After listening to Yang Kai’s rampant words, the old man simply laughed aloud, “Little brat who doesn’t know the immensity of Heaven and Earth, this old master’s name shook the world before you were even born, yet you dare boast so shamelessly!? Enough nonsense, let this old master teach you how you should speak to your elders!”
As soon as the old man made this declaration, he shot out another scarlet ray of light. Yang Kai’s eyes narrowed as he instinctively felt danger approaching, but he had not seen the old man take any obvious actions and was unable to figure out how he made this attack.
While Yang Kai felt suspicious, he had no time to analyse the situation, so he swiftly summoned his Purple Shield and protected himself.
*Hong…*
A loud bang echoed as the violent attack struck, forcing Yang Kai to retreat several steps as he felt the blood in his chest roil. Although he had not been injured, this strange attack still caused Yang Kai’s wariness to rise because the force behind it was too great. If it had been someone with a weaker physique, even with the Purple Shield’s protection, they would have suffered greatly from this blow.
When the old man saw Yang Kai’s Purple Shield, his eyes flashed with greedy light as he exclaimed, “An Origin Grade High-Rank defensive artifact?”
His vision was sharp, so he quickly saw how extraordinary this Purple Shield was. When it was first refined, the Purple Shield was just an Origin Grade Low-Rank artifact, but after several improvements and modifications, Yang Yan had raised its quality to Origin Grade High-Rank.
Artifacts of this grade were extraordinarily rare on Shadowed Star. This old man’s status in Myriad Beast Mountain was not low and his cultivation reached the Second-Order Origin Returning Realm, but the best artifact he currently owned was just Origin Grade Mid-Rank, something he had found in an Ancient Ruin by chance.
A trivial Saint King Realm Junior like Yang Kai taking out an Origin Grade High-Rank artifact, a defensive one at that, made this old man seethe with jealousy and aroused greedy thoughts in his heart!
As long as he could kill this boy, this artifact would belong to him! Elder Jin Shi only wanted that Profound Gold and had not said anything about this brat’s property; moreover, the fight had just begun yet the other party had already taken out such a precious artifact, so who knows what other treasures he had on him?
Considering all this, the old man’s eyes filled with desire and murderous intent as he once again released his Divine Sense and sent out another burst of scarlet light towards Yang Kai.
Yang Kai did not try to dodge this time either, but it wasn’t because he was trying to act tough. He wanted to know what this old man’s strange attack was, so he pushed his Divine Sense to its limits and stared towards the approaching scarlet light unblinkingly.
A moment later, Yang Kai could not help showing a look of surprise.
Because he discovered that the true form of this scarlet light was not some method the old man from Myriad Beast Mountain used, but was actually the tongue of the Blue Eyes Blood Toad!
With the Blue Eyes Blood Toad being a Ninth-Order Monster Beast, it was no surprise this attack carried such great force. This Monster Beast’s tongue was probably one of the strongest and most elastic muscles it possessed, so a blow from it being able to force Yang Kai back was understandable.
Just as Yang Kai realized the nature of this attack, the scarlet tongue hit his Purple Shield again, but this time, Yang Kai had already braced himself, so despite feeling a strong impact which shook his body, he wasn’t forced to retreat again. When he was about to fight back though, he saw a smug grin appear on the old man’s face as he stretched out his hand and patted the Blue Eyes Blood Toad beneath him. Pouring his Saint Qi into his Monster Beast, the old man shouted, “Come!”
At the same time, Yang Kai felt a huge force pull on the shield in his hand, dragging him forward.
Looking down, Yang Kai’s brow jumped as he discovered that the long scarlet tongue of the Blue Eyes Blood Toad now actually had countless tiny suction cups on its end and these suction cups had attached themselves to his Purple Shield.
[Does this old dog want to take away my artifact?] Yang Kai instantly understood the other party’s intentions and sneered, condensing a burning hot Demonic Flame in his hand, and directly grabbing the scarlet long tongue.
“Boy, you court death!” Seeing this scene, the old man not only was not angry but instead felt overjoyed. This Blue Eyes Blood Toad was a Monster Beast he had raised from its birth and he was well aware of how hard and thick its skin was. Not only was it resistant to physical harm though, its entire body had strong toxins flowing through it.
A trivial Saint King Realm Junior wanting to grab the poisonous tongue of his Blue Eyes Blood Toad was nothing less than suicide in the old man’s opinion.
*Ci la…*
A sizzling sound rang and the smell of something burnt filled the air as Yang Kai tightly grasped the Blue Eyes Blood Toad’s poisonous tongue with his Demonic Flames.
The eyes of the Blue Eyes Blood Toad bulged as it felt great pain, its cheeks swelling up as it croaked pitifully.
“How is that possible?” The old man was horrified. Never had he imagined that this brief confrontation would cause harm to his Monster Beast. Staring at the opposing youth simply standing there and sending black flames running down his Monster Beast’s tongue, like a fire consuming a dry grassland, the old man finally realized the situation was different from what he had anticipated. These black flames were clearly unordinary and could not only resist his Monster Beast’s poison but were also extremely difficult to extinguish.
Immediately, the old man sent a command to his Monster Beast and the Blue Eyes Blood Toad swiftly released the Purple Shield and recovered its long tongue.
In a blink of an eye, the long poisonous tongue disappeared but the Blue Eyes Blood Toad’s cheeks continued to bulge several times before it opened its mouth wide and spat out a stream of black blood.
“How dare you hurt my Monster Beast!” The old man roared. He intended to kill this boy and take his treasures, but not only had he failed to steal a chicken, he had lost his rice in the process. The old man could tell that his Companion Monster Beast had been seriously injured.
Furious, the old man pointed his finger towards Yang Kai while at the same time countless warts on the Blue Eyes Blood Toad burst, releasing spurts of multicoloured toxic venom. These masses of venom condensed into hundreds of tiny arrows in the next instant and shot towards Yang Kai.
Yang Kai showed a dignified expression upon seeing this. Even without personally experiencing it, he could tell that this venom was not to be taken lightly. With a cold glare, Yang Kai summoned out a small furnace.
The Origin King Grade Artifact Refining Furnace!
As soon as this Artifact Refining Furnace appeared, it exuded a monstrous heat and with a great gust of wind, this furnace expanded to over a dozen metres in size and released a piercing bird cry. The Firebird Artifact Spirit flew out from the furnace in the next instant and spat out a fiery red glow from its beak to intercept the countless poison arrows.
The jet of flame and the venomous liquid collided and for a moment seemed evenly matched.
The old man’s expression changed once again as he stared at the Firebird Artifact Spirit with greed and fear, not certain how he should proceed.
On the other hand, Yang Kai remained calm and relaxed, even wearing a faint grin on his lips. The strength of the Artifact Spirit was far greater than when he first acquired it and should have no trouble dealing with a Ninth-Order Monster Beast.
A shocking, malevolent aura suddenly rushed towards Yang Kai at that moment. The old man saw his Monster Beast become entangled with the Firebird and would be unable to withdraw any time soon so he took the initiative to attack Yang Kai himself, using his one handed hatchet to send out an ominous black wave.
Realizing the power of his opponent’s artifact, Yang Kai naturally did not dare underestimate this attack. Although this old man’s Saint Qi flow would be somewhat suppressed when fighting in this place, he was still a Second-Order Origin Realm master, in the end. This would be Yang Kai’s first time confronting an enemy of this level.
Waving his hand, Yang Kai condensed numerous balls of Demonic Flame and under the control of his Divine Sense, he transformed them into bird-like shapes before sending them out to intercept the old man’s attack.
“Yuan Control Mastery?” The old man’s brow jumped, never having imagined he would see such a skillful display of Yuan Control Mastery from a Third-Order Saint King Realm cultivator. Even he did not possess such fine control over his Saint Qi, so he felt that a mere Saint King achieving such a feat was impossible.
However, with reality in front of him, he had no choice but to believe it.
The Demonic Flame birds collided with the black wave in the next instant and after a great rumbling sound, both completely dissipated.
“So what if you’ve achieved Yuan Control Mastery? In front of this old master, you can still only be slaughtered, little brat!” The old man shouted sullenly before releasing an invisible force centred on him that instantly spread out and directly engulfed Yang Kai.
An incredible sense of suppression suddenly befell Yang Kai, making it hard for him to even move his fingers.
Shi! This was the Shi of a Second-Order Origin Returning Realm cultivator, and it was far stronger than that of a First-Order master.
However, just suppressing Yang Kai wasn’t enough for this old man, so he quickly poured his Saint Qi into his one handed hatchet before tossing it out and shouting, “Go!”
After absorbing the old man’s Saint Qi, the malevolent aura of this one-handed hatchet was exuded increased explosively and the axe itself transformed into a black python dozens of metres in length.
This python shook its head and flicked its tail, appearing extremely fierce as it opened its mouth and shot towards the place where Yang Kai stood, as if it intended to swallow him whole.
The old man grinned viciously as he saw this. As a Second-Order Origin Returning Realm dealing with a Third-Order Saint King, he had actually been forced to go all out, something which greatly annoyed him. Nevertheless, compared to obtaining this little brat’s wealth, the old man felt this shame was worth it.
With a look of utter confidence filling his face, the old man watched in anticipation of Yang Kai’s body being broken to pieces.
At that moment though, several golden lights suddenly flickered and in an instant, golden radiance filled the air. As these golden lights rapidly swung back and forth, the old man actually felt like his Shi, which had just now been like the calm surface of a lake, had innumerable stones thrown into it, turning it chaotic and no longer able to suppress the other party.
[This brat can even destroy the Shi of an Origin Realm master?]
Oddly enough, these golden lights looked vaguely familiar, but the old man simply could not remember where he had seen them before.
It was not that this old man was ignorant and uninformed, it was just that the difference between Yang Kai’s Golden Blood Threads and Demon Blood Temple’s Demon Blood Threads was too great. Although they both originated from the same source, Demon Blood Temple’s own Secret Technique did not have the advantages that Yang Kai’s did. In order to condense Demon Blood Threads, Demon Blood Temple cultivators needed to use some tricks to increase their own vital essence or absorb and refine the vital essence of their enemies.
Although doing so allowed them to enhance the power of their Demon Blood Threads, this process added impurities to the Secret Technique that resulted in their Demon Blood Threads giving off a gloomy and somewhat disordered aura.
But Yang Kai’s Golden Blood Threads were condensed entirely from the Golden Blood in his body, making them far purer than even the original Demon Blood Thread! If it was Wu Xun from Demon Blood Temple here, he might have been able to see through the true nature of Yang Kai’s attack, but this old man did not possess such insight.
With the old man’s Shi broken, Yang Kai was immediately freed from its suppressive effects. Pouring his Saint Qi into the Purple Shield, Yang Kai tossed it forward and activated its special ability, instantly creating a yellow sandstorm that filled the air and swiftly enveloped the one-handed hatchet that had transformed into a jet black python.
From inside the sandstorm, the indistinct screams of the python rang as its giant figure thrashed about; however, it naturally wasn’t a simple matter for it to escape as the Purple Shield was a higher grade artifact than the one-handed hatchet and its sandstorm ability was focused on defence, allowing it to trap the python inside it.
Artifacts didn’t fight on their own of course, so this entanglement between the Purple Shield and the one-handed hatchet was actually a confrontation between Yang Kai and the old man’s Divine Senses, which was being played out through their artifacts.
Soon, the look on the old man’s face changed dramatically because during this battle he discovered that, in terms of foundation, Yang Kai Divine Sense wasn’t any weaker than his own, possibly even stronger and far exceeding what should be possible for a mere Saint King Realm cultivator.
“Who the hell are you!?” The old man exclaimed in alarm. He did not believe that a little brat without a powerful Sect behind him could possibly have such strength. Forget about the elite Saint King Realm disciples of his Myriad Beast Mountain, even Heaven Battling Union and Thunder Typhoon Sect could not possibly cultivate such a monstrous talent.
On Shadowed Star, there was only one place where this kind of cultivator might be found: Star Emperor Mountain!
Could this little brat have come out from Star Emperor Mountain for life experience? Recalling all the information he knew about Yang Kai; the old man felt his heart clench tight.
If this was not the case, how could this young man continuously reveal methods which were able to restrain him at every step?
“You spout too much nonsense!” Yang Kai showed no intention of answering. Just now, he had remained on the defensive not because he was not confident in his strength, but because it was his first time dealing with this level of cultivator. Even if he had favourable conditions and an advantageous position, he did not immediately use them as he wanted to try his opponent’s strength first. Now that he had a fair idea of this old man’s abilities, Yang Kai naturally planned to go on the offensive.
Having tested the waters enough, Yang Kai condensed a massive amount of Saint Qi into a giant Demonic Flame sword that seemed to suck in all the light around him before holding it up high and cleaving forward fiercely.
A several-dozen-metre long black sword wave tore through the sky towards the old man.
Feeling the lethality contained in this sword wave, the old man let out a shout and hurriedly dodged to the side, but before he could stand firm, another sword wave swept towards him, as if the young man in front of him didn’t care how much Saint Qi he wasted.
The old man’s complexion went pale as he realized that he could not evade this blow. Gritting his teeth, he summoned out a small square shield from his Space Ring and spat a mouthful of blood onto it. This square shield lit up and began to rotate rapidly, creating a golden light curtain filled with flowing ruins in front of him.
Every cultivator had at least one defensive artifact, and this old man was naturally no exception; after all, there were always times when one would be unable to dodge and deflect an attack in battle.
Although this square shield was just an Origin Grade Low-Rank defensive artifact, it was still a masterpiece refined by Myriad Beast Mountain’s Origin Grade Artifact Refiner. Ordinarily, this old man was reluctant to use it as he considered it one of his most precious possessions.
But now, he had no choice but to take it out.
*Hong…*
With a loud bang, the giant black sword wave smashed onto the centre of the golden light curtain, causing the runes on its surface to tremble but ultimately failing to cause any damage.
The old man trembled as he was forced back several steps, but his face was still filled with joy because he had managed to completely resist this sword wave, filling him with satisfaction about his defensive artifact.
But in the next moment, his joyful smile on his face went stiff as his eyes bulged in shock.
Coming straight at him were dozens of sword waves, each one as powerful as the first. Each of them dozens of metres long, these black flame sword waves seemed to cover half the sky as they closed in on him.
The old man’s heart clenched.
Was this little brat insane? How could a cultivator burn through so much Saint Qi in the middle of a fight? Wasn’t he afraid he would run out and fall into a state of weakness?
No matter what realm a cultivator had achieved, everyone would carefully preserve their strength during battle; after all, no one could guarantee whether they would end up in a protracted battle. If one exhausted all their Saint Qi, wouldn’t they be easily slaughtered by their enemy?
This kind of reckless attack by Yang Kai was something this old man had seen multiple times, but only when an enemy had become cornered and felt they had no way out and no hope of survival. It was a kind of deadly, last-ditch attempt to drag their enemy down with them and, fortunately for the old man, no one had succeeded in dragging him down with them so far.
This little brat suddenly fighting as if he wanted to kill him at the cost of his own life, had he gone mad?
All kinds of stray thoughts flashed across the old man’s mind in that moment. Having just taken one of these blows head-on, the old man had yet to regain his stance before the next wave of attacks approached. He had no other choice but to desperately pour his Saint Qi into his small square shield and pray that it would be able to withstand the incoming barrage.
The glow of the golden light curtain suddenly increased greatly.
In the next moment, a rumbling collision sound echoed, and the old man was continuously forced backwards. Each black sword wave crashed upon the golden light curtain and was dispersed, but it was instantly followed by another.
*Kacha…*
Hearing a clear, crisp, cracking sound, the old man went pale as he looked forward and discovered that the golden light curtain protecting him had begun to break. At first, it was just a small crack, but it had spread out across the entire golden surface like a spider’s web in the blink of an eye.
No matter how solid a defence was, it could not withstand an endless bombardment. Even Dragon Cave Mountain’s extraordinary Mountain Defending Array was no exception to this rule, so what did a trivial Origin Grade Low-Rank defensive artifact count for?
[Not good!] The old man exclaimed in his heart as he quickly threw the small square shield forward while simultaneously darting to the side.
In this critical moment, he could only choose to abandon the small square shield he so greatly treasured; after all, this small shield did not have a special power like Yang Kai’s Purple Shield.
Without the old man’s continuous infusion of Saint Qi, the small shield instantly became a dead item, so even if its grade was high, it was quickly swept up in Yang Kai’s sword wave bombardment and shattered. The scattered fragments of this shield were instantly incinerated by the Demonic Flames and turned to ashes, but by blocking a couple of sword waves, it had bought the old man enough time to withdraw to three hundred metres to relative safety.
Coldly staring towards the position, the old man had retreated, Yang Kai’s empty left hand grabbed towards the air as he condensed a black spear from his Saint Qi.
“Go!” Yang Kai shouted as he tossed this spear, making it race forward at phenomenal speed. The spear disappeared for a moment and, by the time it reappeared, it was already right in front of the old man’s face.
The Heaven Punishing Spear from the Nine Heavens Divine Skills was an attack Yang Kai had reached an incredible level of proficiency with, so the power it could display was now quite extraordinary.
Before the old man had time to recover from the exchange just now, he once again found himself in imminent danger. His heart filled with rage, he let out a great roar as he lifted both his hands and condensed a massive amount of Saint Qi into a light curtain in front of his head and managed to block the Heaven Punishing Spear’s fatal blow.
But this assault had not ended yet. The sky above the old man’s head suddenly distorted as a giant palm appeared and proceeded to slam down towards him, causing the old man’s eyes to bulge.
This palm seemed to obstruct the entire sky, sealing off all escape routes while imposing a sense of despair as it fell.
Heaven Covering Hand, one hand covers the Heavens!
With a loud bang, the palm ruthlessly struck, and the ground trembled violently. A several-dozen-metre-wide pit was opened up and, if one looked down from above, they would be able to clearly make out the shape of a palm.
However, Yang Kai just frowned and turned his eyes to a nearby spot.
At some point, the old man had somehow managed to move to this position, his face pale as he coughed lightly, seemingly quite unsteady.
Yang Kai could not help showing a look of surprise.
He did not know what Secret Technique his opponent had used but it had allowed this old man to escape from his blow just now. It seemed that no Second-Order Origin Returning Realm cultivator could be underestimated.
“Boy, do you really want to force this old master to perish together with you?” The old man glared at Yang Kai with both anger and fear as he coldly asked.
Having arrived at this moment, he no longer dared to underestimate Yang Kai. Even without the suppression of the Spirit Arrays here, he estimated he could not kill Yang Kai and may only be an even match for him.
But now, with the suppression of these strange Spirit Arrays and unable to display even seventy percent of his full strength, this old man realized that he was completely not Yang Kai’s opponent. Besides the first few attacks he managed to land, the rest of the time he had been on the defensive, leading to his current distraught condition.
The exchange just now was especially frightening, causing the old man to sweat just remembering it. If he had not taken the initiative to escape using a Secret Technique that damaged his vitality in order to dramatically increase his speed, he likely would have suffered a severe injury.
If he suffered a grievous wound in this forsaken place, the old man could easily guess what kind of fate would befall him.
However, that Secret Technique was not one he could use casually, and after this battle, whether he emerged victoriously or defeated, he would need to spend a few years recuperating to return to his peak.
The old man was already determined to withdraw from this battle. While the allure of precious treasures was great, one needed to have their life to enjoy them. As for how to placate Elder Feng, that was not a matter he had the luxury of considering right now.
“Perish together with you?” After hearing his words, Yang Kai showed a look of naked contempt and spat, “Depending on you?”
The sarcasm and ridicule in his tone couldn’t be more obvious, and if it were any other time, this old man would certainly not let such an insult slide; after all, he had never been so ridiculed by a Saint King Realm cultivator before, but at this moment…
“You think this old master is already a fish on the chopping block? Boy, this old master admits that you are extraordinary, but the price you pay if you want to kill this old master will not be small! Why not let this matter end here. As long as you let this old master leave, this old master can swear to never disturb your Dragon Cave Mountain again, what say you?”
“You think you’re still qualified to discuss conditions with me?” Yang Kai grinned and said coldly, “If I want to treat you like a fish on the chopping block, what can you do?”
“Boy, when it’s possible to let people off, one should spare them. If you insist on biting this old master to death, you’d best be careful you don’t break your teeth in the process!” The old man said in a fierce tone while inwardly feeling anxious.
“Oh? Then I’d like to see whether your bones are hard enough to break my teeth,” Yang Kai’s eyes flashed sharply, refusing to make any concessions.
These people invaded his home and tried to murder and rob him, so how could Yang Kai just compromise and let this old man leave safely? Yang Kai had made up his mind to kill all the people who dared step onto Dragon Cave Mountain. Showing mercy here would only lead to others thinking he was weak and easily bullied; now was the time for Dragon Cave Mountain to show its fangs.
Hearing Yang Kai’s answer, a ruthless light flashed across the old man’s eyes as he grit his teeth and muttered, “Do you really insist on acting ruthless?”
Instead of replying, Yang Kai simply condensed another Demonic Flame sword in his hand and slashed out, letting his actions speak for themselves.
“You’ve compelled me to do this!” The old man suddenly wore a fierce expression as he stood firm without moving, paying no heed at all to the approaching sword wave, as if he wasn’t the slightest bit afraid of it.
Yang Kai raised his brow as a solemn look filled his face. He didn’t think the other party was seeking death. Judging from this old man’s words just now, it was clear he had some kind of trump card that he had yet to use and was absolutely confident it could block this blow.
Understanding this, Yang Kai didn’t hesitate anymore, lifting his finger and slashing the space in front of him, silently sending out his Space Blade towards the old man.
Yang Kai intended to end this battle with his Space Blade before the old man could reveal his trump card.
With his Demonic Flame sword wave in front, and his Space Blade following close behind, the former concealing the latter, the old man didn’t even notice this hidden blow and simply stood in place, taking a jade box out of his Space Ring.
Opening this jade box, the old man took out a longan-sized pill from inside.
The old man picked up this pill and threw it directly into his mouth before swallowing it with a grunt.
He didn’t know if it was a misconception, but when this old man took out this pill, Yang Kai thought he saw a look of nostalgia and struggle in his eyes, making him wonder what it was this old man was reminiscing about at this time.
In the next instant, the giant Demonic Flame sword wave got to within a dozen metres of the old man.
However, before this sword wave could hit its mark, a giant figure fell from the sky and hit the ground with a thunderous bang, blocking the old man from this blow.
*Ci la…*
The black sword wave struck this giant figure and sent out a grating sound, after which a painful croak rang out.
It was the Blue-Eyed Blood Toad!
At the critical moment, the old man had actually summoned his Blue-Eyed Blood Toad back. Although it was a Ninth-Order Monster Beast, this toad wasn’t as strong as the Firebird Artifact Spirit, its only advantage being its thick skin and strong flesh.
During its battle with the Artifact Spirit, the Blue-Eyed Blood Toad’s body had suffered numerous serious injuries and was now covered in cuts and burns. Nearly every one of its original warts had been popped and was leaking foul-smelling toxins at this moment.
Even so, it still hadn’t died. If it had been a different, less resilient type of Ninth-Order Monster Beast, it would likely have long since perished.
Already at death’s door, when it was struck by Yang Kai sword wave, the Blue-Eyed Blood Toad suffered another grievous wound, one that was bone-deep.
Strangely, the old man remained completely indifferent, as if this Monster Beast wasn’t one he had personally raised for countless years from infancy to maturity. Reaching out, the old man placed his hand on the Blue-Eyed Blood Toad’s back and began desperately infusing it with his Saint Qi.
Silently, Yang Kai’s Space Blade slashed into the abdomen of the Blue-Eyed Blood Toad right where his Demonic Flame sword wave had struck and greatly deepened the wound.
Anything Yang Kai’s Space Blade cut through was instantly banished to The Void, making it impossible for damage done by his Space Blade to be restored.
While the power of Yang Kai’s Space Blade wasn’t small, the toughness of the Blue-Eyed Blood Toad’s body also couldn’t be underestimated. Yang Kai’s Space Blade cut through most of its target’s body but ultimately failed to slice it apart completely before disappearing.
Seeing this, Yang Kai couldn’t help feeling a bit disappointed. If his Space Blade could have advanced another metre, perhaps he could have killed the old man together with his toad in one fell swoop.
Now was not the time to worry about such things though.
No matter how resilient the Blue-Eyed Blood Toad was, after suffering such a serious wound, it would definitely die, and as its owner and life companion, the old man would surely receive some kind of backlash when it did. Busy injecting his Saint Qi into his Blue-Eyed Blood Toad, the old man suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood and couldn’t help his eyes from bulging in shock.
Realizing that the vitality of his Companion Monster Beast was rapidly dissipating, the old man pushed his Saint Qi even more violently, causing the body of his Blue-Eyed Blood Toad to expand rapidly and soon become round, as if it might burst at any time.
Yang Kai’s eyes narrowed when he saw this and silently issued an order to the Firebird Artifact Spirit. With a crisp bird cry, the Firebird transformed into a streak of red light and shot forward.
But before the Artifact Spirit could rush over, a loud bursting noise rang out and the Blue-Eyed Blood Toad exploded into a blood mist, its bones disintegrating and leaving behind only a cloud of multicoloured poison.
Frightened by this unexpected development, the Artifact Spirit rapidly soared up into the sky to avoid being affected by this explosion.
Simultaneously, the old man wore a fierce look upon his face as he stood in place, seemingly enjoying this toxic baptism while executing some kind of Secret Art or Secret Technique to rapidly absorb the poison mist.
At the same time, the old man stretched out his hand and grabbed the Monster Core of the Blue-Eyed Blood Toad before throwing it into his mouth and swallowing it.
This series of events happened instantaneously and dumbfounded Yang Kai.
After absorbing this poison mist and the Monster Core from his Blue-Eyed Blood Toad, the old man’s appearance underwent a dramatic change, his exposed skin filled with warts that emitted a foul toxic odour, making him look exactly like the now deceased Blue-Eyed Blood Toad.
This old man had been ugly before, but now his appearance was even worse.
The changes didn’t end there as his two eyes turned blue and assumed a more animalistic look.
The most obvious change was that his cheeks actually swelled up greatly, just like a frog, making him look a little amusing.
But Yang Kai wasn’t able to laugh at this scene because after this old man underwent this transformation, his aura also dramatically increased and gave off a very dangerous feeling.
“Great! This is just the best!” The old man cackled wildly as he fixed his Blue-Eyes on Yang Kai and coldly declared, “Forcing this old master to use his Monster Transformation, you can die contented!”
Monster Transformation! Yang Kai raised his brow. Although this was the first time he heard of such a strange technique, he figured it was one of Myriad Beast Mountain’s Forbidden Techniques. After all, the cultivators from Myriad Beast Mountain handled Monster Beasts for most of their lives, controlling them to fight, so developing such a technique shouldn’t have been impossible.
It wasn’t difficult for Yang Kai to tell that this old man was now no longer completely human and should instead be regarded as half-man, half-Monster Beast.
Moreover, at this moment, there weren’t just Saint Qi fluctuations coming from this old man, but Monster Qi as well. The two forces terrifyingly superimposed on one another!
This Forbidden Technique certainly had catastrophic side effects! Yang Kai immediately judged that there might not be any way to undo the transformation; otherwise, the old man wouldn’t have hesitated so long to use it. Saint Qi and Monster Qi were two completely different types of strength, so it was impossible for them to coexist inside a human body.
Yang Kai’s guess was correct. Myriad Beast Mountain’s Monster Transformation Technique indeed had serious consequences, and there wasn’t any way to reverse it. Even if he somehow managed to successfully suppress the Monster Qi rampaging through his body right now, the old man would lose most, if not all of his cultivation in the process, rendering him crippled. However, if he couldn’t suppress this Monster Qi, the backlash he suffered would kill him.
The old man had truly reached a dead end, otherwise he would not be burning his boat like this.
Even though this old man’s aura had dramatically increased, Yang Kai wasn’t afraid, instead exchanging a brief look with the Firebird Artifact Spirit before the two of them regrouped to confront this enemy.
The old man didn’t plan to waste time. As soon as his Monster Transformation technique was complete, his cheeks swelled up before he seemingly casually exhaled, spitting out a green poisonous arrow towards Yang Kai.
After using this Monster Transformation, the old man was actually able to use the Blue-Eyed Blood Toad’s abilities.
Yang Kai raised his eyebrows and immediately dodged to the side.
As Yang Kai dodged though, the poison arrow approaching him suddenly burst mid-air and turned into countless tiny poison darts that soared in every direction.
Caught off guard, Yang Kai was only able to condense his Saint Qi to form a protective barrier around his body.
*Ci la la…*
When these poison darts struck Yang Kai’s Saint Qi protection, they quickly began eroding holes in his Demonic Flames. After undergoing this Monster Transformation, it seemed this poison had become even stronger.
Before Yang Kai could steady himself, a dangerous aura suddenly pressed down on him from above.
Yang Kai reacted instinctively by condensing his Saint Qi on his palm and thrusting upwards.
A strong force struck from above, causing Yang Kai to sink to the ground, but when he looked up, there was no trace of his enemy. Only after releasing his Divine Sense all around did Yang Kai notice the old man jumping around him at an unbelievable speed, seemingly looking for a flaw in his defence to exploit.
This kind of speed was not something a Human could possess. It seemed that after the old man used his Monster Transformation, he had also inherited the leaping abilities of the Blue-Eyed Blood Toad.
The situation had become a bit troublesome! With his opponent moving so fast, Yang Kai would have a hard time hitting him; however, Yang Kai wasn’t fighting alone here, he had his Artifact Spirit to help him as well as the support of Yang Yan’s powerful Spirit Arrays. Not panicking, Yang Kai quickly used his Divine Sense to send an instruction to the Artifact Spirit.
Receiving this command, the Firebird immediately burst into countless tiny versions of itself that swarmed outwards to fill the surrounding space.
In the next instant, several of these tiny birds cried out as they exploded into balls of flame.
From the direction of these cries, the old man’s figure reappeared with a look of helplessness and hatred filling his face.
He hadn’t expected Yang Kai to actually use the Artifact Spirit to set up an inescapable net to track his movements.
Several Golden Threads suddenly shot out at that moment, filling the sky with golden light as they cut towards the exposed old man.
These Golden Threads each gave off an incredibly sharp aura and the old man understood that once he was cut by them he would definitely suffer greatly. With a solemn look appearing on his face, the old man suddenly glared towards Yang Kai with his sharp Blue-Eyes.
An invisible force burst into Yang Kai’s Knowledge Sea and shook his mind.
A Spiritual Energy Toxin! After using his Monster Transformation, apparently the old man’s Knowledge Sea had also mutated, allowing him to release toxic Spiritual Energy. This was a powerful method that was extremely difficult to defend against or purge as this poison would sink into one’s Knowledge sea like maggots on rotting bones.
Seeing the old man glare fixedly towards him, Yang Kai did not panic. Instead, he rejoiced, his glint in his left eye suddenly becoming deep and profound as a golden pupil appeared.
Demon Eye of Annihilation!
This pure golden pupil gave off a majestic and daunting aura, as if it could see through and command everything in this world.
Lingering about this golden pupil, however, was also a kind of inexplicable haze.
Coloured Glass Divine Light!
After refining the Coloured Glass Bead that Dai Yuan gave to him, Yang Kai had successfully managed to merge some of its power with his Demon Eye of Annihilation, and although this fusion wasn’t yet complete, it could already display some effect.
The Demon Eye of Annihilation was one of Great Demon God’s innate Divine Abilities, not something Yang Kai cultivated himself but had instead inherited. Even so, as Yang Kai’s strength grew, the power of this eye also grew; as such, although Great Demon God was just a Saint King when he died, it seemed this Demon Eye of Annihilation would continue to be of use to Yang Kai in the future.
An invisible vortex appeared in this golden pupil, and from this vortex, a powerful suction emerged. The old man was shocked by this as, in the instant he met eyes with Yang Kai, he felt his Soul become disturbed, like it was being sucked away from his body.
This discovery terrified the old man and he quickly circulated his Secret Art to suppress the palpitations of his heart.
But things did not end there as the multi-coloured light that lingered about this golden eye actually began exerting another strange power, one that caused the old man’s Soul, which he had just barely managed to stabilize, to become turbulent again, to the point that he was unable to even control it anymore.
The Demon Eye of Annihilation already had the ability to draw out and absorb a cultivator’s Soul, an ability Yang Kai had relied upon to increase his comprehension of the Heavenly Way and Martial Dao far beyond his current realm. This allowed him to break through at remarkable speeds without destabilizing his foundation or mood.
The Coloured Glass Divine Light, on the other hand, had a powerful suppressive effect on a cultivator’s Soul and could not be blocked by the power of the five elements. When the two effects were superimposed, the might they displayed could not be underestimated.
However, Yang Kai’s strength wasn’t very high at present, so the effect of this technique on this old man was greatly weakened, not to mention that this old man had already used his strange Monster Transformation skill, making him far stronger than an ordinary Second-Order Origin Returning Realm cultivator.
As such, after just one breath, the old man managed to shake off the deterrence of the Demon Eye of Annihilation and Coloured Glass Divine Light.
However, this was enough. During this one breath of time, Yang Kai had sent out a dozen Space Blades from his fingertips to attack the old man. By the time the old man regained his freedom, these pitch black blades had already arrived right in front of their target.
The old man saw this approaching attack and let out a great roar, condensing two layers of light curtains in front of himself. The first of these layers was condensed of his own Saint Qi, while the second was formed from the Monster Qi of the Blue-Eyed Blood Toad.
Unfortunately for the old man, these two layers of protection were unable to stop the advance of Yang Kai’s Space Blades!
Silently, the more than a dozen Space Blades passed through where the old man stood and after slicing through his body, flew out a hundred metres before gradually fading out of existence.
The old man froze up in shock as he stared towards Yang Kai in horror. Immediately after, he lowered his head and saw many blade-shaped cuts across his body. Through these cuts, he could clearly see his destroyed organs and red blood flowing out.
“Space Force!” The old man muttered in shock as his body fell to pieces, turning into a mound of broken flesh. On his old face, his two eyes were still bulged, as if even in death, he couldn’t believe he had died in such a place.
Looking at this broken corpse, Yang Kai exhaled slightly. This battle had not been easy for him. Although Yang Yan was controlling the local Spirit Arrays to suppress the strength of this old man, after displaying his Monster Transformation Secret Technique, this old man’s strength had soared to a level far beyond what his cultivation should have allowed.
If Yang Kai had been facing this old man alone, he might not necessarily have been able to kill him.
The suction force from the Demon Eye of Annihilation pulled in the Remnant Soul of the old man a moment later. This was the Soul of a Second-Order Origin Returning Realm master and would be immensely helpful to Yang Kai when it came to comprehending Shi, so he naturally was not going to miss this opportunity.
After this battle, Yang Kai had a vague understanding of his current combat effectiveness. Right now, he should not have a problem fighting Second-Order Origin Returning Realm cultivators, but whether he could kill one or not would mostly depend on their other party’s abilities. As for Third-Order Origin Realm masters, Yang Kai felt like his strength was still insufficient, but he would need to fight one to confirm his speculations.
Nearby, without the Divine Sense control of the old man, the one-handed hatchet which had transformed into a black python returned to its original appearance and fell to the ground.
Yang Kai flicked his wrist and first collected his Purple Shield before picking up the one-handed hatchet and playing with it for a moment before tossing it into his Space Ring.
Standing on the spot and silently investigating for a moment, Yang Kai quickly understood Dragon Cave Mountain’s current situation.
The intruders were all basically dead, but at a place about ten kilometres away there was a Second-Order Origin Returning Realm master locked in a bitter battle against three First-Order Origin Returning Realm cultivators.
From the fluctuations of these auras, Yang Kai quickly judged that the enemy should be a master from Demon Blood Temple while the three First-Order Origin Returning Realm cultivators were, needless to say, Chang Qi, Hao An, and Ning Xiang Chen.
Although this trio’s cultivation was one Minor Realm lower than the middle-aged man from Demon Blood Temple, inside Dragon Cave Mountain’s grounds they should not have a problem defeating him. Yang Kai could tell that the battle was quite one-sided and figured it was only a matter of time before the enemy fell.
Ning Xiang Chen wading into these muddy waters and openly siding with Dragon Cave Mountain, however, was an unexpected development for Yang Kai.
After all, he did not have any kind of deep friendship with this Senior and had only spoken to him a few times during their expedition inside the Emperor Garden. Although Yang Kai knew that Ning Xiang Chen taking such actions today were in order to borrow his Firebird Artifact Spirit, Yang Kai was not offended in the slightest. The other party did not have any malicious intentions and simply wanted to request Yang Kai’s help with something, so Yang Kai had readily agreed.
This coincidence had brought a powerful reinforcement for Dragon Cave Mountain just when it needed it, so Yang Kai naturally felt grateful.
If not for Ning Xiang Chen’s presence, Chang Qi and Hao An alone would not be able to kill this master from Demon Blood Temple.
Of course, whether or not Ning Xiang Chen helped Dragon Cave Mountain did not make too much of a difference, but this unexpected surprise still pleased Yang Kai greatly.
No longer paying attention to that side, Yang Kai turned his gaze to another position and flashed a cold grin before walking over.
Inside a strange illusion, where there was no sun, moon, or stars, only a barren plain that seemed to stretch out forever, Xie Li sat cross-legged on the ground, as tranquil as an ancient well. He had tried multiple methods but was unable to even disturb the Spirit Array trapping him, allowing him to conclude that he was unable to escape with just his ability, so he decided to not waste anymore of his strength and simply wait while recuperating.
By now, Xie Li knew that this Illusion Array had no lethality, so if the enemy wanted to kill him, they would have to show up.
As the Xie Family’s strongest master, Xie Li’s mental fortitude was exceptional, but the few Saint King Realm Juniors who had followed him were a different story, all of them fixedly staring towards Xie Li, hoping that he would be able to save them.
But since Xie Li remained silent, they were helpless to do anything, none of them daring to disturb him nor try to escape on their own, so right now they felt like ants on a hot pot, anxious to the extreme.
Suddenly, Xie Li stood up and stared towards a spot not far in front of him, his eyes flashing a cold light.
As Xie Li stood up, the space in front of him visibly distorted and a moment later, a figure mysteriously appeared, as if it had passed through a transparent curtain of water and stood in front of the small group from the Xie Family.
Looking at this person’s face, Xie Li’s eyes narrowed as many thoughts quickly flashed across his mind.
Naturally, he recognized Yang Kai; after all, his son, Xie Hong Wen, had died at Yang Kai’s hands. The enmity for the murder of his child was something Xie Li had wanted to repay since the moment he learned of it, but Xie Li was also a man who knew how to read the situation and had thus not risked coming to Dragon Cave Mountain before now to find trouble with Yang Kai. With Qian Tong standing behind Yang Kai all this time, all the satisfaction Xie Li would derive from killing this boy would soon be buried with him. Since that was the case, the gains simply did not equal the losses.
And so, he had suppressed himself, looking for an opportunity to exact his revenge.
Luckily, after an infuriatingly long wait, his opportunity had finally come.
Now that he had met the target of his enmity, Xie Li naturally felt explosive anger! But Xie Li did not lose control of himself and simply stared at Yang Kai, not rushing forward to attack him recklessly.
After entering this Illusion Array, Yang Kai glanced around for a moment before casually summoning his Artifact Spirit. The Firebird spread its wings wide and condensed several fireballs the size of washbasins before shooting them towards the few Saint Kings present.
These Saint King Realm cultivators were truly quite pitiful. They had been trapped here for what seemed like an eternity, spending every moment on edge, and now they had suddenly been attacked by the Firebird whose strength was comparable to an Origin Realm master. How could they be expected to put up any resistance?
All of these Saint Kings’ hurriedly summoned defensive artifacts were unable to resist the fierce attack of these fireballs and shattered on contact, their broken fragments quickly melting under the intense heat. Next, the Saint Qi these cultivators used to protect their bodies was easily burnt away, followed by their bodies which were swiftly reduced to ashes.
In the blink of an eye, the few Saint King Realm cultivators accompanying Xie Li all died without even being able to put up a fight.
Xie Li’s expression did not change in the slightest as this happened, as if the cultivators who just died were not disciples from his family, his full attention remaining fixed on Yang Kai.
After a long silence, Xie Li took a deep breath and said, “This is our first meeting is it not? This old master’s name is Xie Li. Presumably, you know who I am.”
Yang Kai curled his lips slightly as he replied, “I know who you are, and I know why you’re here. I just have one question for you.”
“Good, before you die, this old master can satisfy your wish,” Xie Li coldly snorted, seemingly completely confident in his own strength and methods.
“Shameless boasting!” Yang Kai snickered, “Forget it, I’ve no interest in wasting time with you, just tell me where Lu Ye is, and I’ll leave you with a complete corpse.”
“Lu Ye?” Xie Li frowned, apparently not having expected this would be Yang Kai’s question, but after a complicated look flashed across his eyes, he just shook his head and replied, “I don’t know, he’s probably dead.”
“Dead? Him? …” Yang Kai muttered flatly.
It was impossible for Lu Ye to die so easily; after all, Yang Kai was certain he cut off one of the other party’s arms in the Flowing Flame Sand Field, but when next he saw him that arm had actually grown back.
This was something beyond Yang Kai’s ability to comprehend.
A man who could regenerate a severed arm could not possibly die so easily. Yang Kai vaguely felt that this Lu Ye was not simple.
But at this moment, the only invaders left alive on Dragon Cave Mountain were Xie Li in front of him and the middle-aged man from Demon Blood Temple to his left. If Lu Ye had come here, there was no reason he could not be found with Yang Yan and Wu Yi constantly monitoring the situation.
That bastard was quite astute and didn’t come here in person, causing Yang Kai to grind his teeth in frustration.
“Is that your only question?” Xie Li glared at him impatiently.
“Yes,” Yang Kai grinned back at him.
“Then you can die!” Xie Li shouted sternly as he began releasing a terrifying Saint Qi aura from his body, one that was visible to the naked eye. At the same time, his muscles began to bulge and take on a strange bronze-coloured glow as he shot towards Yang Kai like an arrow from a string.
Yang Kai revealed a look of surprise as he had not expected Xie Li to want to engage in close-quarter combat with him; however, he didn’t think too much of this. With how much Xie Li hated him, fighting hand to hand would naturally be a better way for him to vent his anger.
Thinking so, Yang Kai’s mouth curled into a grin as he stood his ground and stared indifferently at the approaching Xie Li, waving his hand, and releasing several Golden Threads into the air in front of him.
Xie Li did not even try to dodge this blockade and instead punched forward, his fist seeming to move slowly as it exuded a powerful aura and golden glow that struck towards Yang Kai’s Golden Threads.
In the blink of an eye, this fist collided with Yang Kai’s Golden Blood Threads, and to Yang Kai’s surprise, his extraordinarily sharp threads failed to cut this fist. On top of that, an inexplicable force was transmitted through his Golden Threads back to him, causing his vital essence to tumble.
After this single exchange, Yang Kai understood that this Xie Li would be more difficult to handle than the old man from Myriad Beast Mountain.
Worthy of being the master of a powerful family from Shadow Moon Hall, Xie Li’s heritage and foundation were extraordinary. If Xie Li had fought that old man one on one, the old man would not have been his opponent.
Yang Kai’s expression became solemn as he prepared to resort to other means to stop Xie Li, but suddenly, an unexpected mutation occurred.
Xie Li, who had charged towards Yang Kai with a thick murderous intent and incredible momentum, suddenly let out a strange cry, as if something had happened to him, his face contorting in pain and confusion, followed immediately by his eyes going completely bloodshot.
Yang Kai frowned as he subconsciously thought that his opponent was playing some kind of trick on him, but immediately after, he felt something was not right and for a moment, he became confused as to how to react.
In that brief moment of indecision, Xie Li managed to close to within ten metres of Yang Kai, his murderous intent so thick it was nearly substantive, cutting into Yang Kai’s skin like a blade.
Immediately after, Xie Li’s body glowed a strange bloody red colour and his vitality violently surged, becoming extremely disordered. Simultaneously, his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears all began bleeding profusely as he glared towards Yang Kai, making for a terrifying picture.
“This is…” Yang Kai stared at this scene in confused shock, but soon he remembered something, and his expression went pale. Waving his hand, he summoned his Purple Shield and immediately activated its sandstorm ability to protect himself.
At the same time, the Firebird Artifact Spirit swooped down from the sky and transformed into a flaming light curtain, adding another layer of protection.
Just as Yang Kai finished all this, Xie Li smashed into the transformed Firebird Artifact Spirit.
The searing hot flames turned Xie Li into a fireball in an instant, but he seemed to be completely unaware of this as he continued to fearlessly charge towards Yang Kai, incoherent words leaking from his lips.
Still, the flame light curtain flexed under this impact and hindered Xie Li’s forward momentum, slowing his advance significantly.
Xie Li’s body also seemed to reach its limit at that moment, his skin cracking all over his body as blood oozed out continuously before rapidly evaporating under the intense heat.
With a terrifying bang, Xie Li’s body, and the huge Saint Qi reserves contained inside it, suddenly burst apart, creating an extraordinary shockwave centred on his location that sent everything, from dirt and rocks to plants, flying in all directions.
The surrounding space flickered violently as the Illusion Array arranged here was unable to bear the impact of such an explosion, lasting only a breath before shattering and revealing the original scenery of this place.
The flame light curtain which had originally been wrapped around Xie Li’s body was also torn apart by this explosion. Fortunately, the Artifact Spirit wasn’t a physical entity, so, even though it was torn apart like this, it wasn’t significantly damaged. After gathering itself together, it quickly restored its original appearance, but a look of fear was apparent now on its face.
All of Dragon Cave Mountain shook violently because of this explosion, and the World Energy aura became severely distorted. Even the layers upon layers of protective barriers were unable to conceal this blast.
“What!” Qian Tong and Fei Zhi Tu, who were fifty kilometres away, both stood up and stared towards Dragon Cave Mountain in shock.
“Old Fei, was that…” Qian Tong muttered in a dignified tone.
“Someone self-destructed?” Fei Zhi Tu spoke in astonishment.
“Yeah… and from fluctuations released, it seems to be Xie Li.”
“It couldn’t be, Xie Li is a Second-Order Origin Realm cultivator. Even if he fell into some kind of Spirit Array, he couldn’t have been forced into such an action.”
“Let’s go see, some kind of accident must have happened!” Qian Tong concluded before soaring off towards Dragon Cave Mountain. Fei Zhi Tu frowned before smiling bitterly and following.
Currently, Shadow Moon Hall was in a precarious situation, and it was not a good time for them to be taking such overt actions, but after seeing the Remnant Soul of that Ancient Divine Spirit Yang Kai possessed, Fei Zhi Tu was no longer able to treat him as an ordinary Saint King Realm Junior, even subconsciously thinking he should maintain a good relationship with him.
In addition, Qian Tong obviously favoured Yang Kai heavily and naturally hoped that nothing tragic would befall him or his Dragon Cave Mountain.
Wei Gu Chang and Dong Xuan’er exchanged a quick glance before following without hesitation.
Their group of four hurriedly flew through the air, but even before they reached Dragon Cave Mountain, they saw from all directions countless rays of light moving towards the same goal as them. Obviously, these were the masters who had been sitting on the sidelines to watch.
After feeling the strange movements just now on Dragon Cave Mountain, these masters were all surprised and ran over to investigate.
Over on Coloured Glass Sect’s side, Gong Ao Fu, along with Dai Yuan and Yin Su Die were also flying forward, but unlike Gong Ao Fu and Yin Su Die, Dai Yuan’s face was filled with anxiety, and after hesitating for a while, she couldn’t suppress her worries, grit her teeth, and asked, “Honoured Master, what happened just now? Why was there such a terrible energy fluctuation?”
Gong Ao Fu’s brow slightly wrinkled, seemingly unhappy that Dai Yuan cared so much about Dragon Cave Mountain. She did not want to answer this question, but upon seeing Yin Su Die also staring at her curiously, she quietly replied, “Someone self-destructed, it’s the only explanation for this kind of explosion.”
“Self-destructed? Who self-destructed?” Yin Su Die raised her delicate brow as she excitedly asked, “Could it be that Dragon Cave Mountain was overwhelmed and that Yang Kai had no other way out?”
Listening to her say this, Dai Yuan could not stop her pretty face from going white as her heart clenched tight.
However, Gong Ao Fu slowly shook her head and declared, “No, that boy couldn’t have produced such a powerful explosion. The one who self-destructed was definitely one of the highest-ranking masters who went in.”
“A Second-Order Origin Realm master self-destructed? How could that be?” Yin Su Die gasped, “There were only three Second-Order Origin Returning Realm masters that entered Dragon Cave Mountain, each one of them a famous and powerful figure, how could one of them have chosen to explode themself?”
“How do you expect your Master to know? Don’t you see everyone rushing over to investigate now? Perhaps no one knows for sure what just occurred, but these aura fluctuations… they seem similar to those from Shadow Moon Hall.”
“Shadow Moon Hall… how could…” Yin Su Die’s pretty face filled with shock.
“Honoured Master, is that really the case?” Dai Yuan asked, clearly pleasantly surprised.
Gong Ao Fu turned her eyes to Dai Yuan upon hearing this and coldly said, “Whether that is the case or not, what does it have to do with you? When this is all over and we return to Coloured Glass Sect, you will enter secluded retreat and not come out without my express permission!”
“Yes…” Dai Yuan bit her red lips and lightly nodded.
Although Gong Ao Fu was very unsatisfied with her disciple’s current attitude, she was also quite curious right now, wondering just what kind of danger this small Dragon Cave Mountain was concealing. How could they have forced a Second-Order Origin Returning Realm cultivator into a situation where there was no other choice but to self-destruct?
At the same time, inside Dragon Cave Mountain’s cave mansion, Yang Yan’s face was also quite pale. Even if she had been taking shelter inside the cave mansion, she still clearly felt the violent energy fluctuations coming from outside. At this moment, the entire cave mansion was in disarray, with many things being knocked over and the walls themselves cracking somewhat. Yang Kai had essentially been at the centre of that explosion, so who knows what kind of harm he had suffered.
Quickly pouring her Saint Qi into the gold and silver array control plate, Yang Yan quickly breathed a sigh of relief when she detected Yang Kai’s aura.
Yang Kai had not died, and only his aura had become somewhat unstable. Just when Yang Yan wanted to examine Yang Kai’s situation more closely though, Wu Yi exclaimed, “Elder Sister Yang Yan, there are many masters coming towards Dragon Cave Mountain, what should we do?”
Yang Yan narrowed her eyes as she looked towards the control plate and sure enough, she saw many points of light rapidly approaching Dragon Cave Mountain, and a number of these lights were very bright, indicating they belonged to Third-Order Origin Returning Realm masters.
A rough count showed that at least a dozen such masters were on their way.
[So many?]
Yang Yan’s face sank. With so many masters gathering, even if Shadow Moon Hall wanted to intervene, it would not be able to do much. Although Qian Tong and Yang Kai had a good relationship, he would not be able to become enemies with so many different forces.
After pondering for a moment, Yang Yan’s expression turned solemn as she shouted, “Activate all of our remaining Spirit Arrays, if anyone dares invade Dragon Cave Mountain, kill them!”
Wu Yi gawked briefly before nodding firmly, waving her hands as she poured her Saint Qi into her control plate. Soon, entire Dragon Cave Mountain was covered with an even thicker layer of mist than before as a threatening aura began pulsing from inside its outermost barrier.
“Qian Yue, lead the others down to the storehouse,” Yang Yan declared coldly.
“Are we going to use that?” Qian Yue heard this and her beautiful eyes brightened.
Yang Yan smiled bitterly, “I hope not, but it’s best to prepare just in case. You assisted in its refinement, so you should understand what to do now.”
“Understood,” Qian Yue nodded firmly before immediately setting out. A moment later, all the cultivators hiding inside the cave mansion followed Qian Yue towards a separate location on Dragon Cave Mountain.
“Xiao Xiao!” Yang Yan called out softly, and in the next moment, the little stone puppet appeared in front of her. Standing there silently, it stared up at Yang Yan curiously.
“You go too!” Yang Yan waved, after which the Stone Puppet’s figure flickered and disappeared again.
Here is the official title: Self-Destructed
But dang. That Cliff Hanger!
Yang Kai’s brow was furrowed deeply as he stood at a certain spot on Dragon Cave Mountain, covered in blood and looking quite embarrassed, staring blankly at the strange scene not far in front of him.
There was a massive pit in the ground as well as countless pieces of hashed meat scattered about.
This was the result of Xie Li self-destructing.
But even though he saw it with his own eyes, Yang Kai was still unable to believe what had just happened!
How could Xie Li have chosen to self destruct? Even if the grudge between them was deep, Xie Li did not strike Yang Kai as the type who would sacrifice his own life in order to avenge his son. What’s more, their battle had just begun. Could Xie Li not have had any confidence in triumphing?
Only those who were driven into hopeless situations would make the extreme choice to perish together with their enemy; after all, if they were to self destruct and their enemy survived, wouldn’t they have died in vain?
Yang Kai suspected that all of this was some part of some kind of plot, and that the scene of Xie Li exploding just now was all part of some illusion.
However, the huge crater in front of Yang Kai and the fierce impact he had just experienced were clear evidence that a powerful master had self-destructed. On top of that, within the perception range of his Divine Sense, Yang Kai couldn’t find any trace of Xie Li’s aura, as if he had really disappeared.
[Was he insane?] While Yang Kai cursed to himself, a trace of fear flashed across his eyes.
A Second-Order Origin Returning Realm cultivator self-destructing less than ten metres away from him had resulted in a terrifying explosion, and if Yang Kai had not realized something was wrong and taken action in advance, he would very likely have fallen here together with Xie Li.
The double layer of protection from his Firebird Artifact Spirit and Purple Shield reduced the impact Yang Kai suffered from Xie Li’s self destruction by about sixty percent; but even so, when the remaining forty percent of this explosive force struck Yang Kai, it felt as if he was a small boat caught in a great storm upon the sea, in danger of dying at any moment.
Fortunately, his physical body was incredibly strong and his Golden Blood had astonishing restorative powers. On top of that, Yang Kai had opened a Void Crack to swallow most of the remaining impact at the last moment.
As a result, although he was quite dishevelled at the moment, Yang Kai hadn’t suffered much harm.
In other words, Xie Li really had died in vain!
But still, Yang Kai frowned, not excited in the slightest as he vaguely felt something was still wrong.
Unless Xie Li had lost his mind, he wouldn’t have made such a stupid choice. Xie Li had been a Deacon in Shadow Moon Hall for many years and his cultivation was quite high; such a person was undoubtedly quite smart and would never use this kind of reckless suicide attack.
Yang Kai simply couldn’t understand.
Reviewing everything that had happened in their fight up until Xie Li exploded, Yang Kai only became more confused.
Before Yang Kai could unravel this mystery though, a sudden change occurred. Inside the huge pit, a piece of Xie Li’s broken body suddenly wriggled strangely and a blood-red ray of light burst out from it.
At the same time, four other identical blood-red rays of light appeared from the positions where Yang Kai had killed the Xie Family Saint King Realm cultivators.
As soon as these blood-red rays appeared, they silently shot towards Yang Kai at incredible speed.
By the time Yang Kai noticed these blood-red rays, they had already reached him!
Yang Kai’s face changed dramatically, and although he didn’t know what these blood-red rays were, he could tell they were dangerous. Waving his hand, Yang Kai condensed several Grand Heavenly Shields around him while simultaneously releasing his Golden Blood Threads to cut towards these blood-red rays.
A slicing sound rang out as Yang Kai’s incredibly sharp Golden Blood Threads cut apart one of these blood-red rays hundreds of times in the blink of an eye.
However, all this managed to accomplish was dimming the blood-red ray of light enough to reveal its original appearance as a strange worm-like insect. In the next second, it restored itself though and continued its approach.
The remaining insects also rushed towards Yang Kai even faster than before.
Yang Kai was stunned and quickly retreated, but the speed of these insects was even greater than his own and they pierced through his Grand Heavenly Shield in the next instant, as if it wasn’t even there and charged towards him.
A number of these blood-red insects crashed into Yang Kai’s Knowledge Sea immediately after, his defences unable to even hinder them.
[Shit!]
Yang Kai’s face sank and he immediately closed his eyes and sent his consciousness into his Knowledge Sea. The next moment, Yang Kai’s Soul Avatar appeared inside his Knowledge Sea and quickly scanning his surroundings, he found the intruders.
It was exactly the same as what Yang Kai had just seen, four strange-looking blood-red insects were quietly hovering somewhere above his Knowledge Sea.
Just as Yang Kai spotted them, these four strange insects merged towards one another and in the blink of an eye combined into one.
At the same time, a somewhat familiar aura emerged from this insect.
“Lu Ye!” Yang Kai’s eyes narrowed. Although he had only fought against Lu Ye once, Yang Kai made a point to remember this mysterious enemy’s aura.
Yang Kai hadn’t anticipated that these strange blood-red lights were actually Lu Ye’s doing.
[Could it be that Xie Li self-destructing was also because Lu Ye had somehow controlled him? Why else would a Second-Order Origin Returning Realm master choose such an extreme method at the beginning of a battle?]
Indeed, one of these blood-red rays had clearly flown out of a remnant piece of Xie Li’s body.
Thinking back to the expression on Xie Li’s face just before he self-destructed, Yang Kai vaguely felt that his guess was correct. If this was the case, then Lu Ye’s methods were simply astonishing, to even be able to control the life or death of a Second-Order Origin Realm master!
[Who the hell is he?] At that moment, Yang Kai raised his evaluation of Lu Ye to a completely new level, not daring to underestimate him again.
Staring at the blood-red, worm-like insect in front of him, Yang Kai’s eyes narrowed. This thing should be condensed out of Spiritual Energy and wasn’t an actual physical entity, but Lu Ye was just a Saint King Realm cultivator, so how was his Spiritual Energy so powerful?
Yang Kai simply couldn’t understand it.
Yang Kai’s guess was not wrong. Xie Li had indeed been controlled by Lu Ye. As a peak level figure tens of thousands of years ago, even though Lu Ye was forced to swim in shallow waters and his current cultivation wasn’t great today, the Secret Techniques he had at his disposal were far from what an ordinary Origin Returning Realm master could contend with. Even if Xie Li’s sense and instincts were sharp, he still could not have imagined that Lu Ye had planted a Ten Thousand Poison Evil Insect in him.
By using this method, Lu Ye had secretly controlled the fate of the Xie Family, Sea Heart Sect, and Flowing Cloud Valley, subduing many cultivators to use for his own ends.
Lu Ye had not planned on letting Xie Li get his revenge on Yang Kai or even kill Yang Kai at all; his plan was to control Yang Kai through this Ten Thousand Poison Evil Insect in order to retrieve his most precious treasure.
In the Flowing Flame Sand Field, Yang Kai had obtained his greatest treasure, something Lu Ye had always wanted to take back, and now he had finally found an opportunity.
Lu Ye’s original intention was not to kill Yang Kai by having Xie Li self-destruct, but just to cause heavy losses to him so Yang Kai would lose all ability to resist.
However, even after all his careful scheming, Lu Ye had failed to anticipate that Xie Li would choose to engage Yang Kai in melee combat. If not for Yang Kai’s strength being far greater than average cultivators in his realm, Lu Ye’s plans might all have been for nought. If Yang Kai died, he would never be able to retrieve his treasure.
The Ten Thousand Poison Evil Insect was not an actual poisonous insect, but rather the product of a Divine Sense Secret Technique. It was incredibly strange and unpredictable. Now, several of Lu Ye’s Ten Thousand Poison Evil Insects had combined into one, allowing it to display far greater strength, so controlling a mere Third-Order Saint King should be a simple matter.
Above his Knowledge Sea, Yang Kai stared at this worm-like insect suspiciously.
Although he did not recognize this Ten Thousand Poison Evil Insect, Yang Kai knew it wasn’t anything good. With a single thought, the rolling flames down below swelled up and shot towards the invading insect.
This insect didn’t even try to resist, allowing the sea of flames to wash over and engulf it.
Yang Kai’s powerful Conflagrated Spiritual Energy kept burning this insect, but it remained completely unresponsive, its red glow still as strong as ever, as if it wasn’t affected in the slightest.
Yang Kai’s face sank when he saw this, secretly feeling he had underestimated this strange thing. After realizing his Conflagrated Knowledge Sea wasn’t able to cause any significant harm to this insect, he waved his hand and had the flames retreat.
Just as he was about to try a different method, this blood-red insect flickered, transformed into a ray of light, and shot towards Yang Kai’s Soul Avatar.
Naturally, Yang Kai wasn’t about to just let it succeed. Inside his Knowledge Sea, he was the master, everything here was under his control!
Coldly snorting, a fiery red spear condensed from pure Spiritual Energy materialized and shot towards the approaching threat; however, this blood-red insect was extremely nimble and with a light swaying it actually managed to avoid Yang Kai’s attacks.
[So difficult?] As a stern countenance flashed across Yang Kai’s face, the Demon Eye of Annihilation suspended above his Knowledge Sea suddenly opened and sent out a beam of radiant golden light.
The red insect managed to evade this light several times but was eventually enveloped.
The rapidly moving Ten Thousand Poison Evil Insect immediately came to a halt, as if it had been locked in place, its fat body writhing about as strange squeaking noises rang out from it as if it was extremely uncomfortable.
Lu Ye’s method was exceptional. Using these Ten Thousand Poison Evil Insects, he had been able to control many Origin Returning Realm masters, but it seems he had underestimated Yang Kai, believing he could do the same to him.
Inside Yang Kai’s Knowledge Sea was this incredible Demon Eye of Annihilation, its greatest ability being the Golden Light that could purify any kind of foreign Spiritual Energy, and since the Ten Thousand Poison Evil Insect was essentially a condensed mass of Spiritual Energy, it was no exception.
A sizzling sound emerged as the blood-red aura surrounding the strange insect began evaporating, and no matter how it struggled, it was unable to free itself from the golden light.
Yang Kai stared at this scene with cold eyes, neither happy nor sad; however, he felt quite surprised in his heart. He didn’t know why Lu Ye’s Spiritual Energy was so strange, to the point where even his Demon Eye of Annihilation’s Golden Light was unable to instantly purify it, but if he wanted to solve this problem once and for all, it seemed he’d have to put in some more effort.
Delaying leads to problems, so after hesitating for just a moment, Yang Kai sent out a command with his mind and in the next moment, from the seven-coloured island floating in his Knowledge Sea, a buzzing sound rang out, as if countless tiny mosquitoes had woken up and were flying over. At the same time, a black cloud quickly approached.
Soul Devouring Insects!
These Soul Devouring Insects were Exotic Ancient Insects Yang Kai had been cultivating for years, and after recently devouring the Profound Insect Stone, they were now able to display strength far greater than before.
They could easily devour the Spiritual Energy of Saint King Realm cultivators and could even cause a certain amount of trouble for Origin Returning Realm masters.
However, they were rarely used by Yang Kai because enemies weak enough to be killed by them were no threat to Yang Kai, and against powerful foes, these Soul Devouring Insects couldn’t play much of a role.
However, this did not mean his Soul Devouring Insects had become useless, their true power lay in their ability in large scale battles.
At this moment, it seemed they had yet another use.
Soul Devouring Insects’ favourite food was Spirit Energy, so Lu Ye could only blame himself for using a Divine Sense Secret Technique condensed of his own Spiritual Energy. Yang Kai’s Demon Eye of Annihilation and Soul Devouring Insects were essentially both predators for this Ten Thousand Poison Evil Insect.
In the blink of an eye, the Soul Devouring Insects swarm flew over. Even suppressed by the Demon Eye of Annihilation’s Golden Light, the red insect had continued struggling, but when the Soul Devouring Insects appeared, it seemed to understand it had met its natural enemy and began to tremble.
The Soul Devouring Insects naturally did not care about this, however, and they threw themselves at the Ten Thousand Poison Evil Insect under Yang Kai’s control.
Gnawing sounds immediately rang out.
The Soul Devouring Insects left as fast as they had come, a moment later heading back to the seven-colour island, but the Ten Thousand Poison Evil Insect which had been surrounded by golden light was nowhere to be seen.
It had been clearly devoured by the Soul Devouring Insects.
Yang Kai swept his Knowledge Sea to confirm there were no hidden dangers before gently nodding and sending his consciousness back to his body.
At the same time, more than two hundred kilometres away from Dragon Cave Mountain, inside the Xie Family’s main residence, a youth with delicate features who was sitting cross-legged in meditation suddenly turned pale and coughed up a mouthful of blood, his face quickly filling with shock as he cried out in disbelief, “How is that possible?”
This person was naturally Lu Ye.
He was incredibly calculating and cautious, so he had not gone to participate in the siege of Dragon Cave Mountain, but instead waited calmly at the Xie Family’s residence for news; after all, if things went well, it wouldn’t matter if he was there or not, and if things didn’t go well, his presence wouldn’t make a difference.
Based on this consideration, Lu Ye decided to wait at a distance from beginning to end.
But just now, a fierce backlash occurred as one of the Thousand Poison Evil Insects he relied on the most had been killed! This Ten Thousand Poison Evil Insect had been planted on the Xie Family’s Xie Li, which had taken a great deal of effort for Lu Ye. After all, Xie Li was a Second-Order Origin Returning Realm master and wanting to plant a hidden hand on him without his knowledge was no simple task.
To accomplish this, Lu Ye even sacrificed part of his own Soul Essence.
But now, this Soul Essence had been erased, and Lu Ye had received a certain degree of backlash as a result. This injury was not serious, but it was also not light, probably requiring him one or two months of meditation to recover from.
Lu Ye’s complexion instantly became fierce. He had thought that his plan this time was foolproof, yet it had actually failed miserably. However, from the last bit of feedback he received from this Ten Thousand Poison Evil Insect, Lu Ye knew it had been extinguished by Yang Kai.
As for what method Yang Kai used to achieve this, Lu Ye could not tell. No matter how strong his Secret Technique was, he could not actually monitor the situation inside Yang Kai’s Knowledge Sea.
“Excellent!” Lu Ye grinned wickedly, “It seems this Senior has looked down on you. A trivial Saint King Realm cultivator actually being able to wound this Senior, there will apparently be more interesting times ahead.”
After muttering to himself for a while, Lu Ye’s expression became gloomy and he let out a cold snort, “A bunch of wastes, unable to accomplish something so simple and instead ruining everything. If not for this Senior having need of you in the future, what use would you be? It seems I shouldn’t remain here much longer…”
Saying so, Lu Ye stood up and left quietly from the Xie Family, casually picking a direction, and flying off.
Although he was technically Flowing Cloud Valley’s Young Master, he did not put such an identity in his eyes at all. After seizing this body and returning to Flowing Cloud Valley, he had completely subdued the Sect and sacrificed over ninety percent of its population in order to cultivate a certain evil technique, including the original Lu Ye’s family.
Currently, Flowing Cloud Valley was nothing but an empty shell, so Lu Ye naturally had no plans to return there.
In any case, he could go anywhere on Shadowed Star with his means. What was important right now was to find a good place to recover his cultivation. As for Yang Kai, there would always be another chance for him to settle their grudge. Lu Ye never believed that his treasure had been refined by Yang Kai; after all, Yang Kai’s cultivation was too low. Even if it was an Origin King Realm master, it would be impossible to refine that thing without several years of effort.
He must have been concealing it somehow!
Lu Ye had never even considered that Yang Kai had a supreme treasure like the Soul Warming Lotus! While Yang Kai truly did not have the ability to refine that thing, the Soul Warming Lotus had easily absorbed it and used the massive amount of energy contained within to evolve into its final seven-coloured form while allowing Yang Kai to comprehend the Blossoming Lotus Secret Technique at the same time.
On the other side, Yang Kai opened his eyes and spread out his Divine Sense to confirm Dragon Cave Mountain’s situation. He soon realized that the battle on Chang Qi’s side had also ended, with the three old men now sitting in meditation adjusting their breathing.
These three had faced the middle-aged man from Demon Blood Temple, and although their opponent was a genuine Second-Order Origin Returning Realm master, his strength had been greatly suppressed on Dragon Cave Mountain. As such, after a hard-fought battle, Chang Qi, Hao An, and Ning Xiang Chen eventually defeated him, with assistance from Yang Yan and her Spirit Arrays.
At this point, all the enemies that had invaded Dragon Cave Mountain had been killed, not even one remained.
Dragon Cave Mountain only sent out four people to fight, three First-Order Origin Returning Realm cultivators and one Third-Order Saint King. Although they dared not say such a feat would never happen again in the future, it was still an unprecedented victory. If word of this matter were spread out, it was likely no one would believe it to be true.
Standing in place, Yang Kai thought for a while before quickly changing out of his ragged clothes into clean ones and wiping off the blood from his body before walking over to where Chang Qi and the others were sitting.
After absorbing the Remnant Soul of the old man from Myriad Beast Mountain with his Demon Eye of Annihilation, and Xie Li’s after the latter self-destructed, Yang Kai was certainly not going to let off the one from the Demon Blood Temple cultivator.
Presumably, after refining the Spiritual Energy of these three people, Yang Kai could attempt a breakthrough to the Origin Returning Realm.
A moment later, Yang Kai arrived in front of Chang Qi and the others, glanced down at the broken body of the master from Demon Blood Temple and quietly absorbed his Remnant Soul into his Knowledge Sea.
His arrival had not been missed by the three old men, all of whom opened their eyes, stood up, and showed joyful looks upon seeing Yang Kai.
“Old Ning, it seems I’ve troubled you this time,” Yang Kai quickly cupped his fists to Ning Xiang Chen in thanks. This old man had not hesitated to stand together with Dragon Cave Mountain and killed many invading enemies for them, causing Yang Kai’s opinion of him to soar.
Regardless of what other intentions he had, the assistance he provided was indisputable.
“Haha!” Ning Xiang Chen laughed heartily. Although he had just experienced a great battle, his complexion was excellent as he was obviously not injured. “Little Friend Yang is too polite. Even in this old master’s long life, he has rarely experienced such a grand event. If anything, this old man must thank Little Friend Yang, engaging in such a hot-blooded struggle after so long has made this old man feel many years younger!”
Yang Kai smiled lightly, “Old Ning Lao is too polite. In the future, if Old Ning has free time, please feel free to visit Dragon Cave Mountain. You will always be welcome here!”
Ning Xiang Chen’s eyes lit up and smiled even more heartily. Yang Kai’s words obviously meant he was no longer an outsider, and he felt that all the effort he put in this had paid off, but he was not satisfied with just this and asked tentatively, “Instead of visiting often, I believe taking up residence would be better. What does Little Friend Yang say?”
“Hm?” Yang Kai gave him a surprised look; after all, Ning Xiang Chen’s words just now were essentially a request to officially join Dragon Cave Mountain.
Thinking about it for a moment, Yang Kai understood why he had made this choice. This time, he had helped Dragon Cave Mountain kill many enemies, but had offended Myriad Beast Mountain, Demon Blood Temple, Sea Heart Sect, and Flowing Cloud Valley in the process. Although he was an Origin Returning Realm master, he had no Sect or family who could shelter him, so in the future, he might be hunted down by these forces.
Since that was the case, directly joining Dragon Cave Mountain was a better choice.
This was indeed the case. Although Ning Xiang Chen had wandered free all his life, now that he was old, he had found himself feeling somewhat alone and isolated. When he wanted to find someone to chat with and exchange experiences in cultivation with, he had no place to go. After witnessing Dragon Cave Mountain’s power today and earning their favour, he naturally had ideas of joining in order to seek a place to settle down.
Moreover, there were only two Origin Returning Realm masters in Dragon Cave Mountain and both had similar strength and backgrounds to him. Both were also open and friendly so he wouldn’t need to worry about being excluded if he joined.
Based on all kinds of considerations, Ning Xiang Chen had made this request. It was not a kind of spur of the moment decision but one that was carefully thought out and considered.
He wasn’t a young man anymore and wouldn’t make impulsive decisions.
After he asked, Ning Xiang Chen looked towards Yang Kai a little nervously, wondering if the other party would accept or reject him.
“Since Old Ning has such intentions, Junior wholeheartedly welcomes him!” Yang Kai replied, but wearing a solemn expression he continued, “However, Old Ning may wish to think twice. Right now Dragon Cave Mountain isn’t exactly a peaceful place to live. Perhaps soon…”
Before Yang Kai could finish speaking, Ning Xiang Chen smiled and waved, “What little friend wants to say, this old man can naturally guess, but this old man already has one foot in the grave so he has nothing left to fear other than dying alone without anyone realizing it, leaving a corpse in the wilderness to rot unattended to. If I can die here on Dragon Cave Mountain, it would still be my blessing, this is a good spot to be laid to rest.”
Yang Kai raised his brow slightly hearing this. Since the other party was willing to go so far, he naturally had no reason to refuse anymore, nodding firmly, “Good, then from now on Old Ning will hold the status of Foreign Elder on my Dragon Cave Mountain and enjoy the same treatment as Foreign Elder Chang and Foreign Elder Hao!”
“Haha, this Ning gratefully accepts!” Ning Xiang Chen laughed and cupped his fists.
Chang Qi and Hao An quickly offered their congratulations. Although the three of them had only met a short time ago, they had experienced fighting side-by-side already and formed a bond of friendship. As they chatted, Chang Qi and Hao An gave a brief description of what kind of treatment a Foreign Elder of Dragon Cave Mountain could enjoy, causing Ning Xiang Chen’s eyes to shine and his blood to boil.
When they were fighting Wu Xun from Demon Blood Temple just now, Ning Xiang Chen had seen what kind of benefits Chang Qi and Hao An enjoyed and realized it was far greater than a wanderer like him could hope to obtain.
Every artifact Chang Qi and Hao An possessed, whether it was offensive or defensive, was Origin Grade High-Rank, and the pills they used were of a quality that filled Ning Xiang Chen with envy.
Having spent most of his life poor, Ning Xiang Chen had scraped together to purchase a single Origin Grade Low-Rank artifact, and in order to repair it, he had to search for a year to find the appropriate materials.
Chang Qi had even given him a few pills to help him restore his strength just now, but he had been unwilling to eat them and had instead quietly stored them away.
Thinking he might soon be able to own such things, Ning Xiang Chen felt more confident that his choice today was right.
As these laughs and cheers were ringing out though, Yang Kai suddenly frowned and his expression sank again.
Chang Qi noticed this and quickly asked, “What happened?”
“A lot of honoured guests have come to visit, we should go out and greet them together,” Yang Kai sneered.
“Honoured guests?” Chang Qi and the others exchanged a confused glance but soon understood, immediately frowning as they followed Yang Kai outside.
The dense fog covering Dragon Cave Mountain tumbled again and soon revealed a passageway to outside the formation. A moment later, four figures, led by Yang Kai, emerged from this opening.
In an instant, countless eyes fixed on their group of four, and after noticing that Yang Kai and the others were completely unscathed, everyone was startled, and their expressions changed to ones of surprise, suspicion, and disbelief.
Qian Tong and Fei Zhi Tu, however, just raised their brows, their reactions differing greatly from all the others. Both of them let out nearly imperceptible sighs of relief as they nodded to Yang Kai, not greeting him openly.
“Such a grand lineup!” Ning Xiang Chen stood behind Yang Kai and exclaimed as he swept his eyes around.
Outside Dragon Cave Mountain’s Mountain Defending Array, countless masters were hovering mid-air or rapidly approaching, all of them observing the situation curiously. Even without mentioning Qian Tong and Fei Zhi Tu, Ning Xiang Chen recognized a number of these masters such as Mo Xiao Sheng of Heaven Battling Union, Thunder Typhoon Sect’s Cheng Peng Xuan, Jin Shi of Demon Blood Temple, Myriad Beast Mountain’s Old Woman Feng, Coloured Glass Sect’s Gong Ao Fu, as well as Elder level characters from Grand Fire Temple, Clear Sky Sect, Twin Heart Valley, Sea Temple, and others. Even Yan Pei and Ren Tian Rui, the Black-Faced Master and Disciple duo from Treasure Trove Pavilion, were here.
These masters each brought disciples from their respective Sects and had formed a kind of loose encirclement around Dragon Cave Mountain, exerting a crushing sense of pressure from their mere presence.
In terms of Third-Order Origin Returning Realm masters, there were around twenty, while Second-Order and First-Order Origin Returning Realm masters were even more numerous.
It was as if Dragon Cave Mountain had suddenly become a delicious piece of meat everyone wanted a piece of!
Ning Xiang Chen could not help drawing in a sharp breath as he felt quite terrified in his heart.
The masters who were gathered here right now could represent essentially all Shadowed Star’s great forces.
Of note were Jin Shi and Old Woman Feng, who were staring at Yang Kai angrily, as if they wanted to burn holes in his body with their gaze alone.
After all, many of their Sect’s disciples had participated in the attack on Dragon Cave Mountain this time, including two Second-Order Origin Realm masters. Yang Kai being able to appear here safe and sound while their own subordinates were nowhere to be seen made it easy to guess what kind of fate had befallen them.
However, did Dragon Cave Mountain really have such great ability? Could it really have killed all the enemies which intruded just now?
Not only did Jin Shi and Old Woman Feng have their suspicions, everyone present was thinking about this issue. But if those people weren’t dead, how could Yang Kai be standing in front of them right now?
What had happened inside Dragon Cave Mountain’s Mountain Defending Array? Everyone was confused, and although each of the people who had come here was a master, none dared to underestimate Dragon Cave Mountain again. Nevertheless, no one could resist directing fiery eyes towards Dragon Cave Mountain’s Mountain Defending Array and the subsequent Spirit Arrays it was concealing.
This was only natural as the profoundness of these barriers and Spirit Arrays was truly astonishing. If they could find an opportunity to snatch up the master responsible for arranging these Spirit Arrays and bring them back to their Sect, they would surely be able to greatly improve the quality of their own Sect’s Spirit Arrays.
“Junior Yang Kai greets the many Seniors!” Yang Kai shouted aloud, his expression neither humble nor overbearing, “So many Seniors arriving today is quite unexpected, causing this Junior’s reception to be somewhat lacking. If I have been negligent in my hospitality, please forgive me.”
The masters from the various great forces either narrowed their eyes or raised their brows, but no one answered. After all, not many people had a friendship with this Dragon Cave Mountain or Yang Kai. Most of them had come here simply because they were curious, while a few had their own concerns about the situation.
As for Yang Kai, a trivial Saint King Realm Junior, none of them paid him any attention.
Only Qian Tong chuckled and said heartily, “There’s no need for you to concern yourself with us, we old folks were simply idle and bored, so we’ve come over to see what was happening here.”
Qian Tong’s one sentence swept everyone up into this category, causing many masters to glare at him fiercely.
“Oh… So it’s like this,” Yang Kai grinned and said indifferently, “Then I’m afraid I must disappoint several Seniors. Dragon Cave Mountain is but a small humble place with nothing of interest to see.”
Such an obvious eviction could be heard by a deaf person as Yang Kai was essentially telling them all to leave.
However, since these masters had taken the trouble to come here, how could they just walk away now? Others might not care, but Jin Shi and Old Woman Feng would not be willing to give up and leave. At this point, most of the cultivator’s eyes fixed on Jin Shi and Old Woman Feng, waiting for them to reply.
In this situation, Jin Shi and Old Woman Feng were naturally unable to back down, so the former coldly snorted and with an aloof look questioned Yang Kai impatiently, “Boy, this old master must ask you. Where are those people who entered your mountain before?”
“So it is Senior Jin Shi!” Yang Kai said, as if he only noticed him just now, putting on a respectful look, but saying in a casual tone, “Does Senior mean the group of people from the Xie Family?”
Jin Shi lightly coughed, “Yes, this old master is referring to the Xie Family people, where are they now?”
Although everyone knew that cultivators from Demon Blood Temple had participated in this siege, Jin Shi was not stupid enough to admit this because this time’s incident was a simple dispute between Dragon Cave Mountain and the Xie Family on the surface. In other words, those who participated in this battle all belonged to the Xie Family disciplines, there were no outsiders.
“If Senior cares so much about those Xie Family people, I’m afraid I must disappoint you,” Yang Kai’s mouth curled upwards.
“Why do you say so?” Jin Shi’s heart sank.
“Heh heh, why does Senior Jin Shi insist on asking a question he knows the answer to? Since those people dared to break into my Dragon Cave Mountain, intent on finding trouble with this Junior, naturally this Junior has sent them to their deaths; after all, Junior is not a mild-tempered person,” Yang Kai’s expression gradually turned cold.
Several gasps could be heard as everyone’s expression filled with shock.
Although everyone had such speculations before, secretly thinking that the group that had broken into Dragon Cave Mountain must have suffered a disastrous fate, when this was confirmed by Yang Kai himself, they still found it difficult to believe.
Even Qian Tong and Fei Zhi Tu almost had their eyes pop out of their sockets, their expressions not much calmer than the other masters present, as if they had all seen a ghost.
Among the group of people who had participated in the raid just now, there had been more than thirty Origin Realm masters, including three who were Second-Order, as well as some two hundred Saint King Realm cultivators. Such a force had invaded this tiny Dragon Cave Mountain, yet had been completely wiped out?
How could that be?
Did Dragon Cave Mountain really have such hidden power? If that was the case, then this small hill could already be considered a second-class force.
“With just your pitiful strength? Hmph, shameless boasting,” Old Woman Feng’s temper had always been short, so seeing Yang Kai act so rampant, a trace of anger emerged on her old face as she stamped her dragon-head walking stick mid-air. Obviously, she didn’t believe Yang Kai and instead thought he had used some kind of Spirit Array to trap the invasion force.
“Senior Feng doesn’t believe me?” Yang Kai cast a sidelong glance towards her.
“Ignorant boy, this old woman’s life has been long but she has never before heard such a terrible joke,” Old Woman Feng had barely finished her words when her face changed wildly because she saw Yang Kai suddenly take out an ominous looking one-handed hatchet and casually play with it.
“Grandmother, that’s…” The face of Feng Yan, who was standing beside Old Woman Feng, also changed dramatically because she too recognized this Origin Grade Mid-Rank one-handed hatchet artifact as the most prized weapon of the old man who had led Myriad Beast Mountain’s forces here. Considering that the old man was reluctant to even show others this artifact, other than him being dead, what other explanation could there be for Yang Kai now possessing it?
It seems that the old man had really died!
If even a Second-Order Origin Returning Realm master had died, there was no hope anyone else had survived.
With the facts laid bare in front of her face, Old Woman Feng was no longer able to deceive herself.
Yang Kai simply sneered and declared coldly, “Although my Dragon Cave Mountain isn’t some great force, it is also not a place that can be casually bullied. Since several Seniors are here today, Junior will bravely say this, if any blind fool dares have ideas about my Dragon Cave Mountain in the future, they will share the Xie Family’s fate.”
“Boy, are you threatening us?” Jin Shi stepped forward and asked fiercely.
“Old Ghost Jin!” Qian Tong coldly snorted, “Did you hear Yang Kai threaten you? He only referred to blind fools seeking trouble with him. Or what, does your Demon Blood Temple have a policy of using strength to bully the weak?”
Qian Tong could naturally see that Jin Shi wanted to use Yang Kai’s words as a pretext to launch an attack, so how could he give him the chance? Even without mentioning that Qian Tong always stood on Dragon Cave Mountain’s side, Shadow Moon Hall’s current embarrassing situation had caused him a stomach full of grievances, so now that an opportunity to ridicule and vent had come up, Qian Tong planned on taking full advantage of it.
After hearing these words, Jin Shi glanced over at Qian Tong and frowned, but didn’t press the matter any further; after all, this was still technically Shadow Moon Hall’s domain so it wasn’t wise for him to stir up too much trouble.
“You certainly are bold!” On the other side, Old Woman Feng grit her teeth and shouted, “Sure enough, heroes emerge from the younger generation, it seems this old woman has greatly looked down on your courage.”
Yang Kai grinned, “Many thanks for Senior Feng’s undeserved praise. Many people have said similar things in the past, but this Junior still has yet to figure out where the limits of his courage lie.”
*Puchi…*
A stifled laugh rang out from nearby as Dai Yuan of Coloured Glass Sect was unable to hold herself back.
In response, Gong Ao Fu shot her a stern glare.
Yin Su Die also wore a displeased look as she muttered, “Hmph, just some meaningless self-satisfaction, just looking at this little brat’s lawless appearance it’s clear that he’ll meet a terrible end sooner or later. Senior Sister, it’s best if you don’t involve yourself with him any further.”
“Junior Sister need not concern herself with my affairs, just attend to yourself,” Dai Yuan replied flatly.
“What your Junior Sister said is right,” Gong Ao Fu snorted, “A Junior revealing such potential is not a good thing. The tallest tree in the forest is the first to be toppled by the wind. If this boy does not fix his character, he will certainly meet an untimely death. From now on, your Master forbids you to have any further contact with him so as not to implicate my Coloured Glass Sect in any future trouble.”
“Honoured Master!” Dai Yuan was shocked and wanted to say something, but before she could Gong Ao Fu glared at her solemnly, “What’s wrong, are you refusing to listen to your Honoured Master’s command?”
Dai Yuan silently bit her lip, and only after a long pause did she respond, “Disciple will obey Honoured Master’s instructions.”
Seeing this, Gong Ao Fu turned away with satisfaction.
At a different location, two young women stood together staring at Yang Kai, one of them exuded a seductive charm while the other radiated a sense of purity and innocence. But currently, both were frowning, seeming somewhat worried.
These two were not strong, just Saint Kings, and they were standing amongst this big crowd, so it was natural for Yang Kai not to have noticed them. If he were to spot them though, he would be able to recognize them as they were none other than Chen Shi Tao and Lu Ying from Clear Sky Sect.
Yang Kai had several encounters with Chen Shi Tao in the past and she had even extended an invitation to him to join Clear Sky Sect, an invitation Yang Kai had politely refused.
It was also thanks to Chen Shi Tao that Yang Kai was able to meet Qian Yue in Black Raven City, redeem her, and bring her back to Dragon Cave Mountain.
These two Clear Sky Sect disciples had followed their Master to Heavenly Fate City to participate in the recent auction and had originally planned on visiting Yang Kai at Dragon Cave Mountain, but had been delayed due to various other matters. Today, they followed their Master to see what all the excitement was about only to discover that Yang Kai was at the centre of this commotion.
Seeing the worrying situation of Dragon Cave Mountain, Chen Shi Tao and Lu Ying naturally felt anxious.
Both of them had a very good impression of Yang Kai as he had even saved their lives back in Grand Burial Valley, but despite feeling immense gratitude towards him, their strength was too low so they didn’t possess the right to speak in this situation.
“Senior Sister, it seems he’s in big trouble this time,” Lu Ying said softly.
“En,” Chen Shi Tao nodded unconsciously. She possessed more foresight than Lu Ying, so she understood that if Dragon Cave Mountain did not handle this matter well, it would result in disaster.
“Do you think he can escape this catastrophe?” Lu Ying asked again.
“How am I supposed to know?” Chen Shi Tao smiled bitterly. If she had enough strength, she would not hesitate to help Yang Kai, but as a mere Saint King, she was unable to provide him with any assistance at this time. Nibbling her red lips, she remarked thoughtfully, “His luck has always been good, so perhaps he will again be able to escape unscathed.”
Although the two young women spoke softly, they were still clearly heard by the middle-aged man standing in front of them. This man’s cultivation was exceptional, a Third-Order Origin Returning Realm master like Qian Tong and the others present. His distinctive features were his long black hair that would make many women jealous, robust figure, and short cut robes, all of which combined to give him a bit of a wild and uninhibited style.
Turning around with a gentle smile on his face, he beckoned to both Chen Shi Tao and Lu Ying.
The two girls exchanged a glance before quickly stepping forward and saluting respectfully, “Honoured Master!”
This man was Clear Sky Sect’s Great Elder Mo Yu, a well-known figure on Shadowed Star comparable in fame to Qian Tong or Fei Zhi Tu. Originally, Chen Shi Tao and Lu Ying were not eligible to worship him as their Master, but after achieving great merits in the Flowing Flame Sand Field and bringing immense benefits to the Sect in the form of over a hundred million Saint Crystals, Mo Yu had made an exception and accepted them as disciples. This was a great good fortune for them as the short time Mo Yu spent directing their cultivation had allowed both to rapidly improve their strength.
In fact, the defensive artifact Chen Shi Tao used in Grand Burial Valley, the Nine Palace Heavenly Silk Parasol, was something Mo Yu had given her.
“Do you know that young man?” Mo Yu inquired benignly.
Chen Shi Tao and Lu Ying exchanged a nervous glance but didn’t dare lie to their Honoured Master so the former promptly replied, “Yes, Honoured Master. He is the friend I mentioned to you before, the one with blessed with good luck.”
“Oh? Is he the one you mentioned having a great destiny?” Mo Yu raised his brow, showing a look of interest.
“Yes, it’s him!”
“Haha, interesting. Luck and destiny are ethereal concepts, not something a person can decide. Every person encounters good and bad fortune, and it is impossible for one to continuously experience only good luck, similar to how one believes it to be darkest before dawn. Such things are simply frames of mind,” Mo Yu seemed to be speaking to himself but also educating Chen Shi Tao, the latter not daring to interrupt, listening respectfully from the side.
Mo Yu glanced at her lightly and chuckled, “Do you want your Master to speak a few favourable words for him?”
Chen Shi Tao’s tender body shook, but she quickly denied, “Disciple does not dare. Although disciple is a woman, she understands propriety and would not dare ask Honoured Master to interfere in this turbulent situation.”
“Good, very good,” Mo Yu nodded lightly, “The present situation is indeed quite tense, so this old master naturally will not easily wade into these muddy waters.”
While Mo Yu looked middle-aged, he had lived many years longer than that, so claiming to be an old master was not inappropriate. Mo Yu soon said with a smile, “But this old master is quite curious. If his luck is as good as you claim, perhaps he will be able to turn danger into safety here. If he can accomplish it, this old master will believe he really holds a great destiny, and you can interact more frequently with him in the future.”
“Yes,” Chen Shi Tao smiled happily, but when she remembered how dire the current situation was, her pretty face could not help showing a trace of worry.
Regardless of anything else, she owed Yang Kai a live-saving grace, but now she was only able to stand back and wait while he was in danger, causing her to feel both uneasy and ashamed.
“However, if he is unable to overcome this calamity… En, there’s not much more to say. For now, just stay here and watch the situation with your Master.” Mo Yu chuckled.
Chen Shi Tao and Lu Ying looked at each other helplessly, only able to do as Mo Yu said.
In Dragon Cave Mountain, Yang Kai stood behind the outermost layer of the Mountain Defending Array and cupped his fists slightly, “With several Senior arriving here today, in principle, Junior should invite you inside to offer some hospitality, but my small mountain has just experienced a battle so Junior has many things he must deal with. Therefore, I will have to ask the many Seniors to forgive my lack of courtesy. Please leave!”
Yang Kai didn’t want to bother with any more nonsense, so he directly told everyone who had gathered here to leave.
Everyone understood what he meant, but none of them had any intention of moving, especially Jin Shi and Old Woman Feng, both of whom were glaring at Yang Kai as if they wanted to tear him to pieces. In fact, if not for having scruples about Qian Tong and Fei Zhi Tu, the two of them would likely have immediately attacked.
Still, it was impossible for them to simply leave like this; after all, their two Sects had suffered heavy losses this time. If they were to back down now, what face would they have in the future? Yang Kai also understood this truth, but he had to make his situation and intentions clear regardless, and that was, if these two moved rashly, he would occupy the righteous position and Qian Tong and Fei Zhi Tu would be able to intervene without damaging Shadow Moon Hall’s reputation.
Seeing that no one left, Yang Kai sneered and said out loud, “What’s wrong? Could it be that the several Seniors have taken a liking to this Junior’s little hill, like the Xie Family?”
“Boy, don’t try to make false accusations. Since we old masters have gathered here, shouldn’t you invite us inside, as a Junior? That is the appropriate way to treat guests,” Jin Shi coldly snorted.
Many masters hearing this also nodded lightly.
Although they had no grievances with Yang Kai or Dragon Cave Mountain and had purely come here to seek some entertainment this time, after learning about the power of Dragon Cave Mountain’s Spirit Arrays, they all wanted to go in and take a closer look.
So even if Jin Shi had ulterior motives, they were willing to agree with him for now.
As long as they entered Dragon Cave Mountain, with just Yang Kai’s ability, could he stop them from examining the various Spirit Arrays and barriers? As for whether Dragon Cave Mountain would be allowing disaster into their home, why should they care?
“Old Ghost Jin, you still want to act shamelessly? The other side has already said that they have many things to process and it is inconvenient to entertain guests right now, even going so far as to apologize for their lack of hospitality, so how is your insistence anything but trying to bully others with your status? If you are really so desperate for entertainment, Heavenly Fate City is just fifty kilometres from here, this old master will host you there,” Qian Tong shot Jin Shi a disgruntled look as he spat.
This place was still well inside Shadow Moon Hall’s jurisdiction, so Jin Shi not giving Yang Kai any face was equivalent to not putting Shadow Moon Hall in his eyes, an idea that greatly annoyed Qian Tong.
“Naturally, I will visit Heavenly Fate City, but this boy’s pretentious attitude bothers me greatly. It’s like he doesn’t put us in his eyes at all,” Jin Shi shot back, seemingly unwilling to give up.
“Stop trying to find a pretext to act. If you’re intent on causing trouble, this old master will accompany you!” Qian Tong snorted, his expression becoming gloomy.
Perceiving how resolute Qian Tong’s stance was, Jin Shi could not help frowning. He did not know what kind of relationship Qian Tong and Yang Kai had that would make the former not hesitate to offend him, but it seemed that if he continued to push the issue, it would end poorly for him.
However, leaving like this was also inappropriate.
Intentionally or unintentionally, Jin Shi glanced over at Old Woman Feng and saw that the other party’s face was gloomy, and her eyes were filled with murderous intent as she stared at Yang Kai. But just as he was about to drag Old Woman Feng into this dispute, a shocking aura suddenly appeared on the horizon and rapidly closed in on their position.
Jin Shi’s complexion changed dramatically, and he hurriedly choked down his words as he turned to face this newcomer.
Everyone else also did the same.
Of the masters present, nearly twenty of them had reached the Third-Order Origin Returning Realm, but even with their great strength, they could tell that the approaching master was not someone affable, causing them to reveal looks of amazement and wariness.
Only Old Black-Face Yan Pei showed a confused look on his face as he muttered to himself, “Why did she come?”
He would have never thought this person would show her face here.
In the distance, a blue light quickly approached, and a moment later, this blue light flashed and stopped a dozen or so metres from the gathered crowd, dispersed, and revealed two figures.
One male, one female.
The woman was clearly the leader of this pair and wore a deep green dress. Her long hair was done up in a delicate bun, revealing her slender white neck, giving her graceful and elegant bearing while her pair of sharp phoenix eyes exuded an innate, commanding majesty, making others not dare stare into them for too long.
This woman had the aura of a mature thirty or forty-year-old, but that did not make her any less alluring. Although slightly older, she had maintained her appearance impeccably with delicate white skin, slender figure, and an enchanting body line that could easily provoke the hidden desires of any man.
But at this time, none present dared belittle or blaspheme this woman, because the pressure she gave off alone was enough to deter such thoughts.
Compared to an ordinary Third-Order Origin Returning Realm, this woman was clearly far more powerful.
Behind this awe-inspiring woman was a man who had an extremely peculiar appearance. He had big rounded ears, narrow, slender slit-eyes, and a mouthful of buckteeth, making anyone who saw him want to laugh.
This dreadful buck-toothed, monkey-faced man standing beside this alluring mature woman formed a striking visual contrast, further increasing the woman’s beauty while at the same time making the man appear uglier.
However, it could be seen from the positions of these two that this man was a Junior or Disciple of this noblewoman because he stood behind her with a respectful air about him while the woman only looked forward, not back towards him. This buck-toothed man was also a First-Order Origin Returning Realm, but the Saint Qi fluctuations coming from his body were far denser and purer than ordinary.
When he saw this woman, Yang Kai’s expression sank, not knowing who she was or what she had come here for; however, if she was an enemy, the situation would perhaps become more difficult to handle this time. Facing this woman, Yang Kai faintly felt pressured, a feeling Jin Shi, Old Woman Feng, and all the other masters here were unable to bring him.
This showed that this woman’s strength far exceeded that of all the other masters present.
However, when he saw the monkey-faced man behind this woman, Yang Kai could not help feeling surprised again.
Because he knew this person. This buck-toothed man was Ge Qi, the one who had exchanged a pill with the Star Emperor Token after the last auction at Treasure Trove Pavilion!
Yang Kai had a particularly strong impression of him for various reasons, especially how terrified he was the moment he saw Yang Yan. But it was more than just fear, this man also seemed to be in awe of Yang Yan, even insisting that she called him Xiao Qi!
After meeting such a strange-looking and acting person, how could Yang Kai easily forget him?
Yang Kai also quickly recalled that after he had traded a pill for the Star Emperor Token, the other party had said that his Martial Ancestor would come personally to meet Yang Yan if it was possible. Obviously, the mature beauty standing in front of Ge Qi was this Martial Ancestor.
[Is she an enemy or a friend though?] Yang Kai’s brow furrowed as he felt uncertain.
However, the appearance of these two people had succeeded in attracting everyone’s attention, allowing the tense atmosphere to relax somewhat.
Additionally, when the masters from the various great forces clearly saw this woman’s face, they all unconsciously displayed shocked, and even panic-stricken looks, as if they were all afraid of her.
Even Mo Xiao Sheng of Heaven Battling Union and Cheng Peng Xuan of Thunder Typhoon Sect were the same, the two of them exchanging a glance that contained both dread and frustration.
Being from the most powerful Sects on Shadowed Star, no one ordinary was worthy of their attention; the only exception was the mysterious Star Emperor Mountain. Mo Xiao Sheng and Cheng Peng Xuan were both high ranking Elders of their respective forces, commanding immense power and respect, so in order to deter even them, it was clear that the identity and status of this woman were extraordinary.
Yang Kai carefully observed the situation, and although he wasn’t clear who this woman was or what background she had, he could at least tell that she was a famous figure.
“How could it be? Her?” Over on Shadow Moon Hall’s side, Qian Tong also looked like he had seen a ghost, rubbing his eyes twice to confirm he wasn’t seeing things.
Fei Zhi Tu’s jaw had also gone slack, his expression no better than Qian Tong’s.
“Elder, who is this Senior?” Wei Gu Chang asked curiously. This woman had suddenly appeared and said nothing, but still managed to suppress every master present with her mere presence, a feat that inevitably made Wei Gu Chang very curious and somewhat excited.
This was how a true master should be!
“Who is she? She’s the previous Sect Master of Star Emperor Mountain…” Qian Tong replied casually with a hint of bitterness in his tone.
Wei Gu Chang trembled in shock as he stared towards this newly arrived woman with awe and reverence. He had not been expecting this Senior’s origin to be so astonishing.
Star Emperor Mountain was the most mysterious and powerful force on Shadowed Star. No one knew how many masters it possessed or how deep their heritage was, but it was rumoured that Star Emperor Mountain had obtained a piece of the Starry Sky Great Emperor’s Inheritance, so even the two other giants of Shadowed Star, Heaven Battling Union and Thunder Typhoon Sect, fell short in terms of power and prestige when facing Star Emperor Mountain.
Fortunately, Star Emperor Mountain never involved itself in external affairs, rarely even making an appearance on Shadowed Star. If this was not the case, how could there be room on Shadowed Star for other Sects to develop? Star Emperor Mountain would have unified Shadowed Star under its rule long ago.
Although Qian Tong’s words were light, they still reached the ears of the woman, who turned her head slightly and directed her pair of phoenix eyes towards him. Being stared at by this woman, Qian Tong could not help feeling his scalp go numb and just barely managed to squeeze out a smile.
The cultivators of the younger generation may not recognize this woman, but all the masters above the Second-Order Origin Returning Realm on the scene were well aware of her name and her terrifying means. Recalling events from when this woman still wielded Star Emperor Mountain over a hundred years ago, Qian Tong became more and more anxious.
Why had she appeared here though?
“This Queen has not appeared in so long, but I never expected to see so many old friends gathered together the moment I came out,” The woman suddenly opened her lips and spoke, the sound of her voice crisp and clear like a gentle spring breeze, relaxing the minds and bodies of those who heard it, “Xiao Qian, Xiao Fei, you two have also reached this boundary. It seems you’ve not been wasting away the years.”
The woman already created a stir when she was silent, but the moment she spoke, it was as if the earth shook.
Qian Tong and Fei Zhi Tu were both high-level Elders of Shadow Moon Hall, but to this woman, they were just ‘Little Qian’ and ‘Little Fei’.
Countless Saint King Realm cultivators’ eyes lowered to the ground and many could not help laughing secretly.
On the other hand, Qian Tong and Fei Zhi Tu could not laugh, both of them exchanging a glance before quickly bowing and cupping their fists, “Greetings, Senior Sister Ye. After one hundred years, Senior Sister Ye is as majestic as ever, truly worthy of celebration!”
“En,” The woman surnamed Ye waved her hand lightly, expressing neither joy nor sorrow on her pretty face, “I am simply passing through life now, what kind of majesty could I command?”
Saying so, she next turned to another side and beckoned, “Little Black, come here!”
Over on Treasure Trove Pavilion’s side, Ren Tian Rui, known as Little Black-Face, heard this and responded unconsciously, wondering why this Senior had suddenly called out to him, but in the next moment, he actually saw his master Yan Pei stride forward with a smile on his face and rushed over to the woman.
Ren Tian Rui was stunned for a moment but soon understood.
It turns out that his Master has gradually grown from Little Black-Face to Old Black-Face…
This Senior had not been calling him out but was instead summoning his Master.
“Yan Pei greets Senior Sister Ye. What instructions does Senior Sister Ye have?” Yan Pei asked respectfully.
“What’s going on here? Why are there so many people gathered?” The woman surnamed Ye furrowed her brow as she inquired lightly.
“It’s like this…” Yan Pei was naturally an eloquent speaker as the chief auctioneer of Treasure Trove Pavilion, so in the least amount of words necessary, he concisely explained the situation without omissions or embellishments of any kind.
Although this brief explanation wasn’t comprehensive, with the wisdom and insight this woman surnamed Ye possessed, she was able to fully understand what had transpired.
After listening to Yan Pei’s narrative, she coldly snorted, “Thinking themselves strong and bullying the weak, they deserved their deaths!”
Saying so, she shot a cold glare towards Jin Shi and Old Woman Feng. These two were already top-ranked masters on Shadowed Star, so being talked down to like this caused both to frown in displeasure. They were both concerned about this Ye woman’s power and prestige, but that was mainly concerning her from more than a hundred years ago. Now, they had both reached the Third-Order Origin Returning Realm as well, so the other party not giving them any face naturally annoyed them.
What’s more, this woman no longer represented Star Emperor Mountain as she had gone missing more than a hundred years ago. It seemed she had some kind of falling out with Star Emperor Mountain and had disappeared and not been heard from since then.
In other words, she was now just a lone cultivator, so no matter how powerful or famous she was, could she compete against an entire first-class Sect?
Although they felt angry and annoyed, Jin Shi and Old Woman Feng didn’t immediately lash out; after all, they had yet to determine what the other party’s intentions were.
After clearing up what the reason for this gathering of masters was, the woman surnamed Ye suddenly directed her beautiful eyes to Yang Kai and asked the buck-toothed man behind her, “Xiao Qi, is he the one you mentioned?”
Ge Qi nodded respectfully, “Yes, Martial Ancestor. He is the one.”
“And where is that Senior?” The woman surnamed Ye frowned slightly as she whispered to herself, speaking so softly that none of the other cultivators present could clearly hear her, otherwise an uproar would surely have occurred. After thoughtfully glancing at Dragon Cave Mountain’s Mountain Defending Array though, the woman surnamed Ye understood that the one she had come here to find was behind this grand Spirit Array.
Thinking so, she showed a warm smile and greeted Yang Kai with a light nod, “Are you called Yang Kai?”
Yang Kai was very on edge, but he managed to maintain an expression which was neither humble nor overbearing as he cupped his fists and replied, “Junior’s name is indeed Yang Kai. May I ask what instructions Senior has that brings her to my humble mountain?”
“It is nothing so exaggerated,” The woman surnamed Ye smiled, her and enchanting style causing everyone to stare at her dumbfounded while those with weaker mental strength and those who had lower cultivation found themselves unable to look away, as if this woman had some kind of invisible attraction which drew in their eyes, “This Queen simply came to see a person this time, and if this Queen is not mistaken, that person should currently be residing in this mountain area. If it is convenient, could Little Brother open this barrier and allow this Queen to enter?”
Her attitude was gentle and temperate, without the slightest trace of hostility, and the tone she used was not one of authority but entreaty, but Yang Kai still frowned, unable to make a decision immediately.
Yang Kai had a fairly good idea about who this woman wanted to meet. In fact, it couldn’t be anyone other than Yang Yan; after all, Ge Qi’s exaggerated reaction when he saw Yang Yan at Treasure Trove Pavilion last time had precipitated this woman’s arrival here.
These two had no interest in him, they were simply here to see Yang Yan.
However, the origins of this woman were still unknown to Yang Kai and he could not be certain whether she was an enemy or a friend. If this woman had some kind of enmity with Yang Yan, wouldn’t he be leading a wolf into a flock of sheep if he opened the barrier?
With this woman’s strength and means, if she were really to enter Dragon Cave Mountain, no one would be able to resist her, giving Yang Kai serious pause.
Seeing this woman surnamed Ye actually speak to Yang Kai in such a genial manner, even using polite words to make a request, Qian Tong and the other masters were dumbstruck.
The arrogance and methods of this woman surnamed Ye were something Qian Tong and the other masters here had profoundly learned of at a young age. As the former Sect Master of Star Emperor Mountain and the highest level master on Shadowed Star, she had reached a strength and status that only a handful of people in this world could compete with one on one.
She had casually commanded and scolded others, but had spoken gently to Yang Kai. Could this… be some kind of illusion?
Qian Tong and the others were unable to believe what they were seeing for a moment.
As if understanding Yang Kai’s concerns, this woman surnamed Ye did not push him, instead taking a step back and asking, “It’s alright. This Queen won’t force you to withdraw this barrier, but could you allow this Queen to exchange some words with that girl named Yang Yan? This Queen certainly has no malicious intentions toward you and only wants to confirm one thing.”
Sure enough, she was looking for Yang Yan! Yang Kai looked up at her and gently nodded, “If you just want to say a few words, then there is no problem. Please take this, Senior.”
Saying so, Yang Kai wiped his Space Ring and took out a communication artifact before tossing it up to the other party. He didn’t see how this woman surnamed Ye moved, but she was holding the communication artifact in the next instant.
Immediately, in the front of everyone’s eyes, this woman surnamed Ye closed her beautiful eyes and poured her Divine Sense into this communication artifact and contacted Yang Yan, who was deep inside the mountain.
Time passed slowly as everyone on the scene, regardless of cultivation or background, did not dare take a breath, seemingly afraid to disturb this woman.
But soon, her tender body actually began trembling slightly and her expression changed from calm to panic, panic to anxiety, then anxiety to excitement. In an instant, an overwhelming wave of Shi spread out uncontrollably with her as its centre.
Every Saint King Realm cultivator present trembled unstoppably under the influence of this Shi as they suddenly felt like they were wandering the line between life and death, as if all this woman surnamed Ye needed to do was think it and they would die.
The First and Second-Order Origin Returning Realm masters were forced to circulate their Saint Qi in order to resist this pressure as well, while only those who had reached the Third-Order weren’t seriously affected; however, that didn’t mean these top-level masters weren’t feeling shocked.
They were also Third-Order Origin Realm masters, the same as this Ye woman, but none of them could achieve what she had just done unconsciously.
This was clearly a sign that her Shi had reached the grand accomplishment stage! In other words, if not for the suppression of Shadowed Star’s World Principles, this woman may already have broken through and become an Origin King.
Any Origin Realm master who wanted to break through to the Origin King Realm first needed to have their Shi reach the grand accomplishment stage, but no one present other than this woman had achieved this.
Aware of the gap between them, everyone instantly felt a sense of inferiority. At the same time, Jin Shi and Old Woman Feng exchanged a knowing look, both of them secretly rejoicing that they had not acted out in anger just now and attacked. Even if it was two against one, neither of them was certain they would be able to escape unharmed if they were to fight this woman.
After what seemed like an unbearably long time, the Shi was withdrawn and the woman surnamed Ye opened her eyes, but now they were filled with radiant light and her pretty face had a dazzling, reddish glow to it, as if she had encountered an incredibly auspicious matter worthy of celebration.
Yang Kai could clearly tell that this woman’s breathing had quickened slightly, as had her heartbeat.
[What exactly did they talk about?] Yang Kai was filled with doubts.
Everyone else was just as curious as Yang Kai, wondering who or what existed here on Dragon Cave Mountain that could cause such a dramatic change in mood for such a master.
It must be known that masters such as this woman would not have violent mood swings unless they encountered an extraordinarily significant matter.
The woman surnamed Ye took a few deep breaths to calm her excitement before turning to Yang Kai again and asking softly, “Little brother, would you be willing to give this communication artifact to this Queen? This Queen can offer you appropriate compensation.”
Yang Kai wore a forced smile and replied, “There is no need for any kind of compensation for a trivial communication artifact. Senior can just keep it.”
By now, Yang Kai had determined that this woman had no malicious intentions towards Dragon Cave Mountain and most likely had some kind of connection to Yang Yan. In short, she was a friend, not an enemy.
After suddenly obtaining such a powerful ally, Yang Kai couldn’t be happier, so how could he even care about a simple communication artifact? The value of that thing wasn’t even worth mentioning as its only purpose was to help send messages. If he wanted another one, he could just ask Yang Yan to refine another.
“Since that’s the case, this Queen will accept with gratitude,” The woman surnamed Ye was not one for false platitudes so she accepted Yang Kai’s gift and stored it into her Space Ring with a happy smile upon her pretty face.
At this moment, everyone could see that this woman surnamed Ye had some kind of relationship with someone in Dragon Cave Mountain, causing Jin Shi and Old Woman Feng to look like they had just swallowed a dead fly.
They had been exerting pressure on Yang Kai and Dragon Cave Mountain just now, but if this woman surnamed Ye really sided with Dragon Cave Mountain, they would have to retreat. Falling out with such a master for their subordinates who had died here was an extremely unwise matter that they would only take if they had lost their minds.
Realizing all this, Jin Shi and Old Woman Feng both began preparing to withdraw.
After all, the future was still long and it would be best to determine the exact relationship between this woman surnamed Ye and Dragon Cave Mountain first.
“He was really able to turn danger into safety?” Over on Clear Sky Sect’s side, Great Elder Mo Yu’s eyes shone brilliantly. He simply couldn’t believe what was happening right now. A moment ago he had still been teaching Chen Shi Tao to not take stock in ethereal concepts like luck and destiny, but all of a sudden, the seemingly impossible-to-defuse crisis he had been using as a teachable example had been casually resolved.
[Isn’t this little brat’s luck a bit too good?]
“I said that his luck has always been good, but it seems even I underestimated him!” Chen Shi Tao was also quite excited by this development. On the one hand, her friend Yang Kai had managed to overcome this danger, and on the other hand, her long-held belief in destiny had been proven correct.
Over on Coloured Glass Sect’s side, Dai Yuan was also secretly relieved while Yin Su Die’s pretty face had gone cold and was filled with displeasure.
She had been looking forward to the scene of Yang Kai powerlessly begging for mercy, but now this woman surnamed Ye had appeared out of nowhere and subdued all the masters on the scene.
Being denied such a good show at the last moment, how could Yin Su Die be reconciled?
[Wastes!] She sullenly cursed in her heart, but was helpless to do anything. She had only just broken through to the Origin Returning Realm so whether it was in terms of cultivation or status, she was among the lowest-ranked of all the masters present. She simply had no right to speak here.
“What’s wrong? Is there some kind of extraordinary treasure here that you all want? Why are you still gathered here?” The woman surnamed Ye wore a cold look on her pretty face and shouted as she swept her gaze across the crowd after speaking with Yang Kai.
Hearing this, many of the masters here unconsciously took a step back as they revealed awkward looks, but Qian Tong simply laughed heartily and replied, “Senior Sister Ye must be joking, there is no such treasure here.”
“Since that’s the case, you can all leave, or do you want this Queen to expel you personally?”
“We’ll leave, we’ll leave!” Qian Tong said quickly before nodding to Yang Kai gently.
Yang Kai returned a grateful look.
With Qian Tong taking the lead, the other masters from the forces that had only come here to join in the fun naturally didn’t plan on staying, all of them cupping their fists to the woman before turning around to depart. Jin Shi and Old Woman Feng saw this and knew that they alone could not salvage this situation so they similarly planned to depart, despite their unwillingness.
Just as this great storm seemed to be settling down and dispersing though, a sudden change occurred.
The World Energy aura in the surrounding region suddenly became turbulent and extremely disordered.
Everyone showed a horrified expression as they instinctively thought that the woman surnamed Ye had suddenly decided to attack, but upon looking back, they became even more surprised.
Because even the woman surnamed Ye had gone pale and was just as shocked as all of them.
She had not taken action, it was the world itself that had undergone some kind of change!
*Hong long long…*
A violent rumbling suddenly filled the air, the source of which seemed to be both close and far, making it impossible to determine its true origin, but as everyone looked up, their eyes shrank in shock.
Because high up in the sky, where the Emperor Garden was located, bolts of silvery lightning were filling the air, as if it was the end of the world.
The Emperor Garden had been floating directly above Dragon Cave Mountain since it first appeared, but it had remained silent for so long. The masters of Shadowed Star had once joined forces to try to reach it, but had ultimately failed and suffered heavy losses in the process.
Eventually, everyone came to the conclusion that although the Emperor Garden had appeared, it had not yet opened and no one could force their way in.
All of the great forces had deployed people to Heavenly Fate City to monitor the movements of the Emperor Garden and report back immediately if it were to open.
But no one had anticipated that after remaining silent for many months, the Emperor Garden would suddenly come to life at this moment. No one knew what this change represented; after all, the Emperor Garden was the private residence of the Starry Sky Great Emperor, so the secrets it held were known essentially to no one.
At this moment, in the place where the Emperor Garden was located, densely packed bolts of lightning filled the air, seemingly tearing apart to sky as they shot back and forth.
As the movements in the sky became more instant, the World Energy aura also became more and more disordered and violent until eventually, parts of it transformed altogether into a five-coloured radiance that rapidly rose up and flew towards the Emperor Garden.
“Five Element World Energy!” Someone called out in alarm. There were many masters present, so naturally when they saw this five-coloured light, they realized it was a convergence of the five elemental auras and Shadowed Star’s ambient World Energy.
Watching from down below, no one could help but show looks of awe and amazement.
All of them watched as these masses of five-coloured light began to condense together as they floated high up into the sky.
These clusters of Five Element World Energy seemed to be moving slowly but, in fact, they were all converging towards the Emperor Garden at incredible speed, as if drawn in by some invisible attraction.
Gradually, the Emperor Garden, which had originally been visible to the naked eye, became shrouded in a massive cloud of five-coloured light, but at the same time, louder and louder rumblings rang out from it, causing the entire world to tremble.
“Is the Emperor Garden opening?” Someone muttered, and although this was just a baseless and unfounded guess, it still caused everyone’s eyes to light up.
The cultivators from all the great forces residing in and around Heavenly Fate City had been waiting for the moment when the Emperor Garden opened!
No one could explain the scene occurring before their eyes, but there was indeed a possibility that it signified the Emperor Garden opening.
Believing so, everyone could not help feeling agitated, their bodies trembling as they carefully monitored the movements surrounding the Emperor Garden.
Although everyone was excited, no one dared fly up to see what was happening. The aura fluctuations coming from the original location of the Emperor Garden were nothing short of terrifying, so among those gathered, none dared risk their lives to investigate. In the current situation, before anyone could even arrive at the Emperor Garden, they would likely be torn to pieces by the rampaging World Energy.
Even the woman surnamed Ye did not dare move any closer, simply standing in place as her expression fluctuated.
The expressions of Yang Kai, Chang Qi, and the other two old men were equally awed as the four of them stood at the edge of Dragon Cave Mountain’s Mountain Defending Array and stared up into the sky.
Suddenly, a fragrant wind brushed past them as another person appeared by their side. Yang Kai turned his head and, sure enough, discovered Yang Yan standing nearby, looking up into the sky.
“That is not the Emperor Garden opening!” Yang Yan muttered softly with an indifferent expression. Unfortunately, her words were only heard by Yang Kai since the others present had their full attention fixed on the dramatic changes unfolding before them, none of them even realizing that Yang Yan had spoken.
“What is happening then?” Yang Kai asked hurriedly. In the chaos and confusion just now, he had momentarily forgotten that Yang Yan was the Starry Sky Great Emperor’s Soul Clone and should know about the Emperor Garden’s situation.
Since Yang Yan said that this was not a sign that the Emperor Garden was opening, she must have a reason for thinking so.
“I’m not certain, but this is not the Emperor Garden opening. However… it does seem to be related to how one is supposed to enter the Emperor Garden,” Yang Yan’s brow furrowed, not quite sure of herself. This was understandable though as she was not the complete Great Emperor and many of her memories were blurry and unclear.
Yang Kai frowned but did not ask any more.
When she noticed that Yang Yan had appeared, the woman surnamed Ye showed a look of joy and arrived in front of the Mountain Defending Array with a flicker. Gazing respectfully and excitedly towards Yang Yan, this woman was about to say something when Yang Yan stopped her, “We can speak later. For now, just come inside!”
Saying so, Yang Yan waved her hand and sent out a pulse of Saint Qi to open a hole in the light curtain big enough for a single person to pass through.
The woman surnamed Ye blushed slightly as she wore a flattered look before nodding politely and replying, “Yes!”
In the next instant, her tender body flickered and she passed through the Mountain Defending Array, followed closely by Ge Qi who was still wearing the same timid look upon his face as he occasionally glanced over at Yang Yan. His glances didn’t last long though, seemingly worried that, if he stared, he would be blaspheming her with his eyes.
Chang Qi, Hao An, and Ning Xiang Chen finally came to their senses but were immediately dumbstruck as they stared towards the woman surnamed Ye, their faces filled with disbelief.
As the three of them were standing next to Yang Yan the whole time, they had naturally heard how this woman surnamed Ye spoke to her just now.
This made them unable to believe their ears as they exchanged confused glances.
Did they hear wrong? A woman like this, whose strength was astonishing and whose status was immense, when facing Yang Yan, acted like a faithful servant. What exactly was happening here?
Although Yang Kai also felt a little surprised, he was still far better off compared to Chang Qi and the others; after all, he already knew Yang Yan’s true identity. He thus suspected this woman was somehow connected to the true Starry Sky Great Emperor, otherwise, it would have been impossible for her to display such an attitude.
Although he still had some doubts, Yang Kai understood that this was not the time to sort them out and firmly pressed them down, preparing to ask about them when an opportunity arose later.
Glancing over at the buck-toothed cultivator, Yang Kai chuckled and cupped his fists, “Brother Ge, we meet again.”
*Hai hai…*
Ge Qi coughed uncomfortable before quickly lowering his head and insisting, “It’s Xiao Qi, please just call me Xiao Qi.”
Although he had not figured out the relationship between Yang Kai and Yang Yan, he didn’t dare try to act aloof; after all, his Martial Ancestor was humbling herself in front of Yang Yan, so if he did not act humbler, would not that be the same as disparaging his Martial Ancestor?
How could he dare act superior to his Martial Ancestor?
Yang Kai’s brow twitched but he did not object. He was just a Third-Order Saint King while this monkey-faced man was a genuine First-Order Origin Returning Realm cultivator, so although the latter was not very old, calling him Xiao Qi made Yang Kai quite uncomfortable.
After this brief episode, everyone’s eyes once again turned to the Emperor Garden high up in the sky.
The crash of thunder continued endlessly as countless bolts of lightning continued to rampage across the sky, like great dragons swimming through the Heavens, a terrifying scene to behold. At the same time, the Emperor Garden was now completely covered in five-coloured clouds, leaving only its outline visible amongst the innumerable flashes of lightning.
The clouds of Five Element World Energy continued to rapidly gather towards the Emperor Garden.
And this scene did not just appear near Dragon Cave Mountain and Heavenly Fate City, but was actually occurring all over Shadowed Star!
Almost everyone witnessed this grand event with their own eyes, and under the immense pressure this phenomenon released, even Third-Order Origin Returning Realm masters felt as weak as ants.
Somewhere on Shadowed Star, there stood a towering mountain over ten thousand metres high with its peak hidden amongst the clouds where rivers of World Energy seemed to ebb and flow. Obviously, there were several excellent Earth Veins that converged here, otherwise, the ambient aura would not have been so dense.
The scenery of this high mountain was also quite beautiful, with rugged rock faces dotted with numerous exquisite pavilions. It was clearly the headquarters of a certain Sect.
Star Emperor Mountain!
This was the most tyrannical existence on Shadowed Star, a behemoth that greatly surpassed even Heaven Battling Union and Thunder Typhoon Sect. Although its name resounded like thunder across the world, Star Emperor Mountain always kept a low profile, with few of its members ever even leaving the Sect. As such, it was nearly impossible for Shadowed Star’s ordinary cultivators to see a cultivator from Star Emperor Mountain in their lifetime.
At this moment, in a palace built at the highest point of Star Emperor Mountain, an elderly man with sage-like features and not the slightest energy fluctuations radiating from his body, as if he were a mere mortal, sat cross-legged, looking as tranquil as an ancient well.
When the sudden mutation occurred, however, this elderly man awoke from his meditation and stared towards the direction of the Emperor Garden, a profound light flashing across his eyes that seemingly allowed him to see across all obstacles and observe the Emperor Garden directly.
It took a while before he raised his brow and said to himself, “Are the Emperor Jades about to appear?”
After he finished muttering to himself, a look of joy flashed across the elderly man’s face and he immediately stood up. The moment he got to his feet; a wave of Shi no less intense than the one released by the woman surnamed Ye spread out.
His figure flickering, this elderly man suddenly disappeared from the place he was standing, and when he appeared again, he was already several thousand metres away, where an indifferent-looking young man sat cross-legged on a stone platform, staring transfixed at the clouds of five-coloured aura lingering in the air.
Seeing the elderly man suddenly appear, the young man was startled and hurriedly got up and bowed, “Disciple greets Honoured Master.”
If Yang Kai was here, he would surely recognize this indifferent young man at a glance, it was Leng Qing who he had met twice in the Flowing Flame Sand Field!
After demonstrating his incredible strength and means, this young man had managed to occupy the best location in the pool of Soul Cleansing Divine Water, angering and frustrating Qu Chang Feng. Later, Yang Kai had met Leng Qing face-to-face in the fourth layer of the Flowing Flame Sand Field.
At that time, Leng Qing was attacking the Supreme Profound Sect’s Sect Defending Array.
Of the cultivators on Shadowed Star in the same major realm as him, Yang Kai only cared about two, Lu Ye and Leng Qing.
Although that was said, Leng Qing had already broken through from the Third-Order Saint King Realm to the First-Order Origin Returning Realm.
“En, relay my orders: All Elders are to be dispatched,” The elderly man commanded lightly.
Leng Qing was stunned by this command and hurriedly cupped his fists to ask, “May disciple dare ask Honoured Master what you want the Elders to leave the mountain for?”
The elderly man was not upset by this question and calmly explained, “The Emperor Jades are about to appear, so all Elders are to collect as many as possible. This matter is related to the quotas for entering the Emperor Garden, so they must exert their full effort. Even if they must snatch them from others, they should not hesitate.”
“Yes!” Although Leng Qing was confused, he did not dare ask any more and quickly withdrew.
After Leng Qing left, the elderly man coughed slightly while covering his chest, his face turning slightly pale.
He was injured, but it was a mystery what kind of foe or what kind of profound method could wound a master like him.
“Since the Emperor Jades have appeared, it won’t be long before the Emperor Garden opens. Hateful, it’s all that slut’s fault that I am wounded at such a time!” A fierce look appeared on the elderly man’s face as he grumbled an annoyance.
As for who the ‘slut’ he was talking about was, no one knew.
Near Dragon Cave Mountain, all the gathered cultivators were closely watching the movement of the Emperor Garden.
The strange mutation lasted for more than half a day before suddenly a new change occurred which caused everyone’s spirits to shake and their eyes to widen, drawing in the attention even further.
Everyone saw high up in the sky the five-coloured glow which had engulfed the Emperor Garden fade at a rate visible to the naked eye.
At the same time, the loud rumbling which had filled the air ceased while the rampant flood of Five Element World Energy became tranquil, as if it had never happened.
Everyone stared at the Emperor Garden again in amazement, but in the next moment, they all gasped.
Because the Emperor Garden now looked quite different from before. Not only was it larger, but many new buildings that had not been there originally could also be seen now, as if they had been revealed during the strange mutation which had shaken the world.
This discovery caused everyone to wonder if the recent changes were a good or bad thing.
“Yes, this is the true form of the Emperor Garden…” Yang Yan muttered thoughtfully as she explained, “What we saw before was only half of the Emperor Garden while the other half had been hidden somewhere. Only after the two combined into one could the Emperor Garden truly manifest. En, the Emperor Garden will be soon open!”
After hearing this, Yang Kai turned back to look at her but saw that Yang Yan’s brow was furrowed, as if she was lost in thought.
Right now, the Emperor Garden gave off an even more majestic and profound aura than before, causing everyone present to tremble.
Emperor Pressure!
The power of the Emperor Pressure exuded by the Emperor Garden after its most recent change was truly terrifying, dispelling any thoughts of moving the people gathered here had as they all unconsciously gulped.
Shrouded in Emperor Pressure, everyone felt difficulty breathing as their extremities felt icy cold.
At this time, no matter what their cultivation was and regardless of their age or status, all the masters present felt like they had become three-year-old children in front of this Emperor Pressure. This discovery shocked and terrified everyone as they profoundly realized just how high an existence the Starry Sky Great Emperor was.
This residual Emperor Pressure alone was enough to overwhelm them, meaning if the Great Emperor was still alive today, it would likely take a simple thought to crush them.
This was a power that exceeded the level of an Origin King!
Fortunately, the Emperor Pressure did not persist for long, only lasting about a stick of incense worth of time before gradually fading away completely. However, this was long enough for everyone present to be drenched in a cold sweat as looks of fear lingered on their faces long after.
Before everyone could steady themselves though, another mutation occurred!
A deafening rumbling suddenly spread out from the Emperor Garden, shaking the entire world.
“What now?” Some people exclaimed in alarm. The repeated accidents which occurred today had left everyone exasperated as well as concerned about just what was happening with the Emperor Garden.
Looking up, everyone saw that a beam of light appeared from the Emperor Garden and slowly began falling towards the ground. This beam was only about as thick as an arm, but it seemed to contain Heaven Destroying and Earth Shattering power, making it difficult for one to even look at it for long.
Yang Kai’s complexion instantly turned black.
After all, this strange beam of light was falling directly towards his Dragon Cave Mountain!
The Emperor Garden had been suspended directly above Dragon Cave Mountain, so with this beam of light falling straight down, Dragon Cave Mountain would naturally bear the brunt of the impact and there was obviously no way to avoid it.
Although the Mountain Defending Array was indeed amazing, and the number of internal barriers was great, Yang Kai had no confidence they would be able to withstand this strange beam of light, and seeing Yang Yan look just as anxious as he felt, he immediately understood that the situation had taken a turn for the worse.
In the blink of an eye, the beam of light from the Emperor Garden touched Dragon Cave Mountain’s Mountain Defending Array, and the great barrier that had held more than thirty Origin Returning Realm master at bay for two days and two nights without breaking began melting like snowflakes under the scorching sun.
Silently, the Mountain Defending Array was pierced through and the light curtain itself flashed wildly as it rapidly grew dim.
Immediately, the beam of light fell somewhere inside Dragon Cave Mountain before disappearing, leaving behind only a subtle energy fluctuation.
Countless eyes turned towards Dragon Cave Mountain in that instant, the faces they belonged to wearing all kinds of different expressions filled with surprise, confusion, greed, dread, etc…
No matter what that light beam had been, there was no doubt it had come from the Emperor Garden; after all, everyone had seen it. What’s more, when it disappeared, it had left something behind.
Everyone wanted to know what that something was!
Was it an incredible treasure, or perhaps an entrance to the Emperor Garden? Whatever it was, just the thought of it was enough to draw out the greed in people and make them want to take a closer look. The appearance of this beam of light had made Dragon Cave Mountain the focus of attention once again.
Now that Dragon Cave Mountain’s protective barrier had been destroyed, if it were not for the woman surnamed Ye’s sweeping her sharp gaze over the crowd, the situation would likely have already devolved into a chaotic struggle. The fragile balance was barely being maintained because of the deterrence this woman’s presence exerted.
But no one could guarantee how long this deterrence would last! After all, this matter was of extraordinary importance, so even if the woman surnamed Ye was incredibly strong, she alone could not stop everyone here.
The woman surnamed Ye also seemed to realize the growing tension in the air and began sending out an invisible pressure from her body, assuming a ‘one woman acts as a mountain’ stance, blocking ten thousand invaders.
Yang Kai’s brow twitched as his mouth filled with bitterness.
With things as they were now, there were only two courses of action he could take: either relent and allow the masters present into Dragon Cave Mountain to see for themselves what that beam of light left behind and satisfy their curiosity, or assuming a defiant stance and forbid anyone from entering the mountain while seizing the newly appeared treasure for himself.
Blocking was impossible though. A strong tiger could not defeat a pack of wolves. The woman surnamed Ye alone could not stop all the masters present from invading.
Giving way to difficulties was not Yang Kai’s style either. However, while others were curious about what remained after that beam of light disappeared, he was as well!
Observing the disposition of the crowd and seeing that the masters from the various great forces were on the verge of making a move, Yang Kai knew he had to make a choice, otherwise, he would lose the initiative.
Thinking so, Yang Kai sent a Divine Sense Message to the woman surnamed Ye, who raised her eyebrows and showed a look of surprise before gently nodding.
Just as the two of them reached a consensus, Mo Xiao Sheng of Heaven Battling Union finally lost out to his curiosity and took a step forward, cupping his fists with a dignified expression, “Senior Sister Ye…”
Before he even finished speaking though, the woman surnamed Ye raised her brow and shouted, “Don’t even think about it!”
At the same time, Yang Kai’s body flickered, and he quickly began fading away. At the same time his body blurred, the surrounding space rippling slightly.
“Space Force?” Mo Xiao Sheng’s eyes shrank as he stared fixedly at Yang Kai’s gradually dissipating figure. As the Great Elder of Heaven Battling Union, Mo Xiao Sheng also cultivated Space Force, so he was more familiar with these residual fluctuations than anyone else present.
Seeing Yang Kai not hesitate to use Space Force to withdraw from this place, Mo Xiao Sheng instantly understood what he was thinking, and while hiding his shock at how masterful Yang Kai’s control of Space Force was, he roared, “Boy! You dare!?”
He was truly afraid of the woman surnamed Ye, but other than this woman, he did not put anything or anyone on Dragon Cave Mountain into his eyes. A trivial Saint King Realm Junior like Yang Kai presumptuously thought he could make the first move in full view of so many masters, how could he possibly tolerate such arrogance?
As he shouted, Mo Xiao Sheng also stepped out, his figure gradually blurring.
Like Yang Kai, he also used Space Force.
“Come back here!” The woman surnamed Ye shouted as she stretched out her jade white hand and grabbed towards the surrounding space, causing the World Energy to suddenly contract and sending a figure that seemingly materialized out of thin air tumbling backwards. Naturally, this figure was Heaven Battling Union’s Great Elder whose face was currently filled with panic.
He had not expected that this woman surnamed Ye’s methods were so profound that she could easily negate his own trump card.
The situation’s delicate balance had been instantly broken by Yang Kai and Mo Xiao Sheng’s actions. So many other masters were already staring at Dragon Cave Mountain, wanting to enter to see what kind of treasure had been deposited here by the Emperor Garden, so now that such a good opportunity had appeared, how could they hesitate? One after another they began displaying their Movement Skills as they rushed towards where the pillar of light fell.
“No one is going anywhere!” The woman surnamed Ye’s tender body flickered to intercept the advancing mob and with a flash of light, summoned an oil-lamp-like artifact in front of her. Stretching out her hand and placing it on the lamp’s wick, she condensed a blue flame at her fingertips and with a flick of her wrist, sent forth a wave of blue flames.
These blue flames gathered and expanded, swiftly transforming into a majestic firebird several tens of metres in length that exuded an astonishing pressure. This giant bird quickly proceeded to open its mouth and spit out a washbasin sized fireball that flew towards the approaching crowd of masters.
“The Bone Incinerating Flame Lamp!” One well-informed master among the crowd cried out in panic when he saw this oil lamp, his face going completely pale as he hurriedly summoned his strongest defensive artifact to protect himself.
When the name Bone Incinerating Flame Lamp was shouted, everyone else displayed a similarly panic-stricken expression and rapidly stepped back, none of them daring to advance again.
These masters could not be blamed for this though as the Bone Incinerating Flame Lamp’s reputation was simply that astonishing; after all, it was one of the handful of Origin King Grade artifacts on Shadowed Star!
Artifacts of this grade could not be refined by the Artifact Refiners on Shadowed Star, so they were all relics from ancient times and held unfathomable power. One had to avoid being contaminated by the flames from this artifact at all costs. Because, once a cultivator was contaminated by them, they would inevitably perish. Although this woman surnamed Ye was alone, with this artifact, her strength was not much worse than that of an Origin King master, so who here would dare challenge her alone?
For a time, many of the gathered masters wore gloomy looks as they hesitated whether to move forward or retreat, creating an incredibly lively and tense scene.
However, although this woman surnamed Ye was an incredible master, she still could not handle so many opponents at once as there were many enemies among them who were in the same realm as her. Worse, after releasing this first attack from the Bone Incinerating Flame Lamp, her complexion had paled slightly.
With her cultivation, using this Origin King Grade artifact put a heavy load on her body.
“Sister Ye, do you really want to make enemies of so many of us?” Cheng Peng Xuan of Thunder Typhoon Sect looked at the woman surnamed Ye with an ugly expression and asked solemnly.
The woman surnamed Ye just glanced at him lightly and snorted, “If you all stand still, this Queen will naturally not trouble you, but if you dare try to break into this mountain, this Queen will be the first to disagree!”
“Bold words! Is it possible Sister Ye really thinks we are weaklings that can be casually bullied?” Mo Xiao Sheng also called out sullenly. Just now he had wanted to chase after Yang Kai but was blocked by this woman, causing him to lose a great deal of face, so he was feeling particularly aggressive now.
“This Queen is also no weakling. I won’t repeat my words a second time!” The woman surnamed Ye’s attitude was extremely firm.
Mo Xiao Sheng and Cheng Peng Xuan exchanged a look and gently nodded to one another.
Although the two of them usually could not stand one another and had been competing against each other for countless years, it was only natural for them to stand united at this time, and because they were both incredibly familiar with each other, a single glance was all it took to communicate this intent.
“Since that’s the case, then this old man won’t act polite!” Mo Xiao Sheng shouted before suddenly summoning a pitch-black short staff into his hands. This short staff seemed quite ordinary, but when Mo Xiao Sheng poured his Saint Qi into it, it began exuding a shocking energy fluctuation and instantly transformed into a stream of light that shot towards the woman surnamed Ye.
Just as Mo Xiao Sheng launched his attack, Cheng Peng Xuan also took action.
A long delay would lead to many problems and neither of them was willing to be blocked here by this woman, so in order to break into Dragon Cave Mountain as quickly as possible and investigate what kind of treasure had been deposited here, they both resorted to their strongest methods.
Cheng Peng Xuan summoned a seal-type artifact which rapidly expanded to the size of a mountain before slamming down towards the woman surnamed Ye.
Jin Shi of Demon Blood Temple, Old Woman Feng of Myriad Beast Mountain, and several other Origin Returning Realm masters from the various great forces were not willing to fall behind and quickly joined in this assault.
Although the reputation and strength of the woman surnamed Ye were daunting, she was still just one person, so with so many masters present, how could she possibly stop them all?
Only Qian Tong and Fei Zhi Tu stood in place. Due to their relationship with Dragon Cave Mountain, they naturally would not try to find trouble with this woman and were currently more worried about Yang Kai’s situation.
In addition to them, there were two other forces that had yet to move: Clear Sky Sect’s group led by Great Elder Mo Yu and the group of women from Coloured Glass Sect led by Elder Gong Ao Fu.
It was impossible to tell what the former was thinking about as he smiled lightly while looking towards the inside of Dragon Cave Mountain with amusement, as if he was content to be a spectator and admire the show.
As for the latter, while she too wanted to break into Dragon Cave Mountain, Gong Ao Fu had only recently broken through to the Third-Order Origin Returning Realm and her strength was significantly lower than the other top masters present. Seeing the woman surnamed Ye display such overwhelming might, Gong Ao Fu could only stand back helplessly.
Besides these few, almost everyone else had desperately rushed into Dragon Cave Mountain regardless of their cultivation. Most people didn’t want to offend the woman surnamed Ye, but they were simply too curious about what that beam of light had deposited here. Taking advantage of the many Third-Order Origin Returning Realm masters holding down the woman surnamed Ye, everyone else used various methods to bypass their battle and rush into the mountain.
Seeing that the situation was spiralling out of control, Ge Qi, Chang Qi, Hao An, and Ning Xiang Chen immediately took action, summoning their respective artifacts and joining the fray.
Various colours of Saint Qi burst forth and outside Dragon Cave Mountain’s Mountain Defending Array, an intense battle began.
The battle began and ended quickly; after all, there were simply too many enemies, so the woman surnamed Ye and the other four Origin Returning Realm cultivators supporting Dragon Cave Mountain had no way to stop all the invaders. While the woman surnamed Ye was being suppressed, Mo Xiao Sheng once again used his Space Force and broke past her blockade.
This time, the woman surnamed Ye couldn’t stop him and was only able to watch as he disappeared into Dragon Cave Mountain.
“Hateful!” The woman surnamed Ye clenched her teeth as she cursed. In that moment of distress, more Origin Returning Realm masters slipped past her and rushed up the mountain.
The woman surnamed Ye felt a deep sense of powerlessness in her heart. If she was a true Origin King, it wouldn’t have taken her much effort to stop this group of people in their tracks, but she was just a Third-Order Origin Returning Realm master, in the end, so even though she was only half a step away from the Origin King Realm, she was unable to break through that last layer of constraints while suppressed by Shadowed Star’s World Principles.
When continuing to try to defend this position no longer holding any significance, the woman surnamed Ye grabbed hold of her Bone Incinerating Flame Lamp before wrapping Yang Yan up in her Saint Qi and chasing after the others who had entered the mountain.
With her gone, the others naturally no longer stayed put and hurriedly kept up.
Qian Tong and Fei Zhi Tu glanced at each other, both frowning with their faces filled with worry, but sighed helplessly. They, too, followed along.
On Clear Sky Sect’s side, Mo Yu contemplated for a moment before saying, “You wait here, this old master will go in and take a look.”
Looking at this situation, there would likely be a great battle in the near future, so Mo Yu wasn’t about to let his disciples follow him into this dangerous situation.
“Honoured Master!” Chen Shi Tao shouted suddenly.
Mo Yu glanced over at her and smiled benignly, “Do you wish to say something?”
Chen Shi Tao bit her red lips lightly but still forced herself to speak, “I and Junior Sister Lu Yin owe Junior Brother Yang a life-saving grace. If possible, I hope that Honoured Master… can assist him. Even if it is only slightly!”
It had taken all her courage to say this; after all, Mo Yu was her Master and she did not have the qualifications to make such a request to him, not to mention that this matter was far too complex and choosing to side with Yang Kai would likely draw fire to Clear Sky Sect. When she made this request, Chen Shi Tao was already psychologically prepared to be scolded by her Honoured Master.
But to her great surprise, Mo Yu only thought about it for a moment before nodding lightly, “No problem, this old master will do his best but don’t have too many expectations. After all, this time… heh heh!”
Mo Yu didn’t finish his words because everyone here knew what he meant. All of them clearly felt that this time Dragon Cave Mountain’s situation was beyond redemption.
However, Chen Shi Tao and Lu Ying were both overjoyed and offered their profound thanks, elegantly bowing their heads. By the time they straightened themselves back up though, Mo Yu had already disappeared. The two young women looked at each other and exhaled softly, never having expected their Honoured Master to agree so readily.
Regardless of the final result, both of them had worked up the courage to ask Mo Yu to help Yang Kai, so they had already done all they could.
On the other side, Gong Ao Fu also instructed Yin Su Die and Dai Yuan to remain outside and wait before entering Dragon Cave Mountain alone.
Along the way, she met no resistance, but Gong Ao Fu could still perceive the many barriers and Spirit Arrays all over this mountain, but all of these Spirit Arrays had already been destroyed.
With so many masters having rushed in ahead of her, no matter how many Spirit Arrays were arranged here, they could not have stopped their pace. What’s more, there was currently no one in Dragon Cave Mountain operating these Spirit Arrays, so they simply couldn’t display too much power.
Gong Ao Fu secretly felt startled at this sight, but a short time later, she arrived at a spot inside Dragon Cave Mountain where a large number of Origin Returning Realm masters had gathered, including over twenty who had reached the Third-Order. These masters had formed a large semicircle around the spot where the beam of light from the Emperor Garden had descended.
At this moment, a young man was standing proudly at the centre of this encirclement with an indifferent look upon his face. Naturally it was the owner of Dragon Cave Mountain, the cultivator called Yang Kai, a Third-Order Saint King!
Gong Ao Fu only spared him a fleeting glance before her attention was instantly attracted to something in his hand. It looked like some kind of Jade Token approximately half the size of a palm. Pure and flawless, this Jade Token had some kind of red light swimming about inside of it, like a small fish in a pond of water, giving it a profound and mysterious appearance.
Even with Gong Ao Fu’s vision, she was unable to see what material this Jade Token was made from and could only tell that an inexplicable force was emanating from it.
Countless curious, greedy eyes stared at this Jade Token!
[Was this what had fallen from the Emperor Garden?] Gong Ao Fu inevitably thought to herself.
A beam of light had been emitted from the Emperor Garden just now, and after it disappeared, it was clear that something had been left in this place. Yang Kai had arrived here first, so if there was anything to be found, it would definitely be this Jade Token; why else would everyone be coveting it?
Gong Ao Fu’s guess was right. With the help of the woman surnamed Ye, when Yang Kai rushed here, he really only found this Jade Token, but before he had a chance to study it, Mo Xiao Sheng had slipped through and rushed over.
It wasn’t that the woman surnamed Ye was incompetent, it was simply that two fists couldn’t block four strikes. It wouldn’t be difficult for her to defeat Mo Xiao Sheng in a one on one battle, but stopping him from leaving was different; after all, the other party cultivated Space Force so his mobility was essentially unmatched.
Although the situation had become treacherous, Yang Kai didn’t display any fear.
This was only natural since, if he was compelled to, he could simply tear space and escape. Although there were many enemies surrounding him, he had at least fifty percent confidence he could withdraw safely.
With this confidence, of course he would not be afraid, not to mention, with that Ye woman helping him, it wasn’t like he was powerless to resist.
“Little brother…” The silence was broken by Mo Xiao Sheng suddenly. Staring at the Jade Token in Yang Kai’s hands, he asked in as calm a tone as he could manage, “Could you let this old master take a look at that Jade Token?”
Regardless of what this Jade Token was, since it came from the Emperor Garden, it was certainly connected to the Starry Sky Great Emperor. How could anything related to the Great Emperor not be valuable?
It wasn’t just Mo Xiao Sheng who wanted to take a closer look, everyone present did, Mo Xiao Sheng just happened to be the first to ask.
“Let you see it?” Yang Kai sneered, “What difference is that from beating a dog with a meat bun?”
Yang Kai already had a very poor impression of Heaven Battling Union, so he didn’t even bother being polite.
Mo Xiao Sheng’s complexion instantly became gloomy as he coldly snapped, “Boy, mind your words. This old master simply wants to take a look at that thing. Do you think that with this old master’s status he would covet the possessions of a junior?”
“Don’t you?” Yang Kai spat disdainfully, “If you didn’t, why come here in the first place?”
Saying so, Yang Kai directly stuffed that Jade Token into his Space Ring.
Seeing this, many masters’ faces suddenly became ugly. As the saying goes, treasures belong to those who can keep them. Although this strange token had landed on Dragon Cave Mountain after falling from the Emperor Garden, and Yang Kai was the first to snatch it, as a trivial Third-Order Saint King, what qualifications did he have to possess it?
Yet, in the front of everyone’s eyes, he actually put this Jade Token into his Space Ring, displaying naked contempt for all the masters present, annoying them greatly.
If it was any other occasion, these people wouldn’t mind killing Yang Kai and snatching this treasure; after all, it was not the first time these people had performed such an act, but currently they were on Dragon Cave Mountain and they had to concern themselves with the woman surnamed Ye’s presence.
This was especially true after seeing the power of this woman’s Bone Incinerating Flame Lamp.
“Little brother, if you can give this Jade Token to this old master, I can compensate you 100 million Saint Crystals! What do you think?” Compared with the hypocrisy of Mo Xiao Sheng, Cheng Peng Xuan of Thunder Typhoon Sect actually acted upfront. Knowing that it was impossible to take this thing for free, he immediately attempted to acquire it at a high price.
To him, 100 million Saint Crystals was an astronomical figure for this tiny Dragon Cave Mountain, an amount of wealth this young man likely had never even dreamed of before, so as long as this boy wasn’t stupid and understood that holding onto this Jade Token would only bring him trouble, he wouldn’t reject this proposal.
“100 million…” Yang Kai raised his brow, seemingly taking interest in this proposal before replying, “Well, I’ll consider it.”
Cheng Peng Xuan smiled happily and asked, “And how long does little brother need to consider this old master’s offer?”
A long delay would lead to many problems, so he wanted to conclude this transaction as quickly as possible.
“Perhaps ten to fifteen days, maybe three to five years, who can say for certain? After all, this matter is of great importance so Junior should consider it carefully. How about Senior Cheng returns to Thunder Typhoon Sect first and await news from this Junior?” Yang Kai wore a sincere look and proposed.
Listening to Yang Kai say this, Cheng Peng Xuan’s smiling face immediately darkened. As long as one wasn’t blind and deaf they could tell Yang Kai was simply being perfunctory; if Cheng Peng Xuan really left like this, he could forget about ever seeing this Jade Token again.
Cheng Peng Xuan felt livid but managed to maintain a look of calm on his face.
He held the position of Great Elder in Thunder Typhoon Sect, giving him a lofty and respected status, so he would not allow his emotions to get the better of him for something like this.
“Brother Cheng, Brother Mo, why bother speaking with this little brat? Since he doesn’t put any of us in his eyes, all we need to do is snatch that token,” Jin Shi coldly snorted, “A trivial Saint King Junior actually daring to lay claim to a rare treasure in front of us is utter nonsense!”
In any case, he and Dragon Cave Mountain had already completely fallen out so there was no need for him to speak politely. In fact, Jin Shi couldn’t wait to drag Cheng Peng Xuan and Mo Xiao Sheng into these muddy waters to help him deal with Dragon Cave Mountain. Although he feared the strength of the woman surnamed Ye, if all the masters here teamed up, even she would definitely not be their opponent.
As long as they killed Yang Kai, not only could they take that Jade Token, Jin Shi would also have a chance to obtain that piece of Profound Gold; how could he let this opportunity pass?
There were many people present who had the same thoughts as Jin Shi, but no one openly agreed with him except Old Woman Feng of Myriad Beast Mountain. Old Woman Feng had always been short-tempered and straightforward, so she did not hesitate to tap her dragon-head cane against the ground and declared coldly, “Old Ghost Jin’s proposal is sound, this old woman agrees with him. What does everyone else think?”
Although they could guess what Jin Shi and Old Woman Feng were scheming, whether it was Mo Xiao Sheng, Cheng Peng Xuan, or the masters from the other great forces, they couldn’t help wanting to agree.
With everything that had transpired already, there was no way this situation could be resolved peacefully, so since they all wanted this strange treasure, their only option was to snatch it.
Mo Xiao Sheng and Cheng Peng Xuan looked at each other and instantly understood the other’s intentions.
“Anyone who dares to act will become this Queen’s lifelong enemy!” The woman surnamed Ye looked around coldly and shouted.
Many people avoided her gaze as they felt a sudden headache.
But Jin Shi just smiled at her sarcastically, “Sister Ye, did you lose your sense of reason after spending so long in the mountains? You really think that all by yourself you can disregard so many of us, not putting us in your eyes? Sister Ye, this old master will only remind you once, get too close to the flame and you will burn yourself. It would be best if you quickly retreat!”
This light threat was clearly made in an attempt to force everyone here into two camps, increasing his number of enemies this woman would need to confront.
“If any of you want to die, this Queen will gladly fulfil your request!” The woman surnamed Ye glared at Jin Shi as she once again summoned her Bone Incinerating Flame Lamp, suspending it above her head in preparation to attack.
Jin Shi’s expression dimmed once more. Although his tone was incredibly rampant, the moment he saw this Origin King Grade artifact, he couldn’t help his heart from clenching up. Nevertheless, he couldn’t flinch if he wanted that Jade Token and the Profound Gold.
Fortunately, Old Woman Feng also stood with him at the critical moment, wearing a dignified look on her old face as she shouted, “Sister Ye, although your means are exceedingly profound, you’re still just a Third-Order Origin Realm cultivator. You’re not someone who doesn’t understand advance and retreat, so why do you insist on interfering in these turbid waters? Why not take a step back here? If you can withdraw, after we process this matter, we will personally visit you to show our appreciation!”
These words were neither humble nor overbearing, giving the woman surnamed Ye the face her status and strength deserved. As long as the other party still had any thoughts of compromising, it shouldn’t be difficult for her to make the right choice.
Listening to Old Woman Feng say this, Mo Xiao Sheng, Cheng Peng Xuan, and many others nodded together, doing their best to persuade this woman surnamed Ye in hopes she would do the sensible thing and back down.
Unfortunately for them, they were destined to be disappointed. This woman left her seclusion solely to meet Yang Yan, so now that the Dragon Cave Mountain where Yang Yan lived was facing trouble, how could she let the matter drop?
“Enough nonsense, if you want to act then make your move, that is, if you can withstand this Queen’s anger and revenge! This Queen is now just a lone cultivator, you’d all best consider if you can protect your Sect and its industries from this Queen!” The woman surnamed Ye’s attitude and position were extremely firm.
“Excellent! Shamelessly rejecting a face-saving offer!” Jin Shi’s expression became stern, “Since that’s the case, Sister Ye should not blame us for being ruthless!”
Saying so, a malevolent aura suddenly emerged from his body as a golden cicada phantom suddenly appeared behind him. Jin Shi waved his hand and countless jet-black insects condensed from his Saint Qi appeared, releasing a terrifying buzzing sound as they swarmed towards the woman surnamed Ye.
This was Jin Shi’s Golden Cicada Extreme Demon Art, a technique he obtained from an ancient Demon Race ruin, one that was extremely profound and powerful.
Old Woman Feng also tossed out her dragon-head cane as she poured her Saint Qi into it. A moment later, this cane transformed into a scale-armoured Flood Dragon several dozen metres in length that opened its great maw and bit towards the woman surnamed Ye.
Since things had reached this point, there was naturally nothing more to say, they either withdrew or went all out. The masters present were all decisive people, and they knew that if this woman surnamed Ye managed to escape today, they would definitely face her revenge in the future, so when they took action they did so with the intent to kill.
The moment Jin Shi and Old Woman Feng began, Cheng Peng Xuan and Mo Xiao Sheng also acted without hesitation, the former’s giant seal and the latter’s short staff artifacts both radiating intense energy fluctuations as they struck towards the woman surnamed Ye.
This battle was completely different from the one earlier. A moment ago, everyone had only wanted to escape the entanglement of this woman surnamed Ye, so they had not acted fully, but now they were fighting with the intent to kill this woman surnamed Ye, so they displayed their complete strength.
With four Third-Order Origin Returning Realm masters attacking this woman surnamed Ye, even though she possessed an Origin King Grade artifact like the Bone Incinerating Flame Lamp, she immediately found herself at a disadvantage.
However, worthy of her status as the former Sect Master of Star Emperor Mountain, a character famed for her strength for hundreds of years, she was not one to be underestimated even if she was being pressured. The blue flames from her Bone Incinerating Flame Lamp flew out and counterattacked her four attackers, throwing them into disarray and even causing them some slight panic.
From this initial confrontation, it was apparent that the battle between these five top masters would not be settled any time soon.
However, the goal of Jin Shi and the others had already been achieved. Now that they had completely tied down this woman surnamed Ye, the rest of Dragon Cave Mountain’s defenders were just fish on a chopping board.
The conclusion of this conflict was clear to everyone.
Seeing the woman surnamed Ye completely entangled, the remaining masters were naturally unwilling to stand idly by and immediately attacked Chang Qi and the others.
At this moment, there were just over a hundred Origin Returning Realm masters on Dragon Cave Mountain, many of whom had reached the Second or Third-Order. Chang Qi, Hao An, and Ning Xiang Chen were all just First-Order Origin Realm cultivators, so they were immediately surrounded by peril. Fortunately, the artifacts they were using were all refined personally by Yang Yan and had immense power, so they didn’t have to worry about dying for a short time.
Moreover, at this critical moment, Qian Tong and Fei Zhi Tu also joined the fray. They couldn’t just sit back and watch as Dragon Cave Mountain was besieged by so many enemies. Without even mentioning the good relationship they shared with Yang Kai, as a force within its territory, Dragon Cave Mountain was technically under Shadow Moon Hall’s protection. Therefore, with so many masters using their strength to bully them, these two had more than enough reason to intervene.
However, the two of them could only entangle a few enemies and soon found themselves beset with difficulties, causing them to grow anxious.
Almost everyone instantly became involved in this fight, but just as their attention had been attracted, Yang Yan formed a set of profound seals with her hands and suddenly disappeared, no one able to detect where she had gone.
With the help of the barriers and Spirit Arrays here, Yang Yan easily managed to escape.
On the other hand, Yang Kai was facing the greatest danger. The women surnamed Ye, Chang Qi, and all the others were now entangled, even Qian Tong and Fei Zhi Tu were having trouble taking care of themselves and had no time to attend to him, allowing a dozen or so Origin Realm masters to target Yang Kai.
The dozen masters who were eyeing Yang Kai had faces filled with greed as they rushed forward, hoping to be the first to kill this boy and snatch his Space Ring.
As long as they could grab this Space Ring, they won!
“Brother Yang, quickly leave! Xuan’er and I will delay them!” At the last moment, Wei Gu Chang and Dong Xuan’er stood before Yang Kai and shielded him.
With no time to say anything, Yang Kai simply cast them a grateful look.
He did not need to worry about Wei Gu Chang or Dong Xuan’er’s safety; after all, these two were the young rising stars of Shadow Moon Hall, famous characters among Shadowed Star’s younger generation. Now that they had broken through to the Origin Returning Realm, they had enough strength to protect themselves.
More importantly, however, these enemies likely didn’t have the courage to really kill Wei Gu Chang and Dong Xuan’er, for if they did, Shadow Moon Hall would definitely not let the matter drop.
In an instant, Wei Gu Chang and Dong Xuan’er joined forces and engaged the approaching enemies, pushing their Saint Qi and releasing their Secret Techniques to tie down four enemy masters, making it impossible for them to pursue Yang Kai, earning him some breathing space.
In this situation, quickly leaving was undoubtedly the best option, but how could Yang Kai just ignore his friends and allies and flee on his own? Standing on the spot with an icy look on his face, Yang Kai’s Divine Sense surged as he summoned out his Artifact Refining Furnace.
The Origin King Grade Artifact Refining Furnace leapt into the sky and in an instant expanded to over a dozen metres in size before a giant Firebird soared out of it with a piercing cry. Spreading its wings out, the Firebird released a wave of flames to swiftly engulf several enemies.
The Firebird Artifact Spirit combat power wasn’t inferior to an ordinary Third-Order Origin Returning Realm master, so it had no problem dealing with these enemies.
But Yang Kai was not finished and with a sneer reached into the Artifact Refining Furnace, grabbed onto something, and began pulling it out with great effort.
A wave of earth-shattering energy emanated from the Artifact Refining Furnace, one so powerful it caused many of the remaining enemy masters to pale.
Although they didn’t know what Yang Kai was trying to take out from this Artifact Refining Furnace, they weren’t about to just sit back and wait for him to succeed. One by one, these masters summoned their artifacts or used their Secret Techniques to attack Yang Kai.
Yang Kai’s brow furrowed as he waved his free hand, summoned his Purple Shield, and activated its sandstorm ability to protect himself.
All the attacks launched against Yang Kai at that moment smashed into the whirling sandstorm. The defensive strength of the Purple Shield was certainly outstanding, but this time there were simply too many enemies, all of whom were Origin Realm masters with powerful artifacts of their own.
Under this bombardment, the protection of the Purple Shield would be broken through in just two breaths.
Yang Kai’s complexion darkened and he was just about to use another method to defend himself when a far more terrifying blow suddenly approached. This attack was just a simple beam of light and it seemed to be aimed directly at Yang Kai, but when it arrived in front of the Purple Shield, it actually interfered greatly with the other artifact attacks and Secret Techniques being used against him.
Suddenly, the pressure Yang Kai was facing greatly reduced. This change made him frown but when he turned to look in the direction of the source of the attack, he saw a middle-aged robed man with waist-length hair and an unfettered expression on his face smiling at him with folded arms.
[What were this man’s intentions?] Yang Kai wondered.
Yang Kai’s enemies similarly were confused, one of them even yelling out yelled, “Elder Mo, what are you doing?”
This middle-aged man with long hair was none other than Clear Sky Sect’s Great Elder Mo Yu. His personal strength was great, not in any way under Mo Xiao Sheng or Cheng Peng Xuan, even slightly surpassing Jin Shi and Old Woman Feng. He was one of the Shadowed Start famous figures.
Hearing this question, Mo Yu just smiled indifferently, “What does it look like I’m doing, this Mo knows that treasure is in this boy’s hands and wanted to kill him to seize it, what of it?”
The man who just spoke wrinkled his brow as a look of resentment flashed across his face, but he didn’t have time to investigate this matter further.
Judging from the attack just now, Mo Yu indeed looked like he was trying to kill Yang Kai and seize his treasures; however, the result was that he had actually helped Yang Kai significantly because his attack dispersed most of the other attacks aimed towards him.
This man didn’t know whether Mo Yu acted intentionally or unintentionally, but either way, he was quite annoyed and loudly warned, “I hope Elder Mo can act with a little more discretion, alright?”
Mo Yu smiled faintly but didn’t respond, instead just turning to look at Yang Kai with interest.
In his heart, he was actually quite looking forward to how this situation would develop. Before, Dragon Cave Mountain had been thrust into a worrying situation and was seemingly on the verge of being overrun, but then that woman surnamed Ye arrived at the critical moment and dispersed this danger. In fact, if not for the sudden mutation of the Emperor Garden, Dragon Cave Mountain would currently be calm and stable.
However, because of the Emperor Garden’s change, Dragon Cave Mountain was once again pushed to the edge of a fiery pit, one even more dangerous than the previous one.
Mo Yu wanted to know if Yang Kai’s luck had been used up or if he still had enough to resolve this crisis again.
As the Great Elder of Clear Sky Sect, Mo Yu was not a man with so much free time to waste on such thoughts, nor did he believe in destiny or good fortune, but Yang Kai had saved his two disciples and he was not a man who did not know how to separate grace and grievance. He had agreed to Chen Shi Tao’s request just now, so naturally, he would not go back on his word.
If not for Chen Shi Tao, Mo Yu would not have minded adding insult to injury here; after all, he too was greatly interested in the treasure the Emperor Garden had deposited here.
Additionally, if Yang Kai really died here, he wouldn’t hesitate to snatch his Space Ring.
After striking a blow, Mo Yu didn’t take action again and instead stood back and observed the situation, most of his attention focusing on Yang Kai’s Origin King Grade Artifact Refining Furnace. The strong energy fluctuations emanating from it surprised Mo Yu and he couldn’t help wondering what was hidden inside it.
As for the group of enemies who had been targeting Yang Kai, they had already regrouped and had their artifacts at the ready, preparing to launch another round of attacks.
At that moment though, a whooshing sound of something cutting through the air rang out. Together with this sound came a scorching hot aura as well as a number of glowing golden whips that struck towards each of these master’s heads.
Each of these strikes contained enough power to make those being targeted pale in fright.
These enemies, who were originally prepared to attack Yang Kai, were suddenly forced to defend themselves.
“This is…” Mo Yu’s eyes bulged as he stared towards the source of these attacks in disbelief. He suddenly discovered a tree several dozen metres tall with innumerable branches and a lush canopy.
This big tree gave off a brilliant golden radiance and at this moment was waving its branches furiously, sending out a rain of golden leaves that all transformed into arrows which shot towards the invading masters.
The whip-like attacks were also clearly the transformed branches of this tree.
Mo Yu, however, was not shocked by the attack of this tree, but rather by the clear face which appeared on its thick trunk. At this moment, this face was filled with a twisted, enraged expression.
Each of the golden leaves this tree had shot out contained power equivalent to the full-powered attack of a First-Order Saint King.
And the density of this barrage made for quite a terrifying scene.
Even a master like Mo Yu would need to hurriedly withdraw if he was subjected to such a hail of attacks, so there was no need to mention what kind of response these weaker enemies had to make. Only a couple Third-Order Origin Realm masters were among the group currently targeting Yang Kai, and if not for possessing an overwhelming numerical advantage, facing this unexpected wave of attacks, they would likely have quickly experienced casualties.
“A Sentient Ancient Tree!” Mo Yu exclaimed in surprise, never having expected to find such a treasure on Dragon Cave Mountain.
What’s more, this Sentient Ancient Tree was actually a rare Yang Attribute Spirit Tree!
Although trees were technically another kind of life form, achieving sentience was far more difficult for them than it was for animals and beasts. Mo Yu had lived many years but had only ever heard of existences like this Sentient Ancient Tree and had never seen one until now.
In order for such a tree to gain sentience, it had to be at ten thousand years, if not tens of thousands of years old, making it an extremely rare and precious treasure! If it were to be used for Artifact Refining, it could definitely serve as the foundation for an extremely powerful artifact.
What dumbfounded Mo Yu however was that this Sentient Ancient Tree possessed such a strong offensive power.
[How could this be? Even if this ancient tree had obtained sentience, it should not have much strength and be forced to use its special Divine Abilities to conceal itself from powerful cultivators.]
However, this Sentient Ancient Tree on Dragon Cave Mountain was actually capable of becoming a sharp weapon of war. With its seemingly endless stream of branches and leaves, it was fully capable of holding the line against this wave of invaders for some time.
[This Dragon Cave Mountain… is incomprehensible.]
Mo Yu’s eyes brightened even further as he found himself becoming more and more excited.
The Divine Tree suddenly displaying such incredible might had even caught Yang Kai by surprise, but he soon felt relieved. The Divine Tree had opened up its consciousness before he encountered it and was originally a high-grade Spirit Tree. Since Yang Kai had met and taken it away though, he had fed it no less than a dozen drops of Golden Blood, so it wasn’t difficult to explain how it had grown to such an extent.
Considering all this, Yang Kai couldn’t help grinning.
Suddenly, the air nearby Yang Kai rippled. From this disturbance, a cultivator wearing Heaven Battling Union robes appeared out of nowhere.
Judging from the aura fluctuations coming from this man, he was a Second-Order Origin Returning Realm master, on top of that, he was very good at concealing himself. While everyone’s attention had been attracted by the Divine Tree, this man had crept close to Yang Kai and had now taken this opportunity to launch a fatal blow.
This man’s plans had to be commended and it was clear he knew how to make the best use of opportunities on the battlefield. The moment he saw Yang Kai slightly relaxed, this man realized he had a better chance to land a sneak attack and didn’t hesitate to act.
Even a lion would use all its strength to kill a rabbit, and although this man was confident in his strength, he didn’t dare to underestimate Yang Kai on Dragon Cave Mountain, so when he attacked, he did so with all his strength.
The distance between Yang Kai and this man closed rapidly as a cold long sword pierced straight towards Yang Kai’s chest. Before this long sword even reached its mark, it released a sharp light which condensed into a snake phantom that pulsed with cold murderous intent that pricked Yang Kai skin.
In response though, Yang Kai didn’t even try to move, just flashing a cold, gloomy smile towards this man as if he wasn’t the slightest bit worried or even surprised.
[Something is wrong!] This Second-Order Origin Returning Realm master’s heart jumped as he instinctively felt danger, but he was unable to identify the source of this palpitation, all he could sense was that if he continued his attack, the one to suffer a loss would be him.
This thought flashed across this man’s mind, but in the next instant, his expression became firm. He did not draw back and instead poured more of his Saint Qi into his sword to promote its might.
Sword Qi exploded as this man’s killing intent surged!
Mo Yu stood not far away, staring at Yang Kai in this instant, wondering what he had to rely on that allowed him to remain so calm and confident when facing the sneak attack of a Second-Order Origin Returning Realm master.
The answer was revealed a moment later, as just before the enemy’s attack connected, a small figure appeared in front of Yang Kai. This figure was quite inconspicuous, only reaching as high as Yang Kai’s waist.
“Hm?” Mo Yu raised his brow in surprise as he stared at this grey figure curiously, unable to recognize what it was.
It looked like it was made from stones, but it had limbs and clearly defined facial features like thick brows, a crooked mouth, big nose, and carved out ears. Most distinctive was this creature’s eyes, which showed an intelligent light. With a somewhat hunched posture, this creature’s long arms reached past its knees, giving it a somewhat awkward appearance.
[Can rocks also obtain sentience?] Mo Yu could hardly believe his eyes.
The most surprising thing to Mo Yu though, was he couldn’t feel any kind of energy fluctuations or vital aura from this thing.
Was it alive or dead?
The Stone Puppet answered Mo Yu’s doubts with actions.
Facing the sneak attack of a Second-Order Origin Returning Realm cultivator, the Stone Puppet opened its mouth wide and spat out a black stick before immediately stretching out a hand, gripping it tightly, and casually swinging it forward.
When this stick was swung though, the world seemed to tremble as the World Energy within several kilometres was greatly disturbed.
Mo Yu’s brow twitched as with his eyesight he could naturally see that this seemingly casual swing carried with it an astonishing amount of power and force.
[This cultivator from Heaven Battling Union… has really bad luck…] Mo Yu thought secretly.
Mo Yu’s expectations were correct. This cultivator from Heaven Battling Union was a Second-Order Origin Returning Realm master, but after witnessing the power of this attack, he realized dodging was fundamentally impossible, so he could only desperately push his Saint Qi, enhancing the power of his sword strike further.
The dazzling brilliance of this master’s Sword Qi only lasted a flash before it was seemingly blown away and a loud cracking sound rang out. When the relatively high-grade artifact in the hands of the Heaven Battling Union cultivator made contact with the black stick, it instantly shattered as if it were a frail toy.
“How is that possible!?” The master’s eyes bulged. Even if his sword was not all that impressive, it was still an Origin Grade artifact. Because it was designed for speed, being thin and sharp, it may not have been too sturdy, but it still should not have been so easily destroyed.
This artifact had accompanied him for dozens of years and he had killed countless enemies with it, constantly nourishing it with his Saint Qi and Divine Sense. This sword was the artifact he most treasured and relied on.
But suddenly, it had been smashed to pieces.
Along with grief and anxiety, a trace of horror flashed across this man’s eyes. He couldn’t tell how this stick worked or how a seemingly simple swing of it could contain enough power to destroy his sword, but if he were to be struck by it head-on, how was he supposed to survive?
Thinking of this, a look of decisiveness filled this man’s face as he hurriedly bit his tongue and spat out a mouthful of blood mist while at the same time quickly withdrawing, trying to avoid being hit by this black stick.
There was no fault in his plan, however, he had looked down upon the strangeness of this black stick.
Naturally, this stick was the Heaven Shaking Pillar Yang Kai brought back from the Emperor Garden. According to Yang Yan, this stick was refined entirely from Heavenly Crystal Profound Iron, an Origin King Grade Artifact Refining material known for its extreme weight. A palm-sized piece of this material weighed ten thousand kilograms and it was incredibly tough and durable. There were nearly no ways in this world to damage an artifact refined of this material.
Even Yang Kai himself had no way to freely wield this Heaven Shaking Pillar.
It was a mystery who had refined this thing, but whoever it was had given this artifact the ability to change its size at will. When the humanoid puppet in the Emperor Garden used this Heaven Shaking Pillar, it was more than a dozen metres in length, but after giving it to the Stone Puppet, it had casually shrunk so it could be swallowed.
At this moment, in order to confront its enemy and with the Stone Puppet body shape and size, the Heaven Shaking Pillar was only two metres in length.
Looking at the cultivator from Heaven Battling Union, after spitting out a blood mist, seemingly try to avoid the range of its attack, the Stone Puppet’s round eyes flashed and the Heaven Shaking Pillar in its hand actually rapidly extended, bringing the fleeing man back into its range without reducing the force behind this blow in the slightest.
This change made the cultivator from Heaven Battling Union fall into despair, and with no other recourse, he condensed his Saint Qi to its limits to protect himself while assuming a defensive posture.
*Pa…*
A light sound spread as the Heaven Shaking Pillar smashed into the cultivator’s body and broke through his seemingly intrepid Saint Qi protection like it was a bubble. The body of the Heaven Battling Union cultivator was twisted into an impossible shape as the sound of his bones breaking filled the air, causing the skin of all who heard it to crawl.
Blood spewed out of his mouth, mixed with fragments of his five viscera and six organs. The man himself then flew out like an arrow from a string, swept far away by the Heaven Shaking Pillar.
A single strike had caused this man heavy losses, and although he did not die on the spot, the injuries he suffered were by no means light.
If he was only facing the Stone Puppet as his opponent, this man may not necessarily be unable to escape, but how could Yang Kai miss such a good opportunity to beat him while he was down? Sending out a Golden Blood Thread, Yang Kai slashed out with it, filling the air with a web of golden light.
*Xiu xiu…*
The sound of something slicing through the air rang out and was soon followed by the appearance of a cloud of blood mist.
Suddenly, a Second-Order Origin Returning Realm had been killed!
A Second-Order Origin Returning Realm cultivator meeting such a miserable end in just the blink of an eye instantly filled everyone with shock and surprise!
In fact, the scene just now was not actually that dangerous, the Heaven Battling Union cultivator only had his bad luck to blame. Encountering the Stone Puppet holding the Heaven Shaking Pillar that could instantly change its length had caught this man completely off guard and was the biggest reason he had died. If he had known about this strange stone man and artifact in advance, he would not have been so careless.
But now, it was too late for such thoughts.
After killing an enemy, the Stone Puppet let out a bestial roar from its mouth as its small body rapidly grew, in a flash becoming a ten-metre-tall stone giant. The Heaven Shaking Pillar in its hand also grew to a proportional size.
*Hong Hong Hong…*
After its transformation, the Stone Puppet charged forward into battle.
This ten-metre-tall stone giant, holding the terrifying Heaven Shaking Pillar, was capable of displaying such overwhelming strength that even Third-Order Origin Returning Realm masters had to steer clear of it. Every time the Stone Puppet swung its stick, the surrounding space seemed to solidify, causing the many enemies who had been entangled by the Divine Tree to tremble in fear. Screams rang out as several of these people did not hesitate to use Secret Techniques that greatly damaged themselves in order to escape from the Stone Puppet’s rampage.
But how could the Divine Tree let them escape so easily? Transforming its innumerable branches into long whips, it swept the airspace around these panicking enemies and delivered multiple blows to them from all sides.
The Stone Puppet took this opportunity to display its full power, waving around its Heaven Shaking Pillar randomly, sweeping up all the enemies around it, sending them flying while coughing up blood.
The Heaven Shaking Pillar itself weighed several hundreds of thousands of kilograms, but in the Stone Puppet’s hands it seemed as light as air. Even without any Saint Qi infused into this stick, it displayed unparalleled might. Origin King Realm masters might be able to resist such a blow, but no Origin Realm master could accomplish this.
With such overwhelming power at its disposal, the Stone Puppet did not need to be proficient in any kind of Secret Technique as it could already shake the world.
Several enemy masters who were struck died immediately, while those who managed to survive by luck suffered grievous wounds and became easy targets for the golden leaves of the Divine Tree.
Second-Order Origin Realm masters might be able to withstand a blow from the Stone Puppet, but even Third-Order Origin Realm masters didn’t dare take it lightly, preferring to avoid it whenever possible.
Mo Yu, who was not far away, had his brow twitch sharply as he observed this scene.
What kind of Dragon Cave was this Dragon Cave Mountain?
First there was the Sentient Ancient Tree and now this stone giant. Mo Yu had never seen so many novel and dangerous things appear one after another.
Mo Yu was not a man who was ignorant and uninformed; on the contrary, he was incredibly experienced and well informed as the Great Elder of Clear Sky Sect, but everything he witnessed today brought him great surprise.
This Sentient Ancient Tree and stone giant pair alone could hold their ground against any invading army. Not to mention, this boy called Yang Kai seemed to have not really taken action personally yet, causing Mo Yu to wonder what exactly he was trying to accomplish.
Although he had not seen Yang Kai fight yet, anyone who could command this Sentient Ancient Tree and Stone Giant must not be much worse off. At the very least, assuming he was just an ordinary Third-Order Saint King would be a big mistake.
For a time, Mo Yu felt somewhat fortunate he had listened to his disciple’s request and not sought conflict with Dragon Cave Mountain. Otherwise, a grudge would’ve been formed here today and Clear Sky Sect would only have accumulated disadvantages with no benefits!
Although that Sentient Ancient Tree was quite powerful in its own right, it was a Spirit Tree in the end, so its mobility was extremely restricted. Having taken root, it could display a powerful defensive strength, but it was not capable of taking long distance offensive actions.
This stone giant on the other hand was truly terrifying; who could fight such a monster on Shadowed Star? Not even a Third-Order Origin Returning Realm masters could be its opponent! Only if a large number of powerful masters joined forces and besieged this stone giant would it be possible to defeat it.
[This boy should have been able to recognize my intention to help him a moment ago, right?] Mo Yu worried slightly, wondering if Yang Kai had understood his actions just now.
Just as the Divine Tree and Stone Puppet were putting on a great display of their strengths, a resounding dragon roar rang out, causing the skies themselves to darken and a terrifying pressure to descend upon Dragon Cave Mountain.
This powerful pressure caused everyone present to tremble, as if a giant pair of eyes capable of consigning them to death was staring at them.
Even if this pressure was not as strong as the Emperor Pressure generated during the Emperor Garden’s most recent mutation, it wasn’t far off.
Everyone’s movements came to a halt as they all simultaneously turned their heads towards the source of this pressure, their eyes filling to shock and terror the moment they did.
Before their eyes, Yang Kai stood solemnly beside the slowly rotating Origin King Grade Artifact Refining Furnace, but in his hand was a kind of verdant-coloured long sword. As Yang Kai slowly pulled this strange sword out from the Artifact Refining Furnace, the invisible coercion in the air grew ever stronger.
A moment later, this verdant coloured sword like object had been taken out completely.
This object was only about a metre in length, its whole body a bluish green in colour. It seemed like a sword, but it did not have an edge or blade at all. Moreover, it was not refined from any kind of metal and instead appeared to be fashioned from some kind of bone.
There was a longan sized round bead inlaid at its hilt, and inside this bead was something resembling a small green snake, which was swimming about happily.
This sword seemed to have its own consciousness and was constantly trembling in Yang Kai’s hand, as if it wanted to break free of his control and soar up into the sky.
An enormous, phantom, dragon’s head suddenly emerged from this green sword. This dragon’s head was extremely lifelike, its two water basin-sized eyes exuding an endless majesty as they swept across the countless gathered masters, involuntarily causing them to feel as if they had suddenly become tiny, insignificant ants.
There was no doubt the terrifying pressure they all felt was coming from this strange green sword.
No one dared to stare into this dragon head’s eyes other than Yang Kai, who raised his head thoughtfully as he activated his Demon Eye of Annihilation.
An invisible shockwave centred on Yang Kai appeared as a terrifying Spiritual Energy which seemed to have physically manifested swept forward. Facing this shockwave, even the Third-Order Origin Returning Realm masters present felt their Knowledge Sea tumble momentarily.
Yang Kai let out a grunt and frowned deeply as a phantom lotus appeared in his Demon Eye of Annihilation before rapidly submerging into this dragon head.
The Blossoming Lotus was the most powerful Soul Secret Technique Yang Kai possessed.
Another dragon roar echoed through the air, but this time it contained a trace of dread and panic. The phantom dragon head’s eyes revealed a pained expression before it distorted greatly and disappeared into the long sword in Yang Kai’s hand.
The rumbling sound which had filled the air also disappeared and the sword body stopped trembling, no longer trying to break free. Seeing this, Yang Kai exhaled gently as a pensive look filled his face.
This green sword was naturally the artifact Yang Kai had refined from the Dragon Bone and Dragon Bead.
This Dragon Bone and Dragon Bead had been obtained by Yang Kai in the Saint Crystal lode in the second layer of the Flowing Flame Sand Field several years ago. When he first obtained these treasures, Yang Kai didn’t know what to do with them; after all, they were a real Dragon Bone and Dragon Bead, materials from a true Ancient Divine Spirit and not something an ordinary Artifact Refiner could work with.
Fortunately, Yang Yan had taught him a way to use his Origin King Grade Artifact Refining Furnace and Firebird Artifact to slowly refine the Dragon Bone and Dragon Bead on his own.
The Artifact Spirit’s Soul was connected to Yang Kai, so it refining it was no different from Yang Kai refining it.
This method didn’t require any kind of exquisite Artifact Refining skill or technique, only the accumulation of time, and although this led to a somewhat crude end product, it was still far better than allowing an unreliable Artifact Refiner to waste these precious materials.
Even Yang Yan herself was not confident that she could use this Dragon Bone and Dragon Bead for Artifact Refining as they belonged to a grade of materials which was still beyond her ability to work with.
It could be said that this method was only suitable for Yang Kai to use because he possessed an Origin King Grade Artifact Refining Furnace that had formed an Artifact Spirit! This rare combination of conditions was essential for success.
Several years had passed by and the Dragon Bone and Dragon Bead had been completely integrated; after all, they originally belonged to the same creature so this wasn’t too difficult to achieve. Now, it was time to use it.
Yet to Yang Kai’s surprise, his first attempt to use this Dragon Bone Sword had nearly caused him to embarrass himself as the Remnant Dragon Soul in the Dragon Bead did not want to submit to his will.
Even if it was just a weak Remnant Soul without any consciousness, it was nevertheless the Remnant Soul of an Ancient Divine Spirit. With its innate pride, how could it be willing to submit to another? Fortunately, Yang Kai had his Blossoming Lotus Secret Technique and forcibly suppressed the tenacious Dragon Soul at the critical moment.
This was not a long-term solution though, so in the future he would need to find time to fully subdue this Dragon Bone Sword, otherwise, he would not be able to use it with peace of mind. As such thoughts flashed across Yang Kai’s mind, his eyes went cold as an icy grin appeared on his lips.
The terrifying pressure emanating from the Dragon Bone Sword dispersed, but everyone still felt cold sweat dripping down their foreheads and a light breeze which blew past caused them to shiver from head to toe.
Everyone had thought that with so many masters on their side, trampling flat Dragon Cave Mountain would be a simple task, but seeing such a powerful fighting force emerge from the tiny hill at this moment left them all thoroughly shocked.
Whether it was the Sentient Ancient Tree, the stone giant, or the strange verdant-coloured sword, which one of these treasures did not warrant dread? Especially the verdant sword, everyone understood it was definitely an astonishing treasure, but none of them knew just how much power it could exert.
For a time, Yang Kai once again became the focus of attention as many greedy and fearful eyes fixed on the verdant sword.
Yang Kai was also interested in trying out the power of his new artifact, so he didn’t waste time and rapidly poured his Saint Qi into it, causing it to once again tremble and release a fearsome dragon roar.
“Go!” Yang Kai waved his hand and the verdant long sword he was holding rapidly shot out before immediately transforming into a giant creature dozens of metres long.
This creature was a deep bluish-green colour and had massive wings that seemed capable of covering the sky. It was also covered in thick scales which made it look nigh impervious to harm.
This creature opened its great maw to reveal sharp, sword-like teeth as it swung its giant spear-like claws about, exuding a faint cold light that caused anyone who saw it to shudder.
“Ancient Divine Spirit!” Mo Yu shouted in alarm, almost stumbling, and falling to the ground in shock.
Although he had never personally seen an Ancient Divine Spirit, Mo Yu was no stranger to this kind of creature as almost every great Sect’s ancient books would contain records of long extinct Ancient Divine Spirit.
The behemoth in front of him was exactly the same as the records he had seen and was undoubtedly an Ancient Divine Spirit.
What is more, it was the highest ranked Ancient Divine Spirit, a True Dragon!
Even without displaying any of its strength, the pressure this Ancient Divine Spirit’s presence exuded alone was enough to any cultivator below the Third-Order Origin Returning Realm shiver in fright.
“Another Remnant Soul! He actually had another Ancient Divine Spirit Remnant Soul!” At a different spot, Fei Zhi Tu’s eyes nearly popped from their sockets as he muttered to himself, standing frozen in place and forgetting to even continue fighting his opponent.
The same was true of Qian Tong and of their opponents as well. At this moment, no one had the presence of mind to continue fighting as all their eyes were staring transfixed by the colossal, verdant dragon before them.
During their last exploration of the Emperor Garden, Fei Zhi Tu had seen the phantom of an Ice Phoenix and realized that Yang Kai possessed the Remnant Soul of an Ancient Divine Spirit.
At that time, Fei Zhi Tu had been completely astonished with Yang Kai’s luck that allowed him to obtain this kind of Heaven defying treasure. It was also because of this incident that Fei Zhi Tu changed his attitude towards Yang Kai and no longer dared treat him like an ordinary junior, because even if it was just a Remnant Soul, as long as it had enough time and opportunity, it would likely be able to grow into an existence comparable to an Origin King.
Do not bully the young lest they bully you when they grow up. With this Ice Phoenix Remnant Soul in his possession, who dared to guarantee that Yang Kai would not one day stand at the top of this world?
Maintaining a good relationship with him now would be of great benefit in the future.
So, when Dragon Cave Mountain was in trouble this time, Fei Zhi Tu had run out without hesitation to offer his assistance along with Qian Tong. Otherwise, with his personality that preferred avoiding trouble, how could Fei Zhi Tu do such a thankless job? He would much rather sit back in Heavenly Fate City and indifferently watch the show.
He thought that Yang Kai possessing an Ice Phoenix Remnant Soul was already a Heaven defying opportunity, but how could he have known this brat also had a True Dragon Remnant Soul!
On top of that, this True Dragon Remnant Soul seemed to be more powerful than the Ice Phoenix Remnant Soul he saw last time.
Fei Zhi Tu nearly coughed up blood from the envy he felt.
Compared to Yang Kai’s heritage, his life’s possessions were trash.
In front of everyone’s dumbfounded eyes, the verdant dragon rushed towards a Thunder Typhoon Sect Origin Returning Realm master. This cultivator had reached the peak of the First-Order Origin Realm and was just one step away from reaching the Second-Order, so his strength even in this place could not be considered weak.
He had been fighting with the Divine Tree and Stone Puppet just recently but was still completely unharmed, despite being slightly disheveled. This illustrated his strength.
But no matter how great his personal strength was, he could not face an Ancient Divine Spirit directly.
Seeing the True Dragon suddenly approach him, this man’s face went pale as he hurriedly summoned a black shield to defend himself.
A hint of disdain flashed across the eyes of this massive True Dragon and the black shield was torn apart like tofu with one swing of its claw, along with a light slicing sound.
Immediately after, the verdant dragon opened its giant mouth and swallowed the First-Order Origin Returning Realm cultivator in the front of everyone’s eyes.
Screams rang out for a moment before abruptly coming to an end as the life aura belonging to this cultivator vanished.
After the verdant dragon rushed past the position of this Thunder Typhoon Sect master, a shocking scene appeared. A skeleton, still assuming a defensive posture, stood mid-air, all its flesh and blood stripped away clean.
Like a cold wind blew past them, everyone shivered.
Mo Xiao Sheng, Cheng Peng Xuan, Jin Shi, and Old Woman Feng all paled at this sight and were nearly defeated by the woman surnamed Ye in their moment of distraction.
After swallowing the vital essence of the Thunder Typhoon Sect cultivator in one gulp, the verdant dragon soared up into the sky as it released a deafening roar, opening its great maw once more and spraying out a bluish green mist that began enveloping the area around it.
More than a dozen Origin Returning Realm masters were instantly shrouded by this mist and their panic filled screams immediately rang out.
“Poison!”
“Run away!”
The verdant coloured mist was actually a violent toxic plume and every cultivator that had been covered with it fell dizzy and had difficulty breathing. Even their Saint Qi no longer circulated smoothly.
Those with slightly weaker strength staggered and fell to the ground as their bodies literally began melting at a speed visible to the naked eye, soon revealing their bare bones in a terrifying and shocking manner.
Only cultivators at or above the Second-Order Origin Returning Realm were able to escape from this verdant mist, but all their faces were green when they did so. This was obvious signs that they had been poisoned and were in urgent need of an antidote.
[This verdant dragon was a Poison Dragon!]
Yang Kai was also surprised by this. He did not know what the true nature of the Dragon Bone and Dragon Bead he obtained was, or what kind of Divine Abilities it possessed in life. Right now, he was just experimenting with his new artifact, but the results he obtained caused him to rejoice greatly.
Among the True Dragon family of Ancient Divine Spirits, Poison Dragons and Fire Dragon had the highest offensive strength, so this discovery naturally made him extremely happy.
During his trip to Grand Burial Valley, Yang Kai had been forced to self-destruct his only offensive artifact. This didn’t bother him though as he had full confidence in his own means, so he didn’t feel the need to let Yang Yan refine one for him because even if she did refine him a good offensive artifact, it would require a lot of time and effort for him to refine and nourish it.
However, the main reason Yang Kai didn’t request Yang Yan to refine him a new offensive artifact was because he was waiting for this Dragon Bone and Dragon Bead artifact to be completed.
Now, it seemed that his anticipation had not been in vain. This Dragon Bone and Dragon Bead long sword artifact was almost comparable to Origin King Grade, and it seemed to have great room for growth because, after this verdant True Dragon swallowed the vital essence of an Origin Returning Realm master, Yang Kai could clearly feel that its aura had grown a little stronger.
This was an obvious indication it could improve itself.
As Yang Kai was thinking about this, the few Origin Returning Realm masters who managed to escape alive from the poison mist were targeted by the Stone Puppet. These masters had good luck and strength, but all that ended here. When the Heaven Shaking Pillar descended upon them, the entire world seemed to free, and their lives were harvested like wheat from a field.
A bloody smell rose to fill the air as Dragon Cave Mountain instantly transformed into a red purgatory.
The situation had become completely lopsided!
It was not how everyone had imagined, where Dragon Cave Mountain was casually destroyed by these invading masters. Instead, it was the invaders who were being slaughtered in droves, causing their morale to rapidly plummet.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Chang Qi and the others launched a desperate counterattack and seized back the initiative.
In fact, Chang Qi and the others were not very powerful and were essentially relying on the exquisite artifacts they possessed to survive and fight back. These artifacts were all Origin Grade High-Rank and had been tailored-made by Yang Yan for them, allowing them to display their strength to the utmost limit.
Originally, the situation had been highly unfavourable to them, and they could only go all out to stall for time while beset by worries.
But as the morale of the invading party had fallen sharply though, Chang Qi and the others were greatly inspired and facing the fierce resistance, their enemy began to retreat. Chang Qi and the others didn’t lose themselves in the heat of the moment, however, and instead just strove to solidify their position, causing their enemies a great deal of frustration as they showed no flaws that could be taken advantage of to reverse the situation again.
Not far away, Mo Xiao Sheng and the other masters who were holding down the woman surnamed Ye sighed to themselves, knowing that there was nothing they could do to regain control of the situation. They had greatly underestimated the heritage of Dragon Cave Mountain, thinking that this tiny hilltop had been able to kill the first group from the Xie Family only because of their powerful Spirit Arrays. Never had they expected that even without these Spirit Arrays, this hilltop could not be arbitrarily insulted!
The four top Third-Order Origin Returning Realm masters looked at each other and all saw the intent to withdraw in each other’s eyes.
There was no need to discuss anything as, after reaching a certain level of strength, a single glance was enough to convey many things. The four of them made a feint and escaped from the entanglement of the woman surnamed Ye, in the next instant beginning to escape.
With these four turning tail and fleeing, how could the others dare to remain? Naturally, everyone else began to hurriedly withdraw.
Qian Tong and Fei Zhi Tu did not try to block their opponents. Although they helped Dragon Cave Mountain this time, they did not want to unnecessarily make enemies of these people; after all, the two of them represented Shadow Moon Hall and had many concerns of their own, so without hesitation they allowed their opponents to retreat safely.
Wei Gu Chang and Dong Xuan’er did the same. The two of them had only recently broken through to the First-Order Origin Returning Realm, so although their strength wasn’t bad, if their opponents were determined to leave, they were unable to stop them.
In fact, the main reason these two had been able to last this long was because their opponents had held back and never attempted to really kill them; otherwise, facing so many masters, Wei Gu Chang and Dong Xuan’er would definitely not have been unharmed, even if they didn’t die.
The enemy withdrew like the tide, with several dozen Origin Returning Realm masters all escaping at once from Dragon Cave Mountain. Besides the few who were blocked by Yang Kai’s Dragon Bone Sword, Stone Puppet, and Artifact Spirit Firebird, the rest managed to escape.
Yang Kai frowned when he saw this and felt a deep sense of powerlessness in his heart.
He could not stop his enemies from coming or going as they pleased. However, although the invasion of Dragon Cave Mountain annoyed him greatly, the other party paid a terrible price as a result, so it was not as if Yang Kai could not accept the results.
Moreover, if the fight continued, there would be casualties on Dragon Cave Mountain’s side.
He and the woman surnamed Ye did not have to worry about themselves. Yang Kai possessed his Dragon Bone Sword, Stone Puppet, and Artifact Spirit along with the Divine Tree, while the woman surnamed Ye’s strength was phenomenal from the start, but Chang Qi, Hao An, and the others were a different story. If Yang Kai insisted on continuing this battle, his allies would be the next to suffer, which was a result Yang Kai did not wish to see.
Yang Kai was willing to let this matter stop here, but this did not mean others would do the same.
Just when the enemy masters were about to leave the range of Dragon Cave Mountain, the originally broken Mountain Defending Array lit up again and barred their path forward.
A trace of surprise flashed across the eyes of Mo Xiao Sheng and the others before their expressions became cold.
Them withdrawing at this point did not mean they really feared Dragon Cave Mountain, so the other party behaving so rampantly, unwilling to let them leave, naturally elicited feelings of anger and irritation.
“You want to leave? Wishful thinking! You think my Dragon Cave Mountain is a place you can come and go as you please?” Suddenly, a tender voice rang out, its origin unclear, seemingly coming from all around, making it impossible to localize.
However, this voice no doubt belonged to Yang Yan.
Yang Kai raised his brow in surprise, not understanding what Yang Yan wanted to do.
Just as Yang Kai’s expression cramped though, the earth suddenly began to tremble and a great rumbling rang out as the ground beneath Dragon Cave Mountain began to crack apart.
*Hong…*
With a loud crack, a large section of Dragon Cave Mountain collapsed, revealing a deep pit out of which a large black behemoth slowly rose.
After seeing the true form of this behemoth, gasps of shock rose all around as everyone began crying out in surprise.
“Impossible!”
“A Starship?”
“There’s even a Starship here?”
Dragon Cave Mountain was destined to become the focus of all of Shadowed Star after today, with one shocking thing emerging after another. Everyone present had yet to recover from the shock of an Ancient Divine Spirit Remnant Soul appearing when they were again confronted by such an incredible scene.
Beneath this Dragon Cave Mountain was a hidden Starship!
This Starship was not quite the same as the Starships the various great Sects regarded among their greatest treasures. The main thing was size. This Starship was only about a quarter the size of ordinary Starships and had a sleek and smooth design.
However, this Starship also gave off an intense pressure that was even more unbearable than the True Dragon Remnant Soul from just now.
A mechanical clanking sounded suddenly, and barrel-like things began to extend from the hull of this Starship. None of the people present were ignorant or uninformed so they naturally know what these things were.
Crystal Cannons! The destructive artifacts every Starship possessed. More accurately referred to as weapons, these things used Saint Crystals as an energy source to fire off beams of incredible destructive power.
Ordinarily though, a Starship would not use its Crystal Cannons because every shot fired consumed a massive amount of Saint Crystals.
Also, a Starship would have at most two or three Crystal Cannons installed on it in general as each one was known as the most powerful trump card of a Starship.
But at the moment, it was plain to see that this small, hundred-metre-long Starship was actually outfitted with more than ten crystal cannons! Each of these cannons was aimed at a different direction, targeting the most crowded locations.
Staring down these dark barrels, everyone felt a sense of uneasiness in their heart, as if death itself was staring at them.
As a silver-bell like laughter filled the air, Yang Yan’s tender voice called out, “Since you’ve come uninvited, don’t even think about leaving at will!”
As soon as her words fell, a dazzling light appeared from the dozen plus Crystal Cannons, accompanied by energy fluctuations which caused the entire region to tremble.
“Not good!” Mo Xiao Sheng’s eyes shrunk as he called out in alarm, “Spread out!”
With his knowledge and experience, he could tell what kind of heaven-destroying and earth-shattering power these Crystal Cannons possessed.
Although Mo Xiao Sheng had promptly warned his disciples and subordinates, the charging rate for the Crystal Cannons on this Starship refined by Yang Yan was extremely quick. Almost at the same time as his voice had sounded, more than ten pure white beams only as thick as a human arm shot forth from the Crystal Cannons.
Silent, without a single scream or sound of struggle, a dozen or so seemingly slender beams of light swept forward, erasing everything in their path from existence.
Not only was the Dragon Cave Mountain’s Mountain Defending Array broken again, but all the cultivators who were hit by this barrage were vaporised like snowflakes under the hot summer sun.
The ten plus white beams of light continued for several dozen kilometres before gradually weakening and disappearing.
The entirety of Dragon Cave Mountain was in disarray and the World Energy aura in the surrounding fifty-kilometre radius had become extremely chaotic.
*Dida, dida…*
A clear sound suddenly broke the silence as Mo Xiao Sheng and the other masters stood in place, looks of terror filling their pale faces as they stared at the Starship in front of them, unable to believe their eyes.
When this Starship suddenly appeared just now, none of them had been to concerned about it; after all, this Starship wasn’t very big so they subconsciously thought that its grade wasn’t high, but when the dozen or so Crystal Cannons were deployed, Mo Xiao Sheng and the other masters felt they might have misjudged the threat it posed.
But it was not until now that they realized just how wrong they had been.
The grade of this Starship was beyond the scope of their imagination. It was definitely above Origin Grade, which meant it could only be Origin King Grade. If this were not the case, these Crystal Cannons could not possibly have such power.
An Origin King Grade Starship! How could that be?
However, with the facts laid bare in front of them, they had no choice but to believe it. The best evidence was that, when those Crystal Cannons fired just now, Mo Xiao Sheng and the other top Origin Returning Realm masters didn’t dare take the blow head on and could only desperately evade.
Even so, Jin Shi of Demon Blood Temple had been brushed by one of these beams and lost an entire arm as a result. The dripping sound filling the eerie silence was none other than the blood dripping from his wound as his face twisted in pain.
The faces of Old Woman Feng and Cheng Peng Xuan were also extremely ugly. If it were not for them instinctually dodging just now, they would likely have wound up the same as Jin Shi.
Sweeping his eyes around quickly, Mo Xiao Sheng’s expression was filled with sorrow.
Because now, there were only a dozen or so people still alive, which meant fifty to sixty Origin Returning Realm masters had died under that Crystal Cannon salvo just now.
Those were fifty or sixty Origin Returning Realm masters, not fifty or sixty cabbages! Those masters were the pillars of their respective Sects, but now they had all died here on Dragon Cave Mountain without even being able to resist!
Mo Xiao Sheng and the other masters felt like they had been run through by a sharp sword.
If possible, the masters from the various great forces would have preferred to have never set foot on this hill today, but unfortunately, regret could not bring back the dead. Many great forces had not only suffered heavy losses today but also made an extremely powerful enemy, causing many of those who barely managed to survive to pale in fright.
“Withdraw!” Mo Xiao Sheng grit his teeth and shouted, not wanting to remain here a moment longer, his body flickering as he used his Space Force to quickly leave.
With him leaving, how could Cheng Peng Xuan, Jin Shi, or Old Woman Feng dare to stay? Worried that this Starship would fire another volley from its Crystal Cannons, each one of them fled like a frightened rabbit.
This time, however, Yang Yan did not try to stop them because, while she was strong in will, she was weak in strength. Although the Starship she refined was indeed extraordinary, it was not all-powerful. The Crystal Cannons salvo she just fired may have looked all-conquering, but in fact it had been extremely expensive to fire.
A single scream rang out as Yang Kai killed his last opponent before recalling the verdant dragon back to his hand.
Observing it for a moment, Yang Kai revealed a satisfied look before storing it away into the Artifact Refining Furnace again and taking it back into his body.
Dragon Cave Mountain had fallen silent once more, with only the hundred-metre-long Starships floating midair.
This hilltop, which had originally been a picturesque paradise, had now been completely devastated by this incredible battle.
The Stone Puppet shrank back down to its original size, the Heaven Shaking Pillar nowhere to be seen, probably swallowed back into its belly. Using its hands and feet, it scrambled over to Yang Kai like a small monkey, climbed his clothes, and then sat on his shoulder with a smile.
Sweeping his eyes around, Yang Kai sighed dully.
It had been several years since he arrived on Shadowed Star and settled down on this Dragon Cave Mountain, and under Yang Yan and Wu Yi’s careful management, it had become a beautiful home. However, now, it had turned into an inhospitable wasteland.
Fortunately, there was a place to move to that Yang Kai had in mind, so he did not feel too much regret. That place was far better than Dragon Cave Mountain and he had intended to move there eventually, this event simply accelerated his timeline.
“Yang Kai!” Suddenly, a voice called out from nearby, and when Yang Kai looked over he saw Qian Tong and Fei Zhi Tu staring at him as they occasionally glanced over at the Starship suspended in midair, seemingly wanting to say something but always stopping themselves at the last moment.
Although these two were top masters on Shadowed Star, they were still thoroughly shocked by what they had just witnessed.
That was not surprising though; after all, how could they have ever seen an Origin King Grade Starship?
It was not like Shadow Moon Hall didn’t possess Starships, but the very best one was still just Origin Grade Low-Rank. This Starship had been refined when Grandmaster Ge Lin was still alive and had taken all of the Sect’s Artifact Refiners years to complete while consuming countless materials.
Such a Starship had no trouble searching for mineral lodes near Shadowed Star, but wanting to use it to travel far into the Star Field was undoubtedly a fantasy.
The dangers out amongst the Star Field could not be measured with common sense.
However, just because Shadow Moon Hall’s Starship was not capable of this did not mean Dragon Cave Mountain’s was not! An Origin King Grade Starship had the ability to make a long-distance voyage and with its help could even possibly restore Shadowed Star’s connection to the outside world.
At worst, one could use this Starship to leave Shadowed Star, free themselves from the shackles of the World Principles here, and possibly break through to the Origin King Realm!
Qian Tong and Fei Zhi Tu instantly understood all the implications of this Starship’s existence so, for a time, their heart could not help pounding with excitement.
Whether they could re-establish a connection between Shadowed Star and the outside world did not matter to them much, but with their cultivations having been stuck at the peak of the Origin Returning Realm for so many years due to the suppression of the World Principles here, suddenly seeing hope of breaking through naturally thrilled them.
However, even if their relationship with Yang Kai was good, suddenly raising this kind of request was really quite difficult; after all, the value of this Origin King Grade Starship was simply too great.
After glancing at them, Yang Kai vaguely guessed what they were thinking and just smiled lightly, “Elder Qian, City Lord Fei, I have a number of affairs that need to be attended to right now, but after I settle these issues and have some free time, how about I contact you again?”
Qian Tong and Fei Zhi Tu heard this and immediately nodded, “Good.”
Although Yang Kai did not make them any kind of commitment, and didn’t mention anything specific in his words, they would naturally be able to contact him again as long as he remained on Shadowed Star. On top of that, since Dragon Cave Mountain had been razed to the ground, it was clearly no longer suitable to live on. Considering all this, Qian Tong proposed, “Yang Kai, if you’d like, why not bring your people to live in my Shadow Moon Hall’s headquarters?”
As the saying goes, it is easier to borrow something from a neighbour than from a distant friend. Qian Tong’s proposal, although made with some ulterior motives in mind, was also done out of consideration for the now homeless Yang Kai; a proposal that benefited both parties.
But Yang Kai shook his head slowly and said upfront, “Elder Qian’s kind intentions are appreciated, but Junior already has a destination in mind so I’ll have to politely refuse.”
“Is that so…” Qian Tong’s face flashed a look of disappointment but he didn’t try to press the issue, simply nodding lightly, “No problem. Although this old master doesn’t know where you plan on going, since you already have a place to stay then this old master won’t say anything more. Just remember to send a message to us when you finish settling down so this old master can come to visit in person.”
“Of course, of course!” Yang Kai cupped his fists.
Immediately after, he turned to look at Wei Gu Chang and Dong Xuan’er and thanked them as well.
This time, Dragon Cave Mountain had been besieged by many powerful masters while very few had taken action to help him. Apart from the mysterious woman surnamed Ye, it was only the four people Shadow Moon Hall who had stood on his side. This kindness was something Yang Kai naturally would not forget.
At this moment, it was also only these people who had the courage to remain here while everyone else still alive had already fled. Even Clear Sky Sect’s Mo Yu, who displayed an ambiguous position, had gone missing.
*Kacha…*
A light sound came from mid-air as the Starship’s main hatch opened suddenly. Seeing this, Yang Kai smiled and called out, “Elder Qian, City Lord Fei, Junior will say goodbye here.”
Qian Tong and Fei Zhi Tu nodded lightly, not trying to retain him.
Yang Kai’s body flickered and quickly arrived beside the Divine Tree before sending out a flood of Spiritual Energy to wrap it up and take it back into the Black Book Space.
In the next moment, several figures headed by the woman surnamed Ye flew up and disappeared into the Starship, with Yang Kai bringing up the rear. Once everyone was aboard, the hatch closed and the Starship turned towards a certain direction with a light hum and shot off like a bolt of lightning, soon disappearing from sight.
“So fast!” Fei Zhi Tu stared in the direction the Starship disappeared with a shocked expression.
Compared to the speed of Shadow Moon Hall’s, this Starship was multiple times faster.
Qian Tong’s face filled with an excited yet complicated expression as he muttered, “I never expected this small hilltop to have so many talented people and such a magnificent heritage. Mo Xiao Sheng and those old ghosts have provoked an enemy they never should have this time.”
Fei Zhi Tu grinned meaningfully as he sneered, “Why bother worrying about their futures, what you and I should be doing right now is considering how to persuade Yang Kai to let us use his Starship to leave Shadowed Star. As long as you and I can break through to the Origin King Realm, this Shadowed Star will belong to our Shadow Moon Hall.”
Hearing this, Qian Tong’s expression shook before a strong light flashed across his eyes and he nodded repeatedly.
Several dozen kilometres away from Dragon Cave Mountain, Mo Xiao Sheng and several of his subordinates who had fled in distress all stared in the direction of the disappearing Starship with pale blue faces. Without even mentioning the massive losses they had suffered this time, considering the background and heritage that Dragon Cave Mountain had displayed today, just becoming enemies with them made Heaven Battling Union’s future grimmer.
Mo Xiao Sheng’s expression was filled with worry and distress.
With Heaven Battling Union’s Great Elder like this, how could Cheng Peng Xuan, Jin Shi, Old Woman Feng, and the other survivors be feeling any better? Each and every one of them wore grief-stricken looks as they felt enough regret to make their stomachs turn, especially Jin Shi who had lost an arm, severely damaging his overall strength and foundation.
However, while many people were sad, others were celebrating. Over on Clear Sky Sect’s side, Mo Yu was in a phenomenally good mood. In any case, he had not shown any malicious intentions towards Dragon Cave Mountain this time and had even taken action once to help Yang Kai resolve some of the trouble he was facing. As long as the other party was not blind, he should be able to understand he had done so with good intentions.
Moreover, his two disciples seemed to have some friendship with Yang Kai, so there was a chance he could gain some advantage from this opportunity.
Since the matters Qian Tong and Fei Zhi Tu were thinking of were pertaining to people of his realm, naturally, Mo Yu had some ideas as well.
Considering all this, Mo Yu slowly said, “Tao’er.”
“Yes,” Chen Shi Tao stepped forward in response.
“In the future, make sure to associate with that Yang Kai frequently, and if possible, find a way to capture his body and mind.”
“Honoured Master…” Chen Shi Tao blushed greatly. Although her Honoured Master was usually lenient and mild-tempered, never once bringing up such sensitive topics with her, at this moment he had actually spoken in a manner that could only be described as blunt, causing Chen Shi Tao to feel a little overwhelmed.
As a woman, Chen Shi Tao was quite proud of her strength, looks, and brains. She had an enchanting appearance that was able to fascinate others with just a single glance, causing many of Clear Sky Sect’s male disciples to secretly drool over her.
“Your Master is not cracking a joke,” Mo Yu’s declared seriously, “If you can really marry him, you will go down as my Clear Sky Sect’s greatest hero!”
Chen Shi Tao was instantly dumbfounded.
She had waited outside Dragon Cave Mountain with Lu Ying and her other Sect Brothers and Sisters just now, so although she had heard how fierce the clash inside had been, she wasn’t clear on what exactly had transpired. However, inferring from the words her Honoured Master spoke just now, it seemed that Yang Kai’s performance had immensely impressed him.
What exactly happened inside that made her Honoured Master’s attitude change so dramatically? Chen Shi Tao was very aware of how high her Honoured Master’s vision was. Not long after she was accepted as one of her Honoured Master’s disciples, an Elder from the Sect proposed that one of his descendants marry her, but was categorically rejected by Mo Yu.
That Elder’s descendant had excellent aptitude and strength and was regarded as a rising star in the Sect, yet such a person couldn’t even enter the eyes of her Honoured Master, so what did Yang Kai possess that made him have such a high opinion of him?
In Chen Shi Tao’s impression, Yang Kai’s strength was indeed astonishing and could be regarded as an elite amongst cultivators in the same realm, but she had always felt his greatest advantage was the great destiny he carried which made his luck exceptionally good.
However, her Honoured Master had already said that he did not believe in relying on something like luck or fate.
Chen Shi Tao was completely unable to figure out what had happened.
Regardless of the swirling changes that were occurring outside, inside the Starship, Yang Kai looked around curiously. When he had accompanied Yang Yan to the Flowing Flame Sand Field a few days ago, he had heard from her that she had built a bigger Starship beneath Dragon Cave Mountain, so he had not been surprised when it had suddenly appeared.
The only thing he had taken note of was how small this Starship was.
After entering this Starship though, he realized that, similar to the Flying Shark Battle Shuttle, it was actually bigger on the inside than it appeared on the outside, with quite a spacious interior.
In addition to an exquisite main hall, there were meditation rooms, an Artifact Refining facility, a Pill Room, a sparring room, and various other facilities.
Such a Starship was far bigger than the massive Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce Starship Yang Kai had previously ridden!
Strolling forward, Yang Kai soon came to an arched hall that was finished with high-grade polished wood and was decorated with the finest of tapestries while being illuminated by brilliant lighting stones that made it seem as bright as day.
At this moment, basically everyone who had any authority on Dragon Cave Mountain was here, including the new woman surnamed Ye and Ge Qi who were standing beside Yang Yan.
Chang Qi, Hao An, and the others all wore their usual looks; after all, they had participated in this Starship’s refinement, so they had seen it inside and out numerous times. As for Qian Yue and Wu Yi, who had already become like Yang Yan’s right and left arms, they looked perfectly at home here.
Ning Xiang Chen, on the other hand, wore a permanently dumbfounded expression, as if he still could not believe what he was seeing.
Glancing over at the woman surnamed Ye from time to time, his expression only became more timid and astonished.
He was far more aware of the origins of this woman than anyone else present and was naturally unable to relax in her presence. What shocked Ning Xiang Chen the most though was that this woman surnamed Ye called Yang Yan ‘Madam’! Even with her peak Third-Order Origin Returning Realm cultivation, she displayed complete obedience towards Yang Yan as well as clear respect and admiration.
Ning Xiang Chen wanted to punch himself to confirm whether he was dreaming.
When Yang Kai arrived, he saw that Wu Yi and the others wore somewhat depressed looks and were sighing constantly.
Although Dragon Cave Mountain had won an incredible victory in this battle, not only killing countless enemies and not suffering any losses themselves, with their home having been levelled, how could they possibly have the mood to celebrate?
That was the home they had all built together with all their might.
But now, it had been razed to the ground in this unexpected battle. After several years of hard work, they had watched as everything they built was destroyed, so it was only natural for them to feel sad.
“Why do you all look so distressed?” Yang Kai suddenly probed, even though he knew exactly why. Grinning, Yang Kai continued, “It’s just that Dragon Cave Mountain is now gone, there’s no need to agonize over it.”
“But that was our home,” Wu Yi sighed deeply.
“There’s a saying that if one does not let go of the old, they will never be able to obtain the new!” Yang Kai smiled at her, “Even if Dragon Cave Mountain is gone, we have another place to settle down, and its environment is thousands of times better than Dragon Cave Mountain.”
Wu Yi and others looked over at Yang Kai suspiciously, clearly not believing him.
Although Dragon Cave Mountain had originally been just a small hill with half-decent World Energy aura density and unsuitable for long term residence, it had been transformed into a well-known cultivation paradise over the past few years that many cultivators without Sects or families were eager to join.
Unfortunately for these people, Dragon Cave Mountain never accepted outsiders and had refused all of them. If this were not the case, Dragon Cave Mountain would not have remained at its current scale and would likely be a small Sect with thousands of members already.
Yang Kai saying that they had another place to go and that it was thousands of times better than Dragon Cave Mountain naturally elicited doubt from Wu Yi and the others.
“Even the headquarters of Shadow Moon Hall couldn’t possibly be thousands of times better than Dragon Cave Mountain,” Wu Yi pouted, subconsciously thinking that Yang Kai was just trying to comfort them.
“And if that place is far superior to even Shadow Moon Hall’s headquarters?” Yang Kai looked at her with a smile.
“How could that be? If there was really such a good place out there, how could it not already be occupied by some great force? On Shadowed Star, the great Sects and other powerful forces have already occupied all the places with rich World Energy auras. How could we possibly take one for ourselves?” Chang Qi argued despondently.
“What Old Chang said is indeed correct, but the place I’m speaking of cannot be occupied by those who wish to. In fact, besides us, others who wish to even visit it are completely incapable of doing so,” Yang Kai said mysteriously, “Even if this battle had not occurred, Yang Yan and I were planning to move everyone over to the new site. This incident simply moved up our schedule so you all don’t have to feel so sorry about Dragon Cave Mountain.”
“Big Sister Yang Yan, is what he said true?” Wu Yi turned her head to Yang Yan in amazement.
Yang Yan gently nodded, indicating that what Yang Kai was saying was true. Seeing Yang Yan nod, everyone showed an astonished look.
“Where is this place? And if the environment there is so good, why is it not already occupied by some great force?” Wu Yi understood even less.
“It’s just as I said. Even if those forces want to occupy that place, they do not have the ability to,” Yang Kai smiled lightly, “Because that place is inside the Flowing Flame Sand Field!”
“Inside the Flowing Flame Sand Field!?” Wu Yi and the others exclaimed.
However, upon hearing this, the woman surnamed Ye wore a thoughtful look on her face and asked, “The Supreme Profound Sect ruins?”
“Oh? Senior actually knows about it?” Yang Kai was a little surprised. Him knowing that place was the former headquarters of the Supreme Profound Sect was because Yang Yan had told him, but this woman surnamed Ye knowing about it as well was a bit unexpected.
“Naturally, I know about it. I have seen records of it in ancient books before; after all, that was the force that Ma… the Sect that the Great Emperor formerly supported,” The woman surnamed Ye’s eyes flashed slightly as she glanced over at Yang Yan seemingly unintentionally.
“So that’s how it is,” Yang Kai gently nodded. Although he didn’t ask much about her relationship with Yang Yan, it was obvious that this woman surnamed Ye knew Yang Yan’s true identity, otherwise, it would simply be impossible for her to show so much respect towards Yang Yan with her strength and status.
It seemed that this woman knew many profound secrets.
However, it was not convenient to inquire about this right now. Yang Kai could simply ask Yang Yan about it in the future.
Meanwhile, Chang Qi and the others listened to the conversation between the woman surnamed Ye and Yang Kai and could not help showing looks of surprise. It seemed that none of them even knew there were ruins of a Sect inside the Flowing Flame Sand Field.
“You’ll understand when we arrive. For now, let us end the discussion here. Just keep monitoring the Starship’s operations. I’ve already laid the course, so we just need to maintain the current speed,” Yang Yan said lightly.
Chang Qi and others all nodded before withdrawing.
Soon, only Yang Kai, Yang Yan, the woman surnamed Ye, and Ge Qi remained in the hall.
Yang Yan shot a faint look towards the woman surnamed Ye, who instantly understood her meaning and waved to Ge Qi, “Xiao Qi, you also draw back.”
“Yes, Martial Ancestor!” Ge Qi bowed slightly before leaving the hall.
After only three people remained, Yang Yan hurriedly extended a hand to Yang Kai and said, “Show me that thing you obtained.”
Yang Kai was surprised for a moment before quickly nodded, taking out the Jade Token from his Space Ring, and tossing it over to Yang Yan. The latter caught it and after a brief examination mutter, “It really is an Emperor Jade!”
“Emperor Jade?” Yang Kai frowned, “What’s the use of this thing?”
“It’s used to resist Emperor Pressure and serves as an entry pass to the Emperor Garden. Without this, no one can enter the Emperor Garden.” Yang Yan explained quickly. “When the Emperor Garden opens, only those holding an Emperor Jade will be able to safely enter.”
“Oh? Does that mean that many of these Emperor Jades will soon appear?” Yang Kai immediately grasped the key point.
If the Emperor Garden truly opened, only one person being able to enter would clearly not make sense, and since this Emperor Jade was an entry pass, that meant there should be many Emperor Jades appearing in the near future.
“En, this piece of Emperor Jade landing on Dragon Cave Mountain ahead of time is likely related to my presence; however, more Emperor Jades will begin appearing soon,” Yang Yan frowned, seemingly thinking about something.
After a moment, she raised her and met eyes with Yang Kai, the two of them immediately understanding the other’s plans.
They needed to snatch more Emperor Jades!
No matter what, they needed to obtain more Emperor Jades; otherwise, when the Emperor Garden opened, if they didn’t possess enough entry passes, it would be impossible for Yang Kai and Yang Yan to both enter the Emperor Garden.
Moreover, there was also this woman surnamed Ye joining Dragon Cave Mountain now, so she would also need to enter the Emperor Garden. In other words, they needed at least three Emperor Jades before they could relax.
At that moment, a rumbling sound suddenly echoed from outside, breaking the silence surrounding the Starship.
Yang Kai hurriedly released his Divine Sense, and after a quick investigation, his face sank. “More Emperor Jades really are appearing.”
At the same time, the Emperor Garden directly above Dragon Cave Mountain suddenly ejected several dozen streams of light. These streams of light were white and flawless, and they seemed to be shot out without any kind of distribution or destination in mind. Their speed, however, was incredibly fast and they had all crossed the horizon in the blink of an eye.
The masters who had just evacuated from Dragon Cave Mountain were also attracted by this bizarre scene, and after a moment all hurriedly summoned their Star Shuttles to pursue these white lights.
None of them knew that these were Emperor Jades, but just because they had come from the Emperor Garden, these masters naturally did not want to miss them.
Only a lucky cultivator was simply standing still when an Emperor Jade happened to land nearby. Rushing over, this cultivator joyfully picked up this Emperor Jade, but before he had a chance to even see what it was, someone stronger arrived and immediately began fighting him for it.
Some cultivators put their all into tracking these Emperor Jades but soon lost sight of them as the latter simply flew too fast.
Still others desperately used various Secret Techniques to follow the flying Emperor Jades, determined to snatch it for themselves.
All Shadowed Star was instantly thrown into chaos as masters from all the great forces were dispatched to hunt down and obtain these Emperor Jades.
Yang Kai, Yang Yan, and the woman surnamed Ye left the Starship immediately after they noticed the emergence of these Emperor Jades. Standing outside the Starship, Yang Kai’s eyes fixed on a certain spot in the sky as a look of joy flashed across his face. One of the white beams of light just happened to be flying towards their direction.
It seemed their luck was truly quite good!
Not only did Yang Kai show a joyful look, but the woman surnamed Ye also had a face filled with smiles as she summoned an ancient-looking lamp above her head that had a terrifying blue flame burning atop it.
The Origin King Grade Bone Incinerating Flame Lamp! An artifact famous throughout Shadowed Star.
In an instant, the white light which had come from the Emperor Garden arrived within a thousand metres of the trio, and seeing that it was about to rush past them, the woman surnamed Ye stretched out her hand gracefully and tapped her Bone Incinerating Flame Lamp, sending out a burst of blue flames and condensing it into a light curtain to block this Emperor Jade’s path.
This light curtain had only just formed when the Emperor Jade ran into it and silently pierce a hole straight through it.
The woman surnamed Ye’s face changed slightly when she saw this and hurriedly sent her Saint Qi into the Bone Incinerating Flame Lamp, condensing a series of light curtains from its blue flames in the path of the Emperor Jade.
Puncturing sounds rang out one after another as the white light of this Emperor Jade displayed a terrifying power, piercing through the barriers the woman surnamed Ye set up with ease.
This time, her face changed dramatically.
Without waiting for her to act again, Yang Kai stepped up, sending out his Firebird Artifact Spirit to block this Emperor Jade.
Unfortunately, the Firebird Artifact Spirit was also unable to stop this Emperor Jade’s advance and its body collapsed the moment it came into contact with the jade.
Despite being unable to stop this Emperor Jade though, the woman surnamed Ye and Yang Kai’s efforts had still managed to slow its pace significantly.
A strange look flashed across Yang Yan’s face as her beautiful eyes lit up and she flicked her wrist lightly, transforming the crimson ring bracelet she was wearing into a ring of flames she sent out to cover the Emperor Jade.
Three Blazing Flame Rings!
This artifact belonged to the Starry Sky Great Emperor and its grade could not be understood with common sense. The Flowing Flame Sand Field was one of Shadowed Star’s Three Great Forbidden Zones yet its true form was this Three Blazing Flame Rings.
Although Yang Yan had only managed to collect a single one of these flame rings and was unable to display its full power, as an Emperor Artifact, it was not to be underestimated.
The Emperor Jade, which could not be blocked by the combination of the Bone Incinerating Flame Lamp and the Firebird Artifact Spirit, seemed to encounter its nemesis the moment it came into contact with this flame ring and halted mid-air. The flame ring then quickly shrank and wrapped up the Emperor Jade tightly.
A buzzing sound rang out as the Emperor Jade seemingly tried to escape from the Three Blazing Flame Rings’ suppression, but having already been caught, how could it be so easy to flee?
Yang Yan quickly poured her Saint Qi into the Three Blazing Flame Rings and bound this Emperor Jade tightly, decisively capturing it.
Half a month later, a one hundred metre long Starship was suspended quietly in mid-air outside the Flowing Flame Sand Field while Chang Qi, Hao An, Wu Yi, and Qian Yue were anxiously waiting inside.
After the Emperor Garden’s sudden change that day, Yang Kai and Yang Yan had left the Starship and disappeared, not returning even until now.
No one knew where they had gone, but after this Starship arrived at the Flowing Flame Sand Field smoothly, Chang Qi and the others did not dare to rush in and could only stop outside and wait.
Fortunately, after the battle half a month ago, Dragon Cave Mountain’s reputation had become famous, so even if the Starship was just floating here and was incredibly eye-catching, no one dared to try finding trouble with it.
After the disappearance of the First-Layer Flame Area of the Flowing Flame Sand Field, many cultivators had been attracted to this place, so rather than being deserted like normal, the region around the Flowing Flame Sand Field had become quite lively.
Now that such a Starship had suddenly appeared here, it naturally attracted much attention.
Chang Qi and the others had been waiting here for three days now but still had not seen any trace of Yang Kai or Yang Yan. Just as they were becoming anxious though, the buck-toothed Ge Qi suddenly raised his brow and with a joyful look shouted, “Martial Ancestor is back, she’s just three thousand kilometres away!”
“Oh?” Wu Yi was overjoyed, not doubting him in the slightest as she quickly said, “Since Senior Ye is back, Yang Kai and Big Sister Yang Yan must be back as well.”
Saying so, she immediately ordered the Starship’s main hatch to be opened as everyone gathered around respectfully.
Sure enough, a moment later, a stream of light from the horizon shot over and arrived in front of the Starship. When this brilliant glow dispersed, a very small Starship appeared in its place, looking like a shark which had leapt out of the sea. Naturally, it was the Flying Shark Battle Shuttle refined by Yang Yan.
Yang Kai, Yang Yan, and the woman surnamed Ye all flew out from inside before Yang Yan quickly took back the Flying Shark Battle Shuttle.
Floating mid-air, Yang Kai released his Divine Sense all around and could not help frowning.
He noticed that there were many cultivators lingering nearby the Flowing Flame Sand Field when he and the others arrived, most of them showing curious looks as they stared towards them and whispered amongst themselves.
Standing on the spot and pondering for a moment, Yang Kai suddenly circulated his Saint Qi and shouted, “From today on, the region ten thousand kilometres outside the Flowing Flame Sand Field belongs to Dragon Cave Mountain. Please leave quickly. Those who intrude upon this range after today will be considered enemies of Dragon Cave Mountain and will bear the consequences!”
With just these words, countless people went into an uproar.
Although Dragon Cave Mountain had won an awe-inspiring battle half a month ago, causing many masters from various great forces to suffer heavy losses, in the end, this was all just rumours and hearsays. Whether it was true or not, no one here had been able to confirm, so when Yang Kai made such a declaration it was no different from him carelessly poking a hornet’s nest.
This could not be helped though; after all, with the strange disappearance of the First-Layer Flame Area of the Flowing Flame Sand Field, the Second-Layer Treasure Area had been exposed. Although the cultivators who had come here had not found many precious herbs, they were able to occasionally discover some rare ores.
It was even rumoured that there was an incredibly rich Saint Crystal lode in the Second-Layer Treasure Area where countless Saint Crystals could be found, enough to allow a small Sect to rise to the level of a first-class Sect.
Saint Crystal lodes were scarce on Shadowed Star, and although all the great forces had Saint Crystal lodes under their control, none of them had an abundance and their mining efficiency was not very high.
Most of the cultivators who came here did so with the idea of looking for that Saint Crystal lode, so how could they bear Yang Kai simply trying to drive them out?
All of a sudden, the crowds became indignant and began noisily clamouring, shouting out things like ‘the law does not punish the public’, that ‘the Flowing Flame Sand Field was one of the Three Great Forbidden Zones and thus belonged to all of Shadowed Star’, and so on and so forth.
Listening to all this noise coming from all directions, Yang Kai’s expression remained indifferent and unmoved. In the future, he would regard the Supreme Profound Sect ruins inside the Flowing Flame Sand Field as his new home, so it was naturally impossible for him to allow irrelevant people to loiter nearby.
“Shut up!” Before Yang Kai could speak again though, the woman surnamed Ye suddenly shouted while using her Peak Third-Order Origin Returning Realm cultivation in combination with a profound Soul type Secret Technique. As a result, although her shout had not been too loud, it instantly caused all of those who were clamouring just now to become dizzy and their faces to fill with shock.
The scene immediately fell silent.
Sweeping her beautiful eyes around, the woman surnamed Ye declared coldly, “You have one day to comply. After that, if this Queen sees you still here, don’t blame this Queen for being impolite.”
As these words fell, a powerful coercion suddenly spread out, as if the surrounding space had suddenly solidified. All the nearby cultivators were instantly wrapped up in this invisible power and were shocked to find that not only could they not move or speak, even their Saint Qi no longer circulated.
Under this kind of pressure, it was as if they had all become tiny ants.
This was the power of a Shi that had reached the grand accomplishment stage, so how could these stray cats and dogs resist? Even if a top Third-Order Origin Returning Realm master fell into the Shi of this woman surnamed Ye, they would feel like they had become stuck in a quagmire, their mobility and strength greatly suppressed, let alone these stray cultivators.
“A Third-Order Origin Realm master!” Suddenly, someone with sharper judgement realized what kind of cultivation the woman surnamed Ye possessed and cried out in terror.
Powerhouses were respected, this was a truth which never changed. The woman surnamed Ye only needed to reveal a bit of her strength and everyone who had just been arguing doggedly shut their mouths obediently. After she withdrew her Shi, these terrified cultivators hurriedly summoned their Star Shuttles and began fleeing.
The Second-Layer Treasure Area of the Flowing Flame Sand Field truly had many benefits and opportunities scattered about, but one needed to keep their life to enjoy such things. What did it matter how great the benefits were if they lost their lives in the process?
Although they were unwilling, it was truly unwise to remain here and provoke this kind of powerful existence with their lives at stake.
After the first batch of cultivators escaped, more and more people quickly left, and after half a cup of tea’s worth of time, everyone who had been loitering nearby had disappeared.
The woman surnamed Ye saw this and just coldly snorted before turning around and nodding to Yang Yan, respectfully reporting, “Madame, the idlers have been removed.”
“En,” Yang Yan responded faintly before turning back to face the flame barrier blocking before them and flicking her wrist, sending out one of her Three Blazing Flame Rings and merging it with the Flowing Flame Sand Field.
In the next moment, a gap large enough for the Starship to pass through opened in the flame barrier mysteriously.
The Third-Layer Flame Area of Flowing Flame Sand Field was originally one of the Three Blazing Flame Rings, an Emperor Artifact, so as the Soul Clone of the Great Emperor, Yang Yan was naturally able to manipulate it to a certain extent, even if she could not completely recover it yet.
After opening a path, Yang Kai and the others entered the Starship and it slowly proceeded into the Flowing Flame Sand Field with a light hum.
They were able to move here freely!
Sometime later, in what was once the fourth layer of the Flowing Flame Sand Field, in front of the Supreme Profound Sect ruins, Yang Kai and the others stood before the great Sect Defending Array, gazing up at the expansive mountains covered in rolling fog.
Amidst these fog banks, they were able to make out the outlines of various pavilions and palaces as well as palatial mountains and spirit springs, an absolutely beautiful and majestic scene to behold.
Standing here, Wu Yi and the others breathed in the air exaggeratedly, their expressions flushed with excitement.
Earlier, when Yang Kai said that he had a new place for them to settle down that it was hundreds, if not thousands of times better than Dragon Cave Mountain, all of them had felt great doubt and thought such a paradise could not possibly really exist. Standing here at this moment, they no longer had any doubts at all.
Just standing at the perimeter of this place, they could already tell just how rich the World Energy aura was here, so if they really entered, just what kind of scene would they be able to see?
It truly was not an exaggeration to say that this place was hundreds of times better than Dragon Cave Mountain!
Moreover, if they could really establish themselves here, with the protection of the flame barrier of the Flowing Flame Sand Field, no one would be able to pose a threat to them ever again. This place was truly a paradise that anyone and everyone would desperately covet.
Inside the Flowing Flame Sand Field, did such a place really exist?
However, this Sect Defending Array seemed impregnable, at least many times stronger than the one which protected Dragon Cave Mountain, so whether they could destroy it and gain access to this place was highly questionable.
Just when everyone secretly worried about this issue, Yang Yan turned to look at Yang Kai, stretched out a hand towards him, and mouthed something to him.
No one heard what she said but Yang Kai wore a look of understanding on his face, wiped his Space Ring, and took out a token-like object before tossing it over to Yang Yan.
“Emperor Token…” The woman surnamed Ye had a sharp eye and at a glance naturally realized that this was a Star Emperor Token, but thinking about how she had actually taken out the Star Emperor Token that had been passed down through countless generations of Sect Masters of Star Emperor Mountain in order to exchange for a healing pill, she couldn’t help growing slightly anxious.
This Star Emperor Token was something she had once possessed and was a treasure that the Great Emperor had personally gifted to her ancestors, so although the Divine Ability sealed within it had already been used, it wasn’t something that should have been taken out and bartered with. Thinking like this, the woman surnamed Ye became uneasy, wondering if the Madame would blame her for this action.
Fortunately, Yang Yan did not seem to have any intention of pursuing this matter, simply holding the Star Emperor Token in her hand and pouring her Saint Qi into it, causing it to send out a ray of light towards the Sect Defending Array barring their path.
With a burst of light, the seemingly impregnable golden Sect Defending Array flashed as streams of profound and complex runes swam across its surface, and then, with a low hum, accompanied by strong energy fluctuations, the Supreme Profound Sect’s Sect Defending Array suddenly split open a gap, revealing a path that lead directly to the inside.
Although he had a hunch that this would happen, when Yang Yan opened the light curtain in front of him so easily, Yang Kai could not help smiling bitterly.
When he arrived in the fourth layer of the Flowing Flame Sand Field last time, Yang Kai saw the cultivator from Star Emperor Mountain called Leng Qing attacking this light curtain, but no matter how hard Leng Qing tried, he was not even able to shake this barrier.
At that time, Leng Qing had invited Yang Kai to help him, but Yang Kai had swiftly rejected his proposal.
Now, Yang Kai realized how wise his decision back then had been. Although this Sect Defending Array had remained unattended for countless years, it was not something a mere Saint King Realm cultivator could break with brute force.
“Let’s go,” Yang Yan’s expression became a little complicated, seemingly almost recalling something but unable to form a clear picture in her mind. This was only natural, however, as she was not the true Great Emperor. Although she had inherited some of the memories of the Great Emperor, they were by no means complete, so this Supreme Profound Sect must seem familiar and unfamiliar to her at the same time.
The massive Supreme Profound Sect ruins that had laid untouched for over ten thousand years finally ushered in its first visitors today.
The World Energy here was so rich it was practically tangible, wrapping around one’s body while providing a sense of warmth and comfort. One hardly even needed to circulate their Secret Art for the surrounding World Energy to pour into their body.
Cultivating in this environment would be several times more efficient than in the outside world!
Not only did Wu Yi and the others from Dragon Cave Mountain wear excited looks, even the woman surnamed Ye couldn’t help revealing a look of fascination.
As the former Sect Master of Star Emperor Mountain, this woman was well aware that it had the densest World Energy on Shadowed Star. Nevertheless, Star Emperor Mountain’s World Energy aura was dwarfed by this place.
Beneath Star Emperor Mountain was an Earth Vein of the highest grade that provided a constant stream of World Energy; however, beneath these Supreme Profound Sect ruins, it seemed that there was far more than just one peak-grade Earth Vein.
The first place the group arrived was a set of immaculate white-jade steps that remained completely spotless despite ten thousand years having passed. These white-jade steps were constructed from the finest of materials and numbered several thousand at least, each one releasing a warm, lustrous glow as they led higher up into the mountains.
Yang Kai and Yang Yan walked up these steps at a leisurely pace, basking in the rich aura of this place while releasing their Divine Senses to examine their surroundings.
The woman surnamed Ye followed behind them, and behind her were Chang Qi and the other Origin Realm cultivators. The several dozen disciples that originally belonged to the Hai Ke Family brought up the rear and were all constantly whispering amongst themselves.
They had followed Wu Yi to leave the Hai Ke Family and join Dragon Cave Mountain even though they had all felt somewhat distraught about leaving their original family at the time.
However, in the following few years, they had obtained near-unlimited cultivation materials and an excellent cultivation environment on Dragon Cave Mountain, gradually allowing them to develop a sense of belonging to the place.
Now though, Dragon Cave Mountain had been razed to the ground, and although they felt it was something of a pity, Yang Kai and Yang Yan had led them into this new world, to a paradise countless times better than Dragon Cave Mountain.
Reminiscing about the past, each and every one of these cultivators secretly rejoiced about their decision to follow Wu Yi all those years ago. If they had chosen to remain in the Hai Ke Family, they would likely still be struggling every day for a few meagre cultivation resources. Now, they didn’t need to worry about such things at all, only needing to focus on their own cultivation. In addition, they had near unlimited amounts of Saint Crystals and pills to help them, as well as extremely high-quality artifacts.
Such treatment couldn’t be enjoyed even by the top Sects on Shadowed Star for cultivators like them.
If someone from Heaven Battling Union or Thunder Typhoon Sect were to invite them to join their Sect, they would definitely sneer in disdain.
Heaven Battling Union? Thunder Typhoon Sect? What things were they? Could they compare to Dragon Cave Mountain?
Step by step, the small crowd ascended the steps, and after about half an hour, they finally arrived at the top. Looking forward, the group led by Yang Kai saw two giant pillars which formed a kind of entryway above which a massive plaque was hung with three words emblazoned upon it in majestic characters.
Supreme Profound Sect!
There was a profundity to these words that immediately drew in one’s attention and elicited a sense of wonderment. It was impossible to know who had carved this plaque, but it was certain that their strength had not been low, most likely at the Origin King Realm!
As the mountain breeze gently blew through, bringing with it a clear and refreshing scent, the group’s line of sight passed through Supreme Profound Sect’s main gate and towards its inner sanctum. Mountains filled with exquisite pavilions and palaces went on as far as the eye could see, but what was eerie was that this magnificent Sect ruin didn’t have the slightest trace of vitality or life inside it.
Yang Kai spread out his Divine Sense but was shocked to discover that he was unable to encompass the entire Supreme Profound Sect ruin.
Such a massive Sect could accommodate a hundred thousand disciples and still not feel the slightest bit crowded, but right now, there were less than a hundred people in this place. On top of that, it was likely that there would be less than one hundred people living here and cultivating for some time to come.
It wouldn’t be a problem for each of them to occupy their own mountain.
“This should be the Front Court,” Yang Yan’s brow wrinkled slightly as she spoke, “We should explore separately. It seems there are no active barriers or Spirit Arrays inside but don’t act carelessly. If you encounter anything suspicious, don’t rush in on your own, send a message to Yang Kai or me and we will come to investigate.”
“Alright,” Wu Yi acknowledged before dividing up the other cultivators into groups of two or three before having them disperse in all directions.
Naturally, Yang Kai did not remain idle either and began exploring this Front Court of the Supreme Profound Sect alone.
He thought that there would still be some good things left here, but to his disappointment, there was essentially nothing of value at all. It was as if all that remained here was the massive Sect ruin itself, disappointing him.
After exploring for a whole day, Yang Kai failed to gain anything of worth.
The former disciples of the Hai Ke Family, on the other hand, had better luck, some of them finding old artifacts or pills that could still be used, rushing back over to report their finds, eager to hand them over.
After examining these things briefly, Yang Kai simply allowed these disciples to keep them as he had no interest in them.
This decision further stimulated these disciples’ desire to explore. From the Supreme Profound Sect Front Court, one could see people coming and going excitedly with great frequency.
Time flew by and soon half a month had passed.
During this half-month period, the only thing everyone did was explore the Supreme Profound Sect ruins, but even so, they had not finished exploring it all.
There were a total of eighty-one mountain peaks here, each one with its own unique features, but they all had incredibly rich World Energy aura, far better than any great force’s headquarters.
Among these eighty-one peaks, nine had far greater World Energy density.
Although they hadn’t been able to reap any major gains, just being able to settle down in this place already satisfied everyone greatly.
After some debate, everyone decided to live together around the Front Court; after all, there were just too few of them and the Supreme Profound Sect ruins were too large. If they all scattered, it would become inconvenient to even contact one another much less work together.
The World Energy aura of the Front Court wasn’t as dense as the nine largest mountain peaks, but it was still better than anywhere in the outside world.
Yang Kai occupied a magnificent palace by himself, one that was located above a Spirit Spring. An exquisite Spirit Array had been arranged in this palace to channel and contain the aura which was released from the Spirit Spring, so it was an ideal place to cultivate.
Regarding this whole situation, Yang Kai was very satisfied.
However, since everyone who had originally belonged to this Sect had fallen, continuing to call it Supreme Profound Sect wasn’t appropriate; after all, when dealing with other great forces on Shadowed Star in the future, they couldn’t use the name Dragon Cave Mountain or Supreme Profound Sect to represent this place. Yang Yan, Wu Yi, and the others came to consult Yang Kai about this and he immediately replaced the Supreme Profound Sect plaque hanging above the main gate with a new one that read ‘High Heaven Sect’!
Although there had been no formal announcement to the world, this was actually the moment a new Sect was founded.
High Heaven Pavilion was Yang Kai’s original Sect, so it only seemed reasonable to name this place High Heaven Sect. No one else had any opinion about this, or even asked Yang Kai what the significance of this name was.
They had long regarded Yang Kai as their leader, so even if the name Yang Kai came up with was awful, they wouldn’t complain.
On the other hand, the woman surnamed Ye actually praised this new Sect’s name quite liberally.
After spending so long together, Yang Kai had also learned about the origins of this woman surnamed Ye.
Ye Xi Yun was the former Sect Master of Star Emperor Mountain! One of Shadowed Star’s most prestigious and famous figures; unfortunately, she had abandoned Star Emperor Mountain for some unknown reason many years ago. Everyone thought she died, but it seems that she had actually been secluding herself from the world.
If not for Ge Qi accidentally discovering Yang Yan this time, Ye Xi Yun would likely have remained hidden from the world.
Even though she was the former Sect Master of Star Emperor Mountain, Ye Xi Yun had only brought two things with her when she left, the Origin King Grade Bone Incinerating Flame Lamp artifact, and a certain portrait.
A portrait of the Starry Sky Great Emperor!
Star Emperor Mountain’s ancestral teachings stated that the Great Emperor had fallen into a deep sleep, but would reappear one day.
The years passed though, and after ten thousand years, these ancestral teachings had gradually been forgotten. Star Emperor Mountain itself didn’t know if it really had any relationship with the Starry Sky Great Emperor, but Ye Xi Yun had never doubted it.
In order to explore the secrets of the Great Emperor, she had searched through ancient records from all around Shadowed Star and eventually learned a shocking truth. Apparently, the Great Emperor had encountered a powerful enemy, suffered a heavy loss, and used some kind of Divine Ability to put herself into a deep sleep to slowly recover over the ages.
This coincided with the story Yang Yan had told Yang Kai before.
In order to discover this piece of buried history, Ye Xi Yun had used several dozen years of time, during which she had not paid any attention to Star Emperor Mountain’s matters. As a result, she had fallen out of power and eventually had her position usurped, forcing her to flee from Star Emperor Mountain.
The reason she had dedicated so much time to researching the Great Emperor was quite simple: She wanted to break through to the Origin King Realm!
Although she didn’t know what the Great Emperor’s true cultivation was, Ye Xi Yun could tell that she had definitely transcended the Origin King Realm. Since the Great Emperor could reach such a realm ten thousand years ago, why couldn’t she?
Ye Xi Yun’s original intention was to find a way to break through to the Origin King Realm by taking advantage of the Great Emperor’s past experiences, but instead, she had actually stumbled upon such grand secrets.
After leaving Star Emperor Mountain and going into hiding, Ye Xi Yun had hung the Great Emperor’s portrait in her secluded home.
Ge Qi was a disciple she had taken many years ago, and although they had a relationship of Master and Disciple, Ge Qi insisted on calling her Martial Ancestor. When Ge Qi visited Ye Xi Yun to ask for her guidance, he had naturally seen the portrait of the Great Emperor.
As such, when this guy came to Heavenly Fate City and saw Yang Yan, he felt like he had seen a ghost, quickly becoming timid and respectful.
When he returned to Ye Xi Yun and told her of what he had seen, Ye Xi Yun had immediately rushed out to Dragon Cave Mountain without even taking the time to fully heal her injuries, coincidentally arriving just as Dragon Cave Mountain was being besieged.
Although there were people with similar appearances in this world, it was impossible for two strangers to have exactly the same face. As such, Ye Xi Yun had guessed that the woman named Yang Yan might have something to do with the Great Emperor.
After rushing to Dragon Cave Mountain and conversing with Yang Yan, however, Ye Xi Yun immediately became convinced of her guess.
If this wasn’t the case, how could she have helped Dragon Cave Mountain for no apparent reason or obey Yang Yan’s every order as a peak Third-Order Origin Returning Realm master?
If Ye Xi Yun had any doubts before, all of those had been laid to rest during these days of contact. Only the Great Emperor could refine such a Starship, and only the Great Emperor could easily open the Supreme Profound Sect’s Sect Defending Array.
She subconsciously thought that Yang Yan was the reincarnation of the Great Emperor, not suspecting that the true body of the Great Emperor was actually still sleeping in the Emperor Garden.
Ten days passed by, and after experiencing the initial excitement and novelty of this place, Dragon Cave Mountain’s survivors gradually adapted to life in the Supreme Profound Sect ruins, which had now become High Heaven Sect.
Here, the World Energy aura was rich, the mountains were beautiful, the water was pure, and the air was fresh. It was simply the best cultivation paradise in the world, only a single step below the floating continent Yang Kai had first encountered after entering the Star Field.
The only flaw was that the entire Flowing Flame Sand Field was still wrapped up by the two rings of the Three Blazing Flame Rings, making it a completely isolated space from the rest of the world. Not only did this make it difficult to communicate with others on the outside, but when one looked up they were unable to see the sun, moon, stars, and sky. All that was there was a fiery red light curtain.
Of course, there were advantages and disadvantages to every situation. The current High Heaven Sect seemed to be isolated from the rest of the world, but it was also shielded from any kind of outside disturbances. If this wasn’t the case, the trivial few dozen people here would never have been able to occupy such a wondrous cultivation paradise.
Everything was proceeding smoothly.
The Ten Thousand Year Incense Yang Kai brought back from the Flowing Flame Sand Field sixth layer was placed in one of the Front Court’s main palaces by Yang Yan where it was guarded behind a powerful Spirit Array so that, in the future, if a disciple needed to break through, they could apply to Wu Yi to enter this palace and take advantage of the wonderful effects of the Ten Thousand Year Incense to assist them.
The Nine Branch Jade Crystal Tree was also placed in this palace.
These two extraordinary treasures both helped cultivators comprehend the mysteries of the Martial Dao and Heavenly Way as well as help them maintain mental tranquillity and purge heart demons, so they were the perfect auxiliaries to have when a cultivator wanted to break through.
Whether it was the Ten Thousand Year Incense or the Nine Branch Jade Crystal Tree, they had originally been placed inside Yang Kai’s cave mansion on Dragon Cave Mountain, but more than the month ago, Yang Yan had taken advantage of the time while Yang Kai was attracting everyone’s attention when strong enemies had invaded to sneak into his cave mountain and transfer these precious treasures.
Yang Yan had also retrieved the Red Candle Stalk and the small piece of Red Candle Fruit at that time and had now moved them to the Front Court’s Medicine Garden. Although neither of these things would grow anymore, their medicinal efficacies could be perfectly preserved here.
Even the progenitor Blood Sword Grass had been collected and brought here by Yang Yan, along with the huge Blood Essence Stone and the Illusion Stone. These things were all treasures that could be used as Array Cores for powerful Spirit Array, so how could Yang Yan just abandon them?
It could be said that although Dragon Cave Mountain had been razed to the ground, High Heaven Sect had not suffered the slightest loss at all. Instead, it was able to use that battle to make a name for itself!
At least a dozen great forces and over a hundred Origin Realm masters had joined forces to attack them, but in the end, the invaders had suffered heavy casualties and fled in distress. With the possible exception of Star Emperor Mountain, no other Sect on Shadowed Star was capable of accomplishing such a feat.
After that battle, no one dared disdain Dragon Cave Mountain, and the name of Yang Kai, the owner of Dragon Cave Mountain, was widely circulated. Achieving such an incredible victory with just a trivial Third-Order Saint King cultivation made Yang Kai the topic of discussion in every city and tavern across Shadowed Star.
High Heaven Sect, on the other hand, was established in an extremely low-key manner, and without Yang Kai knowing anything, Wu Yi and the others had acknowledged him as Sect Master.
Yang Yan became Vice Sect Master, and Ye Xi Yun was installed as Great Elder with Chang Qi, Hao An, Ning Xiang Chen, and Ge Qi becoming Elders.
A small Sect with only a few dozen members began taking shape, and although there were so few of them occupying such a massive site, no one here was eager to open their doors and recruit others to join them. If they were, simply by releasing word that they were recruiting, it likely wouldn’t be long before countless cultivators swarmed here to join them.
However, their foundation was unstable, so now was not the time to try to expand; everyone understood this truth.
Yang Kai also let out the Divine Tree again during this time. In the battle more than a month ago, the performance of the Divine Tree had stunned Yang Kai. After receiving such a big pleasant surprise, Yang Kai naturally wasn’t stingy with it and he immediately fed the Divine Tree two drops of Golden Blood after letting it out.
The Stone Puppet’s performance had also been remarkable, so Yang Kai rewarded it with a rich spread of rare metals and ores! The Stone Puppet could enhance its strength by absorbing the essence of these ores after all.
The Front Court of High Heaven Pavilion gradually calmed down, with everyone settling into a set routine, so Yang Kai decided it was time to enter retreat.
Only Yang Yan was still running around frantically, with Wu Yi and Qian Yue in tow; after all, this place would be their Sect from now on so Yang Yan naturally wanted to arrange new Spirit Arrays and barriers. Fortunately, the majority of the barriers and Spirit Arrays from when the Supreme Profound Sect was active were still intact and only required some slight repairs or recharging with Saint Crystals to activate.
To Yang Yan, this wasn’t difficult, and even somewhat enjoyable.
Ye Xi Yun also accompanied her all day long, remaining a single step behind her, behaving exactly like a loyal subordinate.
Yang Kai occasionally noticed that there was a look of fanaticism and even worship in her eyes when this woman looked at Yang Yan. It seemed that she would execute any order given to her by Yang Yan without hesitation.
Yang Kai sat cross-legged inside his palace, now deemed First Heavenly Palace while holding a blue-green artifact that looked somewhat similar to a long sword.
Although this artifact looked like a sword, it did not have a blade edge but was dull instead. At its hilt was also a distinctive longan sized round bead inside of which there was a green, snake-like creature swimming about happily.
This long sword artifact was naturally the product of the refined and fused Dragon Bone and Dragon Bead. This Dragon Bone and Dragon Bead apparently belonged to an aggressive Poison Dragon, an Ancient Divine Spirit whose true strength was simply beyond comprehension.
So even though all that remained of this Poison Dragon was a piece of Dragon Bone that had been roughly refined into an artifact along with its Dragon Bead, this long sword artifact was still able to display incredible might.
During the battle on Dragon Cave Mountain, Yang Kai fully realized how powerful this artifact was, but unfortunately, the Remnant Dragon Soul retained its arrogance from when it was alive and was unwilling to be controlled by him, nearly causing him to embarrass himself when he first summoned it. At that time, Yang Kai had been forced to suppress it forcefully by using his Blossoming Lotus Secret Technique.
Although he had succeeded in bringing this unruly Dragon Soul to heel at the time, this was only a stopgap measure, not a long-term strategy.
Yang Kai taking it out now was naturally because he intended to permanently solve this problem, otherwise, he would be forced to suppress it every time he used it. Not only would this reduce the power this artifact could display, but it might even lead to Yang Kai to suffer backlash.
This was no small matter. It actually was not uncommon for cultivators to suffer backlash from their own artifacts, normally occurring when a cultivator tried to use an artifact that was powerful beyond their control. As such, when choosing an artifact, a cultivator would rarely choose one that had a grade far exceeding their own cultivation. Possessing a powerful artifact one couldn’t control completely wasn’t necessarily better than having a weaker one they could completely control.
Moreover, this Dragon Bone Sword in Yang Kai’s hand could only be regarded as the prototype of an artifact and had yet to be completely refined, barely in a usable condition.
This was only natural though; after all, how could it be easy to refine the materials of an Ancient Divine Spirit?
However, what made Yang Kai happy was that this Dragon Bone Sword seemed to be capable of growing and evolving. During the battle on Dragon Cave Mountain, this sword had transformed into a giant dark-green dragon, and after it swallowed the vital essence of an Origin Returning Realm master cultivator, its aura had clearly been enhanced slightly.
After discovering this, Yang Kai didn’t dare allow it to swallow up other Origin Real masters at will. It was already difficult for him to completely suppress it, so how could he do something akin to lifting a stone only to smash his own foot?
Only when this hidden danger was completely resolved could Yang Kai allow this Dragon Bone Sword to grow unscrupulously.
“Your whole body is an alluring emerald-green, so I’ll call you Verdant from on,” Yang Kai’s eyes flashed as he muttered to himself.
Saying these words, Yang Kai gripped the sword’s hilt and began pouring his Saint Qi into it without reservation, causing a resounding dragon roar to fill First Heavenly Palace. In the next instant, dazzling green light and a powerful wind burst from the palace.
As a violent pressure descended, a giant dark-green dragon suddenly appeared in front of Yang Kai.
When the Verdant Dragon Bone Sword transformed, its appearance became extremely lifelike, just like a real dragon hovering in front of Yang Kai, its two large eyes blinking lightly as it stared down at the human in front of it with clear disdain.
Although it was only a Remnant Soul and didn’t even possess any sentience, the pride of being an Ancient Divine Spirit had been indelibly ingrained into it.
Compared to the power of an Ancient Divine Spirit, Yang Kai’s strength was as small as an ant’s.
Dragon pressure filled the air, causing Yang Kai’s bones to crack as he felt as if he was carrying a giant mountain on his back and an indescribable sense of powerlessness emerged from his heart.
However, Yang Kai did not retreat, nor did he show the slightest timidity, instead glaring back at the giant dragon head coldly.
The Demon Eye of Annihilation appeared in his left eye, its golden pupil seemingly emitting an endless sense of majesty while another ethereal glow surrounded it.
Naturally, this glow was the Coloured Glass Divine Light.
Together with the Demon Eye of Annihilation, the two complimented one another, making the power they could display more than the sum of their individual strengths.
This time, Yang Kai did not use his Blossoming Lotus Secret Technique; after all, if he wanted to conquer this prideful Dragon Soul, relying entirely on this Secret Technique was clearly not an option. Yang Kai had to let this Dragon Soul willingly recognize him as its master, otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to control it in the future without worrying about suffering backlash.
One big and one small, two pairs of eyes stared at each other, one contemptuous, one majestic, and neither willing to back down or show any kind of weakness.
Even if the Dragon Bone and Dragon Bead had been refined with Yang Kai’s Saint Qi for several years, and had long been dyed with his aura, it was still not a simple task to make it completely submit.
As this invisible contest between Yang Kai and the giant dark-green dragon unfolded, an invisible shockwave of Spiritual Energy spread out. Fortunately, the barriers protecting the First Heavenly Palace were quite powerful, otherwise, this palace might have been destroyed in the initial moments of this competition.
Although Yang Kai’s cultivation had only reached the Third-Order Saint King Realm, his Soul was no less powerful than a Second-Order Origin Returning Realm master, and with the assistance of his Demon Eye of Annihilation, he could even cause serious losses to a Third-Order Origin Returning Realm master that was caught off guard. But even so, it was extremely difficult for Yang Kai to deal with this Remnant Dragon Soul.
Regardless of how Yang Kai urged his Divine Sense to exert pressure on it, the other party remained unmoved, not showing the slightest fear, panic, or intention to surrender.
As time passed slowly, Yang Kai’s complexion gradually grew pale as he was using his Spiritual Energy uninterruptedly and without restraint, making it difficult for even him to endure.
A faint trace of blood began to leak from Yang Kai’s Demon Eye of Annihilation, and his whole left eye went slightly red as the golden pupil continued to exert an invisible suction force, wanting to shake this Dragon Soul. Unfortunately, it was like waves crashing upon a reef, although there were some signs of a splash, the reef remained unmoved.
The stalemate lasted for three days and three nights with no progress.
On the contrary, his Spiritual Energy had been completely exhausted, and his Knowledge Sea had dried up. If not for him possessing a supreme treasure like the Seven Coloured Soul Warming Lotus, Yang Kai would already be in a comatose state.
Even so, Yang Kai currently felt as if his head was being pierced by thousands of needles, causing him extreme pain.
In the main hall of the First Heavenly Palace, Yang Kai groaned in a low voice, his Demon Eye of Annihilation deactivating on its own as it couldn’t be sustained without Spiritual Energy to support it.
This was the first time ever his Demon Eye of Annihilation had proven useless! In the past, whenever Yang Kai had used it, whether it was to defeat or deter an enemy, the Demon Eye of Annihilation had proven incredibly effective.
But now, dealing with the Remnant Soul in the Verdant Dragon Bone Sword, it had no effect.
Nevertheless, Yang Kai was not annoyed, but instead even more pleased.
The harder it was for him to make it submit, the more valuable the Dragon Bone Sword was. As long as he could find a way to make the Dragon Soul surrender to him, the boost it would provide to him would be immense.
However, how was he supposed to subdue it? Yang Kai gasped for breath as he stared at the giant dark green dragon in front of him, contemplating deeply.
Suddenly, he remembered something and raised his brow as excitement flashed across his eyes. Although it was just a stray thought, Yang Kai felt it was absolutely worth a try.
Not having used it for so long, Yang Kai had completely forgotten that there was another True Dragon Remnant Soul in his body!
Back in the Great Han Dynasty, Yang Kai had accepted a profound inheritance inside the Inheritance Heaven Cave that left a Golden Dragon Tattoo on his body. Later, when he arrived in Tong Xuan Realm and entered Dragon Phoenix Palace’s Dragon Valley, Yang Kai had learned that this Golden Dragon Tattoo was related to the Dragon Emperor’s Inheritance.
Yang Kai was somewhat ignorant before and didn’t understand what exactly this Golden Dragon Tattoo was or what secrets it held, but after his previous exploration of the Emperor Garden with Fei Zhi Tu, he had come to learn of the existence of Ancient Divine Spirits.
Since the Phoenix Empress Inheritance he had brought with him from the Phoenix Nest was an Ice Phoenix Remnant Soul, the Dragon Emperor Inheritance he obtained from Dragon Valley must similarly be so.
Although he had yet to verify this, Yang Kai felt his guess should not be wrong. It would not make sense of the Dragon Emperor Inheritance to be weaker than the Phoenix Empress Inheritance!
Perhaps… he could achieve his objective here with the help of the Dragon Emperor Inheritance.
Thinking so, Yang Kai no longer hesitated. In any case, there was no harm in trying.
Discarding his upper robes, Yang Kai exposed his toned body to the air.
Yang Kai didn’t have a robust figure, but his body was extremely well-built and his muscles were perfectly chiselled, giving him a rather heroic look.
At this moment, there are two figures emblazoned on his body, one was the Golden Dragon Tattoo while the other was the Ice Phoenix Tattoo, both looking extremely lifelike.
The difference, however, was that the Golden Dragon Tattoo was lively, randomly swimming across Yang Kai’s skin while the Ice Phoenix Tattoo remained motionless.
This was only natural though, as the Ice Phoenix Tattoo was the Phoenix Empress’ Inheritance, not something that belonged to Yang Kai. Currently, it was just using his body as a carrier while the Golden Dragon Tattoo was the Dragon Emperor Inheritance which had become part of Yang Kai.
When Yang Kai’s Divine Sense swept across the Ice Phoenix Tattoo, he felt that its eyes moved slightly, seemingly meeting his gaze for a moment before once again freezing in place.
However, Yang Kai didn’t know whether this actually happened or he had just imagined it.
Even so, Yang Kai could not help thinking of Su Yan at this moment. The whole reason the Ice Phoenix Tattoo was willing to remain with him was because he promised to bring it to Su Yan. Unfortunately, after so many years, he had not had an opportunity to see her again.
He did not know how she was now.
Or if she was being bullied.
Or if she was able to continue her cultivation smoothly.
…..
After a moment of silence, Yang Kai adjusted his mood and focused his consciousness on the Golden Dragon Tattoo. Taking a deep breath, Yang Kai began circulating his Yin-Yang Joyous Unification Art. Although Su Yan was not here to cooperate with him, Yang Kai was intimately familiar with this Secret Art, so it was not difficult for him to circulate it.
As Yang Kai’s Saint Qi surged, the Golden Dragon Tattoo began swimming faster and faster, as if receiving some kind of nourishment.
A moment later, a deafening dragon roar rang out and a dazzling golden light burst from Yang Kai’s body, flooding the entire First Heavenly Palace while the verdant hue filling the air suddenly dimmed greatly.
The eyes of the giant dark green dragon, which had been staring at Yang Kai indifferently and disdainfully for the past three days, suddenly filled with panic when this golden light appeared, as if it had encountered its nemesis, trembling violently as it seemingly became flustered.
*Hou…*
The golden light radiating from Yang Kai grew ever stronger until a giant phantom image of a Golden Dragon appeared above his head, like an ancient god overlooking the giant dark green dragon.
The two dragons looked roughly the same size and had very similar appearances, the only difference being their colours.
One gold, one green.
Although the verdant dragon looked terrified, it was still obviously unwilling to show weakness in front of its enemy and stubbornly lifted its head while resisting the majesty of the Golden Dragon.
Yang Kai was overjoyed when he saw this scene as he knew that, like a blind cat hitting a dead mouse, he had stumbled upon the right method. Naturally, Yang Kai was unwilling to give up halfway so he immediately began circulating his Yin-Yang Joyous Unification Art more vigorously.
The golden radiance grew even stronger, further suppressing the verdant glow.
Things did not end here though. Seemingly receiving stimulus from this situation, the Ice Phoenix Tattoo on Yang Kai’s back suddenly let out a piercing cry and also soared out of his body to manifest in the sky above his head.
A cold chill burst forth from the Ice Phoenix while a terrifying heat emerged from the Golden Dragon. With hot and cold energy meeting, according to common sense, they should have mutually cancelled one another out, but they began blending together instead, not only harmoniously but also enhancing each other’s power.
The golden, green, and white light collided with each other as crackling sounds filled the air.
However, the green light had already been suppressed by the golden light, so with the addition of the white light, its defeat became inevitable.
The sound of something cutting through the air reached Yang Kai’s ears, but the light in front of him was so bright that he was unable to clearly see what was happening; only vaguely sensing that the golden and white auras were rapidly suppressing the green one. Using his Divine Sense, Yang Kai confirmed that the green light was shrinking at an incredible speed.
*Hong…*
A muffled bang rang out, causing Yang Kai’s body to shake, but when he opened his eyes and looked forward again, he suddenly found that his room had become a chaotic mess, as if a great storm had blown through it. Even the barriers protecting the First Heavenly Palace had been destroyed.
On his back, at some point unknown to Yang Kai, the Golden Dragon Tattoo and the Ice Phoenix Tattoo had returned, the former swimming about happily while the latter once again sat dormant.
It was as if everything just now had been an illusion, never even happening.
However, Yang Kai’s attention was immediately attracted to the Verdant Dragon Bone Sword on the ground. Reaching out and holding it, he felt an inexplicable sensation coming from it.
Before, Yang Kai had felt like he was holding an artifact when holding this Dragon Bone Sword, but now he felt a sense of connection with it, as if this Verdant Dragon Bone Sword had become a part of his body and could be freely manipulated by him.
Although this feeling was quite weak and indistinct, it was completely different from before.
Raising his brow, Yang Kai infused his Saint Qi into the verdant sword and it immediately transformed into a familiar giant dark-green dragon, but different from before it no longer wore a look of contempt and disdain on its face, instead wearing a look of meekness and obedience.
Yang Kai grinned as he was unable to contain his joy.
Unexpectedly, his random idea of using Dragon Pressure to suppress Dragon Pressure had turned out to be effective.
After this brief confrontation, Yang Kai also vaguely felt that his Golden Dragon Tattoo seemed to be stronger than the giant dark green dragon.
Both of them were Remnant Souls of Ancient Divine Spirit, but the giant dark green dragon was obviously at a disadvantage when confronting the Golden Dragon, so even without the support of the Ice Phoenix Remnant Soul, Yang Kai thought it would have only been a matter of time before he was able to completely subdue it.
The addition of the Ice Phoenix only shortened the time this process took.
With a flash of thought, Yang Kai had the giant dark green dragon fly through the air according to his commands.
From now on, when he used this Verdant Dragon Bone Sword, Yang Kai no longer needed to worry about suffering backlash from it disobeying him, relieving a big hidden danger, so naturally, he was in a happy mood.
After experimenting inside his room for some time, Yang Kai stored the Dragon Bone Sword in his body again to continue nourishing it with his Saint Qi. His strength was still too low right now, so he was unable to exert the full power of this artifact, and it also seemed like it had not been completely refined. Understanding this, Yang Kai began to wonder just how powerful this Verdant Dragon Bone Sword would be once it reached its peak.
This was something he was very much looking forward to.
Taking out some pills from his Space Ring, Yang Kai calmed his mind, sat down cross-legged, and began restoring his Saint Qi and Spiritual Energy.
In just one day, Yang Kai had recovered to his peak state, but just as he was about to get up, a loud humming noise rang out outside, causing the entire First Heavenly Palace to tremble.
Yang Kai’s complexion changed as his first thought was someone was attacking High Heaven Sect, but immediately after he realized this was impossible. High Heaven Sect had occupied the ruins of the Supreme Profound Sect, which was protected by the Three Blazing Flame Rings on all sides. With such a barrier around it, who could possibly attack High Heaven Sect on Shadowed Star?
At the same time, Yang Kai felt the surrounding World Energy was not reacting the same way it would if the Sect was under attack.
Rather, it seemed like it was flowing differently because of some kind of internal changes in the Sect.
Frowning slightly, Yang Kai stood up, pushed open the doors, and exited the First Heavenly Palace before turning to look in a certain direction. In the next instant, Yang Kai’s figure flickered and flew off with great speed.
A moment later, Yang Kai arrived at the huge open square of High Heaven Sect’s Front Court.
Looking around, Yang Kai saw that the Sect’s several dozen disciples were all gathered here, along with all the Elders as well. Everyone was looking up into the sky at this moment, as if something there had attracted their attention.
Following their line of sight, Yang Kai was surprised to discover that suspended mid-air was a solemn-looking Yang Yan. Her long, beautiful black hair was flowing freely in the wind as her hands constantly weaved a series of complex signs. There was also a stream of Saint Qi constantly being emitted from her tender body towards the sky.
Realizing Yang Kai had arrived, everyone turned and saluted.