for Yang Kai, he wouldn’t have ended up in such a miserable state. If it weren’t for Yang Kai suddenly jumping out and snatching his things, how could he have acted so hastily?
That was a dozen Emerald Silk Grasses! If he could have handed them over to the Elders of his Sect, he would have received a massive reward, but now he had less than nothing.
He simply couldn’t let this matter stand, no matter what, he needed to snatch those Emerald Silk Grasses from that bastard.
Taking out his communication artefact from his Space Ring and pouring his Divine Sense into it, this man wanted to notify his fellow Sect Brothers and Sister of what had just happened when suddenly a hot and cold, good and evil aura descended upon him from above.
Looking up blankly, all this man could see was a giant black palm that was patting towards him ruthlessly.
With a scream, he immediately summoned his defensive artefact while at the same time forcing his body to retreat a dozen meters, trying to avoid the attack of this huge palm print.
Someone was attacking him!
This man was astonished, he had spread out his Divine Sense but still failed to notice any trace of this person’s approach, which showed that the other party’s cultivation realm was far higher than his own. However, if that was the case, why would he suddenly be attacking him?
The next moment though, as a black flame enveloped him, he understood. Staring at Yang Kai who appeared not far from him, he couldn’t help calling out in shock, “You…”
He didn’t have the hard skin of the Silver Horned Lightning Python, so after being contaminated with the Demonic Flame, he was unable to put up any meaningful resistance and a moment later was reduced to a pile of ashes.
His Space Ring and communication artefact both dropped to the ground.
Yang Kai secretly breathed a sigh of relief after seeing this communication artefact as he knew his previous assumptions had been correct. This man really was planning on contacting his friends as soon as he escaped from the Silver Horned Lightning Python. Fortunately, Yang Kai had arrived in time, otherwise, he would have been in for a lot of hassle.
Bending down, Yang Kai picked up the Space Ring and checked its content. Unsurprisingly, there were some Saint Crystals and pills, but in addition to this, there were several Saint King Grade High-Rank herbs and a few bean-sized Fire Crystal Stones, obviously things this man had acquired along the way.
Indifferent to these things, Yang Kai stored them away in his own Space Ring before picking up the communication artefact.
While preparing to also throw this into his Space Ring, Yang Kai sensed a pulse of Divine Sense from this communication artefact.
Someone was sending a message!
Yang Kai was startled, wondering if he had been one step too late. Had the other party managed to contact someone before he arrived?
Frowning, Yang Kai sent his Divine Sense into the artefact, his expression turning strange in the next instant.
While it was true that someone had sent a message, it had nothing to do with Yang Kai or what had just happened now. Instead, it seemed whoever was sending the message was trying to gather together all of his companions as he had seemingly found something extraordinary.
Yang Kai didn’t want to meddle in this affair; after all, he had just killed someone from the Sect which was now gathering together, so avoiding this group was the sensible choice, but the four words ‘Soul Cleansing Divine Water’ were actually mentioned in this Divine Sense Message!
This startled Yang Kai.
He had read many of Zong Ao’s ancient books back on Rainfall Star and learned about many different treasures, not just information about herbs and pill recipes.
Soul Cleansing Divine Water was one of the treasures he had learned of.
This treasure wasn’t a natural product but was instead formed through a series of chance coincidences.
Three conditions had to be met for Soul Cleansing Divine Water to be created. First, the location where it was formed needed to be extremely rich in World Energy, preferably an Earth Vein or Spirit Spring. Second, an Origin King Realm master had to have died there. Third, after the death of this Origin King Realm master, their Spiritual Energy must not have dissipated and instead perfectly integrated with the Earth Vein or Spirit Spring. If all these conditions were met, there was a slim chance Soul Cleansing Divine Water would be formed.
Of these conditions, the third condition was without a doubt the most difficult to achieve, because no matter how powerful a cultivator was, once they died, their Spiritual Energy would escape from their body and soon dissipate into the surrounding atmosphere. This was essentially unavoidable.
However, there were some exceptions.
For example, a Soul Warming Lotus had the ability to completely preserve a cultivator’s Spiritual Energy. When Yang Kai found the Soul Warming Lotus, it had been surrounded by a massive amount of Spiritual Energy.
If Yang Kai accidentally died, his Spiritual Energy would also likely not dissipate but instead be preserved by the Soul Warming Lotus.
The birth of Soul Cleansing Divine Water was another such exception.
A person’s Soul contained their entire life’s experiences and memory, something no one dared to absorb at will. Yang Kai was only able to refine remnant Souls after purifying them with his Demon Eye of Annihilation.
However, Soul Cleansing Divine Water was different, it was actually a mixture of Spiritual Energy and a massive amount of World Energy. Because of the special conditions required for its formation, all of the dead cultivator’s memories and life experiences were washed away, leaving behind only a pure form of energy.
Soul Cleansing Divine Water could not only quickly improve a cultivator’s Soul cultivation, but if one was lucky enough, one would even be able to gain some of the insights in the Heavenly Way and Martial Dao of the fallen Origin King Realm cultivator.
Of course, the chance of this was even smaller than the chance of Soul Cleansing Divine Water being formed.
Zong Ao’s ancient books had recorded all of this, but Soul Cleansing Divine Water was too scarce. Origin King Realm cultivators already stood at the pinnacle of the Star Field, each of them possessing long life spans, so how could any of them die casually, much less die in a land where there was abundant World Energy?
As such, Zong Ao had only heard about this treasure and hadn’t actually seen it before.
What truly surprised Yang Kai about this Soul Cleansing Divine Water though was the fact that it had appeared here given the conditions required for its formation!
If it was really was the Soul Cleansing Divine Water, wouldn’t that mean that at one point, an Origin King Realm master died on Shadowed Star? Since there was an Origin King herein the past, why weren’t there any now? Also, why was the overall level of Alchemy and Artefact Refining on Shadowed Star so low?
While Yang Kai was contemplating all this, many more Divine Sense messages reached the communication artefact in his hand as people asked questions in amazement and also tried to determine where they would rendezvous.
[Should I take a look?] Yang Kai frowned. If it really was Soul Cleansing Divine Water, it was worth the risk. Even if it turned out to be something else, he wouldn’t suffer any loss other than wasting a bit of time.
Considering all this, Yang Kai no longer hesitated and while secretly paying attention to the information coming into the communication artefact, he ran towards the gathering point indicated.
It took Yang Kai some time to determine his exact destination. Fortunately, the location where the Soul Cleansing Divine Water had been found wasn’t too far away, otherwise, this communication artefact would not have even connected.
When Yang Kai finally arrived, he discovered that it was actually a stalactite cave. The inside of this cave was quite dark and seemed to be filled with a layer of mist, making it difficult to see ahead. Even Divine Sense seemed to be suppressed quite severely here.
Was the Soul Cleansing Divine Water in this place?
Moments after Yang Kai arrived, a team of three people quickly approached from a different direction.
Yang Kai glanced over at them casually to discover that these three wore the same robes as the two men who had tried to rob the Emerald Silk Grass from him. This could only mean that these three belonged to the same great force as those two.
Yang Kai secretly paid attention to them and soon came to know which force they came from.
They were actually from Heaven Battling Union!
This fact became apparent to Yang Kai when he saw that the one leading this group of three was actually Qu Chang Feng!
The entrance Heaven Battling Union used to enter the Flowing Flame Sand Field was not the same one as Shadow Moon Hall. As Yang Kai crossed the Flame Area, he had not met anyone from Heaven Battling Union, but now that he had reached the Treasure Area, it seemed that the chances of meeting cultivators from various forces had increased. This made sense as the further one travelled into the Flowing Flame Sand Field, the less space there was.
At this moment, Qu Chang Feng’s face was filled with excitement as he led his two Sect Brothers over with great momentum. Obviously, he too had received that Divine Sense Message and was eager to investigate.
Soul Cleansing Divine Water had a huge appeal to all cultivators. This wasn’t something good for just Saint Kings, even Origin Realm and Origin King Realm masters could benefit from it. Fortunately, only Saint Kings could enter the Flowing Flame Sand Field, otherwise, none of them would have been able to enjoy this grade of treasure.
With his complete attention focused on the Soul Cleansing Divine Water, Qu Chang Feng didn’t seem interested in Yang Kai at all, simply shooting him a passing glance before rushing into the Stalactite Cave.
After his figure disappeared, two or three other cultivators also raced over from different directions.
Seeing this, Yang Kai no longer hesitated and dove after behind Qu Chang Feng into the stalactite cave.
The treasure was right in front of him, those with fast hands would grab some while those who were slow would get nothing, so Yang Kai naturally couldn’t fall behind.
Drops of milky white liquid dripped from the hanging stalactites, giving the entire cave a fresh aura that was rich in World Energy. This place truly had incredibly dense World Energy, as if a spring of it was hidden deeper inside.
Seeing this scene, Yang Kai nodded to himself. One of the conditions for the formation of Soul Cleansing Divine Water was satisfied by this place. The World Energy aura here was indeed strong, and this was just the periphery. If one went in further, the aura would only become richer.
Inside the cave, only the sound of water droplets falling to the ground resounded.
Yang Kai made his way inside, and the further he went, the more potent the World Energy aura became. After walking for around a stick of incense worth of time, he arrived at a large stone cavern.
Looking around, Yang Kai couldn’t help staring for a moment.
There were actually a lot of people gathered here in this stone cavern, twenty at least. Qu Chang Feng was also here and was currently staring greedily at a certain place. Besides him, there were five other Saint Kings, surrounding him like stars around a bright moon. These people were naturally Heaven Battling Union disciples.
Besides the six from Heaven Battling Union, the other dozen or so cultivators were split up into four groups, each group with three to five people in it.
On top of that, there was a stern-faced man who, like Yang Kai, stood all alone, his aura extremely calm and reserved.
However, when Yang Kai saw this person, he instinctually felt a sense of danger. This fellow wasn’t weak, a Third-Order Saint King without a doubt.
Yang Kai was used to killing enemies in higher realms than his own, and he had even killed a number of Third-Order Saint Kings. An ordinary Third-Order Saint King wouldn’t give him such a feeling of danger, so that could only mean that this person was incredibly powerful.
Even facing Qu Chang Feng and Fang Tian Zhong, Yang Kai didn’t feel this way; who was he?
Sure enough, when Qu Chang Feng took back his greedy gaze and glanced towards this man, he frowned slightly, a tinge of dread and annoyance flashing across the depths of his eyes.
Yang Kai was surprised once more.
He had already experienced just how arrogant and unruly Qu Chang Feng was, he never put anyone in his eyes, not even Fang Tian Zhong, yet when he faced this stern-looking young man, Qu Chang Feng actually revealed such a timid appearance.
Just as Yang Kai was thinking like this, Qu Chang Feng suddenly shot him a glare, his eyes flashing with anger and ridicule, silently implying Yang Kai was in over his head, actually daring to come here all alone with just a First-Order Saint King cultivation. According to Qu Chang Feng’s nature, right now he would normally be clearing everyone unrelated to him out of this place, and Yang Kai had become his primary target; after all, who didn’t want to have sole possession of good things. However, for whatever reason, despite his anger and unwillingness, he gradually restrained himself.
Seeing Qu Chang Feng not try to seek trouble with him, Yang Kai turned his eyes forward, wanting to see if the Soul Cleansing Divine Water really existed.
Everyone eyes were currently fixed on a pool of water roughly fifty meters in diameter; however, the water in this pool was golden in colour. The aura wafting from this pool of water was incredibly thick and had a calming effect on one’s soul. All the cultivators who stood nearby were affected by this aura and couldn’t help feeling spirited and refreshed, as if their Souls were already being nourished.
Was this really Soul Cleansing Divine Water? Yang Kai frowned.
Feeling the aura coming from this pool of water, Yang Kai immediately confirmed it was the legendary Soul Cleansing Divine Water, but what made him somewhat confused was that this Soul Cleansing Divine Water was golden.
According to Zong Ao’s ancient books, Soul Cleansing Divine Water was milky white, and if its quality was high enough and it condensed for long enough, it may become a pure silver colour.
Golden Soul Cleansing Divine Water hadn’t been recorded in those ancient books, and it seemed no one had ever seen such a phenomenon before. Did that mean this Soul Cleansing Divine Water was of even higher quality than the silver one?
Was there something wrong with it? Yang Kai frowned deeper as he contemplated this issue, from time to time glancing around at the others in the cavern, hoping to discover some clues from their faces.
But soon, Yang Kai was disappointed. The cultivators standing here only showed two expressions, either a deep desire for this Soul Cleansing Divine Water or fear of Qu Chang Feng. Only the stern-faced Third-Order Saint King who stood alone maintained a look of completely indifferent.
These people obviously didn’t know much about Soul Cleansing Divine Water so there was no use trying to pry information from them.
With such a treasure right in front of them, no one wouldn’t be tempted, but the reason no one had tried to jump straight into this pool of water to cleanse and purify their Soul was because of a thin, golden, hemispherical dome which was covering it.
Obviously, some of the people here had tested the power of this barrier before and determined that no one could enter the pool before it was broken.
On the other side of the pool, there was a cross-legged skeleton sitting on the ground. It was impossible to tell just how many years had passed since this master passed away, but it must have been incredibly long as even the Artefact Armour worn on his body had become faded and tattered.
He didn’t have a Space Ring on his hand, but whether he never had one or it had simply been taken away a long time ago could not be determined.
This person must have been an Origin King before he died. Only when an Origin King Realm master died could their Spiritual Energy combine with the rich Spirit Spring here to give birth to a pool of Soul Cleansing Divine Water.
Everyone wore a sad look when they glanced at this skeleton because the Artefact Armour worn by an Origin King would definitely not be low-grade, perhaps being even higher-end than any artefact on Shadowed Star.
However, this Artefact Armour was clearly damaged beyond repair. It was really quite a mystery how many aeons ago this Origin King Realm master had died.
After Yang Kai arrived, more than ten others followed one after another, all of them clearly having gotten word of this place and quickly come to investigate. With each new person who came, Qu Chang Feng’s expression grew gloomier and gloomier; clearly, he was dissatisfied that so many people had come here to snatch his treasure.
However, there was nothing he could do about hid dissatisfaction. There were already cultivators here from eight forces, so even if Heaven Battling Union was among the most powerful Sects on Shadowed Star, Qu Chang Feng wouldn’t be able to withstand the public anger were he to try to monopolize this place. On top of that, there were only eight cultivators from Heaven Battling Union here with him, they couldn’t afford to become hostile with everyone present.
“Why haven’t Junior Brother Fu and Junior Brother Liu come yet? They should have been around here and couldn’t have missed the message we sent out,” A thin man next to Qu Chang Feng mutter softly as he glanced towards the entrance to the stone cavern, obviously hoping this Junior Brother Fu and Junior Brother Liu would quickly appear. Although the strength of those two wasn’t very high, if they came, they could still add some power to Heaven Battling Union’s lineup, so when it came time to divide up this treasure, they would be able to snatch more advantages. Now though, not only had they not come, they hadn’t even sent a reply to the original message.
“If they haven’t shown up yet, they probably never will,” Qu Chang Feng coldly snorted.
The skinny man’s face changed when he heard Qu Chang Feng’s words. Indeed, if those two could come, they would have, but since they hadn’t, it could only mean they had suffered something unexpected.
The Treasure Area wasn’t a safe zone, it still contained many dangers.
However, none of the disciples from Heaven Battling Union could have thought that one of their Junior Brothers had died under the lightning attack and tail whip of a Silver Horned Lightning Python and the other hand been burnt to ash by Yang Kai. Naturally, it was impossible for them to appear here.
Seeing more and more people showing up, the cultivators who had already come here couldn’t sit still any longer. If they continued waiting, they would only be decreasing the number of benefits they could obtain.
A scholarly looking man from one of the teams with five members suddenly walked out and cupped his fists to Qu Chang Feng, “Young Master Qu, what should we do now? Shouldn’t we begin?”
His words and demeanour were polite and respectful. He had asked Qu Chang Feng because he knew that in terms of status, Qu Chang Feng was higher than everyone else present. Not only was Qu Chang Feng the number one talent of Heaven Battling Union’s younger generation, of all the people here, he was likely also the strongest. His opinion was essential in determining how they would handle this Soul Cleansing Divine Water.
Acting rashly here would only draw everyone else’s hostility.
Given the current situation, the only option was to reach a compromise and then distribute the benefits.
“Yes, Young Master Qu. More and more people keep arriving, a long night of sleep brings about many dreams.” Immediately after the first man spoke, his sentiments were echoed by the other teams gathered around. People quickly expressed their support and agreed to let Qu Chang Feng come up with a plan.
Qu Chang Feng himself seemed to enjoy this feeling of being respected, so after hearing all of this, his gloomy complexion finally eased and he put on a serious look and said, “Naturally we must take action. As long as everyone works together to break this barrier, the Soul Cleansing Divine Water will be within our reach.”
“I agree. When we first found this place, my Junior Brother and I tried to break this barrier but soon discovered it was incredibly hard, I’m afraid it can’t be broken with just two or three people. Our only option is for everyone to work together!” A beautiful young woman nodded with a smile.
“Then what are we waiting for? As long as Young Master Qu coordinates all of us to attack together, I don’t believe so many of us will fail to break this damn barrier,” A man with a large beard snorted as he took out a hammer artefact, clenching it tightly as he waited for Qu Chang Feng to speak, as if he was a loyal soldier waiting to be commanded.
Qu Chang Feng smiled slightly, giving everyone present the impression a light spring breeze had just blow through. At this moment, he finally restored his usual flamboyant temperament and spoke, “Breaking this barrier won’t be a problem, it’s only a matter of time until we can obtain this Soul Cleansing Divine Water, but before we act, this Qu feels we should first discuss how to allocate it.”
When he said this, many people frowned secretly.
Before they even broke the barrier, Qu Chang Feng wanted to distribute the benefits. This clearly made many feel uneasy.
However, no one raised any objections. If Qu Chang Feng became angry out of shame, the consequences weren’t something any of them could bear. Heaven Battling Union looking for trouble with people who had done less wasn’t an uncommon occurrence, and everyone they targeted ended up quite miserable.
“Then… how does Young Master Qu think we should allocate this Soul Cleansing Divine Water?” The beautiful woman who spoke before smiled sweetly, batting her eyes slightly as she asked, displaying a fresh and charming appearance.
She didn’t want to seduce Qu Chang Feng as she knew that she could not win over this Heaven Battling Union Young Master with her skills. She just wanted to show as much goodwill towards Qu Chang Feng in hopes he would be more generous to her when dividing up the spoils.
Unfortunately for her, Qu Chang Feng turned a blind eye to this before speaking in a smooth tone that illustrated he had already come up with a distribution plan, “There are eight forces represented here, so this Qu suggest we divide this pool into four parts.”
“Four parts?” The beautiful woman frowned slightly but quickly resumed smiling, “If we divide this pool in four, how do we distribute it?”
Qu Chang Feng proudly declared, “My Heaven Battling Union is not unreasonable, we only want one portion!”
Hearing this, everyone secretly let out a sigh of relief while also feeling a little surprised. Qu Chang Feng being this generous was far beyond their expectations; all of them had thought Qu Chang Feng would demand half of it, so him asking for a quarter was a pleasant surprise.
This proposal had to be accepted! No one here was stupid enough to refuse.
Everyone nodded strongly, not raising any objections.
Seeing that everyone agreed to his proposal, Qu Chang Feng was satisfied, his smiling and laughter growing gentler.
“Young Master Qu, how do you suggest we divide up the remaining three parts? I hope you can provide us with your guidance so that after we break this barrier, everyone will have a set of rules to abide by. All of us live together on Shadowed Star and none of us should act shamelessly about such matters, inviting public anger upon us,” Another person said. This person was head of the force with the smallest number of members, three in total. That was also why he allowed Qu Chang Feng to decide the allocation of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water; otherwise, if it turned into a free-for-all, his team would undoubtedly obtain less.
As soon as this person’s words came to an end, many people stared at him fiercely.
However, Qu Chang Feng just nodded politely, “This is also true. If no one has any opinion, how about this Qu decides how the remaining three parts are divided?”
Although some people were reluctant, who would be stupid enough to stand up and question Qu Chang Feng’s status at this time?
All of them could only hold their noses and accept the situation while hoping Qu Chang Feng wouldn’t be too partial to anyone. After all, some forces here had good relationships with Heaven Battling Union.
Disregarding how everyone else was thinking, Qu Chang Feng laughed and said, “That being the case, this Qu won’t be polite. En, of the remaining three parts, this friend can take one. Do you have any complaints?”
To everyone’s surprise, Qu Chang Feng first addressed the lone, stern-faced male cultivator who was standing to the side.
“Ah…” Exclamations sounded as everyone was filled with surprised, staring at Qu Chang Feng in shock before turning to look at the stern-faced man, wondering what Qu Chang Feng was thinking.
To them, it was obvious Heaven Battling Union could acquire one quarter of this Soul Cleansing Divine Water, but the stern-faced man and Yang Kai were both all alone and clearly didn’t have the ability or qualification to acquire any of this treasure.
They had long ago subconsciously excluded these two people entirely!
How could they have imagined that Qu Chang Feng would suddenly give an entire quarter of this pool to a lone man; that was how much his entire Heaven Battling Union took.
Was there some kind of trick behind this?
Many people had doubts in their hearts whether Qu Chang Feng was planning to let this person take away a quarter of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water and then rob him of it later, but if that was really his plan, why not give it to that lone First-Order Saint King instead? Why would Qu Chang Feng choose this Third-Order Saint King?
Wasn’t that just asking for trouble?
Despite all the confusion around him, the stern-faced man didn’t show any surprise at all, as if he had expected this situation from the beginning, simply nodding as he bluntly said, “Sure!”
He spoke calmly and confidently, without the slightest hint of thanks or apology.
This made the leaders of the other forces gathered here change slightly and frown slightly as if they had just thought of something, none of them raising any objections to Qu Chang Feng’s distribution plan anymore and instead readily agreeing.
At that moment, the look everyone gave to this stern-faced man changed, fear and dread flashing across their eyes.
Yang Kai’s brow furrowed as well as he guessed the origins of this man. However, he wasn’t sure of his guess; after all, he hadn’t been on Shadowed Star for very long and didn’t know much about its customs and local conditions.
Next, Qu Chang Feng went on to distribute the remaining half of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water among the assembled forces on the scene. The distribution was based on the number of people each force had, with those having more people obtaining more of the pool while those who had less receiving less. This distribution was fair and simple, not showing favour to anyone, not even the beautiful young woman who had flirted with him. This naturally caused her to frown as a layer of frost seemed to cover her expression.
Out of everyone present, the only one who wasn’t assigned anything was Yang Kai.
No one was surprised by this though because they had long ago excluded him. It would be strange if Qu Chang Feng really assigned anything to Yang Kai.
After the distribution of benefits was decided, many cultivators glanced towards Yang Kai. Some people showed ridicule and disdain while others showed sympathy. Everyone had different opinions on the matter, but no one spoke a single word for him.
Yang Kai just stood there indifferently without saying anything.
He actually found this whole situation somewhat amusing. He wasn’t even sure this golden pool of water was Soul Cleansing Divine Water and putting hope on others to understand this was no different than hoping a pig could explain it to him.
These people didn’t know anything at all about Soul Cleansing Divine Water yet before the barrier was even broken, they had decided how to divide it up.
Yang Kai really wanted to see how they were going to take away this Soul Cleansing Divine Water!
Once this treasure left the pool where it had been formed, it’s purifying, and cleansing properties would immediately disappear. If the Soul Cleansing Divine Water was taken out of the pool, all they would get is a pile of rich spirit liquid rather than Soul Cleansing Divine Water.
So, no matter what kind of extravagant and colourful words Qu Chang Feng spoke, and no matter how everyone was staring at him, Yang Kai didn’t show a flustered look.
Since nothing could be brought out from this pool, what good was a distribution plan? In the end, it would be necessary to absorb this Soul Cleansing Divine Water here and now, so their distribution scheme was meaningless, and once everyone realised this, Yang Kai was confident he would be able to fish some benefits in the ensuing chaos.
Immediately after the discussion about the distribution of benefits concluded, under Qu Chang Feng’s call, everyone began attacking the golden barrier covering the pool.
For a time, various artefacts and Martial Skills bombarded the golden dome above the pool, causing numerous ripples. To ensure that no complications arose due to delay, everyone put forward all of their strength.
As soon as everyone began attacking, individual strengths and weakness were revealed. The cultivators at the Third-Order Saint King realm all had relatively similar strength, but Qu Chang Feng’s performance stood out. The fact that he was using an Original Grade High-Rank artefact, a long bronze axe, also increased the difference between him and the others present. Although with his Third Order Saint King cultivation he could not display the full strength of this artefact, every strike he made would cause the golden dome to tremble fiercely.
It came as no surprise that Qu Chang Feng had such skill though; after all, he was the first talent of Heaven Battling Union and his reputation had spread across Shadowed Star. It was also normal for him to possess such a powerful artefact.
What was surprising though was the stern-faced man didn’t seem to have any powerful artefacts at all, only wearing a pair of plain black gloves on his fists as he repeatedly punched the barrier.
However, this calm and relaxed attack actually carried no less power than Qu Chang Feng’s.
Seeing this, the crowd confirmed their previous conjectures and understood why Qu Chang Feng had willingly given this person a quarter of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water.
After understanding this, everyone focused on exerting the power of their artefact and Martial Skills and avoided paying attention to this person.
Qu Chang Feng, on the other hand, seemed to want to compete with this stern-faced man, and knowing an outright confrontation was out of the question, he had settled on who could make a bigger impact on this barrier instead. As such, Qu Chang Feng pushed his Saint Qi even harder, increasing the ferocity and effect of his attacks with each blow.
But no matter how Qu Chang Feng urged his Saint Qi, the stern-faced man’s attacks remained unchanged and he showed no intention to strengthen them at all, as if he didn’t place Qu Chang Feng in his eyes at all, making Heaven Battling Union’s genius disciple so frustrated he nearly spat blood.
It was incredibly vexing to Qu Chang Feng, like he had struck a blow with all his might but only hit cotton.
While the crowd was breaking the barrier, Yang Kai did not idle, he also participated by adding his strength; after all, he was still planning to fish for advantages after this. If he was to stand by and do nothing while the barrier was being broken, he would only be giving people an excuse to expel him, so despite everyone else’s amazement, he condensed his Saint Qi into a sword, not daring to expose his Demonic Flame, and chopped towards the golden barrier without any signs of anxiety or panic.
The strength he displayed was neither weak nor strong, only what an average of First-Order Saint King should have.
Everyone else was stunned at first but soon became disinterested and began ignoring Yang Kai, some of them secretly sighing and wondering why he would bother putting in any effort despite knowing he wouldn’t be apportioned any of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water.
If he really tried to snatch any of this treasure, anyone here would be able to kill him on the spot.
The same beautiful young woman who had spoken earlier was standing next to Yang Kai, swinging her artefact, transforming it into countless flaming birds that crashed towards the barrier, slowly but surely wearing it down. Seemingly unable to bear watching Yang Kai do such a thankless job, she spoke up to persuade him, “Little Brother, don’t bother, it’s no use. Instead of doing this, you might as well leave this place and look outside to see if you can find your own opportunities. It must not have been easy to reach this Treasure Area with your cultivation; you shouldn’t waste your time here.”
She obviously thought that Yang Kai had simply gotten lucky and somehow managed to cross the Flame Area to reach this Treasure Area. Since he managed to reach here, she felt Yang Kai should grasp onto this luck and not waste time here.
Seeing someone try to kindly persuade him, Yang Kai didn’t tell this woman to mind her own business and instead smile to her slightly with a silly look.
The beautiful young woman saw him insist and couldn’t help feeling a little disgruntled, thinking he didn’t know how to appreciate kindness and no longer cared about him.
Just then, a cultivator suddenly exclaimed excitedly, “The barrier is about to break, everybody put in more strength!”
With the fall of his voice, the entire golden dome began shaking even more as even greater ripples spread across its surface, like a lake which had countless stones being thrown into it.
There was no need for this man to remind them as everyone had noticed the change in the barrier. This barrier was truly quite powerful, able to withstand the concentrated attacks of forty or so elite Saint Kings for an incense stick worth of time yet still not completely break. On top of that, this barrier was incredibly ancient, with no one here able to tell just how many years it had existed.
If this barrier had been at its peak strength, it was likely no one here would be able to break it.
As the barrier began to break, everyone’s eyes glowed with joy and they all increased the output of their Saint Qi.
After half a cup of tea’s time, following a cracking sound, the dome-shaped barrier above the pool finally shattered and disappeared without any trace. At the moment the barrier broke, an invisible energy escaped from the pool and swept across everyone present.
At that moment, everyone was shocked and immediately overjoyed.
Because after inhaling this invisible energy, all of them became aware of some subtle changes in their Souls, their Spiritual Energy seemingly becoming slightly stronger.
Soul Cleansing Divine Water truly lived up to its reputation!
Excitement and anticipation filled the faces of everyone present. Under usual circumstances, everyone here would have swarmed up to snatch this treasure, but since they had all reached an agreement beforehand, no matter how much they all wanted to rush up, they suppressed this urge and turned to Qu Chang Feng.
Qu Chang Feng saw this and smiled lightly, “Good work everyone, we’ve finally broken this damn barrier. En, good, I hope everyone will collect this Soul Cleansing Divine Water in an orderly manner. If anyone dares to violate our previous agreement, don’t blame this Qu for acting ruthlessly!”
As he finished saying this, he shot a cold look around the cavern.
Everyone nodded, declaring they wouldn’t dare. Qu Chang Feng was actually looking forward to someone refusing to comply with the previous agreement, giving him an excuse to kill them and take their share, but everyone present was an elite from their force, so they all understood this and naturally wouldn’t do as he wished.
A tinge of regret flashed across Qu Chang Feng’s eyes but he quickly hid it before gruffly waving to a nearby male cultivator and saying, “Begin!”
This cultivator nodded with excitement and rushed up to the pool, condensing Saint Qi in his hands to form a bowl-like shape, scooped up some of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water, then prepared to put it into a vessel inside his Space Ring.
Seeing this, Yang Kai’s eyes twitched as he felt distressed in his heart.
Sure enough, the Soul Cleansing Divine Water this cultivator scooped up immediately underwent a drastic transformation in front of everyone’s eyes. As soon as it left the pool the originally golden liquid immediately began leaking golden threads of light which rapidly began to dissipate into the air, three seconds later disappearing altogether.
This scene surprised everyone.
“Senior Brother Qu, something is wrong!” The cultivator responsible for scooping the Soul Cleansing Divine Water exclaimed.
“What happened?”
“After extracting it, it seems the Soul Cleansing Divine Water’s special properties disappear,” The cultivator wailed, pointing to the large bowl he had condensed from his Saint Qi.
“What?” Qu Chang Feng was startled and quickly took a look. Inside the bowl which originally contained the Soul Cleansing Divine Water, there was now no trace of golden radiance and instead just a clear spirit liquid.
Although this spirit liquid was also a good treasure, much higher in quality than even High-Rank Saint Crystal, how could it even compare to Soul Cleansing Divine Water?
“How can this be?” Qu Chang Feng’s face became cloudy and uncertain as he quickly reached out and extract a drop of the spirit liquid from the Saint Qi bowl and put it into his mouth, confirming that it was just plain spirit liquid with no Soul purifying effect.
Unwilling to believe what he was seeing, Qu Chang Feng went up the pool personally and scooped out a handful of the golden liquid, only to see the previous process repeat itself, all the golden radiance of the fluid scattering into the air.
“Young Master Qu, could it be this Soul Cleansing Divine Water can’t be taken away from this place?” Someone guessed.
“It’s possible. Otherwise, why would the Soul Cleansing Divine Water be perfectly fine inside this pool but completely dissipate once removed?”
“How is that possible?”
“I’m not quite sure about this either. I have only heard that Soul Cleansing Divine Water is one of the Three Great Divine Liquids, but I don’t know if there is some special method required to collect it.”
“I don’t know either.”
[Three Great Divine Liquids?] Yang Kai’s brow twitched, he didn’t know what these Three Great Divine Liquids referred to, but apparently this Soul Cleansing Divine Water was one of them.
Qu Chang Feng’s face turned incredibly ugly at this moment, and with the clamouring of the crowd all around him, he was no longer able to maintain his elegant demeanor and sullenly shouted, “If we can’t take this Soul Cleansing Divine Water away, how are we supposed to gather it?”
This group of people all became dumbfounded. Qu Chang Feng had been responsible for the distribution of benefits and everyone had agreed to give him face, but now that they couldn’t even take away this Soul Cleansing Divine Water, the previous agreement had obviously degenerated into a joke. Qu Chang Feng had obviously become angry out of shame because of this matter so no one dared to suggest that all of them should simply enter the pool together now.
Qu Chang Feng wasn’t stupid and had certainly realized this point, he was simply unwilling to say it.
The reason for not saying anything was obviously because he wanted to draw up a new allocation scheme.
But while others didn’t dare to say anything, the stern-faced man who had remained indifferent to everything this whole time took the initiative to speak for the first time and declared, “It’s easy, everyone enters the pool and absorbs the effects of this Soul Cleansing Divine Water.”
With that said, he no longer paid any attention to anyone else and jumped into the middle of the pool.
This pool of water that seemed impervious the probing of Divine Sense and couldn’t be seen through by the eye was apparently not very deep, because as soon as the stern-faced man entered and sat down cross-legged, his chest still remained above its surface.
Everyone was stunned by this and turned to look at Qu Chang Feng. The cultivators who had followed Qu Chang Feng were even more furious, but no matter how angry they were they didn’t dare to reprimand the stern faced man.
Qu Chang Feng’s face was as black as a kettle and the aura around him had clearly become extremely gloomy.
When he was dividing up the Soul Cleansing Divine Water just now, he had given this stern faced man an entire quarter of it, but now, this man had not given him the slightest face and simply done whatever he pleased, making Qu Chang Feng very angry.
Even Fang Tian Zhong didn’t dare disregard him so.
Qu Chang Feng stared grimly at this man, but the other side didn’t pay him any mind, instead just closing his eyes as he sat there, his expression seemingly becoming a bit lighter, even a bit happy; obviously he was obtaining great benefits from absorbing the Soul Cleansing Divine Water.
Seeing someone seize the initiative, all the other cultivators grew even more anxious, so how could they bother waiting for Qu Chang Feng to speak? On top of that, although it was clear Qu Chang Feng was furious, he also didn’t seem to dare to raise any objections.
After not so secretly exchanging glances with one another, many began jumping into the pool.
With someone taking the lead, naturally, others would follow the trend, all of them afraid of falling behind, so the scene immediately became chaotic. Except for the few cultivators from Heaven Battling Union, the others all leapt into the water.
This pool wasn’t small, more than large enough to accommodate several dozen people, but although it looked like there was plenty of Soul Cleansing Divine Water, just how much efficacy this pool contained was unknown, so everyone who jumped in jostled to occupy a favourable position.
The most advantageous spot was naturally the centre of the pool.
Among the dozen or so people who jumped in first, five or six of them fell into the centre.
However, the stern-faced man suddenly opened his eyes and swiftly wielded his fists twice, filling the entire cavern with a fierce wind pressure as he sent those five or six individuals flying through the air while coughing up blood. When these people finally hit the ground, all of them looked weak and horrified.
They all knew this man wasn’t someone they could trifle with, but they hadn’t expected him to be so powerful!
Even one against six, with just two punches, this stern-faced man had easily defeated all of them. Even if this was partly due to him catching them off guard, it was also apparent to everyone he had shown mercy, otherwise, those five or six cultivators would be half dead right now.
“I’ll kill anyone who gets within approaches to within five meters of me!” After sending out these two punches, he made this declaration then closed his eyes again.
He wanted an entire five-meter radius to himself.
The stern-faced man wanting to dominate the centre five-metre radius of the pool was extremely overbearing.
But no one felt that there was anything wrong with this; even Qu Chang Feng, after seeing the other party’s strength, couldn’t help feeling startled.
Yang Kai trembled slightly, not because he was frightened, but because he was inexplicable excitement.
He had met many of Shadowed Star’s young geniuses, but no matter who it was, none of them could draw out fighting intent from him like this stern-faced man, because Yang Kai didn’t know if he could win against this person. It was this kind of uncertainty that made him want to verify it personally.
However, now was not the time to pick a fight with this person, refining the Soul Cleansing Divine Water was the priority right now.
Yang Kai would be active on Shadowed Star in the future, and sooner or later would have the opportunity to compete with this person, so after a moment, Yang Kai restored his usual calm demeanour. At the same time, he was secretly thankful that he had not acted rashly when he first entered this place.
The moment he entered this stone cavern, Yang Kai had thought of driving everyone away and enjoying the power of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water all by himself. If he had acted at that time though, he might not have even been able to defeat this stern-faced man, and in the process he would definitely expose his true strength while allowing Qu Chang Feng and the others to take advantage of his mistakes.
The world was truly big, and there were indeed many geniuses! This stern-faced man was the strongest Saint King Yang Kai had met so far, even Xue Yue of Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce would probably not be his opponent. This made Yang Kai secretly realize he could no longer casually despise cultivators in the same realm as him.
Inside the stone cavern, besides the few people from Heaven Battling Union who were standing around, everyone else had found a spot in the pool and sat down cross-legged to absorb the effects of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water. Everyone’s face showed a joyful expression, some of them even let out gasps of pleasure, seemingly extremely comfortable.
“Enter!” Qu Chang Feng no longer wasted any time, waving his hand somberly.
The Heaven Battling Union disciples, who had been waiting for his word, heard this and all rushed into the pool, occupying free spots, and sitting down cross-legged.
Qu Chang Feng’s face was incredibly dark, and he could barely contain his anger, but even if he had twice as much courage, he didn’t dare look for trouble with the stern-faced man. Forget about whether he was this person’s opponent, just the behemoth that stood behind him was something even Heaven Battling Union had to fear.
With a heart full of rage but nowhere to vent, Qu Chang Feng was incredibly unhappy and in a fit of anger he actually rushed over to Yang Kai and coldly shouted, “Scram, I want this spot!”
Yang Kai’s spot wasn’t too good, nor too bad, just barely okay in fact.
He had entered along with the rest of the crowd just now and wasn’t too particular about what spot he chose, just occupying any place he could find, so how could he have anticipated Qu Chang Feng would come eyeing it?
Yang Kai understood that Qu Chang Feng was simply venting his anger and that he didn’t really want to occupy this position because there were still some better spots open elsewhere.
Qu Chang Feng was deliberately looking for trouble.
Because Yang Kai had the lowest strength, and he was all alone, Qu Chang Feng had decided to pick on him. The only reason he had not directly attacked was obviously because he was worried about disturbing the stern-faced man.
Yang Kai’s eyes flashed a cold light, but after thinking about it for a moment, he didn’t put up a fight. Instead, he just stood up and moved to another free spot.
Qu Chang Feng coldly snorted and was seemingly very satisfied with Yang Kai’s performance. Having found a little face for himself, Qu Chang Feng’s expression gradually eased up. After sitting down cross-legged and starting to absorb the effects of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water, he immediately showed a happy look, all of his previous dissatisfaction being swept away.
“Little brother, your luck is really good.” The beautiful woman who had tried to persuade Yang Kai to not to waste time a moment ago was actually sitting nearby, and upon seeing him get driven off by Qu Chang Feng, she smiled and comforted, “It seems that you were right to stick around, you really were able to fish some advantages. Compared with this opportunity in front of you, you don’t need to care about other things. Elder Sister has only sat here for a while but already feels like the bottleneck in her Soul cultivation has loosened. You should quickly focus on refining this pool’s effect, perhaps you’ll be able to comprehend something in the process.”
“En,” Yang Kai didn’t want to say anything more to her, simply nodding once before starting to absorb the effects of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water.
The reason why the Soul Cleansing Divine Water had such amazing effects was that it was condensed from the Soul of an Origin King Realm master. After an Origin King Realm master died here, their Spiritual Energy perfectly blended with the spirit liquid in this place and after undergoing countless years of transformation gave birth to this pool of Soul Cleansing Divine Water.
Although Yang Kai didn’t know why the Soul Cleansing Divine Water here was golden, after a brief attempt at absorbing it just now, he determined that it was indeed Soul Cleansing Divine Water.
Naturally he didn’t want to waste any time.
The beautiful woman was right, by cultivating here, not only could one enhance their Soul cultivation, purifying and condensing their Spiritual Energy, if one was lucky enough, they may be able to realize that some of the dead Origin King Realm master’s insights into the Soul.
How could the methods of an Origin King Realm master’s be bad? As long as one was able to understand any bit of their Divine Abilities, it would be enough to enjoy for a lifetime.
So far, the only Origin King Yang Kai had met was Gui Zu! Remembering his Heaven shaking methods made Yang Kai deeply envious, and presumably, other Origin Kings would not be worse than him.
Opening all his body’s pores, Yang Kai’s physique trembled as a trace of the golden energy poured into his five viscera and six organs before flowing straight to the top of his head and entering his Knowledge Sea.
Yang Kai felt this rush carefully, he split half of his conscious to maintain his vigilance of the outside world. Maintaining his guard up to prevent any attacks. Meanwhile, he focused the other half of his conscious to plunge into his Knowledge Sea to observe the magical effects of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water.
Yang Kai could clearly see strands of golden silk blend with the burning flames throughout his Knowledge Sea, and although these threads of golden silk weren’t numerous, their radiance was very clear. The sea of crimson flames seemed particularly eye-catching at this moment, as if golden fish were freely swimming among them.
Half of the golden silk threads soon fused with the seawater on its own, enhancing the strength of Yang Kai’s Knowledge Sea while also tempering his Spiritual Energy; although this improvement was somewhat negligible, seeing such instantaneous results was already quite amazing.
In essence, cultivation revolved around four key aspects.
Strengthening physique, accumulating Saint Qi, increasing Spiritual Energy, and improving insight into the Heavenly Way and Martial Dao.
The simplest of these principles was the accumulation of Saint Qi, because this accumulation could be accomplished with the aid of many foreign resources such as pills and Saint Crystals. When a cultivator cultivated, they use these types of auxiliary resources whenever possible.
On the other hand, the most difficult aspect was enhancing one’s comprehension of the Heavenly Way and Martial Dao!
Many cultivators would reach a point in the other three aspects of cultivation which would satisfy the requirements to break through to the next realm but would find themselves unable to because of bottlenecks in their understanding of the Heavenly Way and Martial Dao. Essentially all Third Order Origin Returning Realm masters on Shadowed Star couldn’t raise their comprehension of this key aspect to the require height to allow them to break through and had thus become unable to take that last step forward.
The strengthening of one’s physical body was relatively easy in the early stages and could be aided by external forces, but as one’s cultivation improved, it became more and more difficult to continue enhancing their physique and was almost impossible to bring to a true peak. Yang Kai’s powerful physical body was the result of countless opportunities but was still far from reaching the apex, thus he could still be wounded by powerful attacks.
However, it was also true that Yang Kai’s physique was countless times stronger than average cultivators in his own realm and even Origin Returning Realm masters. On top of that, the huge vitality contained in his Golden Blood granted Yang Kai terrifying restorative abilities, allowing any injury he received to heal just like new in short order.
The cultivation of one’s Soul, their Spiritual Energy, was infinitely more difficult than the accumulation of Saint Qi though, and was even more difficult than strengthening one’s body, only less difficult than comprehending the Heavenly Way and Martial Dao.
Many cultivators would enter a period of retreat after breaking through to a new realm specifically to strengthen their Soul and Spiritual Energy. Taking pills wasn’t a very effective method of enhancing one’s Spiritual Energy and Secret Arts that improved the rate of Spiritual Energy growth were extremely rare and precious.
This was true in Tong Xuan Realm, and was the same in the Star Field.
The method eighty percent of cultivators used to strengthen their Souls was to cultivate Soul Skills. By continuously using Soul Skills, draining their Spiritual Energy, and then restore themselves, a cultivator would create a cycle that would slowly increase their Spiritual Energy.
This was a stupid and ineffective method, but it was also the easiest and most practical.
Yang Kai didn’t need to use such a method to enhance his Spiritual Energy because he had his Soul Warming Lotus. This treasure negated the need for him to devote time in retreat to cultivate Spiritual Energy while still allowing his Soul to be far stronger than average cultivators in his realm. Yang Kai’s current Soul and Divine Sense was comparable to those of an Origin Returning Realm master.
The reason for this was almost entirely due to the Soul Warming Lotus!
This most precious Soul nourishing treasure had been acquired by Yang Kai when he was still very weak and had co-existed with him for more than two decades. His own Soul and the Soul Warming Lotus were now complementary, so while his Soul grew, the Soul Warming Lotus would also grow.
But now, with only a small amount of Soul Cleansing Divine Water, Yang Kai had seen great gains, his Spiritual Energy growing stronger by an amount equal to a few days of dedicated cultivation in only a few breathes, something that made him very happy.
As Yang Kai observed this process, some of the golden threads which had not fused with his Knowledge Sea were led by some inexplicable attractive force towards the six-coloured island at the centre of the sea, entering it and disappearing.
This phenomenon did not surprise Yang Kai.
The Soul Warming Lotus originally had such characteristics. Whenever Yang Kai swallowed some kind of pill that enhanced Spiritual Energy, the Soul Warming Lotus would absorb most of these efficacies for its own use and grow. Although in the short term, it looks like Yang Kai was losing benefits to the Soul Warming Lotus, since his Soul and the Soul Warming Lotus shared a symbiotic relationship, over the years, the benefits the Soul Warming Lotus gave him far outweighed the nutrients he provided it.
Soul Cleansing Divine Water could be used to wash and purify one’s Soul, but it also had great nourishing effects for the Soul Warming Lotus.
However, what surprised Yang Kai was that after the Soul Warming Lotus absorbed a tiny part of these golden threads, it actually took the initiative to radiate a powerful attractive force that drew the golden energy from the Soul Cleaning Divine Water pool into Yang Kai’s body and to his Knowledge Sea at dozens of times the previous rate.
The golden threads that were pulled in by the Soul Warming Lotus soon flooded Yang Kai’s Knowledge Sea, but Yang Kai was only able to absorb about one percent of them while the rest were taken away by the Soul Warming Lotus, causing its colours to become even more vibrant.
Yang Kai was startled and quickly controlled the attraction force of the Soul Warming Lotus as he didn’t dare to create such a big stir.
If he were alone, Yang Kai would only be pleasantly surprised and wouldn’t try to suppress this phenomenon.
But right now there were more than thirty other cultivators here. Once Yang Kai allowed this kind of movement, he would immediately draw everyone’s attention and would no doubt be expelled! If he were to so crazily absorb the effects of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water, what would be left for everyone else?
Although Yang Kai acted quickly to suppress this attraction, he still disturbed the beautiful woman who was talking to him before.
The beautiful young woman opened her eyes and turned a suspicious look towards Yang Kai. A moment ago, she had clearly noticed an abnormal suction force coming from this First-Order Saint King youth, but when she examined him carefully, she failed to discover anything.
Shaking her head and thinking it was just her imagining, she quickly closed her eyes and continued to absorb the benefits contained in the Soul Cleansing Divine Water.
Yang Kai secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn’t expected the Soul Warming Lotus would be so eager to absorb the Soul Cleansing Divine Water. If he had known early, he would have found a more remote corner so he could take in a little more without being noticed.
Although it was still possible for him to do this, Yang Kai had to be extremely careful not to arouse suspicions, especially from the young beauty sitting nearby.
After a few seconds of thought, Yang Kai gradually lifted the suppression of the Soul Warming Lotus, stopping when it reached a certain degree.
In an instant, about ten times more gold threads than before began pouring into Yang Kai’s Knowledge Sea, one percent of them being absorbed by him directly while the rest poured into the six-coloured island.
This speed of absorption was just about right so he wouldn’t be discovered, allowing Yang Kai to gain roughly ten times the benefits of anyone else from this pool of Soul Cleansing Divine Water.
However, Yang Kai wasn’t too content and instead even somewhat anxious.
There was only so much Soul Cleansing Divine Water in this pool, and everyone was desperately snatching as much as they could for themselves, so now was the time to absorb as much as possible rather than hold back.
Compared to the others who were wholeheartedly focused on absorbing the Soul Cleansing Divine Water’s efficacies, Yang Kai’s Soul was inherently more powerful, so he was able to split his attention and handle multiple tasks at once.
Yang Kai was monitoring the others in the pool, hoping they would fall into a meditative state they were unable to extricate themselves from. If this happened, he would increase his speed of absorption again; as long as he was careful, he shouldn’t be discovered.
Additionally, he needed to distance himself from the beautiful young woman next to him. Her strength wasn’t too high, only Third-Order Saint King, but she was a bit too perceptive.
Considering all this, Yang Kai waded towards a remote corner of the pool.
Although his actions alarmed a few cultivators, causing them to open their eyes, after shooting Yang Kai a look of dissatisfaction, no one thought he was up to anything or spared any effort to blame him and instead just closed their eyes again as they were all in a race against time.
After a moment, Yang Kai arrived at a corner of the pool which was quite far apart from anyone else and nodded with satisfaction.
Sitting down cross-legged, Yang Kai prepared to loosen his suppression on the Soul Warming Lotus again when he suddenly felt something beneath him.
Quickly reaching down and grabbing this objected, Yang Kai felt it was slightly warm to the touch, but before he had time to figure out what exactly it was, a strange energy began pouring into his body from his fingertips and flow straight up towards his head.
Wherever this energy passed, Yang Kai’s body shivered and he couldn’t help feeling an instinctual sense of crisis.
Not daring to neglect, Yang Kai hurriedly condensed his Saint Qi to resist this strange energy.
As Demonic Flame ignited inside his meridians, the cold energy halted its advance and Yang Kai swore he could hear something like a miserable howl echo in his ears. Seemingly aware of the terrifying might of the Demonic Flame, the strange energy quickly withdrew and soon disappeared into the pool of water.
Yang Kai’s face changed greatly!
Yang Kai’s eyes shot open as he scanned the others inside the pool, but he soon realized that no one else was even aware of what had just taken place, as if he was the only one who had heard that miserable cry just now.
Not only that, but the strange object Yang Kai was holding in his hand no longer had a sense of warmth to it and instead because as dull as a rock.
No matter what this object was though, since it appeared in this pool of Soul Cleansing Divine Water, it definitely wasn’t ordinary. Yang Kai didn’t even think about it and threw it directly into his Space Ring.
Yang Kai’s brow furrowed next as he scanned the golden pool of water, looking for the cold energy that had just rushed into his body, but this pool was both opaque and impermeable to Divine Sense, so no matter how he searched, Yang Kai was unable to find anything.
However, since that energy seemed afraid of his Demonic Flame, Yang Kai didn’t have to worry about any negative consequences for himself.
What made Yang Kai concerned though was that this strange cold energy actually existed in this place.
With nothing he could do about it at the moment, Yang Kai soon shook his head and put this issue aside while quietly withdrawing the suppression on his Soul Warming Lotus further, allowing it to draw in the golden threads faster.
The stone cavern was extremely quiet for a while as everyone madly tempered their Souls in the pool. Their luck also seemed to be quite good as after all of them jumped into the pool, no one else arrived at this stalactite cave.
Most likely, everyone who had received news about this place had already come.
Half an hour or so later though, a change suddenly occurred.
A huge pulse of Spiritual Energy, equivalent to what an ordinary First-Order Origin Returning Realm master could put out, swept across the stone cavern and all the cultivators sitting in the pool opened their eyes in shock as they turned towards the source of this pulse.
As all eyes landed on a certain spot, everyone in the pool felt both shocked and envious…
The source of this disturbance was none other than the stern-faced man sitting in the middle of the pool. At this moment, his body was trembling slightly and the look on his face was undergoing a series of changes, sometimes frowning, sometimes joyful, sometimes pensive…
On top of that, all around his body, a conspicuous golden halo appeared and then, as if he had suddenly transformed into a bottomless pit, countless golden threads began madly flowing towards him, causing the entire pool to become turbulent.
“He really managed to comprehend something!” The beautiful young woman called out in alarm as her jaw dropped and she stared at this stern-faced man in shock.
After hearing the words of this beautiful woman, everyone realized that this stern-faced man had not only gained the benefit of tempering his Soul, allowing his Spiritual Energy to reach the level of a First-Order Origin Returning Realm master, he had also obtained insight into one of the Soul Skills the Origin King Realm master who died here had cultivated.
This discovery made everyone’s eyes turn red.
Compared with insights into an Origin King’s Soul Skill, the tiny benefits they received were insignificant!
All of a sudden, everyone forgot to continue absorbing the effects of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water and stared at this man.
Among everyone, Qu Chang Feng’s face was the ugliest. After venting his anger on Yang Kai, he had finally managed to calm down. No matter what, he would be able to obtain some benefits here, so he didn’t need to care too much about it.
But now, while he was only able to slightly temper his Soul, someone else was able to comprehend an Origin King’s Soul Skill, the difference between the two was like Heaven and Earth.
How was he able to gain insight into that Soul Skill? Why couldn’t it have been him instead? He was also a world-shaking talent, the greatest genius of Heaven Battling Union’s younger generation, worshipped and admired by all, so why?
Was it because he had occupied the best position in the centre of the pool?
Qu Chang Feng was so angry he nearly spat blood! But regardless of how he felt, he could only jealously stare at this man; he didn’t dare try to interfere.
Although this moment was the best time to disturb this stern-faced man’s epiphany, who knows what kind of terrifying counterattack he would have to endure afterwards?
Therefore, Qu Chang Feng could only glare at this man with intense resentment, extremely depressed.
While everyone else was shocked, Yang Kai, on the other hand, was overjoyed.
He had been suppressing the attractive force coming from the Soul Warming Lotus out of concern it would attract other’s attention; but now, this stern-faced man was drawing everyone’s focus and the pool had become incredibly turbulent.
At this moment, even if Yang Kai were to create a big ruckus, no one would take notice.
Not hesitating, Yang Kai immediately released all suppression from the Soul Warming Lotus and allowed it to wantonly absorb the golden energy here.
Instantly, a massive amount of golden light poured into Yang Kai’s fiery red Knowledge Sea. This brilliant golden radiance almost covered up the original crimson colour. The energy contained in these golden threads was sensational but even with Yang Kai’s absorption abilities, he was barely able to snatch any of it, the vast majority being drawn in by the Soul Warming Lotus. The Soul Warming Lotus was even more terrifying than the stern-faced man’s body when it came to drawing in the golden silk threads.
The pool of Soul Cleansing Divine Water, which had originally been dazzling gold in colour, began fading at a speed visible to the naked eye, but immersed in their fit of shock and jealousy, no one noticed this change.
So Yang Kai became even more unscrupulous.
Although he too was a bit envious of this stern-faced man’s opportunity, he knew better than anyone that a Soul Skill was just a clever method of using Spiritual Energy, like how Martial Skills were applications of Saint Qi. No matter how profound it was, it was the force behind it that determined its ultimate strength.
Who cares if it was an Origin King’s Soul Skill? When he became stronger in the future, Yang Kai was confident he could create his own powerful Soul Skills.
But the benefits he was obtaining right now would affect his very foundation! Although the Soul Skill realized by this stern-faced man was obviously incredible, compared with the benefits Yang Kai was reaping, it was still worth less.
While he ate meat, others drank the soup. Everyone had their own opportunities. Being envious was useless.
“How did the colour of the pool become so pale?” Someone suddenly exclaimed, drawing everyone’s attention back to reality.
When everyone looked down, their complexions became pale. Only about an incense stick worth of time had passed since they entered the pool, but the golden liquid had already become very dim, with only a tinge of golden light still flowing through it. The pool water was no longer even opaque and one could clearly see its bottom with their eyes and penetrated it with their Divine Sense.
The thick and opaque golden light in the pool water had now grown incredibly dim. Everyone rushed to try and absorb this power but discovered that the potency of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water contained in the pool had also become weak.
Everyone became shocked and angered.
“It’s him!” Qu Chang Feng ground his teeth and glared at the stern-faced man, unable to stop himself from muttering.
Suddenly, several dozen pairs of eyes landed on the stern-faced man, all of them flashing a deep sense of dissatisfaction. Yang Kai also began gritting his teeth, as if his benefits were being snatched away, all while suppressing the attraction of the Soul Warming Lotus again.
In this short period of time, almost ninety percent of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water’s efficacies had been drawn into his Knowledge Sea and subsequently absorbed by the Six Coloured Soul Warming Lotus. Half of the remaining ten percent was absorbed by everyone before then while five percent now was left in the pool.
It wasn’t that Yang Kai didn’t want to continue absorbing this last bit of efficacy, but the cultivators around him had now become extremely disgruntled and vigilant. If he continued to do as he had just now, there was a chance someone would notice and at that time, he wouldn’t be able to avoid becoming a target of criticism.
Instead, Yang Kai allowed the stern-faced man to carry this black pot for him. In any case, not only was this man’s personal strength tyrannical, but the power behind him was also extraordinary, so even if everyone here was angry, none would dare try to make trouble for him.
Sure enough, although the more than thirty cultivators looked like they were anxious to kill this man, no one took any aggressive action, not even Qu Chang Feng.
After a moment, everyone closed their eyes again and raced against each other to absorb the remaining efficacies of in the pool of Soul Cleansing Divine Water.
Now that there was only a tiny bit left, if they didn’t compete for it, it would only end up in other’s grasp.
As for the stern-faced man, he seemed to have reached a critical point in his epiphany and was completely unaware of what was happening around him, not even realizing he was being made to carry this huge black pot for Yang Kai. Immersed in his comprehension of the Origin King Realm master’s Soul Skill, the last remnants of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water’s efficacies continued flowing towards him madly.
About a day later, the thirty or so cultivators sitting cross-legged in the pool all began opening their eyes and, while a look of pleasant surprise flashed across many of their faces, there was far more regret and indignation than happiness.
Everyone who had been soaking here had their Soul cultivation greatly improved. In one day, the growth of their Spiritual Energy was equivalent to several years of painstaking cultivation.
On top of that, after being baptized by the Soul Cleansing Divine Water, some cultivators, who had received wounds on their Souls many years ago had the lingering effects washed away. Now, everyone found it easier to manipulate and condense their Spiritual Energy than ever before.
Having obtained some fundamental benefits, everyone was quite happy. A comprehensive enhancement of their Soul also meant that it would be easier for them to cultivate their Spiritual Energy in the future.
All these changes occurred after just one day, so what would have happened if they had been able to soak in this pool for longer?
If not for someone occupying the vast majority of the benefits here, all of them would have been able to soak in this pool for at least ten days here. How much would their Soul cultivation improve after ten days? No one dared to imagine it.
Everyone’s eyes landed on the stern-faced man again, and there was clear hostility in their gazes.
At this moment, the stern-faced man had finished comprehending the Soul Skill which belonged to the fallen Origin King Realm master and his expression for once showed a hint of satisfaction, but when he discovered that everyone was glaring towards him angrily, he suddenly found himself at a loss, wondering what he had done to incite everyone’s wrath.
But soon, he determined that this hostility was simply the result of jealousy. Although the effects of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water had disappeared, causing him some shock, when he remembered the rapid growth of his Soul, he somewhat understood what had happened.
Did he absorb a greater part of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water’s effects, causing everyone to become angry with him?
The stern-faced man wasn’t certain about the situation, but in the end, he also didn’t care, so he just coldly snorted, stood up, leapt out of the pool, dried himself with his Saint Qi, then walked off without so much as a single glance back.
The greatest benefits of this place were gone, so naturally, he didn’t want to remain here under the hostile glares of the crowd.
The remaining thirty people exchanged looks of blank dismay, seemingly not having expected this person to act so aloof.
“I’ll let him get away with it this time!” Qu Chang Feng ground his teeth resentfully before slamming his fist on the edge of the pool with an ominous expression.
No one else dared to be wordy, and after a short while, they too stood up from the pool dispiritedly and left.
After leaving the water, some turned back and stared greedily at this spirit liquid.
If it had been under any other circumstances, everyone would have been ecstatic to have encountered such a large pool of rich spirit liquid; after all, this liquid was also a rare treasure. It had taken many years to form and contained an even higher concentration of Saint Qi than High-Rank Saint Crystals, so whether it was used for cultivation or restoration, it was an ideal resource.
However, after experiencing the magical effects of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water, this spirit liquid suddenly seemed a bit mediocre. It was just the leftovers with no special Soul purifying benefits.
Even so, not gathering this treasure before their eyes would be ridiculous, causing the mood in the cavern to become a bit tense.
“Young Master Qu, how should we distribute this spirit liquid?” The beautiful young woman looked at Qu Chang Feng carefully and asked for his opinion, a hint of sorrow colouring her charming face as she said, “Our small forces don’t have great industries, so while others may not put this pool of spirit liquid in their eyes, to us it is still a good treasure.”
“Yes, Young Master Qu, all of us will listen to your instructions, anyone who dares disagree we will all kill together,” Immediately, a cultivator belonging to a force that had good relationships with Heaven Battling followed up. Earlier, when he was deciding the distribution of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water, Qu Chang Feng had taken care of him somewhat, so although that distribution plan had ultimately become a joke, now was still an excellent opportunity to curry favour.
Listening to these people though, Qu Chang Feng just angrily declared, “Since that’s the case, my Heaven Battling Union will take half of this spirit liquid!”
His anger had not been soothed because of the flattery coming from the crowd. Just remembering how the greatest benefits of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water had been snatched by that stern-faced man was enough to enrage Qu Chang Feng.
When everyone heard this, their faces changed slightly, with some people murmuring quietly, “Wasn’t it a quarter before?”
“What, do you have any objections?” Qu Chang Feng glared coldly at the man who spoke, clearly murderous intent flashing in his eyes.
“Young Master Qu misunderstands, this one’s Junior Brother did not mean what he said, how could we dare have any objections? Young Master Qu does not need to lower himself to deal with him.” Immediately, a man dressed in scholarly robes came forward and addressed Qu Chang Feng cautiously before turning to yell at the speaker again, “Even if you keep your mouth shut no one will mistake you for a mute! Hurry up, why haven’t you apologized to Young Master Qu yet?!”
Everyone knew that Qu Chang Feng could not be provoked at this time. He was clearly angry and was looking for an excuse to vent; only a fool would run up and give one to him.
If this scholarly man did not reprimand his Junior Brother strongly now and get him to apologize, Qu Chang Feng would begin slaughtering them. Whether Qu Chang Feng would be willing to let this matter drop with just an apology, the scholarly man didn’t know, but he had to make an effort to try to save his Junior Brother’s life.
The one who spoke just now also came to his senses at that moment, realizing he had said something he shouldn’t have and quickly stepped forward to apologize respectfully.
Qu Chang Feng coldly snorted, “I’ll let this pass only this time, the next time you dare utter such nonsense I’ll immediately take your life! So what if I want half of this spirit liquid? Even if this Young Master claims all of it do you dare to complain?”
“We wouldn’t dare!” The crowd nodded, looking incredibly awkward.
The biggest benefits had already been taken away by the stern-faced man, so if Qu Chang Feng really claimed all of this spirit liquid, they would all have nothing to gain.
“Take it!” Qu Chang Feng ordered one of the other disciples from his Sect, prompting that man to step forward and collect the liquid.
Everyone stood and waited quietly, hoping Qu Chang Feng meant what he said and would really only take half.
Qu Chang Feng’s suddenly turned his gaze towards Yang Kai, his eyes flashing a cold light.
The moment their eyes met; Yang Kai knew what Qu Chang Feng wanted to do.
This guy was still looking for somewhere to vent his anger. Everyone else was in a group of three to five, and the forces behind them weren’t weak, so slaughtering them wasn’t ideal. Instead, Qu Chang Feng had decided to target Yang Kai, someone who didn’t seem to have any background.
Grinning back at him stupidly, Yang Kai leapt backwards and rushed out of the stone cavern.
Yang Kai didn’t want to start anything with Qu Chang Feng. Although Yang Kai wasn’t afraid of him, if he were to kill Qu Chang Feng by accident, he would only provoke Heaven Battling Union. There were too many people here and unless Yang Kai killed all of them, the news would leak out.
Yang Kai didn’t want to face a behemoth like Heaven Battling Union yet.
On top of that, Qu Chang Feng’s strength was good, and Yang Kai estimated he wouldn’t be able to kill him quickly, not to mention the Origin Grade High-Rank artefact he used before was extraordinary.
Yang Kai didn’t need this spirit liquid either. It may be better than High-Rank Saint Crystals, but it wasn’t anything too precious; therefore, Yang Kai left without any hesitation.
“You’re lucky you ran quickly!” Qu Chang Feng stared for a moment, seemingly not having thought Yang Kai would act so decisively, but eventually decided not to chase after him.
This pool of spirit liquid looked quite plentiful but being divided up between eight different forces, it soon emptied.
Even the little bit of milky white crystal that had condensed at the bottom of the pool was swept away by the crowd; then, after searching the cavern and determining there were no others benefits around, everyone left, albeit somewhat reluctantly.
Outside, the crowd bid farewell to Qu Chang Feng before splitting up in different directions.
After about an incense stick worth of time, a group of three people stopped in a mountainous area ten kilometres away from the stalactite cave. These three people were from the smallest and weakest force to be represented back in the stone cavern.
Two of these three were Third-Order Saint Kings while the last was just a Second-Order Saint King.
At this moment, the Second-Order Saint King was cursing out Qu Chang Feng’s arrogance and domineering behaviour. When the Soul Cleansing Divine Water was previously being divided up, they had been assigned the smallest portion and afterwards, they had received the smallest amount of spirit liquid. The reason was simple, they had the fewest members and lowest strength.
Among the three in this group, an elderly man, who was apparently their leader, had listened to this Second Order Saint King complain the entire way and finally couldn’t help but persuade him, “Forget it, the force behind him is too powerful, not something our Flowing Cloud Valley can afford to provoke. That’s just how life is. You also know that Heaven Battling Union is like this, so why keep complaining about it?”
“I just can’t stand it,” The man was still unsettled. “Who cares about Heaven Battling Union? Qu Chang Feng thinks too highly of himself, if it weren’t for Heaven Battling Union behind him, would he be able to act so arrogantly? I say he’s not worthy of his reputation, he definitely wouldn’t be either of two Senior Brothers’ opponent if there was a fight.”
The elderly man’s expression sank as he reprimanded, “You must not speak so irresponsibly! Although Qu Chang Feng is an arrogant playboy, there’s no question about his true strength. If it weren’t, relying solely on Heaven Battling Union’s authority, how could his name be known across all of Shadowed Star? You’ve heard of Fang Tian Zhong from Thunder Typhoon Sect, haven’t you? I heard that he and Qu Chang Feng have fought no less than ten times, but each time their battle would end in a tie. Since he can fight Fang Tian Zhong to a draw, your Senior Brother and I are definitely not his opponents. You must never despise those who have great reputations. Since they can become famous, they definitely have corresponding strength.”
“Even Fang Tian Zhong can’t beat him?” The Junior Brother was startled as he realized he had been greatly underestimating Qu Chang Feng’s ability.
“Indeed, that’s why each time the two of them meet, they are always at each other’s throats. Your Senior Brother Lu Ye knows this clearly.” When the elderly man spoke, he glanced over at the third person.
“Why would Senior Brother Lu Ye know about such matters?”
The elderly man explained, “Because once, while he was out wandering, your Senior Brother Lu Ye came across the two of them fighting. Junior Brother Lu Ye, tell him about the situation at that time so he knows not to belittle the world’s heroes in the future and lose his life without realizing why.”
At that moment, the Second Order Saint King turned a curious look towards the Senior Brother named Lu Ye.
However, Lu Ye’s brow was currently deeply wrinkled and seemed to be thinking deeply about something, his expression cloudy, as if he hadn’t heard the words of the elderly man.
“Junior Brother Lu, what’s on your mind?” The elderly man asked suspiciously. Since coming out of the stone cavern, Lu Ye seemed as if he had been lost in thought, unaware of the outside world, and even until now he had not recovered.
“Heh heh…” Lu Ye suddenly laughed lowly. They didn’t know why, but when this laughter reached their ears, the elderly man and the Second Order Saint King cultivator couldn’t help shivering as goosebumps formed on their skin.
The elderly man looked startled and thought that something had happened to Lu Ye in the Soul Cleansing Divine Water, hurriedly asking, “Junior Brother Lu, are you all right?”
“Me? Of course I’m fine, I’m very good, hahaha! I’m better than ever before!” As he spoke these words, Lu Ye’s eyes suddenly flashed an eerie green light. Lu Ye’s originally gentle face also distorted and became extremely fierce at that moment and in the next instant, his Saint Qi surged as he stuck out his hand and plunged it directly into the chest of that Second Order Saint King cultivator.
How could that cultivator think that his Senior Brother Lu Ye, who was usually kind and courteous, would suddenly try to kill him? Only after he felt the pain in his chest and looked down did he see and realize that Lu Ye’s hand had been inserted into his heart.
After spasming slightly, this man saw Lu Ye withdraw his hand from his chest, blood dripping from his fingers as his still-beating heart rested in his palm.
[Is that my heart?] Such a thought flickered across this cultivator’s mind with a trace of doubt before he fell backwards, the large hole in his chest spurting out a lot of blood.
“Lu Ye, what are you doing!?” The elderly man’s complexion changed greatly. His fellow Sect Brother had killed one of their juniors right before his eyes, never had he imagined he would witness such a scene.
As he angrily shouted, the elderly man condensed his Saint Qi and prepared to attack this murderer.
But how could he have guessed that a spike of Spiritual Energy would suddenly burst into his mind and instantly break through his Knowledge Sea’s defences, causing his consciousness to shake?
The elderly man groaned as his Knowledge Sea received serious damage in that instant, the Saint Qi he had just gathered dissipating without a trace.
Immediately, this old man saw Lu Ye maliciously grin towards him, the green fluorescence in his eyes becoming both brighter and stranger.
“You’re not…” The elderly man opened his mouth to exclaim, but before he could finish his sentence, his head was severed from his body by Lu Ye’s hand. Blood splashed out from the headless corpse and soon covered the surrounding several meter radius.
Lu Ye stood firm, flicking the blood from his hand before coldly snorting and declaring, “Of course I’m not!”
Even if he seemingly easily killed two Saint King Realm cultivators, Lu Ye still showed a look of dissatisfaction at this moment. This body’s aptitude was good, and quite suitable to cultivate his Secret Art, but his realm was simply too weak; compared to his peak, he was currently as vulnerable as an ant.
However, Lu Ye was still satisfied because he had finally managed to escape from that damned place. How many years had it been? Five thousand? Ten thousand? Twenty thousand?
He no longer remembered as it had been far too long. If no one had found that stone cavern for another thousand years, his Soul may really have disappeared from this world.
In order to break through some of the barriers surrounding that cavern so that someone could discover it, he had even shaved off portions of his Soul’s essence; if he hadn’t done so though, that stone cavern may have remained hidden forever. Fortunately, all his efforts had been worth it. Someone had really discovered that place, fulfilling the wish he had for so many aeons.
Lu Ye’s complexion turned pale for a moment, but he quickly suppressed that. Using such a powerful Soul Attack with this body had put a heavy load on him; worse, he had not yet completely adapted to this body he had recently seized.
It seemed he wouldn’t be able to use any other powerful techniques for a while.
Looking up and seeing the red hue of the Flame Area blotting out the sky, Lu Ye sneered, “The Three Suns Flame Rings! How much area does this take up?”
After saying such inexplicable words, he searched the Space Ring of the elderly man and the Second Order Saint King before burning their bodies, turning around, and running back towards the stalactite cave.
It didn’t take him long to return.
The stone cavern was now empty, and the pool of water had been scraped dry. Even the skeleton which was sitting nearby had been attacked by someone before they left, scattering its bones across the ground.
Seeing this scene, Lu Ye’s eyes flashed in annoyance before walking over to the scattered bones, bending down, and carefully arranging them, picking them up, and depositing them into his Space Ring.
While he did this, he wore a complicated expression filled with both sadness and reminiscence.
After collecting the bones, he walked into the empty pool and stood there for a while to think before tracing an irregular path at a specific pace. Every time he took a step, he would pour a certain amount of Saint Qi into the ground from his feet. Lu Ye’s expression was extremely serious, as if he was completing some extremely important task.
After walking for about a cup of tea worth of time, a light of anticipation gradually appeared in Lu Ye’s eyes.
Soon, he took one final step while pouring out just the right amount of Saint Qi.
*Kacha…*
At the center of the bottom of the pool, a gap suddenly split open revealing a hidden compartment.
Seeing this, Lu Ye smiled happily and quickly stepped forward, picked up a Space Ring which was hidden in this compartment, placed it on his hand, then breathed a sigh of relief.
With this ring, he could easily make a comeback.
The only thing that made him a bit annoyed was that his most important treasure had been taken away by that First-Order Saint King. The power flowing through that boy’s body, those black flames, was too strange. When he had previously entered that kid’s body to try to seize it, those black flames had nearly incinerated his Soul!
He had never seen a black flame like that before, one that seemed to blend both extreme heat and cold, good and evil. Its existence was an extreme contradiction in and of itself.
Lu Ye panicked at that time, and if he had remained inside that body for just three more breaths, he didn’t doubt his Soul would have been completely burnt into slag.
It was such a good body too. Being unable to seize that body inevitably made Lu Ye somewhat regretful.
“How could I allow you to also carry off my property?” Lu Ye sneered before releasing his Divine Sense. He firmly believed that even if Yang Kai took that thing and hid it in his Space Ring, he would easily be able to sense it.
Because that thing was his.
However, a moment later, Lu Ye couldn’t help feeling shocked because, no matter how he tried, he couldn’t sense that thing’s aura, as if it had disappeared into thin air.
“Impossible!” Lu Ye roared, his face twisted hysterically. He simply couldn’t believe it. Since that thing’s aura had disappeared, the only possibility was that kid had managed to refine it.
But that kid was just a trivial First-Order Saint King; even if he possessed incredible talent and skill, trying to fuse with that thing would only result in his immediate violent death!
That treasure was the most important thing for Lu Ye. As long as he had that, he could set off a new reign of terror throughout the entire Star Field, so now that it had disappeared, how could he not be infuriated? Without it, if Lu Ye wanted to restore his Soul cultivation, it would take him at least two or three thousand years.
At this point, Yang Kai was fifty kilometres away from the stalactite cave.
When he noticed Qu Chang Feng’s murderous intent, he had immediately left there, but now, without any specific goal in mind, he was just moving about at will.
When the Flowing Flame Sand Field first opened, his plan was to plunder the Treasure Area, but now that he had arrived, he felt deeply disappointed by the spirit grasses and spirit medicines produced here.
Besides the dozen or so stalks of Emerald Silk Grass, Yang Kai didn’t have any other harvests worth mentioning. Everything else he picked up was available in the outside world, and although they weren’t cheap, he was not short of money right now, so there was no need for him to waste time collecting them.
His biggest gain was naturally the benefits he obtained in the stalactite cave.
As his Soul was already far stronger than other cultivators in his realm, Yang Kai hadn’t personally benefitted much from the efficacies of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water, his Spiritual Energy only showing some slight improvements. However, the nourishment his Soul Warming Lotus had obtained was difficult to describe and more than made up for it.
After the Soul Warming Lotus absorbed so much of the golden energy, its six-coloured light kept flickering, and it seemed that if it were allowed to swallow even a bit more, it would evolve.
This sight made Yang Kai quite depressed. He knew how difficult it was for the Soul Warming Lotus to continue evolving.
When he first obtained this unparalleled treasure, the Soul Warming Lotus was only five-coloured, but after taking so many pills that enhanced Spiritual Energy, it didn’t show any signs of change. Only after Yang Kai consumed a Saint Grade High-Rank pill that had formed Pill Clouds and was several thousand years old did the Soul Warming Lotus evolve from five-coloured to six-coloured.
Previously, Yang Kai had suspected that trying to make it evolve into its final seven coloured form was all but hopeless and it had become a goal he would be satisfied completing before his life ended.
But now, this seemingly impossible goal actually seemed to be within his reach, both exciting and depressing him greatly.
Yang Kai was already contemplating about refine some pills specifically meant for Soul cultivation to see if they could help the Soul Warming Lotus evolve after the Flowing Flame Sand Field closes.
How much benefit he could obtain from wantonly taking such pills didn’t matter, as long as they could help the Soul Warming Lotus, even if he had to spend an enormous amount of Saint Crystals and waste numerous pills, it would be worth it.
Letting his imagination run wild for a moment, Yang Kai’s mood lifted significantly.
He was looking forward to what kind of benefit the Soul Warming Lotus would bring him in its final form. Before, when his strength had been low, although he could feel the effects of the Soul Warming Lotus somewhat, he wasn’t able to understand its benefits thoroughly, but as his realm had improved, Yang Kai became increasingly aware of the importance of the Soul Warming Lotus.
He had never deliberately cultivated his Soul, but his Divine Sense and Spiritual Energy were both far stronger than cultivators in his own realm. Eighty percent of the credit for this was owed to the Soul Warming Lotus while the rest was thanks to the Demon Eye of Annihilation.
Without his Demon Eye of Annihilation, Yang Kai wouldn’t have been able to swallow others’ perceptions of the Heavenly Way and Martial Dao so smoothly, nor would he have been able to continue cultivating without any bottlenecks or obstacles or allow his Soul cultivation to far exceed his Saint Qi cultivation.
Putting aside these thoughts for a while, Yang Kai next took a certain object out of his Space Ring.
This thing was the unknown object he had found in the pool. At the time, Yang Kai wasn’t able to investigate it and simply stuffed it into his Space Ring. It was only now that he was able to examine it. Taking a look, Yang Kai discovered that it was actually a glittering, translucent cube about the size of an egg.
It seemed to be crafted from the finest jade.
However, aside from being pretty, there didn’t seem to be anything special about it. When Yang Kai touched it in the pool, it had first felt slightly warm, and then a cold energy had leaked out of it and poured into his body.
Now though it seemed completely ordinary; Yang Kai also didn’t feel any energy inside of it. Frowning as he observed this cube, Yang Kai tried burning its surface with his Demonic Flame, but no matter how hard he tried, the cube didn’t show any signs of change at all.
This actually surprised Yang Kai quite a bit. His current Demonic Flame could even melt ordinary Origin Grade artefacts, let alone a seemingly ordinary decorative stone.
He couldn’t feel any energy fluctuations, nor could he burn it with his Demonic Flame, so Yang Kai next tried to probe it with his Divine Sense.
Who could have guessed that the moment his Divine Sense touched it, the colorless crystal cube would suddenly disappear from his hand.
At the same time, a refreshing feeling spread from his mind.
Yang Kai’s face changed slightly and he quickly sent his consciousness into his Knowledge Sea.
Inside his Knowledge Sea, Yang Kai saw the fiery red flames and brilliant ocean water roil, and the six-coloured glow of from the giant lotus island had increased in intensity manifold. In the sky above Yang Kai’s Knowledge Sea, the colourless crystal cube had suddenly appeared.
Yang Kai’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
As far as he knew, Knowledge Seas were intangible, so even if one was to open up a cultivator’s skull, they wouldn’t be able to see their Knowledge Sea. Except for some special Soul type artifacts, no external object should be able to enter this ethereal ocean.
The Demon Eye of Annihilation barely counted as a of Soul type artifact, and the Soul Warming Lotus was also a Soul type treasure, so them existing inside his Knowledge Sea wasn’t a problem.
But what was this colourless crystal cube? Why had it entered his Knowledge Sea the moment his Divine Sense touched it?
However, after observing it for a moment, Yang Kai found that nothing seemed to be wrong; in fact, it wasn’t just harmless, it actually brought him an unimaginably refreshing sensation.
Yang Kai wanted to carefully examine the cube; after all, anyone who had something inexplicable enter their Knowledge Sea would need to take precautions.
But before he could take any action, the six-coloured island suddenly transformed into a six-coloured beam of light, shot out like a great rainbow, wrapped up the colourless crystal cube. Then, under Yang Kai’s dumbfounded gaze, dragged it back to the island.
The six-coloured mass of light flickered and shivered for a moment before returning to its original Six Coloured Soul Warming Lotus form, the brilliant light it was emitting also returning to normal.
Yang Kai’s thoughts flashed and his Soul Avatar immediately appeared above the Six Coloured Soul Warming Lotus. Looking down, as he expected, the colourless crystal cube was now quietly lying on the Six Coloured Soul Warming Lotus, surrounded in a halo of multi-coloured light.
Immediately after, the petals of that Soul Warming Lotus closed up towards its centre, clenching like a fist into a bud-like state, seemingly returning to a point before it had blossomed.
Yang Kai’s expression filled with shock as his Soul Avatar trembled excitedly.
Although he didn’t quite understand what was going on, as the owner of the Soul Warming Lotus, he was able to tell that the Soul Warming Lotus had begun its evolution into its final form!
He no longer needed to enact his plan of refining pills to nourish the Soul Warming Lotus.
And the cause of all this was that strange colourless crystal cube!
The last time the Soul Warming Lotus evolved, it hadn’t happened like this. At that time, after absorbing a massive amount of energy, its colours had gradually changed.
This time, as it evolved, it actually transformed into a flower bud. Yang Kai could almost foresee that when this flower bud fully blossomed again, it would be reborn as a full-fledged Seven Coloured Soul Warming Lotus.
Whatever that crystal cube was, it seemed to contain even more powerful energy than even the golden threads in the Soul Cleansing Divine Water, otherwise, how could it have allowed the Soul Warming Lotus to evolve in one fell swoop?
Yang Kai’s mood soared and his Soul Avatar’s face was filled with an indelible smile. The jubilant emotions he was feeling made the fiery Knowledge Sea surge about and waves dozens of meters high splashed up into the air, like a series of great volcanic eruptions.
Only after a long time was Yang Kai able to suppress his excitement and fix his eyes on the Soul Warming Lotus bud. Quickly, he discovered that brilliant light hallows were pulsing from it, spreading out across his Knowledge Sea. These pulses were very regularly, like a kind of heartbeat.
Also, with each pulse of light, Yang Kai’s Knowledge Sea was experiencing some subtle changes. The fiery red flames and blue sea water became both deeper and purer, both seemingly increasing in power and intensity. The golden threads from the Soul Cleansing Divine Water Yang Kai had yet to properly refine began melting away at this moment and soon fully integrated into his Knowledge Sea, strengthening Yang Kai’s Soul and Spiritual Energy once more.
Yang Kai’s eyes lit up. The Soul Warming Lotus was still in the process of evolving, but he had already begun to reap some benefits. This only made Yang Kai more and more eager to see what would happen when it finished its evolution.
Although Yang Kai wanted to stay here for a little longer, he couldn’t help frowning, his face a bit unhappy, because the part of his consciousness he had left outside to keep watch had noticed that several people were approaching him.
With no other choice, Yang Kai could only move his consciousness from his Knowledge Sea back to his body.
After quietly releasing his Divine Sense, and discovering who it was that was approaching him, Yang Kai was somewhat stunned.
The people on their way turned out to be the same beautiful young woman who had spoken to him back at the stone cavern and her companions.
There were five people in total, all of them Second or Third-Order Saint Kings. Yang Kai wasn’t clear which force they came from, but to be able to gather together so many people so quickly, it was definitely not a small family or Sect.
Why was she following him? Could it be that since he was alone, and had a low cultivation, she thought he would be an easy target?
Yang Kai’s eyes flashed a cold light and he paid even greater attention to this group’s movements.
Throughout the entire Flowing Flame Sand Field, Divine Sense was suppressed greatly, but because Yang Kai’s Divine Sense was far more powerful than others, even with this suppression he could easily monitor other people’s movements undetected.
Yang Kai was even able to eavesdrop on this group’s conversation.
“Senior Sister Chen, why are we chasing after that guy? He’s just a First-Order Saint King. With such poor strength, letting him join us wouldn’t provide us with any benefits and would instead hinder our movements,” A burly looking youth asked with an unwilling expression on his face.
“That’s right Senior Sister Chen. That guy didn’t look very strong and probably comes from some small family force. Him even obtaining the qualifications to enter this place with such low strength must mean his family doesn’t have any stronger cultivators to send.”
“Furthermore, if you let him join us, once we find something good, we’ll have to give him a share. I don’t think it’s worth it.”
The four men and women behind this beautiful young woman didn’t understand why she wanted to recruit Yang Kai and assumed she was acting out of a sense of kindness, wanting to help him, but this was the Flowing Flame Sand Field. In this place, there was a crisis around every corner, and if one wasn’t careful, they could easily lose their life, how could they spare any effort to take care of others?
After the four men and women finished speaking, the beautiful woman sighed lightly before asking, “You all think that his strength is low and that he has no useful skills, right?
“En, isn’t that obvious? Could it be he’s playing the pig to eat a tiger?” The burly man’s eyes narrowed slightly as he thought up a possibility.
“He shouldn’t be,” The beautiful young woman shook her head.
“Since that’s the case, why take him along?”
“Hehe, you all know he doesn’t have much skill, so why was he able to come here? Why was he able to break through the Flame Area?”
When the beautiful woman asked this, her four companions were stunned silent. All of them had experienced for themselves how unbearable the Flame Area was. At that time, the five of them had to work hard together to traverse it and arrive at the Treasure Area, so how did a weak First-Order Saint King manage to make it here all on his own?
“Senior Sister Chen, do you know why?” The four turned to the beautiful young woman curiously.
Shaking her head slightly, the beautiful woman replied, “I don’t know exactly, but I think he is a man of great destiny!”
“A man of great destiny…” The four men and women behind her all exchanged strange looks.
The beautiful woman surnamed Chen giggled as she smiled, “You may think it sounds ridiculous; but personally, I believe in such things. Some people are born blessed with good fortune while others are fated to have bad luck. This affects how many opportunities they encounter in life compared to others with similar aptitude, allowing them to develop at a different pace than their peers. Over the years, I’ve met a few people who carry such great destinies and by associating with them, I’ve been able to obtain some small benefits.”
The burly youth couldn’t help his face from twitching slightly before hesitantly asking, “Senior Sister Chen, you mean, if we allow him to come with us, we may get some unexpected benefits?”
“Exactly. If you think about it, it’s already a miracle that a First-Order Saint King was able to pass through the Flame Area all on his own. I don’t think he relied on his own strength to do that but instead was able to find a safe path to travel on all the way to the Treasure Area. If this wasn’t the case, just depending on his own cultivation, it would be impossible for him to cross the last section of the Flame Area. What he relied on should be his great luck,” The beautiful woman explained gently, and although her words weren’t enough to make her fellow Sect Brothers and Sisters believe here completely, they were still thought-provoking enough. “Of course, this alone isn’t enough to determine he carries a great destiny; however, what happened in the stone cavern just now you all saw with your own eyes.”
“In the stone cavern…” Everyone thought back for a while and naturally recalled bits and pieces of Yang Kai’s performance at that time, all of them soon feeling everything about him had been a bit strange.
“Do you remember? At that time, I thought that after Qu Chang Feng finished dividing up the Soul Cleansing Divine Water, it would be impossible for him to gain anything, so I urged him to not waste his time and leave as quickly as possible. But through a series of twists and turns, everyone ended up soaking in that pool. No matter how small the benefits he managed to obtain there, it was still far more than he should have been able to acquire. Far more than ten thousand cultivators entered the Flowing Flame Sand Field, yet only three or four thousand managed to reach the Treasure Area, but the ones who managed to obtain benefits from that stone cavern only numbered thirty. Among those thirty though, he was the only First-Order Saint King!”
“When Senior Sister Chen puts it that way, his luck really seems to be extraordinarily good,” The burly youth felt the stubble on his chin and gently nodded, seemingly thinking what this beautiful young woman had said was reasonable.
Fated luck and destiny were vague concepts, difficult to see or understand, but no matter how one looked at it, the luck of that First Order Saint King was strangely good.
“Senior Sister, there’s a saying that the night is darkest before dawn. If his destiny was all used up just now…” Another female cultivator in the group was secretly worried, there was no such thing as endless wealth or endless luck in this world.
“It doesn’t matter. It won’t hurt us to bring him along either way. If we can really find something good because of him, giving him a share isn’t a problem. If we can’t, it just means our luck was too bad to begin with,” The beautiful young woman smiled freely.
“Since Senior Sister has decided, let’s take him with us,” The burly youth saw that the beautiful young woman was insistent and didn’t raise any more objections. It was indeed as she had said, there wasn’t any loss in allowing him to join them, at worst, they would need to give him some small benefits, but as a trivial First-Order Saint King, even if they only gave the leftovers of their harvest, would he dare to complain?
If they were to encounter any danger, they would simply let him fend for himself. In any case, if it was true what Senior Sister Chen said and he was a man of great destiny, he shouldn’t die easily.
As soon as the burly youth agreed, everyone stopped talking and simply followed the beautiful young woman’s lead.
Yang Kai took back his Divine Sense and wore a strange look upon his face.
A man of great destiny? He couldn’t help chuckling to himself.
Being able to find that stone cavern indeed had a little bit to do with luck, but it was more so because Yang Kai had confidence in his own abilities. He wasn’t afraid of Qu Chang Feng in the first place, so he had stuck around, if it had another First-Order Saint King, they would likely have left at the first chance they could without obtaining any benefits at all.
As for crossing the Flame Area… did that even count as difficult? What did that have to do with luck?
Now that he had figured out their intentions though, the hostility on Yang Kai’s face dispersed. They didn’t have any malicious intent and could even be considered good-natured.
However, that didn’t mean Yang Kai was willing to act together with this group. While they felt he would only be a hindrance, Yang Kai also felt the same about them. Moving on his own was both easier and more convenient for Yang Kai, on top of which, anything he found belonged solely to him.
The beautiful young woman and her group weren’t far from Yang Kai; perhaps they had begun chasing after him immediately after the spirit liquid had been divided up. As such, it wasn’t long before the group of five appeared in Yang Kai’s field of vision.
In order to avoid Yang Kai’s misunderstanding their intentions, when they were still quite far away, the beautiful young woman surnamed Chen shouted enthusiastically, “Little brother!”
Pretending he had only just discovered them, Yang Kai put on a look of vigilance as he assumed a defensive stance.
“Little brother doesn’t need to be startled!” The beautiful young woman seemed to have expected this and flashed a charming yet kind smile, her eyes crystal clear as she said in as genuine a tone as possible, “We have no malicious intent.”
Saying so, she led the other four behind her over towards Yang Kai quickly.
After they closed the gap between them, Yang Kai asked flatly, “What intentions do you have then?”
“Hehe, it’s nothing much, we just saw that little brother was all alone, so we wanted to ask you a few questions,” The beautiful woman replied with a smile, “Did you come here alone?”
“That’s right,” Yang Kai nodded slightly.
“Impressive,” The beautiful woman remarked enthusiastically in a crisp and clear voice, nodding her head in approval. According to her previous conjectures, Yang Kai should be from a small family that had sent at most three disciples into the Flowing Flame Sand. Field’. The other two probably hadn’t been able to cross the Flame Area, but Yang Kai had actually managed to reach the second layer, it was an amazing accomplishment.
“Girl, if you have something to say, just say it.” Since he knew their purpose, Yang Kai was disinclined to waste time with them and was just waiting for this young woman to say it out loud so he could refuse.
“Your temper isn’t small!” The burly youth couldn’t help smirking. In his opinion, Senior Sister Chen’s willingness to accept him into their group was also a direct manifestation of his so-called ‘great destiny’, but he hadn’t expected this kid to act so rudely in return.
“Girl…” The beautiful young woman heard Yang Kai call her this and couldn’t help smiling. She hadn’t heard anyone call her like this for a long time, so she kindly explained, “Alright. We’re from the Clear Sky Sect…”
After reporting her Sect, the beautiful young woman looked at Yang Kai elegantly, seemingly believing her Sect’s strength wasn’t bad and should have some impact on him, but to her surprise, Yang Kai remained completely indifferent, making her feel somewhat embarrassed. Lightly coughing, she quickly continued, “My name is Chen Shi Tao and these are my Junior Brothers and Junior Sisters. Seeing how you are all alone here, Little Brother might not be aware of the dangers on this Treasure Area, yes? Not only are there many Monster Beasts, but there are also many inexplicable arrays and traps. It’s dangerous for someone with cultivation like yours to wander here all by yourself, if you’re not careful, it’s possible you might even die.”
At this point, according to the expectations of the beautiful woman, the other party should become panic-stricken and fearful, then she would say a few words of comfort before smoothly recruiting him into her team, but she hadn’t anticipated that Yang Kai would still wear a dull, uninterested look upon his face.
Chen Shi Tao groaned to herself, even more thinking that this guy came from a very small family and was thus completely ignorant about the Flowing Flame Sand Field.
With no other recourse, she could only get straight to the point, “If you want, you might as well act together with us. Although the five of us aren’t the strongest around, it’s still better to work together as a group than take risks all on your own. Of course, if we find something good, we won’t treat you unjustly. Outside, my Clear Sky Sect’s disciples have always maintained an upright and honourable reputation, never using our strength to bully others. Is little brother interested?”
Outright rejecting her wasn’t a good idea, so Yang Kai pretended to think it over for a moment but just as he was about to decline, his brow furrowed, and he turned towards a certain direction.
Not far away, in the direction he was staring, a fiery red light was rapidly approaching, and a moment later is zipped right past their group.
[A Flowing Flame Flying Fire?] Yang Kai’s first thought was that this thing was another Flowing Flame Flying Fire.
But soon, he thought otherwise, because this fiery red light wasn’t the same as the Flowing Flame Flying Fire he had seen before. Although its speed wasn’t slow, it definitely wasn’t as fast as that Flowing Flame Flying Fire. Yang Kai Divine Sense was even able to catch a trace of it.
What’s more, this was the Treasure Area, how could there be Flowing Flame Flying Fires here?
Wei Gu Chang had said that Flowing Flame Flying Fires only existed in the Flame Area and it was impossible to see them in the Treasure Area.
At the same time, Yang Kai discovered this fiery red light, Chen Shi Tao’s group also took notice of it.
The burly youth stared in the direction the red light disappeared, thought about it for a moment, then quickly exclaimed, “A World Spirit Treasure?”
The others in Chen Shi Tao’s group also changed countenance upon hearing this.
Yang Kai had also concluded that it was a World Spirit Treasure, but as to what kind it was, he couldn’t tell. All he knew was that a moment ago, when that red light flashed in front of him, Yang Kai had clearly noticed a trace of vitality from it, so what else besides a World Spirit Treasure could it be?
Before Yang Kai could start chasing it, from the direction the red light flew, a figure came rushing over.
“Oh?” Yang Kai couldn’t help grinning when he saw this man’s appearance and stayed in place to wait for his arrival.
The man quickly arrived in front of the crowd with a vigilant look upon his face; after all, he was chasing after a treasure when suddenly six people appeared in his path. This man was feeling quite anxious, but when he saw that one of these six people was actually Yang Kai, he immediately relaxed and walked over.
“Foreign Elder Chang!” Yang Kai hurriedly greeted him. The one who had come was none other than Chang Qi of Hai Ke Family.
“Yang Kai, you’re here too,” Chang Qi said excitedly, laughing happily as if he had just reunited with a long-separated family member.
Yang Kai being able to reach the Treasure Area wasn’t a surprise to Chang Qi. Others might now know of Yang Kai’s strength, but Chang Qi was very clear about it. Yang Kai had fought and killed several Third-Order Saint Kings, a spectacle Chang Qi had seen from beginning to end, if such a person couldn’t break through the Flame Area, it would be too strange.
Chang Qi was happy that the two of them had a chance to meet here.
“Where’s Foreign Elder Hao?” Yang Kai asked as he looked behind him but didn’t see any trace of Hao An.
“Old Hao didn’t come with me. In fact, we haven’t met after we came in, but don’t worry. Although Old Hao isn’t young anymore, crossing the first layer Flame Area is still within his ability,” Chang Qi said with a smile, only now turning his attention to Chen Shi Tao and her group and asking, “These are…”
“We are disciples from Clear Sky Sect,” Chen Shi Tao smiled, thinking that this old man should be a cultivator from the same family as this young man. It seems that they really came from a small family, otherwise they wouldn’t have sent someone so old like Chang Qi.
“Clear Sky Sect!” Unlike Yang Kai, when Chang Qi heard these three words his face immediately became dignified, quickly cupping his fists and saying, “So Young Lady and her companions are from Clear Sky Sect, forgive my disrespect!”
He then turned a curious look towards Yang Kai, unable to figure out how he was related to these Clear Sky Sect disciples. Clear Sky Sect’s strength wasn’t any lower than Shadow Moon Hall’s, and although they had not managed to produce true genius disciples in recent years, their foundation, accumulated inheritance, and reputation were still highly regarded.
So when he heard Chen Shi Tao say that she was from Clear Sky Sect, of course he didn’t dare show any neglect.
This was the kind of response a person from a small family should have when they heard the name Clear Sky Sect… Chen Shi Tao secretly thought that the embarrassment she felt from Yang Kai’s indifferent response had suddenly been swept away.
“Foreign Elder Chang, were you chasing that World Spirit Treasure?” Yang Kai hurriedly asked.
“Right!” Chang Qi palmed his fist, his face full of annoyance, “That thing is too slippery. Originally, I thought it was just an ordinary little snake, but when I approached it, it suddenly transformed into a flaming light and flew off. I never expected to see anything capable of flying in this Flowing Flame Sand Field.”
Everyone was dumbstruck when they heard him say this.
That World Spirit Treasure had passed by them too quickly and brought them too much excitement, completely making them forgot that the World Principles here restrained all forms of flight. Now thinking about it, just that along was incredible enough.
That treasure was surely something extraordinary! When they thought of this, the eyes of all five Clear Sky Sect disciples immediately became hot.
“Quickly follow it!” Yang Kai said before rushing off in the direction the red light disappeared. Chang Qi hesitated for a moment before hurriedly following after Yang Kai.
“Senior Sister Chen…” The burly youth licked his dry lips and murmured, “It seems he really is a man of great destiny!”
Chen Shi Tao had said that this young man possessed extraordinary luck due to his great destiny, but all of them had been quite doubtful about this. But the moment they met him, a precious World Spirit Treasure just happened to pass by! Such things were incredibly rare and every one of them was extremely valuable. With this reality shoved in front of them, they couldn’t help believing Chen Shi Tao, all of them directing looks full of admiration towards her, feeling she had far greater vision than them.
“What should we do?” Asked another female cultivator.
“Follow them!” Chen Shi Tao kicked off the ground, causing her tender body to shoot forward. The other four also hurriedly used their movement skills and pushed their Saint Qi to bring their speed up to its limit.
“Yang Kai, those disciples from Clear Sky Sect…” Chang Qi glanced back anxiously at the five people following them.
“I’m not familiar with them, we just happened to meet here,” Yang Kai replied with a smile, “But you don’t need to care about them, if we can catch up to that World Spirit Treasure, go ahead and seize it. It belongs to whoever can capture it. If they dare try to rob us, we don’t need to be polite!”
“Sounds good. Since you’ve said so, I feel relieved,” Chang Qi visibly relaxed and excitement returned to his face.
Chang Qi originally came to the Flowing Flame Sand Field to look for opportunities. Now an opportunity was right in front of him, so let alone disciples of Clear Sky Sect, even if cultivators from Heaven Battling Union or Thunder Typhoon Sect were in front of him, he would still have to fight. After living for so many years, if he died in pursuit of the Martial Dao, he wouldn’t have died in vain.
Although the two groups both pushed their speed to the limit, the inability to fly here caused them a great deal of delay. Because Yang Kai had waited for Chang Qi for a few minutes, the flying red light had left the range of their Divine Senses, so they had no choice but to follow the remnants of its vitality and aura to track it.
While they couldn’t sense its position exactly with this method of tacking, they were at least certain they were going the right way.
“Foreign Elder Chang, do you know what kind of World Spirit Treasure that thing is?” Yang Kai took a moment to ask as they ran forward.
“I wasn’t able to see it clearly, all I know is that it looked like a little green snake and when I first discovered it, it was resting atop a Soul Nourishing Flower. I actually only noticed it because I was trying to collect that Soul Nourishing Flower.”
“A Soul Nourishing Flower?” Yang Kai couldn’t help frowning. As an Alchemist, Yang Kai naturally knew what about this spirit flower. The Soul Nourishing Flower was a Saint King Grade herb and the fragrance it gave off was able to calm one’s mood while nourishing their Soul, it was a key ingredient in the refinement of several Soul cultivation pills.
However, World Spirit Treasures were generally spirit grasses or spirit medicines to begin with, why would it need to absorb the medicinal fragrance of a Soul Nourishing Flower?
Could this snake-shaped World Spirit Treasure have already formed its own Soul and achieved sentience? However, even if that was the case, it still shouldn’t be interested in a Soul Nourishing Flower.
It was a real mystery.
While Yang Kai and Chang Qi were talking, Chen Shi Tao and her group were somewhat surprised.
Because they discovered that the speed of the First-Order Saint King Yang Kai wasn’t slower than any of them; in fact, no matter how they chased him, they couldn’t catch up.
Chen Shi Tao was the most surprised, realizing now that she didn’t completely understand this First-Order Saint King cultivator.
Not long after, Yang Kai and Chang Qi stopped at the edge of a plain.
This plain was filled with grass that was about six or seven meters tall and looked very dense, but after sweeping it with his Divine Sense, Yang Kai was surprised to find that there wasn’t a single spirit grass or spirit medicine here. It seems that this fertile plot of land was only suitable for growing weeds.
This situation was quite unusual.
The faint aura traces of the flying red light Yang Kai was following also disappeared here, but he didn’t know if it was because it was hiding or some other reason.
However, Yang Kai was certain that the snake-shaped World Spirit Treasure was here somewhere.
“Let’s split up, looking for it in all these tall weeds will probably be difficult. Pay attention to any unusual energy fluctuations, there might be something like a barrier here,” Yang Kai said lightly.
“Good.” Chang Qi nodded and immediately separated from Yang Kai.
A moment later, Chen Shi Tao and her group arrived just in time to see Yang Kai and Chang Qi disappear into the weeds. Her four Junior disciples turned their eyes to Chen Shi Tao for instructions.
“Let’s also split up and search!” Chen Shi Tao made an immediate decision; she too was interested in that World Spirit Treasure.
The five disciples from Clear Sky Sect, like Yang Kai and Chang Qi, scattered in all directions to begin their search.
Searching for something in this place really gave one a headache. Even though Yang Kai’s Divine Sense was far more powerful and could cover a much wider range than anyone else present, how could he find a World Spirit Treasure that could perfectly conceal itself in such a broad thicket?
After searching for two full hours, Yang Kai was considering whether he should give up, as he was essentially just wasting time now; however, at that moment, he suddenly noticed an energy fluctuation that came from a spot about ten kilometres away.
[Someone found something?] Yang Kai looked happy and rushed towards the signal.
After a while, Yang Kai arrived at the source of the energy fluctuation and found that the five disciples from Clear Sky Sect had already gathered and were currently standing around a hole in the ground. All of them wore excited looks as they stared curiously down this hole, but none of them dared to enter it easily.
The burly man was talking to Chen Shi Tao and, listening to what he was saying, it seemed he had accidentally felt something unusual from this place and had struck the ground, revealing this hole.
However, whether this hole led to danger or fortune was something he couldn’t tell, so he had sent up a signal for Chen Shi Tao and his fellow disciples to gather so they could discuss carefully what to do next.
When Yang Kai arrived here, the five of them glanced at him, they didn’t show any intentions to drive him off and simply continued their discussion.
A few moments later, Chang Qi also came over, apparently attracted by the energy fluctuation like Yang Kai.
“Did someone find it?” Chang Qi stared at the hole.
“I don’t know,” Yang Kai shook his head. He didn’t find anything noteworthy from this hole, but its mere existence here was intriguing, so he still felt it necessary to explore it.
But this was discovered by others first, so it wouldn’t be appropriate for Yang Kai to dive in first as it would only cause the Clear Sky Sect disciples to become hostile towards him. For now, all he could do was wait.
While Chen Shi Tao and the others were discussing what to do, they glanced over at Yang Kai from time to time, some of them shaking their heads, some of them nodding, seemingly having a dispute about something.
After Chen Shi Tao said something though, the ones who were shaking their heads could only nod in agreement.
Having reached a consensus, Chen Shi Tao walked over to Yang Kai with a smile.
Yang Kai’s brow furrowed slightly; although he didn’t understand what Chen Shi Tao wanted, he didn’t feel any malicious intent from her, so he decided to hear her out.
“Little brother, do you want to explore this cave together with this Senior?” Chen Shi Tao asked.
“You’re willing to let us join you?” Yang Kai raised his brow in surprise.
“Naturally we’re willing, although this cave was discovered by my Junior Brother, we only arrived here because we were pursuing that World Spirit Treasure together, so you have some credit in finding this cave too,” Chen Shi Tao smiled lightly.
“That can’t be all there is to it, right? What kind of conditions are you proposing,” Yang Kai smiled thoughtfully?
Chen Shi Tao was a bit startled, but quickly smiled and nodded, “Little Brother is truly an understanding person. Good, then I’ll also be straightforward. No one knows what the situation is inside this cave, there may be opportunities, or there may be danger, you also know that there are many crises hidden in this Flowing Flame Sand Field. Although this cave looks normal, who knows what lies down below, no one from my group dares to go down haphazardly…”
Yang Kai gently nodded, not interrupting as he motioned for her to continue.
Chen Shi Tao quickly said, “Little brother’s luck seems to be quite good, so I was thinking it would be best for you to explore the road first. With little brother’s luck, you should be able to avoid any big risks. Of course, you should consider this matter carefully yourself first, if you don’t want to, we won’t force you.”
It turned out they wanted to let him scout ahead! Yang Kai suddenly realized.
Naturally he was going to agree. Even if they didn’t make such a request, Yang Kai would have proposed letting him go down first himself, them inviting him to do so would have worked out better for Yang Kai.
Yang Kai didn’t say anything immediately and instead pretended to hesitate, rubbing his chin for as he put on a contemplative look for quite a while. Just as Chen Shi Tao was secretly beginning to worry about Yang Kai refusing, the latter finally said, “I can agree to explore the way, but if there are any benefits down below, how do you plan to distribute them?”
“Little brother can rest assured, we are not overbearing like Heaven Battling Union. However many benefits there are down there, we will divide equally according to our numbers. There are seven of us here in total, so whatever is down there will be divided into seven, is that acceptable?”
This distribution method seemed to favour Clear Sky Sect’s people; after all, there were many more of them, so in the end, they would obtain the bulk of the benefits, but it was actually quite fair!
After all, they were a group of five Second and Third-Order Saint Kings. If they had instead been disciples from Heaven Battling Union, forget about anything, Yang Kai and Chang Qi would only be driven away or killed on the spot. Chen Shi Tao being able to propose such an arrangement was extremely even-handed.
Naturally, those from the Clear Sky Sect didn’t know that if they really dared try to expel Yang Kai and Chang Qi, it would be them that suffered.
“What if whatever’s down there can’t be split into seven?” Yang Kai asked pointedly.
“That’s easy enough to handle. If the benefits can’t be divided into seven parts, then everyone will bid on them, the one who offers the highest price will get it. This way, if you have the money, you can obtain the treasure while everyone else will obtain some Saint Crystals. This is how I always settle such matters when outside the Sect.” Chen Shi Tao had apparently experienced similar situations more than once or twice and immediately came up with a solution that satisfied Yang Kai.
Facing such sincerity, Yang Kai naturally didn’t have any objections and immediately nodded, “Alright, then we’ll follow your plan. I’ll take the lead. I’m young and my body is strong, so I’m not afraid of any danger, so it doesn’t matter if I scout the way for everyone, but Foreign Elder Chang is old so…”
“I’ll bring up the rear. How would this old sir like to walk in front of this Young Lady?” Chen Shi Tao smiled slightly and proposed. She knew what Yang Kai was worried about and took the initiative to take a certain amount of risk upon herself as well.
“Okay.” Yang Kai nodded with satisfaction. He had to admit, this beautiful young woman called Chen Shi Tao truly knew how to handle matters. She was the kind of person who could consider the risks of a situation and the concerns of others around her very well while seeing things from multiple perspectives and making sound proposals that benefited everyone. It was no wonder the other four men and women looked to her as their leader.
This gave Yang Kai a favourable impression of her despite the short time they had interacted with one another.
He also figured that Chen Shi Tao was quite famous in Clear Sky Sect, likely a Core Disciple or character of similar status.
After the negotiations concluded successfully, Yang Kai didn’t waste any time and swiftly leapt down the hole.
This sight made Chen Shi Tao, who had wanted to speak a few words of warning to Yang Kai first, gawk in surprise. Before she could even get a word out, Yang Kai was gone.
“This…” All five of the Clear Sky Sect disciples looked around at each with cramped expressions.
All of them were more and more certain that Yang Kai was a man of great destiny. This guy acted so haphazardly and rashly, actually jumping into an unexplored cave without taking out any kind of defensive artefacts to protect himself. Even if he didn’t use any artefacts, he should have at least used his Saint Qi to protect himself, right?
However, he had simply jumped right in.
If it weren’t for him possessing great destiny, with this kind of behaviour, how could he have survived so long? He should have died many times over by now.
“Ahem, we should follow him.” Chang Qi saw the five people gawking and couldn’t help reminding them. If Yang Kai really encountered some kind of danger down below, them standing around here would not be of any help to him.
“En, follow him…” Chen Shi Tao nodded helplessly. The other four men and women from Clear Sky Sect immediately pushed their Saint Qi and jumped into the hole. After they jumped in, Chang Qi followed, with Chen Shi Tao bringing up the rear.
This hole was very deep, and after Yang Kai jumped in, he kept dropping down for quite some time at a very fast rate. This hole should have been naturally generated, but its walls were actually as smooth as jade.
Although Yang Kai didn’t use any defensive artefacts or push his Saint Qi to protect himself, his Divine Sense was pushed to its limits and if any kind of danger were to pop up, he would instantly be able to defend himself.
To his surprise though, there was no aura of danger from this hole at all. After falling for half an incense stick of time, Yang Kai estimated that he had descended at least a thousand metres or so yet he still felt perfectly safe.
Suddenly, an extremely pure energy rushed up from below, causing Yang Kai spirit to shake as he revealed a look of shock.
The richness of this energy aura was even purer and denser than the one back in the stalactite cave. Anything which could produce such a rich aura was clearly a very precious treasure.
After dropping another few hundred meters, Yang Kai finally landed on the ground and quickly stepped out to make room for the people who were following behind him. Taking out a luminous stone from his Space Ring, he then began looking around.
As soft beams of light filled his surroundings, Yang Kai was able to see he was currently in an underground cavern. There was also a crystal clear underground river flowing nearby.
The area of this cavern wasn’t too large, only a hundred meters or so in diameter, but Yang Kai could see numerous channels around him leading off in every direction.
From each of these channels, and incredibly rich World Energy aura could be felt.
As Yang Kai swept his eyes around, they brightened when they landed on a certain passageway.
From the mouth of this particular passageway, he felt the aura of the little snake-shaped World Spirit Treasure. Although this aura was very faint and was quickly dissipating, there was no doubt about its origin.
That little snake was actually hiding here.
Yang Kai didn’t rush out to find it though and instead stood still and waited.
A few moments later, the five members of Clear Sky Sect and Chang Qi arrived, and after discovering the strangeness of the cavern and the incredibly rich aura contained within it, all of them showed looks of anticipation.
“Senior Sister Chen, what is this place, what kind of good things are there?” Another female cultivator in the team couldn’t hold back her joy and hurriedly asked Chen Shi Tao.
“How am I supposed to know? Little brother, you came down first, did you find anything special?” Chen Shi Tao turned to ask Yang Kai.
“No,” Yang Kai shook his head, “After I arrived here I decided to wait for all of you.”
Chang Qi, on the other hand, frowned, seemingly remembering something, the look on his face going from anticipation to excitement.
Chen Shi Tao didn’t miss this and couldn’t help glancing over to him and asking, “Old sir, did you find something? If you have, please enlighten us.”
Chang Qi chuckled, “Young Lady is too serious. If this old man is correct, this place should be a mineral lode!”
“Mineral lode?” Chen Shi Tao and others were surprised.
“En, a Saint Crystal lode!” Chang Qi said in a solemn tone, his words causing the others present a good deal of shock. He then added, “Moreover, it should be a High-Rank one!”
“Is this place really a Saint Crystal lode?” Chen Shi Tao’s beautiful eyes flashed with deep astonishment, and the expressions of the other four men and women weren’t much better.
“This old man doesn’t dare make any guarantees, but I am at least eighty percent certain,” Chang Qi smiled lightly. “Because this old man once mined some Saint Crystals from a Saint Crystal lode owned by Shadow Moon Hall, this place is a bit familiar. And if we want to confirm my assumptions, all we need to do is head over to that tunnel over there.”
Everyone agreed with this sentiment and immediately decided to investigate. There were many passages leading out from this cavern, so taking the lead once more, Yang Kai picked a tunnel at will and walked into it.
After walking three hundred meters or so, Yang Kai came to a halt and stared at the sight in front of him. Even if he had witnessed great storms before and currently had a net worth of over a hundred million Saint Crystals, the scene before him still shocked him.
In front of him was a massive piece of completely intact Saint Crystal. This Saint Crystal had not yet been cut and was actually as big as a house, completely blocking the way forward. Judging from the colour and amount of impurities contained inside this huge Saint Crystal, plus the aura it gave off, it was easy for Yang Kai to determine this was High-Rank Saint Crystal!
This was just the edge of one tunnel, who knows how many Saint Crystals of such size were present in this place?
The sound of people pounding hearts and gulping came from behind Yang Kai.
On Shadowed Star, Saint Crystal lodes were scarce. One shouldn’t take the behaviour of the great forces at the Treasure Trove Pavilion’s auction as normal. Naturally, these Sects had massive accumulations of wealth of countless years, and with the opening of the Flowing Flame Sand Field at that time, all of them hadn’t been distressed about spending more Saint Crystals to buy themselves treasures for their disciples to equip so they could reap even greater benefits from the Flowing Flame Sand Field.
To these great forces, this was an investment; as long as these disciples could effectively make use of the things they bought, the benefits they obtained in the Flowing Flame Sand Field would more than make up for the Saint Crystals spent.
However, no matter how rich they appeared, it was an undeniable truth that Saint Crystals were scarce on the Cultivation Star.
Clear Sky Sect was also a great Sect no worse than Shadow Moon Hall, and Chen Shi Tao had heard that her Sect controlled more than a dozen large and small mineral lodes, but only two of those were High-Rank Saint Crystal lodes while the others were all Mid-Rank or Low-Rank.
Moreover, she knew that those two High-Rank lodes weren’t nearly as rich as the one she was currently standing in.
What was a true High-Rank lode? The Saint Crystal lode in front of her was! Any casually mined Saint Crystal here was High-Rank!
So when she saw this massive High-Rank Saint Crystal lying in front of her, even Chen Shi Tao felt it difficult to contain her excitement.
If they could mine this entire lode, it would definitely allow Clear Sky Sect’s financial resources to improve by several grades.
Why hadn’t anyone ever discovered such an incredible mineral lode hidden in the Flowing Flame Sand Field before?
“Do we need to come up with distribution for this too?” Yang Kai suddenly turned around and asked, pulling Chen Shi Tao out of her daze.
“No need no need! Although we haven’t checked the other channels, their situation is obviously similar to this one. Let’s split up and mine it separately. However much anyone mines, they can keep,” Chen Shi Tao waved her hand hastily.
It had only been a bit more than a month since the Flowing Flame Sand Field opened, which meant there were almost five months before it closed. If they stayed here that long and continued mining these Saint Crystals…