Although Yang Kai’s existence concerned Shang Ao a little, he didn’t spend too much thought on him.
The Sea Clan had always been arrogant, believing they were the noblest creatures in this world and that all other races should bow to them, especially the great masses of humans who infested the land.
The Sea Clan also had the qualifications to be arrogant. From birth, every Sea Clan clansman was innately proficient in Water Attribute Secret Arts and Martial Skills, unlike humans who the majority of which would never be able to cultivate and would die of old age or sickness before a hundred years had passed, forever remaining mortal.
This was Yang Kai’s first experience with the Sea Clan’s arrogance!
The glamorous woman standing next to Shang Ao looked down and lightly opened her lips, “Island Master Pang, this is not the first time this Mistress has met you, so we can reluctantly be considered acquaintances. Since that is the case, this Mistress will speak frankly. This time, an important person from my Sea God Palace has disappeared near your Sunrise Island and we have reason to suspect that the people of Sea Temple abducted them. As such, we have come here to ask Island Master Pang to return them to us.”
Although the woman tried her best to keep her tone stable, her slightly tense expression revealed her inner anxiety.
Pang Zhen naturally recognized this Sea Clan woman and frowned, “An important person from your Sea Clan? Who exactly?”
He was very curious about the identity of this missing Sea Clan clansman, and faintly felt that the other party’s status in the Sea Clan was definitely not low, likely a member of the royal family! Otherwise, Shang Ao and this woman would not have come here personally and displayed such an aggressive stance.
Regardless, he had to clarify the situation.
The woman, however, shook her head lightly and said in a pleasant tone, “Forgive me, but this Mistress cannot reveal this person’s identity.”
Pang Zhen sneered, “General Qian Mo, are you making a joke? Just based on your guess, Sea God Palace brings so many Origin Returning Realm masters to embarrass my Sunrise Island? Do you think my Sea Temple is so easy to bully?”
The woman named Qian Mo frowned and hesitated for a moment before saying, “It is not just this Mistress’ guess, Milady really did disappear near Sunrise Island, otherwise, we wouldn’t be here. “
Pang Zhen’s eyes narrowed upon hearing this response.
Qian Mo and Shang Ao were both among the eight Generals of Sea God Palace and had extremely high status. In the Sea Clan, there were not many people ranked higher than her, but she actually referred to this missing Sea Clan clansman as ‘Milady’.
Could it really be that a member of Sea God Palace’s royal family had gone missing near here? This was no small matter! Pang Zhen immediately realized the seriousness of the problem. If it was just some little-known Sea Clan clansmen that had disappeared, he could easily shirk responsibility; after all, he really wasn’t involved in this matter, but if the one who was missing was a royal, he had no choice but to handle things delicately.
If this matter was not processed properly, it would definitely trigger a war between the Sea Temple and the Sea God Palace! That was an outcome no one wanted to see.
After a long time of silent contemplation, Pang Zhen said with a solemn expression, “We have not discovered any Sea Clan near Sunrise Island recently, perhaps General Qian Mo is mistaken…”
Qian Mo quickly interrupted him, “If Island Master Pang will permit, this Mistress would like to search Sunrise Island. I wonder if you can accommodate this request!”
“Just a search?” Pang Zhen looked at her cautiously. Compared to the current situation, this request was not excessive. If the circumstances had been anything else, Pang Zhen would definitely not agree, but since this matter likely involved a member of the Sea Clan royal family, if he didn’t agree, it would likely set off the simple-minded Shang Ao and spark a great battle.
As such, Pang Zhen was debating making some concessions to ease the situation.
“Just a search!” Qian Mo assured, “This Mistress is very familiar with Milady, and if she really is on Sunrise Island, this Mistress will definitely sense her regardless of whether someone has tried to conceal her whereabouts!”
As she spoke these last words, Qian Mo’s eyes became cold and sharp.
It was conceivable that if things were as she guessed, Sunrise Island would run red with blood today.
Pang Zhen hesitated. With the other party acting so assured, he could not be certain of his judgment. Although he was the Island Master, with so many Sea Temple disciples living on Sunrise Island, if there really was some blind fool who secretly captured and brought back a Sea Clan…
“Alright, I accept your request!” Pang Zhen quickly decided. If this was a blessing, it was not a curse, and if it was a curse, it could not be avoided, so Pang Zhen could only pin his hopes on the Sea Clan being mistaken.
“Many thanks,” Qian Mo nodded, and in the next moment released her Divine Sense, spreading it out to sweep every piece of Sunrise Island.
Everyone waited quietly while hundreds of masters remained silent on the coast, even suppressing their breaths to the point where one could hear a pin drop.
Shang Ao wore a clear look of anxiety and the long scar on his face twitched noticeably, giving him an even more terrifying appearance. He glanced back and forth between Qian Mo and Pang Zhen repeatedly, his eyes wide open.
Only after a long silence did Qian Mo open her eyes once more.
Pang Zhen stared fixedly at her, waiting for her to speak.
“How is it?” Shang Ao also asked hastily.
Qian Mo showed a disappointed look on her face as she turned to Shang Ao and slowly shook her head, “She’s not here!”
“Impossible!” Shang Ao yelled, “She disappeared near Sunrise Island, how could she not be here! Something must be wrong… That’s right, could she have been transferred away by them? Sunrise Island has a Space Array and can connect to various Sea Temple islands…”
“Shang Ao, if you want to fight, just fight! Stop trying to make up excuses!” Pang Zhen exclaimed, this time, with much more confidence.
Shang Ao was already irritated, so when Pang Zhen’s words came out, they instantly set him off and he began to circulate the strength in his body.
Qian Mo quickly cut in, though, and said, “Island Master Pang, this Mistress and others were mistaken. I apologize for the trouble we have caused. This Mistress will definitely return to apologize in the future.”
Hearing her say so, a smile blossomed on Pang Zhen’s face.
The Sea Clan always looked down on Humans, so Qian Mo being able to make such an admission proved just how anxious she was, not even having the mind to keep up an air of arrogance. It did not really matter whether she came in the future to apologize, this concession alone was enough.
Pang Zhen was a worldly man and naturally knew how to take a win when he got one so he simply nodded and said, “Since that’s the case, this Pang won’t press this matter any further, you can see yourselves out!”
The Sea Clan did not say a word and quickly retreated, with only Shang Ao glaring back at Pang Zhen unwillingly before leaving, seemingly even more interested in fighting now so he could vent his frustrations.
After the Sea Clan retreated a few thousand kilometres, Pang Zhen deeply exhaled.
The other Elders on Sunrise Island also looked at each other and smiled bitterly as sweat dripped down their backs.
Regardless of their firm outward attitudes just now, and their refusal to back down, in truth, they all had their hearts up in their throats. With Sunrise Island’s current strength, it would not have been easy for them to resist two Sea Clan Generals and their subordinates.
Fortunately, this matter had been resolved perfectly, without any battle taking place.
“Island Master, what person did the Sea Clan lose? Why were Shang Ao and Qian Mo so anxious?” Someone asked from the side.
Pang Zhen silently signalled to the man, not immediately answering and instead turning to look at Yang Kai and saying with a smile, “Sect Master Yang, I’ve shown you something embarrassing. This Pang just received word from the temple’s headquarters that a representative will be here in three days. I hope Sect Master Yang will take a few days to enjoy the sights and scenes of Sunrise Island as he waits patiently.”
Yang Kai smiled lightly, “This Yang appreciates Island Master Pang’s hospitality, but from what I’ve seen, it seems your Sea Temple isn’t very interested in this Yang’s proposal.”
Pang Zhen opened his mouth but did not know how to explain.
Even from his perspective, Sea Temple’s response had been quite sloppy, so he could only let out a bitter laughter.
Fortunately, Yang Kai did not intend to embarrass him, so after saying a few casual words, Yang Kai simply returned to the courtyard Pang Zhen had arranged for him.
Since Sea Temple was not enthusiastic about his proposal, Yang Kai would not care about them and chose to instead focus on the Sea Clan.
Even Pang Zhen had to admit that the Sea Clan had an innate advantage when it came to collecting ocean resources and were able to acquire a larger amount of them than the Sea Temple. If the Sea Clan and High Heaven Sect could reach a cooperative relationship, it would certainly be more beneficial than one he could establish with Sea Temple.
However… it would certainly be difficult to work with the Sea Clan.
Unless he forced them to submit, there was probably no possibility of success.
In the middle of the night, Yang Kai opened his eyes suddenly and showed a thoughtful look as he stared off in a certain direction. Just now, he noticed that some of Sunrise Island’s masters, including Pang Zhen, had quietly left the island.
Immediately, he understood that Pang Zhen had gone to search for that important missing person from the Sea Clan!
If even Shang Ao and Qian Mo valued this individual so highly, their status must be quite extraordinary. If Pang Zhen could find this missing person first, it would undoubtedly become a great merit. At that time, it would be a simple matter to use this person to negotiate some kind of agreement with Sea God Palace, or simply ransomed for a large number of resources.
Yang Kai also knew that the masters from the Sea Clan had not left far from Sunrise Island, only moving about thirty thousand kilometres off.
They seemed to believe that their clansman had disappeared near Sunrise Island so they planned to conduct a thorough search of the area.
Yang Kai watched with interest, secretly wondering what kind of scene would appear if the two groups met one another.
However, this idea was obviously superfluous. Whether it was the cultivators of Sunrise Island or the cultivators from the Sea Clan, they both did their best to avoid one another.
Suddenly, an aura mysteriously disappeared from Yang Kai’s perception.
Before he could figure out what happened, another one disappeared, and then a third, then a fourth…
Within a very short period of time, dozens of auras disappeared strangely.
This was not anything like a cultivator’s aura fading after they died, but rather just completely vanishing in an instant!
Yang Kai was stunned.
He was now the Star Master of Shadowed Star, so it was not an exaggeration to say that as long as he wanted to, he could monitor the movement of any place he wanted to with perfect accuracy.
But now, he could not tell how dozens of powerful masters had disappeared from his view.
There did not seem to be any reason for their disappearance.
In fact, not even these peoples’ companions had noticed yet.
In the beginning, only those from the Sea Clan were disappearing, but then the masters of Sunrise Island also began to vanish one by one. By the time the remaining people discovered something was not right, it was already too late. Only a few of the original two hundred or so masters from both forces remained, and it was not long before these last few also vanished.
Yang Kai jumped to his feet and his figure flickered as he directly moved from Sunrise Island to the area where the strange disappearances had occurred. Floating mid-air, Yang Kai frowned as he spread out his Divine Sense, trying to figure out what exactly had happened.
Such an unusual event occurring in this region puzzled and shocked him greatly as the Star Master of Shadowed Star.
Even after a careful examination though, Yang Kai was unable to discover any clues.
The surrounding world seemed to be filled with a mysterious air.
Suddenly, Yang Kai’s expression changed abruptly, and he turned his head in a certain direction.
Over there, an island shrouded in shadows strangely manifested. This island’s outline was hazy, like a reflection in the water, making it difficult to discern. What’s more, no matter how Yang Kai probed with his Divine Sense, he was unable to grasp where this island was, or even if it was real.
It seemed to exist, yet not; seemed to be close, yet far; filled with an inexplicable aura.
A black crack silently appeared behind Yang Kai, and by the time he noticed it, it had already expanded like the giant maw of a beast and swallowed him whole.
In the next instant, Yang Kai disappeared.
A squall blew past, leaving faint ripples on the otherwise calm ocean surface, leaving no trace of any living aura within a ten thousand kilometre radius.
…..
The place where Yang Kai reappeared was a sandy beach filled with the damp smell of an ocean coast. Before he could figure out where he was, battle-cries rang in his ears, the voices behind them familiar to him.
Looking in the direction the voices came from, Yang Kai suddenly discovered that the Human Race and Sea Clan masters who had disappeared from his perception had also largely appeared on this beach.
Pang Zhen, Shang Ao, and Qian Mo were among them.
However, they were in an unbelievably bad situation and were being besieged by a group of unknown cultivators.
Although Sea Temple and Sea God Palace were by no means friendly with one another, even frequently having conflicts among them, they at least knew how to distinguish who their immediate enemies were. Suddenly finding themselves transported to some unfamiliar place, they abandoned their previous animosities and worked together.
There were not many people besieging them, only about thirty or forty.
But it was the masters from Sea Temple and Sea God Palace that were on the defensive! If it were not for these unknown cultivators not intending to kill ruthlessly, Pang Zhen, Shang Ao, and the others would definitely have suffered heavy losses already.
Yang Kai stared at this strange scene for a moment and soon noticed that no one showed any signs of using their Saint Qi, only using their physical strength to confront the enemy.
This was not only the case with the cultivators of unknown origin, but also for Pang Zhen and Shang Ao’s groups.
Shang Ao was both tall and muscular. As a member of the Sea Clan, his physical strength was quite intrepid, so even if he was besieged by four or five enemies, he was barely able to defend himself.
Pang Zhen, on the other hand, was a different story. In terms of overall combat effectiveness, he and Shang Ao were almost evenly matched, but without his Saint Qi, Pang Zhen’s strength plummeted, and he was obviously beset with difficulties right now.
The same went for the other human cultivators. They did not have the same powerful physiques as the Sea Clan, so not only were they inferior to the men like Shang Ao, but even to the women like Qian Mo.
Yang Kai observed thoughtfully for a moment before trying to circulate his Saint Qi only to discover he could not mobilize it at all. This strange place had completely sealed his Saint Qi!
This discovery surprised him greatly.
Next, Yang Kai tried to extend his Divine Sense and quickly found that the furthest away from his body he could get with it was fifty metres.
[What is this place? Why is there such powerful suppression of Saint Qi and Divine Sense here?] Yang Kai was puzzled.
Two nearby fellows, seeing Yang Kai lost in thought, could not help snickering and dashing over.
Yang Kai had yet to figure out the situation here, so he did not want to stand out too much; as such, while dealing with these two attackers, he secretly continued to observe his surroundings.
When it came to physical strength, Yang Kai could be considered a top-level existence. He had refined a lot of the Life Revitalizing Jade Cream he brought out from the Emperor Garden, dramatically increasing the amount of pure Golden Blood in his body. Coupled with the Five Elements Indestructible Sword Tempering Art he cultivated, Yang Kai could say with confidence that he could take down an ordinary Origin King in a simple contest of strength without breaking a sweat!
He could be sure now that this was not Shadowed Star, it was some kind of separate world.
Even the connection between him and Shadowed Star had been cut off, and he couldn’t make use of his abilities as a Star Master, so Yang Kai was certain this was an independent, sealed space!
The battle was in full swing, with both sides heavily engaged, but cultivators from the Sea Temple Sea God Palace force were constantly being captured, tied up, and tossed to the side. However, Shang Ao and the others continued to resist, even managing to wound several enemies.
A tall, scrawny man who had been standing by and watching saw that his subordinates were unable to resolve this situation in short order and finally decided to step in, snorting loudly as he called out, “Having entered Shadowed Soul Island, you must learn the true difference between Heaven and Earth. Cease your resistance and follow this King to greet Lord Island Master obediently. As long as you are obedient, Lord Island Master Sir will not embarrass you.”
“Shadowed Soul Island?” Pang Zhen, Shang Ao, and Qian Mo exclaimed at the same time, each of their faces becoming extremely pale.
Even Yang Kai was shocked.
This was actually Shadowed Soul Island? He could not believe it.
Yang Kai had heard about Shadowed Soul Island before. Shadowed Star originally had Three Great Forbidden Zones: The Flowing Flame Sand Field, the Emperor Garden, and Shadowed Soul Island.
Needless to say, the Flowing Flame Sand Field was a place that opened once every few hundred years, allowing the younger generation of various great forces to enter and seek opportunities.
The Emperor Garden was also a famous place, the private residence of the Starry Sky Great Emperor. When it was opened last time, the entire Star Field sent its young talents to explore it and many obtained great benefits as a result.
However, Shadowed Soul Island was different from the first two. The first two were places where one could enter to seek opportunities, but Shadowed Soul Island was a death sentence!
Rumours had it that Shadowed Soul Island existed somewhere on the Limitless Ocean, but no one who had encountered it ever returned, all of them disappearing as if they never existed in the first place.
Many Shadowed Star cultivators doubted whether Shadowed Soul Island really existed because no one could provide any evidence it was real.
Shadowed Soul Island only existed in legend.
But now, this scrawny man actually called this place Shadowed Soul Island, so how could Pang Zhen, Shang Ao, and the others not be shocked? They had all lived on the Limitless Ocean their whole lives and were familiar with the rumours and legends about this place, so when they heard the name Shadowed Soul Island, all of them turned pale.
If this was really Shadowed Soul Island, it meant that the legends were true, which meant they would never be able to return to the Limitless Ocean and could only die in this damned place where Saint Qi and Divine Sense were all but useless!
The idea of being forced to obey the orders of some unknown Island Master was also intolerable to the masters here.
“Yes, this is Shadowed Soul Island!” The slender man was very satisfied with everyone’s reaction. He was also greatly troubled when he arrived here, but that was so long ago he had lost track of how many years it was.
Shang Ao and Pang Zhen exchanged a glance before shouting in unison, “Only a fool would believe you!”
“Hmph, stubborn fools!” The slender man coldly snorted, and not wanting to waste any more time, he stepped forward and an eye-catching aura began pulsing from his body.
Waving his hand casually, a few Human and Sea Clan masters who were blocking his path were beaten down, unable to even resist.
He did not use any Saint Qi, only relying on raw physical strength!
Shang Ao’s eyes shrank when he saw this, and a solemn expression appeared on his face. He could tell that this slender man’s body contained an unbelievable strength.
The lanky man only took a few steps to arrive in front of Shang Ao.
Intending to punish one to warn the others, he targeted Shang Ao, after all, Shang Ao was the most powerful person in this group.
There was nothing special about this scrawny man’s movements, even the punch he threw was quite crude, but even so, the air seemed to crack as sent his fist towards Shang Ao.
Shang Ao roared as he stood tall and clenched his fists before crossing his arms in a defensive posture.
*Hong…*
The slender man’s fists hit Shang Ao’s two arms, and the sound of bones breaking rang out. Shang Ao’s burly body was sent flying like a paper kite with a broken thread, landing heavily on the ground several hundred metres away.
When he stood up forcibly, his eyes and nose were leaking blood, which gave him a hideous look as he staggered, eventually falling back to the ground.
The crowd instantly went into an uproar as they showed terrified looks on their faces.
The Sea Temple and Sea God Palace masters who were still resisting stopped their actions all at once.
Since this thin man could knock out Shang Ao with one punch, it would naturally be easy for him to kill them all. Pang Zhen’s expression fluctuated a few times before he commanded the cultivators from Sea Temple to stand down.
In the face of absolute power, resistance became meaningless and would only serve to increase their casualties.
Upon seeing this, the lanky man showed a satisfied expression and laughed loudly, “A wise man will submit to the circumstances, very good! Rest assured, this King has no intention to slaughter ruthlessly, Shadowed Soul Island has not had fresh blood in a very long time, so your arrival here is quite timely. Also, the Island Master does not allow anyone to kill at will as long as they remain obedient. Perhaps in the future, we may even be comrades. Once you have stayed here for a while, you will understand what kind of place Shadowed Soul Island is.”
He grinned happily.
Meanwhile, the faces of the Human and Sea Clan masters turned ugly.
Yang Kai frowned slightly, his expression fluctuating a few times before quickly making up his mind.
He did not intend to leave himself at the mercy of this thin man! Regardless of whether this was Shadowed Soul Island or not, he needed to keep the initiative in his own hands.
Deciding so, Yang Kai dashed out of the encirclement and fled quickly.
This action finally caught the thin man’s attention, and seeing Yang Kai flee, his face sank and he coldly snorted, “A fool who doesn’t know when to give up. Go kill him for me!”
Yang Kai’s actions undoubtedly annoyed him greatly, so he directly ordered two of his subordinates to dispose of Yang Kai.
Having received orders, the two men chased after Yang Kai.
No one from the Sea Clan recognized Yang Kai, and only thought he was some disciple of Sea Temple, so after a quick glance they did not pay any attention to him, but Pang Zhen naturally was shocked as he wondered how Yang Kai had appeared here.
However, Pang Zhen could not even protect himself at this moment, so he did not have the luxury to care about Yang Kai’s affairs, choosing to stand in place with a gloomy look upon his face.
Upon the slender man’s orders, his subordinates immediately rushed forward to tie up the remaining cultivators from the Human Race and Sea Clan. Anyone who resisted was punched black and blue.
These people, regardless of their cultivation level, had much stronger physiques compared to the newcomers without exception, so any resistance from the Sea Temple and Sea God Palace masters was quickly suppressed.
The lanky man smiled and said with a malicious grin said, “Be obedient and there will be benefits for you, but dare to resist… heh heh, Shadowed Soul Island also has many who die every year, you should understand.”
Both Pang Zhen and Qian Mo’s faces sank as they both had bad premonitions in their hearts.
…..
A hundred kilometres away, Yang Kai frowned as he looked down at the two fresh corpses on the ground and sighed slightly.
Having just arrived here, he did not want to kill recklessly.
But these two who had chased after him were relentless in their pursuit, so Yang Kai had no choice but to act ruthlessly.
Without Saint Qi, the number of people in the entire Star Field who could compete with Yang Kai purely through physical strength could probably be counted on one hand, so how could these two lackeys possibly be Yang Kai’s opponents?
After only two or three exchanges, they lay dead at his feet!
Yang Kai quickly took their Space Rings before picking a direction and fleeing.
Half an hour later, another cultivator arrived, and after seeing the two corpses on the ground, his face changed, and he quickly returned to Shadowed Soul Island to report the situation.
By now, Yang Kai was already hundreds of kilometres away.
Inside a natural cave on the coast, Yang Kai sat down cross-legged. This cave was quite damp and unsuitable for living in, but Yang Kai could not be bothered about this right now.
Sitting on the ground, he tried again to circulate the Saint Qi in his body while also attempting to communicate with Shadowed Star; however, both endeavours failed.
This strange place was able to cut off the connection between him and Shadowed Star, eliminating his biggest advantage.
Yang Kai’s face turned a little ugly.
Fortunately, even though Divine Sense was greatly suppressed here, it was still usable, or he would not have even been able to take things out of his Space Ring, let alone use the artifacts stored in his body.
Whether it was using a Space Ring or an artifact, both required a certain amount of Spiritual Energy. Once one could not use their Spiritual Energy at all, these convenient boosts would become inaccessible.
This allowed Yang Kai to relax slightly.
After thinking about it, he took out the Space Rings of the two people he had killed just now and began to investigate their belongings.
With Yang Kai’s current wealth, he wouldn’t put the meagre treasures of these two ordinary cultivators in his eyes. However, he could still use the items they kept as a way to determine the situation here on Shadowed Soul Island, which was why he had bothered taking them.
The original cultivation of these two should not have been high, so it was no trouble for Yang Kai to break the seals on their Space Rings.
Looking carefully, Yang Kai found that these two guys were relatively poor, and besides some food, there were only a few Saint Crystals, some low-grade artifacts, a few Secret Art and Martial Skill manuals, and a few jade bottles.
Saint Crystals were completely useless here. Saint Qi could not be used, so what role could Saint Crystals play here?
Yang Kai also did not spare a glance at the artifacts or manuals.
Picking up the jade bottles, Yang Kai opened their caps and poured out some grey pills from inside.
With just a glance, Yang Kai snorted disdainfully.
With his current identity as an Origin King Grade Alchemist, he could naturally see at a glance that this pill was not even refined completely. Although it could not be considered a complete failure, it did not bring out the full effects of the raw materials used to refine it. On top of that, the refinement method was too rough, with the medicinal efficacies of the raw materials clearly not condensed properly.
This pill was little more than a ball of randomly mixed together ingredients, pressed together at will!
However, thinking that Saint Qi could not be used in this damned place, Yang Kai relaxed slightly.
Without Saint Qi, Alchemist would have no way to condense medicinal liquid and fully utilize herbs. It was probably for this reason that these pills seemed to be half-finished products.
Although Yang Kai did not put this kind of pill into his eyes due to his vision and skill, he was still quite curious about what their intended effects were.
None of the pills he had mastered so far matched the ones in front of him, which came as a bit of a surprise.
After observing for a while, he sniffed the pill again, and after confirming it was not a poison pill, he simply popped one into his mouth.
A moment later, Yang Kai raised his brow and showed a look of astonishment, muttering under his breath, “So that’s how it is. No wonder everyone here has such great physical strength, it’s because of these pills!”
After tasting it, he immediately understood the purpose of this pill.
It was a pill meant for body tempering!
After taking that pill, Yang Kai clearly felt heat flow from his lower abdomen to his limbs, tempering his five viscera, six organs, muscles, and tendons, developing his body in a positive direction.
Of course, this pill had an almost negligible effect on Yang Kai given his already incredible physical strength.
However, for those cultivators who had not specially tempered their bodies, it would no doubt provide great assistance. If one could take such pills for many years, their physiques would definitely grow stronger.
This was probably the fundamental reason why the cultivators living on Shadowed Soul Island were so much stronger than the average human or Sea Clan!
They should all have taken a number of these pills!
Saint Qi could not be used on Shadowed Soul Island, and Divine Sense was heavily suppressed, so the cultivators living here had found another way to strengthen themselves. Everything depended on one’s own efforts, so it was not an unreasonable course of action.
Yang Kai was also quite interested in this pill.
However, he did not know the pill recipe or the raw materials, so he could only set this matter aside for now.
Outside the cave, Yang Kai looked into the distance. He could vaguely see a city at the centre of Shadowed Soul Island, where the residents of Shadowed Soul Island should live. At the centre of the city was a very tall building that stretched up into the clouds, its top hidden from sight.
Yang Kai retracted his gaze and turned it towards the undulating sea. Without hesitation, he leapt into the water and began swimming forward.
Without his Saint Qi, he could only rely on this most primitive way of swimming.
He could now judge that Shadowed Soul Island was definitely an independent and enclosed space. Just like the floating continent he had been trapped on when he first entered the Star Field, this place had its own World Principles, which were separate from Shadowed Star’s.
Since it was a sealed world though, it should have a border, so Yang Kai wanted to see if he could find this edge and break through it to escape.
Even if he couldn’t, he could always just double back and come up with a new plan, such as entering the city and finding the so-called Island Master of Shadowed Soul Island to ask about the situation. Presumably, he would know a lot more than Yang Kai did.
The sea was cold, but Yang Kai’s speed was extremely fast.
Along the way, he encountered many brutal sea beasts, but all of them were killed when they tried to attack Yang Kai.
After several days, Yang Kai found that these sea beasts were different from the ones outside. The physiques of these sea beasts were quite a bit stronger than members of their species in the outside world. It took Yang Kai quite some effort to kill a number of these beasts in the water.
Yang Kai also occasionally noticed some ships travelling across the water, wandering around certain regions of the sea.
These boats were crewed by the residents of Shadowed Soul Island, and from the actions they took, it appeared they were searching for something.
Yang Kai did not want to expose himself just yet, so he avoided them as much as possible.
These ships only sailed around the coastal waters, not daring to travel too far from land; after all, the further out to sea they went, the greater the danger they would encounter. Even though these sea beasts were no match for Yang Kai, that did not mean they were weak.
Several more days passed, but Yang Kai had found nothing of note, and gradually he no longer even saw the figures of other cultivators, but he did not give up and continued his exploration.
One day, atop the vast ocean, Yang Kai suddenly discovered something out of the corner of his eye.
Up ahead, Yang Kai saw a few flickers of colour amidst the thin ocean mist.
Yang Kai immediately became energetic and hurried over to investigate.
For several days, all he had seen was endless ocean waves, which was quite grating on his mind, so Yang Kai welcomed any kind of distraction.
No matter what these colourful lights were, it had to be more interesting than the unchanging sea.
A moment later, Yang Kai arrived.
However, the sight that greeted him surprised Yang Kai.
Atop the sea, there was a floating lotus!
There were several dozen lotus flowers grouped up together, some pink, some cyan, some silver, and some gold, each one of them exuding a potent aura.
“Ocean Lotus?” Yang Kai frowned.
Obviously, these weren’t ordinary Ocean Lotuses, however, but precious Alchemy herbs.
Yang Kai’s eyes lit up as he swam up to one of the cyan Ocean Lotus. Plucking a petal, he put it in his mouth to chew.
Soon, Yang Kai’s eyes brightened, and he couldn’t help letting out a hearty laugh, “Turns out this thing is the main ingredient of that pill!”
He was very interested in that special body tempering pill from before, but unfortunately, he didn’t know what materials were used to refine it. He never thought that this trip out to sea would allow him to discover their main ingredient so easily.
Obviously, the ships he encountered along the way had come out to sea to find these Ocean Lotus.
Unfortunately for those people, they could only move around near Shadowed Soul Island, causing them to miss out on the true riches further out.
Yang Kai happily began picking these Ocean Lotus, preserving them properly, then placing them into his Space Ring.
After some investigation, he found that these Ocean Lotuses had different medicinal efficacies depending on their colour. Pink ones had the lowest potency, followed by cyan, silver, then gold.
The stronger the medicinal efficacy of an Ocean Lotus, the fewer of them there were. There was only one golden Ocean Lotus that floated at the centre of this cluster.
There were not many silver ones either, only six in total, making each one quite precious.
These materials could play a huge role in Yang Kai’s hands. With his current Alchemy skill, he would not have any difficulty deducing the pill recipe for those Body Tempering Pills by himself, after which, he could begin refining his own pills.
As such, he did not intend to let off a single one of these Ocean Lotus.
As Yang Kai was immersed in his joyful discovery, he suddenly heard a slight splashing sound coming from nearby. Turning his head, he fixed his sight on a small dolphin about a metre or so in length. Arriving in front of a cyan Ocean Lotus, this little dolphin opened its mouth and swallowed it down in one gulp.
Although most of its body was hidden beneath the sea, this little dolphin appeared both elegant and cute, even as it chewed happily on the Ocean Lotus.
Sensing Yang Kai looking towards it, the little dolphin turned to look at him as well, blinking a few times but showing no signs of fear, instead just slapping the surface of the water with its tail a few times before slowly wandering over to another pink Ocean Lotus.
Soon, the pink Ocean Lotus was also eaten by it.
The little dolphin seemed to be in a good mood and flicked its tail even faster.
Yang Kai originally wanted to drive it away, but after hesitating for a moment he eventually gave up such thoughts. Since entering this ocean, all the sea beasts he had encountered were vicious and bloodthirsty, all of them immediately attacking him without any exception.
This little dolphin, on the contrary, behaved harmlessly, and Yang Kai did not sense any danger from it, so he simply let it be.
One person and one dolphin acted separately and quickly collected all of the Ocean Lotus in this area.
The six silver lotus and the golden lotus were all picked by Yang Kai while the little dolphin only managed to collect a few of the lower grade lotus from the periphery, seemingly making it a bit upset. Swimming over to Yang Kai’s side boldly, it began circling around him and crying out in protest.
Yang Kai failed to stifle his laughter, and after the little dolphin arched its head towards him once, he relented and took out a cyan lotus from his Space Ring.
He could not bring himself to refuse the longing look of the little dolphin.
The eyes of the little dolphin instantly brightened, and it sent out a few more cries, like a baby begging for good.
Yang Kai brought the cyan lotus to its mouth and the little dolphin swallowed it down in one bite, its eyes narrowing into crescent shapes.
Once the cyan lotus entered its stomach, the little dolphin burped contentedly before swimming around Yang Kai more and more quickly, acting even more intimate than before.
Yang Kai grinned at this sight as he felt his heart warm after spending so many days in the freezing-cold water.
Suddenly, a disturbance on the surface of the ocean appeared nearby and rapidly began approaching the human-dolphin pair. Obviously, there was a sea beast that had sniffed out Yang Kai and the little dolphin and was coming to feed.
The little dolphin’s ability to sense danger was quite sharp and it immediately hid behind Yang Kai, only poking half of its head out to observe, an almost human-like look of panic flashing across its eyes.
Yang Kai stretched out his hand and patted its head to comfort it before narrowing his eyes and staring towards the approaching sea beast.
Soon, with a great splash, a terrifying-looking, shark-like sea beast leapt out from the water, opened its giant mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth, and bit towards Yang Kai.
The little dolphin’s tail flicked violently as it let out a series of anxious cries.
Yang Kai remained still, however, waiting until the sea beat was only a few metres away from him before suddenly throwing out his fist, striking its forehead like a bolt of lightning.
With Yang Kai as the centre, the ocean surface suddenly caved in and a series of strong ripples quickly spread out.
*Hong…*
The forehead of the giant sea beast visibly distorted, nearly collapsing altogether as its huge body was sent flying several hundred metres before crashing back into the water.
Soon, red blood spread out from the spot it landed and a huge, overturned sea beast floated up to the surface where it remained motionless.
The little dolphin was visibly stunned, and its two extremely energetic eyes stared towards Yang Kai, then towards the sea beast in the distance, then back towards Yang Kai…
It did not seem to understand how such a small Yang Kai had sent such a big sea beast flying; their two bodies were completely incomparable in size after all.
However, it did not spend much time thinking about this issue and instead just turned a look of admiration towards Yang Kai while making some joyful cries. It then swam around in front of Yang Kai and arched its head towards him.
Yang Kai glanced at it in confusion, not quite understanding what it was trying to say.
The little dolphin continued to arch its head in a beckoning motion…
Only after thinking about it for a while did Yang Kai finally understand and pointed to the little dolphin’s back while asking, “You want me to climb up?”
The little dolphin nodded strongly.
Yang Kai wore a strange expression as he looked over the metre-long dolphin and hesitantly asked, “I don’t think that’s a good idea, aren’t you too small?”
He was worried this little dolphin wouldn’t be able to move if he mounted it.
The little dolphin no longer bothered asking and instead dove under the water. The next moment, Yang Kai felt himself being held up by something and quickly floated up above the water’s surface.
Soon, half of the little dolphin’s body was exposed above the surface of the water, and after letting out some happy cries, it began swimming forward rapidly.
Soaring across the waves, Yang Kai could not help exclaiming, “Seems I underestimated you.”
The speed of the dolphin in the water was more than ten times his own. As it swam forward, it was as if the sea took the initiative to separate to its sides, not resisting it at all.
The little dolphin turned its head triumphantly and glanced back at Yang Kai, as if trying to say, “you can praise me more”.
Yang Kai laughed loudly as he sat atop the little dolphin and relaxed, allowing it to take him wherever it wanted.
Yang Kai did not know what kind of beast this cute little dolphin was, but from its performance just now, he was certain it must have great difficulty surviving in this environment. However, since it could understand his words and even respond to him, it showed that its sentience wasn’t low, at least not inferior to a seven or eight-year-old human child.
With the little dolphin as his own private mount, Yang Kai felt much more at ease, and he no longer needed to soak himself in the sea all day.
As for why it was so intimate with him, even actively asking him to ride it, obviously, it also understood how difficult it would be for it to survive here without his protection.
This could be regarded as a kind of cooperation, a win-win situation.
Yang Kai thought that the little dolphin’s only use was as a means of transportation, but he soon found that he was mistaken.
And greatly mistaken at that!
This little thing seemingly swam through the sea randomly and aimlessly, but it was not long before it brought Yang Kai to a patch of Ocean Lotus.
Yang Kai thought it was luck at first, but two days later, he discovered that this little dolphin seemed to have the ability to sniff out Ocean Lotus from thousands, if not tens of thousands of kilometres away.
Yang Kai reaped a great harvest!
In addition to the several dozen Ocean Lotuses he found at the beginning, he managed to obtain at least another hundred of them over the next few days.
Pink and cyan Ocean Lotus made up the majority of these while the number of silver ones was relatively small, and only three were golden.
These things were a specialty of Shadowed Soul Island and could not be found anywhere else. Using these Ocean Lotuses, Yang Kai could refine special Body Tempering pills in large quantities, not only allowing him to enhance his own strength, but also the strength of his friends and family.
As such, the more Ocean Lotus he obtained the better.
The little dolphin also ate until its stomach was stuffed! The Ocean Lotuses were found by it, so naturally, Yang Kai would not prevent it from eating its fill.
Time flew by, and half a month later, at least five hundred Ocean Lotuses were stored in Yang Kai’s Space Ring. Although he did not know the exact value of these Ocean Lotus on Shadowed Soul Island, just taking into consideration how many he had obtained over the distance he had crossed, he could judge that they were certainly in short supply.
Only if Shadowed Soul Island organized a group of powerful masters to explore further out to sea would they have a chance to reap a bigger harvest, otherwise, they would have to content themselves with a few Ocean Lotus which drifted closer to the island.
On this day, the little dolphin brought Yang Kai to an island.
This island was quite small, only a dozen or so kilometres in diameter, less than one percent the size of Shadowed Soul Island.
However, this was the first time Yang Kai had seen any other island than Shadowed Soul Island. Naturally, he was quite curious and looked around carefully, quickly discovering a small river that led to the interior of the island.
The little dolphin quickly swam up this river and entered the island.
Soon after, an inland lake appeared in front of Yang Kai. This lake was connected with the sea outside and seemed to occupy about a fifth of the area of the island. What was most important though, was that many Ocean Lotuses were blossoming in this lake. A rough estimate put the number of Ocean Lotus here at over a thousand.
Yang Kai’s eyes immediately lit up.
Even after the rich harvest he had these past few days, Yang Kai could not help grinning widely at this sight.
“Good job!” Yang Kai sat cross-legged on the little dolphin, stretched out his hand, and patted its head while offering his praise.
The little dolphin was also very happy!
After getting along these days, the little dolphin had become more and more dependent on Yang Kai, especially after Yang Kai easily killed so many sea beasts. It currently almost worshipped him.
Those sea beasts were all vicious giants that could swallow it in one bite, but Yang Kai was able to kill them all with just one or two punches.
Soon, one person and one dolphin arrived at the island lake and Yang Kai leapt off and swam between the multi-coloured lotus. Once Ocean Lotus after another was stuffed into his Space Ring. Not to be outdone, the little dolphin ate one Ocean Lotus after another until its belly became nice and round.
It then began swimming around the lake lazily, looking particularly carefree.
After an hour’s work, Yang Kai had picked more than two-thirds of the Ocean Lotus in the lake.
Just as he was turning his attention to the last remaining lotus, an angry roar reached Yang Kai’s ears. This roar was filled with righteous indignation and indescribable grief, like the one who was shouting was seeing the villain who had killed his parents.
“Bastard, you dare steal this old master’s Shadowed Heaven Lotus!”
As soon as these words fell, a figure rushed over from nearby, his bloodshot eyes glaring at Yang Kai fiercely as he leapt into the air.
The earth cracked under the impact of his footfalls.
Mid-air, this man threw a punch towards Yang Kai.
This fist was silent and seemingly without any strength, but Yang Kai’s eyes narrowed when he saw it approach and a solemn expression filled his face. Drawing a deep breath, Yang Kai gave a loud shout as he too leapt out of the water and sent out his own punch to meet the enemy’s attack.
When the two fists struck one another, visible ripples spread out through the air into the surrounding area.
Time seemed to freeze suddenly.
Soon though, a deafening bang erupted and a violent wave of force burst out, distorting the nearby space.
Yang Kai flew back while the unknown cultivator was also unable to stabilize his body, tumbling a few times through the air before landing back on the shore he had leapt from.
Yang Kai landed on a lotus leaf lightly, raised his head, and stared forward.
Only now did he have a chance to take a good look at his attacker.
Unexpectedly, it was an elderly man with a short stature. Even if he stood up straight, Yang Kai estimated that the man’s head would only come up to his shoulders. This old man’s complexion was dark, like the bottom of a pot, similar to Old Black Face Yan Pei of Treasure Trove Pavilion. However, perhaps because Yang Kai had picked most of his precious Ocean Lotuses, this old man’s face was even blacker than normal.
The old man was wearing a simple shirt made from some unknown sea beast’s skin and was quite worn and tattered. Noteworthy, though, were the rippling muscles Yang Kai could see through the holes in his robes that seemed full of explosive power covering this old man’s frame.
Other than being a bit short in stature, this old man had a very well-proportioned body, a physical manifestation of the quality of his physique.
The old man obviously did not expect that Yang Kai could take his punch head-on, and after landing, he frowned slightly before charging over at even greater speed while roaring, “Boy, today, you must either die, or this old master must perish!”
Yang Kai had picked two-thirds of his Shadowed Heaven Lotuses, which was worse than killing him directly, so how could he let Yang Kai off?
If possible, Yang Kai did not want to fight with this muddled old man, but seeing his manner and tone, Yang Kai knew that this matter could not be settled peacefully. As such, having encountered a rare opponent who could match him in terms of physical strength, Yang Kai set aside all other thoughts and let out a great laugh as he immersed himself in combat.
Mid-air, the two figures clashed once more, raising a thunderous boom as they collided.
In this second exchange, neither side took the advantage, but they rushed towards each other again without any time to breathe.
The little dolphin hid most of his figure in the island lake as its eyes filled with worry.
*Hong Hong Hong…*
Explosions sounded continuously across the entire island as Yang Kai and the old man gradually shifted their battlefield away from the lake so as not to affect the Ocean Lotuses down below.
Both of them had the same scruples, not wanting to destroy these precious Alchemy materials.
After a cup of tea’s worth of time, the battlefield had migrated to above the open ocean.
Not needing to hold back anymore, Yang Kai’s eyes flashed brilliantly as he exerted his physical strength to the limit, exchanging one fist after another with this unknown old man.
This savage fighting style stimulated an unprecedented vigour in Yang Kai as he laughed wildly, ignoring his injuries and fighting all out with the old man.
Neither side showed any signs of weakness!
The old man’s expression had long ago grown solemn as he was inwardly shocked.
It had been several hundred years since he arrived on Shadowed Soul Island and immersed himself in the unique cultivation method of this place. He thought he had high attainments in terms of physical strength, enough to allow him to rank amongst the top masters in terms of pure Body Tempering in the Star Field, but now, this unknown young man who had appeared out of nowhere was actually able to compete with him on even terms.
The strength of this young man’s physique was not inferior to his own!
The sound of broken bones rang out constantly and there was no shortage of blood splashing about.
The old man was surprised to find that the young man’s blood was not red, however, but golden.
This golden blood also clearly contained an astonishing vitality, comparable to the most precious of divine materials!
“Boy, your good luck ends today!” The old man’s eyes narrowed as he turned his wrist and suddenly summoned a hammer-like artifact into his hand. While blocking one of Yang Kai’s punches, the old man swung this hammer down towards Yang Kai’s head fiercely.
Although Saint Qi could not be used here, and he could not exert the full power of this artifact, with this old man’s great strength, this hammer strike was enough to shatter space.
If he was really hit by it, Yang Kai’s head would definitely burst apart.
Yang Kai didn’t expect this old man to be so cunning, and seeing the hammer close in, his pupils shrank slightly, and he swiftly swung his head to the side. At the same time, a five coloured radiance burst from his body.
The five coloured halo swirled and gradually took on a brown tone that covered all of Yang Kai’s body.
Five Elements Indestructible Sword Tempering Art, Earth Sword Qi!
The Earth Sword Qi cultivated by Yang Kai used Divine Nullification Sand as its source, a rare Origin King Grade material with extremely high resilience.
Under the control of Yang Kai’s Divine Sense, the Earth Sword Qi quickly condensed into a shield shape blocking the advancing hammer.
*Honglong…*
The brown Sword Qi shield was blasted away, and the hammer struck Yang Kai’s shoulder, causing his body to sink slightly, but after a brief adjustment, Yang Kai grinned fiercely and sent his fist straight towards the old man’s chin.
Having his defences shattered, the old man cried out and hurriedly leaned his head back, but he wasn’t in time to escape this Earth-shattering counterattack.
Struck on the chin by Yang Kai’s fist, the old man’s head flicked back violently, and if it were not for his incredibly strong body, this single blow would have been enough to reap his life.
Even so, the old man’s vision filled with stars and he nearly passed out.
The old man staggered back several dozen metres before finally managing to stabilize his stance. Shooting a fear-filled glance towards Yang Kai, the old man swiftly decided to escape!
Yang Kai frowned as he stood in place without giving chase. It was not until the old man’s figure disappeared from his vision that he rotated the shoulder which had been hit by the hammer just now.
With a few clicking sounds, the misaligned bones were set back in place.
“That old guy…” Yang Kai muttered to himself. From beginning to end, he had not been able to ask who this old man was or why he was living on this tiny island so far away from Shadowed Soul Island.
The little dolphin’s cries rang out from the inland lake at that moment, and Yang Kai quickly turned his head to find it watching him nervously, as if worried about whether he was hurt.
Yang Kai cast it a look of reassurance before casually walking back over to the lake.
Yang Kai did not plan on letting off the last third of the Ocean Lotus in the lake.
The old man had called these Ocean Lotus Shadowed Heaven Lotus just now, but Yang Kai was certain he had never heard of such a herb before, reaffirming his previous speculations that these were unique to Shadowed Soul Island and never appeared in the outside world.
After a while, Yang Kai collected all the Shadowed Heaven Lotus.
Sensing hostility, Yang Kai looked up and found the old man standing on a hill a few kilometres away, glaring at him with grief, indignation, and helplessness.
It was as if Yang Kai had easily snatched the woman he had been wooing and caring for over many years.
Yang Kai simply grinned back at him.
The old man’s blood boiled as he swiftly turned around and stomped off!
He could not beat Yang Kai, so instead of standing by and being humiliated, he would rather just leave. What the eyes do not see, the heart does not grieve.
Yang Kai found a simple wooden house nearby, obviously built by the old man’s.
Striding inside, Yang Kai occupied the house without any hesitation.
Three days later, Yang Kai was studying the Shadowed Heaven Lotus and the medicinal efficacies of the Body Tempering Pill, hoping to improve upon it, when he heard light footsteps outside the wooden house.
Yang Kai smiled slightly, put down what he was working on, and waited quietly.
Soon, the wooden house’s door was opened, and the old man stood about a dozen metres away from Yang Kai. Staring at this young thief with a very complicated look, the old man asked after a long silence, “Are you not one of Ming Yue’s people?”
Yang Kai frowned and asked, “Who is Ming Yue?”
A stunned look appeared on the old man’s face and he took a hard look at Yang Kai’s face, seemingly wanting to determine if he was lying.
Yang Kai’s eyes were limpid as he stared back inquiringly.
The old man nodded slightly and his attitude eased a little, no longer looking like he was facing his father’s killer or the man who stole his wife. Pausing for a moment, he followed up, “Since you don’t know who Ming Yue is, does that mean you only recently came to Shadowed Soul Island?”
“Old Sir is wise!” Yang Kai casually praised, “Indeed, I have only been here for about a month.”
“No wonder…” The old man squeezed out an ugly smile on his face, “Since you aren’t one of Ming Yue’s people, we can talk.”
“I was hoping for just that,” Yang Kai smiled lightly. If he had not wanted to hold a conversation with this old man, he would have already left the island.
Yang Kai was ignorant of the situation on Shadowed Soul Island, and he could not simply go there and ask about it, so now that he had finally met another person, and one who had clearly been living here for many years, Yang Kai was naturally going to take advantage of the opportunity.
“Can this old master come in to speak?” The old man asked in a depressed tone.
“Of course, this is Old Sir’s residence after all!” Yang Kai invited freely.
The old man’s brow twitched but still strolled in unhesitantly. Although he felt he was not Yang Kai’s opponent, if he had to, he was confident he could at least escape.
He also believed that Yang Kai was not foolish enough to try to fight him for no reason.
After the old man sat in front of him, Yang Kai asked, “Who is this Ming Yue that old sir just mentioned?”
The old man coldly snorted, “An evildoer!”
Yang Kai was stunned, thinking that this old man and Ming Yue seemed to have a deep hatred. Otherwise, this old man would not have ground his teeth at the mere mention of the other party.
“He is the current Island Master of Shadowed Soul Island!” The old man added.
“Ming Yue is the Island Master?” Yang Kai raised his brow. When he first came to Shadowed Soul Island, he heard the scrawny man mention an Island Master, but he did not know the name of this leader until the old man mentioned it.
“Yes!”
Yang Kai brow rose as he asked with a smile, “Old Sir said Ming Yue is the current Island Master of Shadowed Soul Island, so could there have been a previous Island Master?”
The old man glanced at Yang Kai in surprise, secretly admiring this young man’s sharp wit before proudly saying, “The previous Island Master was this old master!”
Yang Kai froze for a moment before cupping his fists and saying, “Seems like I’ve been disrespectful!”
“Hmph, I’m but a stray dog now!” The old man ridiculed himself unpretentiously and said, “Now, this old master can only hide here and live on dishonourably, so there’s no need to show me any respect. What’s more, this old master was defeated by you!”
“It was just luck!” Yang Kai said modestly.
The old man no longer dwelled on this issue and instead stared deeply at Yang Kai before asking, “Do you cultivate some kind of extremely profound Body Tempering Secret Art?”
When he was fighting with Yang Kai a few days ago, Yang Kai had suddenly used his Five Elements Indestructible Sword Tempering Art, so this old man was able to see some clues.
On Shadowed Soul Island, Saint Qi couldn’t be used at all, so the only explanation for the five-coloured glow was that it came from some kind of Body Tempering Secret Art. The force gained by cultivating a Body Tempering Secret Art was not related to Saint Qi, so it would not be restricted here on Shadowed Soul Island.
“Yes!” Yang Kai did not try to conceal the truth.
A fiery look flashed across the old man’s face.
Body Tempering Secret Arts, even considering the entire Star Field, were relatively rare, and profound Body Tempering Secret Arts were even rarer.
However, just because they were scarce did not mean Body Tempering Secret Arts were actually that precious.
Firstly, it was far more difficult to cultivate Body Tempering Secret Arts than ordinary Secret Arts. Even if it were just an ordinary Body Tempering Secret Art, it would be very difficult to cultivate to a high level. Secondly, all cultivators had a limited amount of time and energy, and for the most part, trying to cultivate a Body Tempering Secret Art was a waste of both.
The vast majority of cultivators relied on the strength of their Saint Qi and Spiritual Energy to survive, so even if many people knew the benefits of a strong physique, few pursued one.
However, everything was different on Shadowed Soul Island.
In this damned place where Saint Qi could not be used and Spiritual Energy was highly suppressed, Body Tempering was the best and only way for a cultivator to increase their strength!
For countless years, there had been cultivators trapped on Shadowed Soul Island, so a few Body Tempering Secret Arts had come to exist here as well. In fact, this old man cultivated one such Secret Art, but it was quite a basic one, completely incomparable to Yang Kai’s Five Elements Indestructible Sword Tempering Art.
The reason why the Five Elements Indestructible Sword Tempering Art was so powerful, however, was not because of the Secret Art itself, but rather because of the materials required to cultivate it.
The old man still thought that if he could get hold of Yang Kai’s Body Tempering Secret Art, his own strength would definitely increase.
So, when he heard that Yang Kai had a profound Body Tempering Secret Art, his eyes naturally became fiery.
However, as an experienced master, and knowing that one could not ask for another’s Secret Art casually, the old man forcefully suppressed his greed.
“Allow me to introduce myself, this old master’s name is Sha Hu!” When he said these words, he had a sense of self-satisfaction, as if Yang Kai should have heard of this name.
Unfortunately, the results disappointed him, with Yang Kai just cupping his fists lightly and saying, “So it is Old Man Sha, this Junior’s name is Yang Kai!”
Sha Hu frowned and asked tentatively, “Have you never heard of this old master’s name?”
Yang Kai smiled lightly, “Old Man Sha was born on the Limitless Ocean, right?”
Sha Hu nodded and quickly understood, “Are you from the inland?”
“It is as you guessed!”
Sha Hu knew that on Shadowed Star, the ocean and inland cultivators belonged to two separate systems, and although everyone had some degree of interaction between them, it was quite rare to get involved in the other party’s affairs or territory, so it was not surprising that people from the inland didn’t know the names of masters from the Limitless Ocean.
Knowing this, Sha Hu’s expression relaxed and he chuckled, “This old master has been trapped here for more than three hundred years, but before then, he was Sea Temple’s Second Temple Master. How is Sea Temple now?”
“Old Sir is the Second Temple Master of Sea Temple?” Yang Kai was stunned and proceeded to explain, “In truth, this Junior came here from Sea Temple’s Sunrise Island. Sea Temple is now very powerful on the Limitless Ocean, well deserving of the title ‘strongest Human Race Sect’ and on par with Sea God Palace.”
Sha Hu listened quietly before nodding with satisfaction, “That group of boys aren’t bad, at least they haven’t disappointed our ancestors! Does little brother have some kind of friendship with Sea Temple? Why were you on Sunrise Island?”
“I just passed by accidentally, there’s no real friendship between myself and Sea Temple,” Yang Kai laughed.
Perhaps because he was able to learn how Sea Temple was currently, Sha Hu’s expression brightened significantly, and seeing that Yang Kai did not have the same overbearing aggressive streak that most young men possessed, he felt quite satisfied with him.
Both of them put aside the embarrassment of the previous battle and even began chatting in a friendly manner.
Yang Kai needed to know the situation of Shadowed Soul Island, and Sha Hu wanted to inquire about the current situation of Sea Temple, so as they took turns asking questions, the atmosphere gradually became harmonious.
After a long time, both got the intelligence and information they wanted.
Yang Kai frowned slightly after learning that this Shadowed Soul Island was an independent and enclosed space that no one knew how to leave. Even Sha Hu, as the Island Master of Shadowed Soul Island back then, could not leave this place.
As for Ming Yue, he was originally the Deputy Island Master under Sha Hu, and his strength was not inferior, but one day, Ming Yue’s strength suddenly rose somehow, and defeated Sha Hu after a fierce battle, forcing the latter to flee from Shadowed Soul Island and hide on this small island.
By rough count, that event happened almost a hundred years ago.
For a hundred years, Sha Hu had endured this humiliation in hopes of one day returning to Shadowed Soul Island to seek revenge.
Unfortunately, his strength seemed to have reached a bottleneck and he was unable to continue improving, forcing him to remain hidden here.
Fortunately, this little island was quite far from Shadowed Soul Island and most people could not reach it, allowing Sha Hu to live freely without disturbance. In fact, Yang Kai was the only one who had made it here in the past hundred years.
As for how big this independent space where Shadowed Soul Island sat was, even Sha Hu did not know. He once left this small island to explore, but the deeper he went, the stronger the sea beasts became, to the point where even he could no longer defeat them, so with no other choice, he returned here.
“Is there truly no way to leave Shadowed Soul Island?” Yang Kai frowned.
“Perhaps there is, but this old master has not found one,” Sha Hu shook his head. “As least, one cannot be found here.”
“What Old Sir means is…”
Sha Hu frowned and pondered for a moment, “This is just this old master’s guess. Whether it is correct or not, this old master cannot say for certain.”
“Senior, please speak.”
“If there is a way out of here, there should be a clue on Shadowed Soul Island. There is a mysterious place on that island, one this old master wanted to investigate, but couldn’t enter,” Sha Hu said without hesitation.
Yang Kai’s brow rose slightly.
Sha Hu laughed and said, “If the two of us join forces, we may be able to capture Shadowed Soul Island, but all of this is still just a possibility. Ming Yue was stronger than me back then, and now a hundred years have passed, so I don’t know how strong he is currently. Perhaps we would simply be walking into a trap.”
Yang Kai showed neither approval nor disapproval.
He did not care about this Ming Yue at all as he had not used his full strength when fighting Sha Hu. What’s more, he still had his Stone Puppet, Xiao Xiao!
In a simple contest of physical strength, who in this world could defeat Xiao Xiao?
As long as Xiao Xiao took action, on one on Shadowed Soul Island would be able to resist!
What Yang Kai was considering was the authenticity of Sha Hu’s words. Although this old man seemed straightforward and honest, who knew whether this was just a front? If, when the time came, it turned out Sha Hu was just using him, the gains Yang Kai made would not be worth the effort.
Yang Kai would rather be overly suspicious and pessimistic than regret it after the fact.
Seeing Yang Kai remain silent, Sha Hu smartly changed the subject, “Were you just studying the Shadowed Heaven Lotus and Shadowed Heaven Pill?”
Yang Kai took back his wandering thoughts and nodded, “Yeah, this thing is a specialty of Shadowed Soul Island, right?”
“En, Shadowed Heaven Lotus cannot be found in the outside world, only Shadowed Soul Island’s unique environment can produce it. All the cultivators who wind up here use Shadowed Heaven Pills to enhance their physical strength. Unfortunately, this old master does not know anything about Alchemy, and taking Shadowed Heaven Lotus raw cannot help me, otherwise, how could this old master have left so many Shadowed Heaven Lotuses in that lake?”
Saying so, Sha Hu showed a pained expression on his face.
That was a thousand Shadowed Heaven Lotuses! The thousands of cultivators on the entire Shadowed Soul Island running around for a few years may not be able to find so many, but they had all entered Yang Kai’s Space Ring.
Yang Kai suddenly asked, “Does Old Man Sha have the Shadowed Heaven Pill pill recipe?”
“Of course,” Sha Hu chuckled and said proudly. “Regardless of how he has ended up, this old master was still once the Island Master of Shadowed Soul Island, so he naturally has such a pill recipe…”
Saying so, Sha Hu’s eyes lit up and he pointed at Yang Kai tremblingly, “Are you an Alchemist?”
If Yang Kai wasn’t an Alchemist, there would be no need to ask about pill recipes.
Staring at Yang Kai, Sha Hu’s eyes burned extremely hot, as if he was staring at an amazing treasure.
Yang Kai chuckled, “I am!”
“Are you really an Alchemist?” Sha Hu immediately stood up.
Yang Kai nodded again.
Sha Hu was taken aback, then laughed loudly, “The Heavens have not forsaken me! Ah! This is simply too good to be true!”
The reason why his strength had stagnated over the years was that he did not have access to Shadowed Heaven Pills, and directly swallowing Shadowed Heaven Lotus had no effect on him. Only by refining Shadowed Heaven Lotus into pills could he strengthen himself.
So, when he learned that Yang Kai was an Alchemist, Sha Hu was so excited he couldn’t help losing some self-control.
But soon, he frowned, glanced at Yang Kai, and sighed deeply.
“What’s wrong?” Yang Kai was puzzled. Just a moment ago, Sha Hu was laughing happily, but in the next instant he became depressed, the contrast was simply too great.
“Even if you are an Alchemist, you can’t perform Alchemy without Earth Fire!” Sha Hu’s face turned gloomy as he sat down again. “Alchemists are extremely rare on Shadowed Soul Island. Out of around ten thousand people, there are perhaps only four or five Alchemists, and the levels of these Alchemists are quite varied; however, they all need to rely on Shadowed Soul Island’s Earth Fire to perform Alchemy. We simply don’t have any Earth Fire here.”
“I don’t need Earth Fire!” Yang Kai chuckled.
“Nonsense!” Sha Hu snorted, “How can an Alchemist perform Alchemy without Earth Fire? That may be true outside, but in the place, where one can’t use Saint Qi, Earth Fire is the only… uh…”
Sha Hu was suddenly struck speechless.
Because he clearly felt a scorching power spread out from Yang Kai’s body, but it was not Saint Qi but instead Spiritual Energy!
“Conflagrated Spiritual Energy?” Sha Hu’s face changed drastically.
Yang Kai just smiled back at him lightly.
Even in the outside world, he did not need to use Saint Qi to refine pills, because he would always use his Conflagrated Knowledge Sea instead.
What’s more, he still had Liu Yan with him. Since fusing together with the Heavenly Thunder Fire of Brilliant Flame Sect, Liu Yan had fully integrated with her natal Artifact Refining Furnace and gained complete sentience as well as a human form.
She was the highest quality Earth Fire there was!
Even if all else failed, Yang Kai could simply enter the Sealed World Bead and perform Alchemy. The Sealed World Bead had its own separate World Principles, so his Saint Qi would not be restricted there.
With all these methods at his disposal, Yang Kai didn’t need to worry about being able to perform about Alchemy. Nevertheless, he did not plan on revealing any more secrets to Sha Hu than necessary.
After learning that Yang Kai was not only an Alchemist, but also had a Conflagrated Knowledge Sea, meaning he did not need to use Saint Qi or Earth Fire to perform Alchemy, Sha Hu was ecstatic.
This meant that as long as he forged a good relationship with Yang Kai, he wouldn’t have to worry about having Shadowed Heaven Pills to take in the future, and he wouldn’t have to worry about his strength being unable to grow! After languishing for a hundred years, he finally saw hope of revenge!
He unreservedly handed over the Shadowed Heaven Pill’s recipe for Yang Kai to study.
“When you’ve finished studying the pill recipe and start to refine Shadowed Heaven Pills, this old master has a request to make!” Sha Hu said with a smile, intending to get closer to Yang Kai, the wrinkles on his face became even more wrinkled, doing his best to appear kind and friendly.
Yang Kai naturally accepted and after seeing Sha Hu out, he immersed himself in studying the Shadowed Heaven Pill’s recipe.
He had some Shadowed Heaven Pills on hand and could infer the approximate configuration of this pill recipe, but now that he had a complete pill recipe, it made the process much easier.
What’s more, his Alchemy level was amongst the best in the entire Star Field, so with his insight and experience, not only could he understand this Shadowed Heaven Pill recipe, he could also improve it.
This wasn’t a surprise though, after all, the Shadowed Heaven Pill was something created by the Alchemists who became trapped on Shadowed Soul Island, and the level of these Alchemists wasn’t very high, so how could they have created a profound recipe in the first place?
At most, Yang Kai would only use this recipe as a reference.
Five days later, Yang Kai had formulated a completely new pill recipe, one that was undoubtedly countless times better than the one Sha Hu had given him, replacing many of the materials used to reduce conflicts and increase efficacy.
With the pill recipe complete, Yang Kai naturally wanted to begin Alchemy.
However, he still lacked a few auxiliary herbs.
The Shadowed Heaven Lotus’ medicinal efficacies were quite potent, and if one took it directly, while it may improve that cultivator’s physique in the short run, if it were not paired with appropriate herbs to neutralize and balance some of the effects, one would need to wait a long period before swallowing another lotus. If a cultivator tried to forcefully consume a second lotus in short order, they would damage their body rather than strengthen it.
Yang Kai quickly called Sha Hu over.
Sha Hu has been waiting outside the wooden house for the past few days, and hearing Yang Kai’s call, he ran into the room and stared at Yang Kai eagerly.
“Old Man Sha, I still need some Fish Seaweed…”
Sha Hu grinned knowingly and with a wave of his hand dumped a large amount of Fish Seaweed onto the floor, causing the entire house to fill with a pungent odour.
These pieces of purple seaweed, which were only about as big as one’s palm, were not unique to Shadowed Soul Island, in fact, they could be collected almost anywhere in the Limitless Ocean, making its value quite low. Most great forces like Sea Temple and Sea God Palace disdained to even collect them and simply let them grow wild like weeds.
However, this Fish Seaweed’s medicinal efficacies were perfectly suited to balance out the domineering efficacies of the Shadowed Heaven Lotus, allowing a cultivator to refine Shadowed Heaven Pills far more easily.
Seeing the big pile of Fish Seaweed in front of him, Yang Kai was stunned for a moment before turning to Sha Hu with a meaningful glint in his eye, “It seems Old Man Sha has come prepared!”
Sha Hu rubbed his hands and said, “Yang Kai, help this old master refine some Shadowed Heaven Pills. As long as he has enough Shadowed Heaven Pills, this old master can once again improve his strength and we will then have a better chance to return to Shadowed Soul Island and look for the way out!”
Yang Kai smiled slightly. Although he knew Sha Hu’s words were meant to tempt him into acting, he was not bothered by this little scheme and simply said, “I have no problem refining some pills for you, but do you have any Shadowed Heaven Lotus for me to use?”
The thousand Shadowed Heaven Lotus in the inland lake had already entered Yang Kai’s Space Ring, so he naturally would not use them to refine pills for Sha Hu.
“You look down too much on this old master,” Sha Hu smiled like a wily old fox and flipped his wrist, taking out seventeen Shadowed Heaven Lotus, all of which were silver grade.
Yang Kai was stunned.
Sha Hu chuckled, “How could this old master keep all his eggs in one basket? For the past hundred years, this old master has not just idled his time away on this island, he has often gone out to explore and made some gains in the process. There are more than just these few. This old master has also collected a lot of auxiliary herbs for refining Shadowed Heaven Pills, see if there’s anything here you need.”
Saying so, Sha Hu took out another pile of herbs.
Yang Kai nodded and did not refuse, picking out the useful herbs while leaving the useless ones behind before finally mentioning, “There is no problem refining some pills for you, but I can’t just do so for free…”
“Fifty-fifty!” Before Yang Kai finished speaking, Sha Hu directly made his offer, “What auxiliary herbs you need, just tell this old master and he will go help you collect them. As for the Shadowed Heaven Pills, this old master only wants half!”
“Deal!” Yang Kai no longer quibbled and nodded happily. With Sha Hu acting so straightforward, if Yang Kai were to refuse any further, he would seem too petty. The more Yang Kai got along with Sha Hu, the more reasonable and friendly he found him to be, their first meeting aside of course.
Seeing Yang Kai agree, Sha Hu smiled happily.
Immediately, Sha Hu went out to sea to search for various auxiliary herbs. Although Yang Kai had some materials on him, it was not enough to support a large number of refinements, so Sha Hu naturally went to procure what was missing.
After Sha Hu left the island, Yang Kai waved his hand.
A bright red flame shot out from his palm and transformed mid-air. The next moment, a glamorous woman with a fiery figure, revealing clothes, and an indifferent expression appeared in front of Yang Kai, her red hair flying behind her like burning flames.
She was wearing a fiery red armour that only wrapped around her most sensitive parts, exposing both her thighs to the lower abdomen.
A seductive neckline, flat stomach, and delicate belly button were all exposed to the air while two beautiful, snow-white legs and a pair of delicate jade feet were also on full display.
Like a dancing flame, she had a strange sense of beauty.
This was none other than the Artifact Spirit, Liu Yan!
Now, she could no longer be simply called Firebird, she had her own sentience and could assume human form. After having been given a name by Yang Kai, Liu Yan was now a kind of special existence that transcended what she once was.
“What are Master’s orders?” Liu Yan asked in a deep tone as soon as she appeared.
“I need to borrow your power to perform Alchemy. Coordinate with me.” Yang Kai answered lightly.
Liu Yan nodded, said nothing, and transformed herself into an Alchemy furnace. The shape of this Alchemy furnace was the same as her natal artifact, except that it was completely composed of flames, making it even higher quality than her original Origin King Grade furnace incarnation.
Yang Kai focused himself and after taking a deep breath began arranging the required materials one by one while using his Divine Sense to communicate with Liu Yan to control the fire.
The process of refining Shadowed Heaven Pills was not complicated, so it was naturally not a problem for Yang Kai to succeed with his current skill.
Within half a day, a pill fragrance filled the wooden house. Having arrived at the last stage of refinement, Yang Kai suddenly had a thought and poured his Divine Sense into the pill furnace to attempt the Pill Condensing Technique recorded in the True Alchemy Enlightenment Scripture.
A short time later, three bursts of flame shot out from the Alchemy furnace’s lid.
Yang Kai stretched out his hand and caught the three streams of light, after which he stored them into a jade bottle he had prepared in advance.
When the clinking sound from the jade bottle settled down, Yang Kai cast a glance inside and flashed a satisfied smile.
The Pill Condensing Technique recorded in the True Alchemy Enlightenment Scripture was incredibly deep and profound. If one used it well, they would condense more than one pill at a time, when normally only one pill could be condensed from one set of materials.
Over the recent years, whenever Yang Kai performed Alchemy, he had always tried to use this Pill Condensing Technique, sometimes succeeding, sometimes failing, but each time gaining experience.
Now, condensing three pills at once was a minor breakthrough for him.
Taking out a single Shadowed Heaven Pill, Yang Kai popped it into his mouth and tasted it, slowly examining the medicinal efficacies contained within. After a while, he nodded with satisfaction and continued to devote himself to his Alchemy.
Half a day later, another furnace of Shadowed Heaven Pills was successfully refined, and this time, Yang Kai managed to condense four, one better than his first attempt.
As time went by and he became more and more proficient with the technique, the number of pills Yang Kai condensed increased. Additionally, the time it took him to refine a furnace of Shadowed Heaven Pills was getting shorter and shorter, from the original half a day to just an hour, a remarkable improvement.
As Yang Kai continually performed Alchemy, his mastery of the Pill Condensing Technique also improved.
This rare Alchemy experience allowed him to make another substantial breakthrough in the Alchemic Dao, an unexpected benefit which brought Yang Kai much joy.
Suddenly, a rustling sound rang out behind him, causing Yang Kai to turn around and suddenly discover that the little dolphin had at some point entered the wooden house. Flapping its tail, it swam freely through the air just like it was water.
Yang Kai was taken aback!
Saint Qi could not be used on Shadowed Soul Island, so even someone as powerful as him was unable to fly, and could only jump long distances using pure physical strength. However, this little dolphin did not follow this common sense and was able to swim through the air, in essence fly, even if it did not fly very high.
This little fellow was obviously attracted by the pills’ fragrance and immediately swam up beside Yang Kai, its nose inhaling deeply as it stared at the Alchemy furnace in front of it.
Yang Kai even saw that at the corner of the little dolphin’s mouth there were a few drops of saliva flowing down onto the floor.
Yang Kai immediately began examining it from top to bottom, trying to figure out just how it was flying.
The little dolphin then began letting out pitiful cries that were extremely hard to refuse while continuously nudging up against Yang Kai’s body, completely disrupting his Alchemy.
Yang Kai rubbed his temples and could only pass it a jade bottle full of Shadowed Heaven Pills.
The little dolphin took the bottle excitedly, circled Yang Kai a few times, cried out twice, then swam off with the jade bottle in its mouth.
Yang Kai continued his Alchemy in peace.
Three days later, Sha Hu returned to the island, bringing with him a lot of auxiliary herbs that Yang Kai needed, and waited quietly outside the wooden house.
Smelling the pill fragrance that permeated the wooden house, Sha Hu felt a hundred years younger.
“So many? Are these all for me?” Sha Hu stared at the jade bottles in front of him and asked in surprise.
“En,” Yang Kai smiled and nodded.
“Didn’t we agree to split them fifty-fifty? This…”
“This is fifty-fifty!”
Sha Hu was thoroughly astonished.
He had provided Yang Kai with a hundred silver lotus, which was almost all he had stored up.
He thought it would be great if he were able to get two hundred Shadowed Heaven Pills, but the jade bottles in front of him now told a far different story.
There were sixty-five jade bottles here, each one filled with ten pills, meaning Yang Kai had given him six hundred and fifty Shadowed Heaven Pills!
How had he managed to refine so many Shadowed Heaven Pills though? As the previous Island Master of Shadowed Soul Island, Sha Hu had often witnessed those inferior Alchemists refining Shadowed Heaven Pills, but a single Shadowed Heaven Lotus could at most produce one or two pills in the hands of those Alchemists, so how had Yang Kai managed to produce this many?
The only explanation was that Yang Kai’s Alchemy skills were countless times better than those Alchemists!
“Yang Boy, this old master can make a pledge to you!” Sha Hu turned to Yang Kai and said seriously, “If we can leave this place one day, this old master promises that the doors of Sea Temple will always be open to you.”
Sha Hu was moved by Yang Kai’s honesty in upholding their agreement, and he was extremely impressed with Yang Kai’s strength; such a person was worthy of making friends with.
Yang Kai chuckled, and said, “Since Old Man Sha has said so, it would be impolite for me to refuse.”
Being able to win over such an ally on Shadowed Soul Island was naturally something Yang Kai wanted to see. In any case, it was much better than wandering around alone; not to mention, Sha Hu was the previous Island Master of Shadowed Soul Island, so he would know much more useful information. Being allies had only benefits. No detriments.
Sha Hu laughed loudly, “Unfortunately, there is no good wine here, otherwise, this old master would share a drink with you! Forget it, this old master should first see if these Shadowed Heaven Pills are useful!”
He had not taken a Shadowed Heaven Pill for nearly a hundred years, causing his strength to stagnate for that long, a very distressing situation. Now that he had so many Shadowed Heaven Pills available, he could not wait to see what kind of effects they would bring him.
Picking up a jade bottle, Sha Hu poured out a pill and without hesitation shoved it into his mouth.
The next moment, however, Sha Hu shook visible as a look of utter amazement filled his face, “An Origin Grade pill? Yang Kai, you’re actually an Origin Grade Alchemist?”
This time he was thoroughly shocked.
When Yang Kai told him he was an Alchemist earlier, and would be able to refine Shadowed Heaven Pill, Sha Hu hadn’t had very high expectations, thinking Yang Kai only had some small accomplishments in the Alchemic Dao, but as soon as he swallowed this Shadowed Heaven Pill, Sha Hu realized he was greatly mistaken.
This Shadowed Heaven Pill refined by Yang Kai was completely different from the ones he had taken before, with the biggest difference being the grade of the pill!
Sha Hu was instantly able to judge that this Shadowed Heaven Pill was Origin Grade, and at least Origin Grade Mid-Rank at that, quite possibly High-Rank!
This proved that Yang Kai was at least an Origin Grade High-Rank Alchemist!
He did not dare to imagine that Yang Kai was an Origin King Grade Alchemist because that was just a legend on Shadowed Star.
The pill melted in his mouth and turned into a stream of heat that rapidly flowed towards Sha Hu’s lower abdomen, then spread out from his dantian towards his extremities.
Sha Hu’s old face instantly turned red; an obvious sign his vitality was being enhanced. His muscles bulged and the veins under his skin pulsed.
He had no time to talk to Yang Kai anymore and hastily sat down to absorb the efficacies of the pill.
Yang Kai smiled slightly and did not bother him anymore, instead just leaving the wooden house, finding a quiet place on the island, and taking Shadowed Heaven Pills as well.
The Shadowed Heaven Pills refined by Yang Kai were completely different from the ones he had looted from the two dead men earlier.
The Shadowed Heaven Pills Yang Kai obtained before were not refined properly, so the medicinal efficacies weren’t able to display their full effects, making it a defective product. However, on Shadowed Soul Island, such a situation was unavoidable. The level of the Alchemists here was low, and without being able to use their Saint Qi, they had to use low-quality Earth Fire. This resulted in the Alchemists of Shadowed Soul Island only being able to refine shoddy Shadowed Heaven Pills, wasting most of the Shadowed Heaven Lotus’ medicinal efficacies.
Yang Kai had fixed all the issues with the pill recipe and had no trouble refining them, so it would be stranger if the pills he refined were not far superior.
After these days of experimentation, he also concluded that the Shadowed Heaven Pills refined from silver lotus would be of Origin Grade, while the azure lotus could be used to refine Saint King Grade pills. As for the pink lotus, they could at most be used to refine Saint Grade pills.
Yang Kai had not used a golden lotus yet because the number he possessed was too small, only about ten in total.
However, he was fairly certain that refining a golden lotus would result in an Origin King Grade Shadowed Heaven Pill.
The medicinal properties surged through Yang Kai’s meridians and physique, transforming his body, enhancing his physical strength slowly but steadily.
The benefits he received were simply unimaginable.
Additionally, because Yang Kai had taken a lot of Life Revitalizing Jade Cream before, his body was already highly refined, allowing him to absorb the efficacies of the Shadowed Heaven Pills faster and more efficiently.
After just half an hour, the medicinal efficacies of an Origin Grade Shadowed Heaven Pill were completely absorbed by Yang Kai.
Without delay, he took out another pill, threw it into his mouth, and continued to absorb its effects!
Because they were unable to cultivate Saint Qi or Spiritual Energy here, taking Shadowed Heaven Pills to cultivate their bodies was the only method for Shadowed Soul Island cultivators to enhance their strength.
Three days later, a burst of laughter suddenly came from the direction of the wooden house. The little dolphin, which had been swimming in an inland lake, raised its head and glanced over before lazily swimming behind a lotus leaf and no longer paying any attention to the situation.
A figure soared into the sky from the direction of the wooden house and quickly ran over towards Yang Kai’s direction.
Soon, Sha Hu stood in front of Yang Kai, his eyes flashing with powerful light as his aura pulsed vigorously.
Yang Kai opened his eyes, took a look at Sha Hu, smiled and said, “Old Man Sha seems to have had a breakthrough.”
Sha Hu looked at Yang Kai gratefully and nodded, “En, after a hundred years of stagnation, this old master had finally advanced a level, and he feels there is still room for improvement! Yang Boy, this old master won’t forget this kindness.”
“Old Man Sha is too polite,” Yang Kai smiled slightly.
“Yang Kai, how about exchanging fists with this old master?” Sha Hu asked with a smile. He did not have anyone to compare notes with in this damned place, so he could only ask Yang Kai.
“Sure,” To his surprise, Yang Kai readily agreed.
Sha Hu did not hesitate, letting out a loud cry, kicking off the ground with both feet, and shooting out like an arrow as he threw his clenched fist forward.
Yang Kai remained sitting cross-legged in place, however, completely motionless, simply staring back at Sha Hu with a light smile, seemingly completely ignorant of the approaching earth-shattering blow.
Sha Hu was stunned and shouted angrily, “Yang Boy, are you underestimating this old master?”
“Old Man Sha doesn’t need to mind, just put your best into it!” Yang Kai responded lightly.
Sha Hu’s old face turned a bit unsightly. Although he was very grateful to Yang Kai, being looked down upon so blatantly was obviously uncomfortable. Hearing what Yang Kai said though, Sha Hu set grit his teeth and used his full strength.
The sound of air blasting out echoed as Sha Hu’s fist fell like a meteor, carrying with it, Heaven destroying might.
With this punch, even a thousand-metre high mountain would be smashed to dust.
But Yang Kai just stretched out his palm to block this punch, his face calm and serene.
In the next moment, one fist met one palm.
Yang Kai’s body shook slightly, but he remained seated in place, not moving back at all.
Sha Hu on the other hand was sent flying by the massive rebound and a red flush filled his face before slowly returning to normal.
Sha Hu’s expression changed dramatically, and the look of resentment completely disappeared from his face. Instead, he now stared at Yang Kai as if he was some kind of freak, falling silent for a very long time.
When he fought Yang Kai the other day, although he had been at a slight disadvantage, even after his strength had grown significantly, his full-powered blow was only able to shake Yang Kai’s body slightly.
The only explanation was that while his strength had grown, Yang Kai’s had as well, and at a much faster pace than his own! Otherwise, there was no way such a situation would have happened.
“How many Shadowed Heaven Pills did you take?” Sha Hu composed himself and asked hesitantly.
“A hundred or so,” Yang Kai thought for a while before casually replying.
Sha Hu sucked in a sharp breath as his eyes bulged, asking in amazement, “Your body withstood all of that?”
Over the past three days, Sha Hu had only consumed ten Shadowed Heaven Pills. The Shadowed Heaven Pills refined by Yang Kai were incomparable to those produced on Shadowed Soul Island, genuine Origin Grade Pills. Swallowing too many of these pills would put too much strain on one’s body, and the excess medicinal energies would damage the physique and meridians rather than strengthen them. In the most serious of cases, one’s body might even explode.
Ten pills in three days was already Sha Hu’s limit, but Yang Kai was able to take ten times that much!
“Why would I not be able to?” Yang Kai asked strangely.
Yang Kai did not even mention that many of the Shadowed Heaven Pills he took had formed Pill Veins, making them twice as potent as ordinary pills.
Sha Hu just stood up on the spot, shaking his head constantly as he muttered under his breath, “Monster, you are an absolute monster!”
He was certain he was no longer Yang Kai’s opponent now, and while he had confidence that he could escape from Yang Kai a few days ago, he wasn’t so assured anymore.
It was completely conceivable that the gap in strength between him and Yang Kai would only grow wider and wider as time passed.
[A good Body Tempering Secret Art is really enviable!] Sha Hu sighed to himself.
He did not know that the main reason Yang Kai was able to absorb the power of one hundred Shadowed Heaven Pills in such a short period of time was because of the solid foundation Yang Kai had formed by taking so much Life Revitalizing Jade Cream.
This was a feat Sha Hu could never replicate.
An Origin Grade Alchemist, a monstrous genius, and a great benefactor, if Sha Hu did not try to make friends with such a person, he would really be too stupid.
Sha Hu secretly made up his mind that regardless of whether he could escape from Shadowed Soul Island in the future or not, he would be Yang Kai’s most loyal ally!
In the waters about three thousand kilometres away from Shadowed Soul Island, a small ship sailed forth slowly, shuttling back and forth across a certain range while looking for precious Shadowed Heaven Lotuses.
There were few cultivators on the ship, only about two dozen, with a few of them standing at the edges of the deck looking out across the sea.
Most of the people onboard had gloomy looks on their faces as they mostly kept their heads down.
These people would sometimes make eye contact with one another, all of them showing looks of unwillingness and humiliation.
Pang Zhen from Sunrise Island and Qian Mo from Sea God Palace were among these people. Both of them were cultivators at the Third-Order Origin Returning Realm, top masters on Shadowed Star, but after arriving on Shadowed Soul Island, they were amongst the weakest.
Of course, this was only in terms of physical strength. On Shadowed Soul Island, where the only indicator of strength was the quality of one’s physique, Pang Zhen and Qian Mo’s Third-Order Origin Returning Realm cultivation was useless.
It had been some time since they had arrived on Shadowed Soul Island, and after so long, Pang Zhen and Qian Mo had gained a fair understanding of the situation.
An ugly-looking man with buck-teeth and monkey-ears suddenly walked up to Qian Mo, crossed his arms and stroked his chin as he swept his eyes over her beautiful body with a scrutinising gaze, not even trying to hide the obscene light in his eyes or the lewd grin on his face.
Qian Mo raised her head to meet eyes with this man and her pretty face immediately sank.
“Miss Qian Mo, have you considered carefully yet? If you obey me, I can ensure your safety from now on. Not only will you be allowed to join Shadowed Soul Island formally and not need to do this kind of dangerous work again, but you will also have a chance to obtain some Shadowed Heaven Pills. This is a great opportunity that will only be available for a limited amount of time. You should know that others aren’t as reasonable as me,” The buck-toothed man asked in a suggestive tone, his eyes fixing on Qian Mo’s rich chest as he secretly gulped in anticipation.
Shadowed Soul Island very rarely had newcomers, so its population had always been quite small, only about ten thousand in total.
There were even fewer women, especially beautiful women! Any beauty was a precious existence and could be regarded as rare goods that were worth a large amount of Shadowed Heaven Pills.
Qian Mo was undoubtedly such a beauty.
The buck-toothed man had taken a fancy to Qian Mo and was taking advantage of his position, using both coercion and temptation to try to force her to submit to him. Once he managed to obtain her, whether he used her for his own enjoyment or to exchange for Shadowed Heaven Pills, would be a great deal.
What frustrated him, however, was that no matter how he tried to persuade her, Qian Mo simply ignored him.
No matter what, as one of the leaders of Sea God Palace, even if she had fallen into this damned place, Qian Mo did not put this buck-toothed man in her eyes. If she had met such a man outside, she would be able to slap him to death with a casual wave of her hand.
As such, in the face of this man’s repeated efforts, Qian Mo only had a single word of response, “Scram!”
“You…” The buck-toothed man was furious and pointed at Qian Mo, raising his other hand as if preparing to slap her to relieve his anger.
*Hualala…*
Nearly half of the people on the boat stood up suddenly and glared at the buck-toothed man with indifferent glares, fierceness flashing across eyes.
These people were naturally the cultivators of Sea Temple and Sea God Palace who had arrived on Shadowed Soul Island recently! After being stranded here, they had abandoned their previous grudges and united, so when they saw Qian Mo about to be disgraced, they all stood at the ready, seemingly just waiting for the buck-toothed man to act before they swarmed him and tore him to pieces.
The buck-toothed man did not follow through on his slap in the end. Although the cultivators from Sea Temple and Sea God Palace weren’t enough to frighten him, and he was certain he would win if a fight broke out, Island Master Ming Yue had clearly ordered that no one on Shadowed Soul Island could kill another, and any violators would be punished with death.
This was not because Island Master Ming Yue was a benevolent leader who loved his people, nor was it out of generosity or kindness, but rather because of the limited number of people on Shadowed Soul Island.
The population on the island was small, and if people died because of casual disagreements, then it would not be long before he became an Island Master with no subjects to rule over, a rather unpalatable situation.
On Shadowed Soul Island, the only people who could kill at will were the Island Master himself and his closest confidants. As for the others, no matter who they were, or what positions they held, no one was qualified to decide the life or death of another person.
When Pang Zhen, Qian Mo and the others first arrived on Shadowed Soul Island, they hadn’t yet been officially recognised as residents, so they hadn’t been protected by these rules, allowing the lanky lead man an opportunity to kill a few people to serve as a deterrent as well as to relieve some of his personal stress.
Now the situation was different. Although most of the cultivators from Sea Temple and Sea God Palace had not officially joined Shadowed Soul Island, their names had at least been recorded in the island’s registrar, so this buck-toothed man did not dare kill them and offend the Island Master.
“Good, good, good!” The buck-toothed man sneered, “So be it! Since you dare offend Father here, Father will make you regret it for the rest of your life! Bitch, you surely look down on Father here, don’t you? Well when Father has you one day, Father hopes you can maintain that stubbornness right up until the end! Forcing a slut who can’t fight back is the finest of tastes, heh heh!”
At that moment, a Shadowed Soul Island cultivator suddenly shouted, “Sir, we’ve spotted an otter-type beast three kilometres out heading towards us.”
“Really?” The buck-toothed man’s eyes lit up and he turned his gaze towards the sea. Sure enough, an extremely ferocious looking sea beast with a body length of over a dozen metres was kicking up a splash as it rapidly approached.
A smug smile appeared on this man’s face as he glanced over at the cultivators who had just stood up to oppose him and said, “The biggest dangers when searching for and collecting Shadowed Heaven Lotuses come from sea beasts. En, this is the first time many of you have done this kind of work, so this will be a good experience for you. All of you besides Qian Mo are to get down and meet the enemy! Don’t disappoint me now!”
As soon as this statement came out, the faces of the dozen or so cultivators from Sea Temple and Sea God Palace changed drastically.
Outside, none of them would put this otter-type beast in their eyes as they could casually kill it without any effort, but on Shadowed Soul Island, they were not necessarily this beast’s opponent even if they all worked together.
This was their first time out at sea to search for Shadowed Heaven Lotuses and none of them had taken any Shadowed Heaven Pills to temper their bodies, so it was basically impossible for them to fight this otter.
The buck-toothed man was obviously using this opportunity to retaliate as no matter how blatant his actions were, they would not violate the Island Master’s orders.
“What’s wrong? Are you all deaf? Can you not understand Father’s words?” The buck-toothed man looked at Pang Zhen and the others triumphantly, his heart was filled with infinite pleasure before his expression turned gloomy and he shouted, “Fine. Throw all of them down! Without experiencing a few battles with sea beasts, they won’t understand how precious Shadowed Heaven Lotuses are.”
The subordinates of the buck-toothed man nodded, grabbed the various newcomers, and began tossing them into the sea.
Pang Zhen and the others fought back, but how could they be these peoples’ opponents?
Although the residents of Shadowed Soul Island had lower cultivations than Pang Zhen and the other masters, they had taken some Shadowed Heaven Pills over the years so their physiques were actually superior.
After only three breaths, Pang Zhen and the others were beaten black and blue.
The otter rushing over clearly smelled blood and became even more excited, increasing its speed as it targeted Pang Zhen and the others who fell into the sea, completely regarding them as nothing more than an easy meal.
“Slut!” The buck-toothed man stood on the boat as he admired the struggling posture of Pang Zhen and others while speaking to Qian Mo with a sneer, “If they die today, it will be all your fault. Hahaha, if you had accepted my offer earlier, this would not be happening now, however… it is not too late. I’ll save them, but only if you kneel down and beg me to take you. A trivial otter is no match for father here!”
Qian Mo’s face filled with grief and indignation as she clenched her teeth hard and glared at the buck-toothed man fiercely.
Pang Zhen did not have much friendship with her, and although the cultivators from Sea Temple and Sea God Palace had abandoned their previous grievances and decided to work together to overcome these troubling times, Qian Mo was not so noble that she would lower her head to save Pang Zhen’s life.
However, among those who were thrown into the water, there were also people from her Sea God Palace, including members from her own clan, so she could not just sit back and watch.
“Despicable!” Qian Mo scolded angrily.
The buck-toothed man showed not the slightest shame as he laughed happily, “So what if I am despicable? Do you think this is your Sea God Palace? Do you still think you are still a Sea God Palace General? Tsk tsk… All those years ago, when Father was living on the outside, he deeply feared your Sea God Palace. Anytime this Father here met someone from Sea God Palace, he would have to walk a wide circle around them so as not to provoke them, but now, a Sea God Palace General actually needs to kneel down and beg father here for his help, hahaha!”
Qian Mo’s tender body trembled as she clenched her fists so tightly her nails drew blood, too angry to even notice.
“You don’t have much time, if you hesitate, they’ll all die!” The buck-toothed man reached out and pointed forward.
Qian Mo turned her head to look and saw that the huge sea beast was only a few hundred metres away now, and although Pang Zhen and the others were doing their best to flee, how could they escape from the otter in its native territory? If the buck-toothed man did not intervene to save them, they would all be swallowed by the otter one by one.
A look of despair came over Qian Mo’s face.
“Kneel down!” The buck-toothed man shouted as he pressured Qian Mo again. He also noticed that Qian Mo was a little shaken so applying pressure at this moment was undoubtedly the best choice as it was a good opportunity to crush her spirit.
The other residents of Shadowed Soul Island all stood by and watched the good show while envious light flashed across their eyes.
Just how noble of an existence was a Sea God Palace General? Before, they could only look up to such a master, but now, they could torture and humiliate her as they pleased, giving them an incredible sense of satisfaction.
This was made all the more exciting when Qian Mo was a beautiful woman with such a hot figure. Just thinking about her kneeling down on the ground and begging them made this group of people feel that even if they died here and now it would be worth it.
Qian Mo’s figure trembled and her knees seemed to bend slightly, but soon she straightened up again, grit her teeth, and screamed, “In your dreams!”
The smug grin on the buck-toothed man’s face instantly went stiff as his anticipation turned into disappointment, and then into anger.
Qian Mo ignored his indignation and simply smiled back coldly, “With my status, cultivation, and beauty, if I offer myself to that Island Master Ming Yue, what are the chances he would accept? Once that happens, I’ll be able to use all the Shadowed Heaven Pills I want and you will have to listen to my orders. How do you think I’ll torture you then?”
The buck-toothed man instantly turned pale and began sweating profusely.
He could easily imagine such a scene, and he could also imagine that his end would be worse than death.
Qian Mo was dispatched to collect Shadowed Heaven Lotus because she refused to submit to Shadowed Soul Island’s control, but she was right. With her identity and beauty, if she offered herself, no man would refuse, not even Island Master Ming Yue.
At that time, Qian Mo’s status here would leap from labourer to Lady Island Master in a single bound!
That was a scenario the buck-toothed man could never allow. After offending the future Lady Island Master, how miserable would his fate be?
The buck-toothed man’s expression darkened as a flash of coldness and cruelty lit up his eyes, gritting his teeth as he cursed, “Cheap Slut, you’ve forced my hand.”
Saying so, he walked towards Qian Mo’s, a vicious expression filling his face.
He was obviously not willing to let such a situation occur, and the only way to ensure that it did not, was to have Qian Mo fall here! As long as Qian Mo died, he wouldn’t have to worry about anything anymore, so even though he felt it was a pity to lose such a woman, compared with his own life, what did she matter?
Qian Mo seemed to have expected this result from the beginning and did not appear the slightest bit flustered, instead just sneering, “There’s no need for you to act!”
As soon as she said so, Qian Mo jumped off the boat, preparing to share life and death with Pang Zhen and the others.
She would rather die than submit, and the only reason she said she would offer herself up to Ming Yue was in the hopes it would deter the buck-toothed man, but since her plan failed, she could only take the initiative to jump into the sea.
Falling into the cold water, Qian Mo and Pang Zhen looked at each other, nodded lightly, then prepared to flee in separate directions.
There was nothing else to do in this situation, only by escaping was there a chance to survive. Even if the chances of them being able to flee from the buck-toothed man and the otter-type sea beast were slim, they had to try.
Moving through the sea, the Sea Clan undoubtedly occupied a massive advantage, after all, they were a race born in the water.
*Hong Hong Hong…*
A muffled noise suddenly spread from afar, almost as if someone was slamming the water’s surface vigorously, causing a set of rhythmic explosions that echoed from a great distance.
At the same time, a series of regular ripples propagated across the water’s surface.
The booming sound was clearly getting closer as well, and the ripples also became more noticeable, almost covering the natural ocean waves.
Everyone was stunned for a moment and turned their heads in the direction of the sound, not knowing what had happened. Even the vicious otter beast seemed to perceive danger, stopped its charge, and waited with most of its body submerged beneath the sea.
A row of water columns soared up into the sky at an extremely fast speed, and in front of the water columns, there was a figure, with his hands crossed behind his back, stepping across the sea.
The booming sounds were a result of this figure’s feet impacting the sea.
Every time his feet fell, an incredible power was transmitted to the ocean’s surface, causing a great column of water to rise up into the sky like a dragon moments after he moved on.
This man was not young, appearing at least fifty or sixty years old, but his true age was definitely higher than that.
Both the buck-toothed man and the Shadowed Soul Island cultivators were dumbfounded as their hearts clenched in shock.
They knew just how difficult it was to walk across the sea’s surface like this with only pure physical strength. Although all of them could accomplish this, they would not be able to display such power or keep it up for long.
This old man, however, looked like he was out for a leisurely stroll through his courtyard, and apart from the noise he was making, it did not seem like he was the slightest bit fatigued or exhausted.
It seemed that as long as he wanted to, he could go on like this forever.
Just how powerful would one’s body need to be to move like this indefinitely?
Even taking all of Shadowed Soul Island into consideration, the number of people who could accomplish this could be counted on one hand.
Beside this old man, there was a young man. This young man was sitting cross-legged above the sea, seemingly even more relaxed than the old man. He didn’t seem to be doing anything yet was able to follow beside the old man without falling behind.
When this pair got closer, however, the buck-toothed man discovered that there was a sea beast carrying this young man.
“This…” The buck-toothed man was stunned. The cultivators of Shadowed Soul Island had tried to tame the sea beasts in this place before, but even after the Island Master acted personally, there had never been a successful precedent. The sea beasts living in the waters near Shadowed Soul Island, regardless of their strength, seemed to rather fight to the death than submit, causing Shadowed Soul Island to eventually give up on this idea.
Now, there was actually someone sitting on the back of a sea beast, which shocked the buck-toothed man even more than the old man walking across the sea.
The noise made by the old and the young pair naturally alarmed Pang Zhen, Qian Mo, and the others in the water as well.
“Ah, he is…” Pang Zhen carefully stared for a while before his eyes lit up upon recognizing Yang Kai’s figure.
On the other hand, Qian Mo was staring fixedly just below Yang Kai, a look of disbelief flashing across her beautiful eyes, but soon, she showed an ecstatic look, leapt up from the sea, and hurriedly ran across its surface towards him.
She was unable to leisurely stroll across the water like the old man and could not keep this kind of movement up for very long, so Qian Mo was only able to proceed a few steps before her strength was exhausted and she fell back into the water.
However, that did not stop her from excitedly approaching Yang Kai, her pretty face filled with a brilliant smile at this long-awaited reunion.
“Old Sha, do you know this woman?” Yang Kai, who was sitting on the little dolphin’s back, turned to look at Sha Hu and asked in confusion.
Sha Hu just laughed, “This old master hasn’t met with anyone for over a hundred years, how could he possibly know her? Isn’t this woman coming over for you?”
“For me?” Yang Kai smiled, “Of course not, she is a General of Sea God Palace. I’ve never even spoken with her before… oh, it really looks like she’s coming for me?”
As the distance narrowed, Yang Kai also found that something was wrong.
This woman named Qian Mo was really rushed towards him, constantly waving her hands, acting as if they were very familiar.
Yang Kai scratched his head in confusion and could not figure out how to respond, simply deciding to see how things played out.
The little dolphin he was riding on, however, suddenly uttered a happy and aggrieved cry then rapidly accelerated over to greet Qian Mo.
A moment later, Qian Mo arrived in front of Yang Kai, completely ignored him, and instead called out to the little dolphin in a trembling but relieved voice, “Princess!”
“Princess?” Yang Kai was stunned as he stared at this scene.
The little dolphin kept crying out excitedly while circling Qian Mo before soon diving into her arms, like a lost child who had finally found its mother.
Yang Kai had a full view of Qian Mo’s plump chest deforming beneath the little dolphin’s head, revealing a deep gully along with plenty of pure white skin.
Sha Hu stood quietly to the side, his hands folded behind his back as he looked back and forth between Qian Mo and the Little Dolphin before soon nodding, “So that’s how it is, she’s from the Dolphin Flood Dragon Clan, no wonder this old master felt like something was different about her.”
Yang Kai also suddenly came to an understanding.
Qian Mo had called the little dolphin Princess, and Sha Hu said the little dolphin belonged to the Dolphin Flood Dragon Clan, so Yang Kai immediately realized that this little dolphin he had accidentally encountered actually had a huge background. She was obviously a member of the Sea Clan’s royal family, the princess that Qian Mo and Shang Ao had been looking for and the reason two Sea God Palace Generals had stirred up such a fuss on Sunrise Island.
It seemed that Qian Mo and Shang Ao had not lied. The Sea Clan’s princess really did disappear near Sunrise Island, but she had not been taken captive by the people of Sea Temple. Rather, she had been drawn into Shadowed Soul Island.
Afterwards, Yang Kai accidentally found her…
Qian Mo was finally able to relax after finding her princess, no longer even caring about her own safety, allowing the little dolphin to play with her for quite some time before she finally raised her head and glared viciously at Yang Kai, “Despicable Human, what have you done to my race’s princess? How dare you ride on top of her! You deserve ten thousand deaths for this offence!”
Yang Kai looked down at her and chuckled softly, “What have I done to her?”
He did not get angry because of Qian Mo’s attitude. The little dolphin’s status is the Sea Clan was supreme, so it was only natural that Qian Mo would be so angry.
“Why haven’t you gotten down yet!?” Qian Mo scolded again.
Yang Kai curled his lips, “If she doesn’t want to carry me, I’ll get off. Well, what do you say, do you want me to come down?”
Yang Kai clearly spoke his last words to the little dolphin, and under Qian Mo’s man-eating glare he reached down and patted the little dolphin’s head.
Qian Mo’s eyes spat fire and she felt like her blood was boiling. Although the princess was still young and could not even assume human form yet, she was still a sacred and inviolable existence in the Sea Clan. Any Sea Clan who saw her would need to treat her with the utmost respect, but now a despicable human was actually riding atop her and even shamelessly patting her head!
What irritated Qian Mo the most, however, was how her princess had a look of extreme enjoyment when her head was patted, spitting out a few bubbles from her mouth and even flipping her tail happily.
“See…” Yang Kai spread his hands, “I haven’t forced her to do anything!”
Qian Mo took a deep breath, her plump chest heaving up and down as she felt the urge to punch Yang Kai to death.
The little dolphin suddenly cried out in a strange tone at that moment, causing Qian Mo to listen intently. After a long time, Qian Mo’s complexion improved slightly, though she still glared at Yang Kai with enmity and hatred as she declared, “I don’t know what kind of tricks or schemes you’ve used to make the princess so dependent on you, but mark my words: This isn’t over, I’ll remember this!”
Yang Kai just shrugged, ignoring her vicious words.
Pang Zhen also swam over to Yang Kai at this time, cupped his fists and greeted, “Sect Master Yang!”
“Island Master Pang, the world is really too small, we keep running into each other like this!” Yang Kai responded with a smile.
Pang Zhen lowered his head awkwardly.
Fortunately, Yang Kai quickly changed the subject and asked, “So why are you all in such a distressed state? Are the people on that boat not from your Sea Temple or Sea God Palace?”
Above the sea, Yang Kai listened to Pang Zhen’s story about what had happened after they entered Shadowed Soul Island.
On that day, roughly two hundred people from Sea Temple and Sea God Palace were unfortunate enough to be stranded in this place, and aside from a few who were killed by the lanky man as examples, everyone else was captured and brought back to the city.
The total population of Shadowed Soul Island had always been small, so with such a large number of people suddenly arriving, the rulers of Shadowed Soul Island wanted to force Pang Zhen and the others to submit.
People under the eaves must bow their heads, so even if it was insincere, Pang Zhen and Qian Mo could only compromise.
However, Shang Ao and the other Sea God Palace General had always been belligerent, so coupled with his honoured status and the respect it normally gave him, how could he willingly submit to others? His rebelliousness seemed to annoy the rulers of Shadowed Soul Island, so he was taken away alone and was probably being tortured even now.
In recent days, neither Qian Mo nor Pang Zhen had seen Shang Ao, and no one knew if he was still alive.
Besides Shang Ao, everyone else was divided into more than a dozen teams, led by different Shadowed Soul Island cultivators, and then taken out to perform various tasks.
Qian Mo, Pang Zhen, and the others here were tasked with searching for Shadowed Heaven Lotus out at sea. Some teams had been sent to mine ores while others performed chores on Shadowed Soul Island.
The Origin Returning Realm masters who had found themselves trapped here on Shadowed Soul Island had lived quite miserable lives since the day they arrived. Many people had died due to various accidents, especially amongst those who went out to search for Shadowed Heaven Lotus as this was a particularly dangerous task. Whenever these search teams encountered a sea beast that they could not fight, the final result was often complete annihilation.
No one cared about such losses though, as any cultivator who was new to Shadowed Soul Island had to experience fear of leaving the eaves, so they thoroughly recognized Ming Yue’s dominance over Shadowed Soul Island in their hearts. Only those who truly accepted this reality could officially join Shadowed Soul Island become qualified to obtain Shadowed Heaven Pills to enhance their strength.
Ming Yue being able to dominate Shadowed Soul Island was not only because of his great personal strength but primarily because he controlled the supply of Shadowed Heaven Pills!
“Sect Master Yang, every person in this damned place has incredible physical strength. It seems that all of them have taken these so-called Shadowed Heaven Pills to temper their bodies!” Pang Zhen saw Yang Kai’s leisurely expression and could not help reminding him about this as he glanced over towards the ship warily.
However, when Pang Zhen turned his head, the scene he saw shocked him.
He suddenly discovered that the old man who had just been casually strolling across the sea had at some point, boarded the boat and was now standing at its bow silently.
More importantly though, the domineering buck-toothed man and all his subordinates, who seemed invincible earlier, were all staring at this old man with pale faces and undisguised horror. Not only did they not drive the old man off the boat, but they didn’t even dare to breathe loudly in his presence.
What were the origins of this old man? Was there such a person in Sea Temple or Sea God Palace? Was he a friend Yang Kai met recently on Shadowed Soul Island? Pang Zhen was thoroughly puzzled.
“Old Sha, my friends here seemed to have been bullied by them just now,” Yang Kai called out to Sha Hu.
In truth, Yang Kai did not have any friendship with Pang Zhen, and he had only just now spoken to Qian Mo, regardless, since they were all cultivators from Shadowed Star, separate from the cultivators from Shadowed Soul Island, they were technically people under his care.
What’s more, Yang Kai still had plans for Sea Temple and Sea God Palace, so he couldn’t just let these people die here.
Sha Hu heard this and grinned, “They were being bullied? An easy matter to fix!”
As soon as he spoke these words, Sha Hu turned his head and threw a punch towards the spot where the buck-toothed man and his subordinates had huddled together.
This fist was sent from more than a dozen metres away from the buck-toothed man, but the pressure wave which came from it still instantly impacted them.
*Peng peng peng…*
With a series of muffled booms, the buck-toothed man and his subordinates exploded into clouds of blood, their hashed meat spilling out into the sea, none of them even having a chance to utter a word before they died miserably.
Pang Zhen, Qian Mo, and all the others were stunned.
The Shadowed Soul Island cultivators that they were unable to resist were all wiped out by this old man with a single punch. Just how strong was this old man? None of them could even fathom it.
Since becoming trapped on Shadowed Soul Island, Pang Zhen and Qian Mo’s perception of strength had completely changed. Here, there was a different standard compared to the rest of the Star Field, one that prioritized the power of one’s physique above all else.
The scene before them could only have a single explanation, this old man’s physical strength had reached an astonishing level.
“Sect Master Yang… this Senior… what is his background?” Pang Zhen asked weakly while Qian Mo also cast a concerned look towards him.
“Old Sha’s full name is Sha Hu, does that sound familiar to you?” Yang Kai looked at Pang Zhen with a smile.
“Sha Hu?” Pang Zhen frowned, a thoughtful look appearing on his face, as if trying to dredge up a long-forgotten memory, his eyes turning in the direction of Sha Hu and staring for quite some time before they lit up and he cried out, “My Sea Temple’s previous Second Temple Master?”
“Are you from Sea Temple?” Sha Hu looked at Pang Zhen.
Pang Zhen put everything else out of his mind and quickly rushed over, leapt out of the sea, and fell to his knees on the boat as he spoke haltingly, “Sunrise Island’s Island Master Pang Zhen, greets Martial Uncle Sha!”
“So you’re Sunrise Island’s Island Master!” Sha Hu had heard Yang Kai mention Pang Zhen before, but he did not know who he was until Pang Zhen announced his name now. Smiling lightly, Sha Hu motioned, “Get up, there’s no need for excessive courtesy here!”
“Many thanks, Martial Uncle!” Pang Zhen was so excited his face flushed. Rubbing his hand together, he continued, “Disciple has long admired Martial Uncle Sha’s resounding reputation but has not had a chance to greet him formally. It was said that Martial Uncle disappeared for no reason three hundred years ago, a truly tragic event, but seeing Martial Uncle here on this Shadowed Soul Island now is this disciple’s great fortune!”
Sha Hu laughed loudly and said bluntly, “Your flattery skills are quite good!”
Pang Zhen’s face blushed, but he did not seem too embarrassed, simply grinning happily as he pointed towards some of the remaining cultivators and said, “Martial Uncle, these are my Sea Temple’s disciples!”
Sha Hu glanced over the cultivators one by one and nodded lightly, “Good, good! After three hundred years, this old master has finally seen his Sect family again. You may all rest assured, as long as this old master is here, no one will hurt a single hair on any of your heads!”
The several Sea Temple disciples all wore excited looks as they had just found a powerful backer.
A moment ago, they were all worried about whether they would be able to survive and their futures were all bleak, but suddenly, their former Second Temple Master, who had been missing for three hundred years, appeared in front of them and killed the Shadowed Soul Island cultivators with a single powerful punch, saving them from their tragic fate and offering them shelter. How could they not be happy?
On the other hand, Qian Mo and Sea Clan wore complicated expressions, disappointed.
Fortunately, Pang Zhen did not forget about them. During this time, the Sea Temple and Sea God Palace members had formed a coalition, supporting one another, so now that Sea Temple had such a strong backer and did not need to worry about being bullied again, Pang Zhen naturally wanted to offer some aid to Qian Mo as well.
Quickly pointing to Qian Mo, Pang Zhen said, “Martial Uncle Sha, this is General Qian Mo of Sea God Palace. She and her clansmen arrived on Shadowed Soul Island together with Martial Nephew and we have received much care from them these past few days.”
Pang Zhen’s words of praise for Qian Mo and the other Sea Clan were not exaggerations by any stretch. The Sea Clan was born with stronger bodies than humans, which was why initially Shang Ao was able to beat several Shadowed Soul Island cultivators without losing. From this alone, it was obvious that the Sea Clan were better in terms of Body Tempering than humans.
“En,” Sha Hu nodded flatly. He was willing to shelter Pang Zhen and the others because they were from the same Sect, but he did not have a good impression of the Sea Clan. When Sha Hu was the Second Temple Master of Sea Temple back then, he had often had dealings with this arrogant race and his hands were stained with much of their blood.
He didn’t intend to care about the life or death of these Sea Clan, but after glancing towards the little dolphin swimming about below Yang Kai, he suddenly smiled and said, “Since that’s the case, we’ll all travel together. The grudges between the Sea Temple and Sea God Palace will be put down temporarily. If there is a chance to leave Shadowed Soul Island in the future, we can discuss things then.”
“Many thanks, Martial Uncle Sha!” Pang Zhen could not help but breathe a sigh of relief. He was afraid that Sha Hu would expel Qian Mo and the others, or worse. If that really happened, Pang Zhen would not be able to escape the charge of treachery, which would likely become a heart demon for him. Fortunately, Sha Hu was reasonable, so this concern became unnecessary.
Qian Mo’s expression became even more complicated, but she still quickly offered her thanks.
The Sea Clan and human cultivators all got onto the boat one after another, and under Qian Mo’s pointed glares, Yang Kai also followed suit, allowing the little dolphin to swim alone while following the boat.
Yang Kai suspected that if he continued to sit on the Sea Clan’s princess, Qian Mo would definitely attack him.
It was still a bit unbelievable to him that this little dolphin that only seemed to want to frolic, play, and eat Shadowed Heaven Lotuses was actually a princess of the Sea Clan. The contrast was simply too dramatic.
As if seeing his doubts, Qian Mo took the initiative to explain, “Princess is only five years old. According to your human standards, her mental development is similar to that of a five-year-old child. She cannot even assume human form yet and only thinks about playing all day long. She recently snuck out of Sea God Palace, but I never expected her to be drawn into Shadowed Soul Island.”
Yang Kai nodded.
“Regardless of anything else, this General offers her sincere thanks for bringing Princess back to my Sea Clan,” Qian Mo said suddenly.
Yang Kai gave her a surprised look.
Qian Mo, however, quickly followed up in a cold tone, “As for you insulting the princess’ dignity, this General will certainly not forget and will one day make you pay the price.”
“Do as you like!” Yang Kai was noncommittal.
On the other side, Pang Zhen was also asking about Sha Hu’s plans. Now that they had freed themselves from Shadowed Soul Island’s control, naturally, they didn’t want to return there only to face enslavement again.
But when he learned from Sha Hu that their destination was actually Shadowed Soul Island, Pang Zhen was at a loss for words.
“Scared?” Sha Hu turned to look at Pang Zhen and chuckled lightly.
Pang Zhen shook his head solemnly, “Disciple is not afraid, but with disciple’s current strength, he cannot provide much assistance to Martial Uncle either. However, since Martial Uncle has made such a decision, then disciple will put in his best effort. Even if disciple dies, he will still gnaw off a piece of those Shadowed Soul Island bastards before he falls!”
Sha Hu laughed and waved his hand, “There’s no need for you all to act. None of you have Shadowed Heaven Pills to temper your bodies so you trying to help will only be courting death. This time, just Yang Kai and I will go. The rest of you… you can just hide and watch the show from a distance.”
“Sect Master Yang?” Pang Zhen raised his brow in suspicion and asked quietly, “Sect Master Yang is indeed a dragon among men. Disciple has exchanged blows with him once and was truly not his opponent, but… he also just arrived on Shadowed Soul Island, so how will he be able to help Martial Uncle?”
Pang Zhen was well aware of Yang Kai’s strength, but this was Shadowed Soul Island, not the Limitless Ocean. From his and Qian Mo’s experiences, it was obvious that even if a cultivator was powerful in the outside world, they may not be strong here.
As long as they were faced with a cultivator who had lived for some years on Shadowed Soul Island, anyone from the outside would easily be suppressed.
So, when Sha Hu said that he would only take Yang Kai with him, Pang Zhen was a little worried.
Sha Hu only flashed a wry smile and said, “What do you know? Even this old master is not his opponent here, so how could he not be of help?”
“Huh?” Pang Zhen’s jaw dropped, and his face filled with shock, almost suspecting that he had heard wrong.
Glancing back at Yang Kai, who was standing at the stern of the boat, Pang Zhen found the former just smiling harmlessly back at him, completely relaxed and carefree.
“There’s no need to doubt, that boy is indeed stronger than this old master. I exchanged blows with him one month ago and was repelled by a single palm, now…” Sha Hu did not continue, but Pang Zhen understood his meaning.
Since Sha Hu had been beaten back by Yang Kai a month ago with a single palm, it was obvious that the gap between them was even wider now.
Pang Zhen only became more shocked.
All of them had been sucked into Shadowed Soul Island together, but after two or three months, Pang Zhen and the others with him had not seen any noticeable increase in their strength, instead, they were pushed around like menial workers by the cultivators of Shadowed Soul Island. On the other hand, Yang Kai could defeat Pang Zhen’s Martial Uncle Sha who had lived here for three hundred years.
[Was this boy a monster?]
The boat was not big, but it sailed quite smoothly across the sea. The little dolphin also swam up to and around it a few times, not moving any slower at all.
Five days later, Shadowed Soul Island came into view in the distance.
“All of you wait here. When this old master is finished with his business, he will come pick you up,” Sha Hu gave Pang Zhen’s orders before tossing him a bottle of Shadowed Heaven Pills and saying, “One pill per person, refine them carefully.”
Pang Zhen accepted gleefully.
Since coming to Shadowed Soul Island, he had been coveting these Shadowed Heaven Pills. He knew that the cultivators here had more intrepid physiques because of these pills, but unfortunately, he had no way to acquire any.
They had to first officially join Shadowed Soul Island before they were eligible to receive some Shadowed Heaven Pills from the Island Master after performing certain tasks. This entire process was quite long and dangerous, with perhaps up to eighty percent of people dying for some reason along the way. Even if they did receive some pills, the quantity would be small and the quality would be very low.
But now, Sha Hu had tossed him a bottle filled with such pills.
Pang Zhen thanked him respectfully and without delay opened the cap and distributed the pills to the disciples of Sea Temple.
Qian Mo’s eyes flashed when she saw this scene as a complicated mix of jealousy and helplessness filled her. Suddenly though, out of the corner of her eyes, she noticed something flying towards her, stretched out her hand, and caught it.
Looking over, she saw Yang Kai smile at her and say, “There’s one inside for each of you as well.”
Qian Mo blinked once before snorting coldly, “This General will repay this favour in the future.”
“We can talk about it later,” Yang Kai grinned before following Sha Hu towards Shadowed Soul Island.
The little dolphin let out a long cry from the rear, seemingly telling Yang Kai to be careful.
Giving Qian Mo a bottle of Shadowed Heaven Pills was not just a whim for Yang Kai, but rather because he knew he would have to regardless. The little dolphin would obviously ask him for such a favour considering how close her relationship with Qian Mo was.
On top of that, the Shadowed Heaven Lotus in Yang Kai’s possession were almost all found thanks to the little dolphin’s help, so it was not an exaggeration to say that at least half of the Shadowed Heaven Lotus and in turn, half of the Shadowed Heaven Pills belonged to her. A bottle of Shadowed Heaven Pills for Yang Kai was nothing.
Sha Hu had slowed his pace, obviously waiting for Yang Kai to catch up.
After Yang Kai arrived at his side, Sha Hu’s face became solemn as he said, “Yang Kai, the purpose of this old master’s trip today is only to kill that bastard Ming Yue. On Shadowed Soul Island, Ming Yue is the strongest, but there are a few others who are not weak as well. When the time comes, I hope you can deal with them so they don’t interfere in this old master’s battle.”
“No problem,” Yang Kai readily agreed before asking. “How certain is Old Sha that he can defeat that Ming Yue?”
Sha Hu’s expression turned serious and he thought about it for a while before declaring, “At least sixty percent! Although this old master has not seen Ming Yue for a hundred years, his strength has certainly increased, but with those inferior Shadowed Heaven Pills, no matter how much his strength has grown, it can’t have been by much. This old master is confident he can emerge victorious in the end.”
“Then I wish Old Sha a swift and decisive victory,” Yang Kai smiled.
Sha Hu was in high spirits. Since taking the Shadowed Heaven Pills refined by Yang Kai, his strength that had stagnated for nearly a hundred years had been steadily increasing, and although not as exaggerated as Yang Kai’s, this rate of growth was already extremely tyrannical compared to others.
Compared with the Shadowed Heaven Pills refined by Yang Kai, Sha Hu completely felt the Shadowed Heaven Pills he used before were simply garbage! Not only was their quality extremely low, making them difficult to refine, the benefits to one’s physique were meagre. What’s more, taking those inferior pills came with many hidden dangers, and while these could be ignored in the short term, after taking such Shadowed Heaven Pills for an extended time, it would definitely cause problems for one’s body.
Since Ming Yue no longer had an advantage when it came to Shadowed Heaven Pills, Sha Hu no longer put him in his eyes.
The speed of the pair was extremely fast, and it was not long before they landed on Shadowed Soul Island. Looking up at the city in the centre of the island, Sha Hu sneered and accelerated, leaving behind only an afterimage where he once stood.
Yang Kai followed unhurriedly, not falling behind Sha Hu by far.
Specter City was the only city on Shadowed Soul Island. There were about ten thousand cultivators in the city. It was not known when this city had been founded, but its walls were covered with ancient carvings, showing the weathering of time. Almost every cultivator who had the misfortune of coming to Shadowed Soul Island would eventually live in this city.
In Specter City, the one with the highest status was undoubtedly Shadowed Soul Island’s Island Master Ming Yue, followed by his henchmen, who oversaw Shadowed Soul Island’s day to day operations as well as the flow of Shadowed Heaven Pill.
The cultivators who lived on Shadowed Soul Island had to submit to Ming Yue’s rule if they wanted to obtain Shadowed Heaven Pills.
At the gate of the city, five cultivators wearing armour were monitoring the people who were entering and leaving. Any cultivator returning from the sea would have to hand over half of their spoils before they were allowed to pass.
As for the most precious Shadowed Heaven Lotus, all of them had to be handed over. Any cultivator who dared try to keep Shadowed Heaven Lotus for themselves would receive extremely harsh punishment.
A line of exhausted cultivators who had just returned from the ocean lined up outside the gates, preparing to enter Specter City.
Many of these cultivators had injuries, and some were even lacking arms or legs, looking quite dishevelled. Obviously, these people were attacked by sea beasts when they went out and had suffered no small losses.
Just as the armoured cultivators were checking the harvest of these cultivators waiting to enter the city, they suddenly heard a loud ruckus coming from the crowd. The lead guard frowned and was about to scold the people, but seemingly sensing something as well, he turned his head to look into the distance.
From afar, two human figures were approaching Specter City as fast as lightning. Both figures left behind a long trail of afterimages and only after moving a thousand meters did these afterimages gradually disappear.
The lead guard was shocked and quickly signalled to the rest of his companions to prepare themselves. Taking out their artifacts one after another, these guards quickly blocked the entrance to the city gate.
When the two figures were only a few hundred meters away, the lead guard shouted, “Who goes there? Stop at once!”
“Scram!” An angry shout came in response as the two figures rushed through the city gate and into Specter City.
The cultivators who were waiting in line to enter the city instantly went into an uproar, all showing looks of surprise.
Order was strictly enforced on Shadowed Soul Island and there had not been a forced entry like this in many years, but today, they had witnessed such a scene with their own eyes. Many people could not help but pay silent tribute to the two who had forcibly entered the city.
Everyone felt that these two were as good as dead, and since they had provoked Ming Yue’s authority in Specter City, their deaths would surely be miserable.
However, before they finished their thoughts, the crowd heard a thunderous explosion and quickly turned their heads just in time to witness the lead guard explode into a cloud of blood mist, what remained of his armour and flesh scattering over a wide area.
The onlookers felt a chill from head to toe and all fell silent. None of them even noticed when the lead guard had been attacked.
At the same time, a roar that seemed to reach the Heavens suddenly echoed from the city, “Ming Yue, get out here and face this old master!”
This roar was earth-shattering and deafening, and many people could not help turning pale when they heard it.
However, there were also many whose only fear was that the world was not chaotic enough, and after a moment, their expressions became excited as they moved closer to the source of the sound. These people wanted to find out just who this reckless fellow was that dared to call Ming Yue directly by his name in Specter City.
The whole of Specter City boiled up as many cultivators rushed towards Sha Hu’s location, attracted by his booming challenge.
Quickly, more than two thousand people had gathered around, and the number was still increasing.
Sha Hu stood quietly on the main street of Specter City, his hands folded behind his back, his expression indifferent.
Yang Kai stood one step behind him, wearing an aloof expression as he scanned the surrounding environment.
Specter City looked fairly tidy, and although it was a little shabby, it was still a great achievement to be able to build a stronghold in this forsaken place.
There were even some shops lining the street buying and selling daily necessities.
However, at this moment, the people in the nearby shops had long ago closed up and left as none of them dared to remain nearby after Sha Hu let out his astonishing roar.
There were many whispering voices among the crowd as they pointed towards Yang Kai and Sha Hu, some taking pleasure in their misfortune, some looking forward to the show, others glaring coldly while still others looked on indifferently, a myriad of emotions entangling in this small square.
“Old fool, you dare offend the majesty of Sir Island Master? Surrender your life!” From a distance, an angry shout rang out and a figure radiating a threatening aura rushed out from the end of the street, obviously looking to take credit for dealing with this matter.
The management of Shadowed Soul Island was extremely strict, and there was seldom any kind of trouble, so the cultivators who followed Ming Yue rarely had an opportunity to express their loyalty. Today was undoubtedly a good opportunity for these people to earn some favour by putting Sha Hu down.
If they could please Ming Yue, a bottle of good Shadowed Heaven Pills was not impossible to obtain.
So, after hearing Sha Hu’s roar, this man rushed over immediately.
As this man raced up the street, a large sabre artifact appeared in his hand and accompanied by his fierce aura and burly body, he gave off the appearance of a man who would kill without mercy.
Sha Hu simply stood quietly on the spot, looking towards the tallest building in the centre of the island.
There seemed to be a shadowy gaze coming from that direction, paying attention from a distance, meeting Sha Hu’s glare head-on, causing invisible sparks to fly and making the nearby crowd shiver slightly, as if the temperature on Shadowed Soul Island had suddenly dropped.
The burly man with his sabre did not seem to realize the change in atmosphere though and rushed over to a spot just ten metres from Sha Hu before jumping high and slashing out with his artifact, a sneer forming on his lips as he shouted, “Old Dog, I’ll be accepting your head!”
Sha Hu turned his head slowly as he finally glanced at the man who was approaching.
Facing this gaze, the brawny man could not help sucking in a cold breath as a look of incomparable horror appeared on his face. His fierce aura melted away like snowflakes under the scorching sun and the words he was about to shout caught in his throat.
Freezing in place, the brawny man forced himself back down to the ground as he stared at Sha Hu with a pair of disbelieving eyes, his voice trembling as he hesitantly asked, “Sha… Island Master Sha?”
This brawny man obviously recognized Sha Hu.
Sha Hu sneered coldly, “Zhou An! I’ve not seen you in a hundred years, but it seems you haven’t made much progress.”
The brawny man named Zhou An glared at Sha Hu and immediately retorted, “Whether this Zhou has made progress or not is none of your business. How come you are still alive, former Island Master Sha?”
“Did Ming Yue tell you I died?” Sha Hu sneered slightly as he stared at Zhou An as if he were an idiot, “You believed that nonsense? Not only is this old master not dead, but he’s also been living quite well. Today I’ve come to take Ming Yue’s head to relieve the hatred in my heart!”
Zhou An’s expression fluctuated, and although he was clearly frightened, he still stood his ground, “Sha Hu, you’d best stop dreaming. Island Master Ming Yue’s strength has grown greatly over the past hundred years. You were not his opponent back then, so you certainly aren’t his opponent today! Obediently surrender without a fight and follow this Zhou to see the Island Master and perhaps you can survive a catastrophe, otherwise…”
“Otherwise?”
“Since Island Master could defeat you a hundred years ago, he can do so again today!” Zhou An declared loudly.
Sha Hu burst into laughter, “Idiot. Didn’t Ming Yue tell you that the reason he was able to defeat this old master back then was because he used poison? Since this old master has returned today, that traitor will definitely not have another chance to pull such a wicked stunt.”
Sha Hu no longer paid any attention to Zhou An and instead turned his eyes back to the tall central building and shouted, “Ming Yue, if you don’t have the guts to come down and fight this old master, then this old master will come to you!”
Saying so, Sha Hu bent his knees and then launched himself several hundred metres up into the air, soaring towards the centre of the island like a great Peng spreading its wings.
“Wishful thinking!” Loud shouts rang out from all around as at least a dozen cultivators releasing blood-red auras sprang from the crowd to intercept Sha Hu.
The bright red light pulsing from their bodies were signs of their astonishing vitality. The stronger the light, the stronger their bodies.
The Shadowed Soul Island cultivators that Yang Kai had encountered before were too weak to release such light so he had never seen such a display before; however, after learning the true identity of Sha Hu, a dozen or so Shadowed Soul Island masters could no longer hide and shot out with their full strength.
Sha Hu, however, ignored these approaching cultivators and continued to stare coldly towards the front, without sorrow or joy, without fear or panic, simply releasing a thick, undisguised killing intent.
The dozen or so people looked overjoyed as all of them desperately pushed the power in their bodies to use their best moves to attack.
But before any of them could execute their strikes, a young man appeared strangely behind Sha Hu, floating quietly in the air as if he was flying.
Facing the fierce attack of a dozen people, the young man still smiled calmly and relaxedly, only casually sending out his fists the instant before the incoming attacks reached him.
Fist shadows poured out like raindrops in a great storm, blasting out in all directions.
All of the figures suddenly had the red light pulsing from their bodies explode and were sent flying as they cried out in pain. Several of them even exploded mid-air into clouds of blood fog.
*Hong Hong Hong…*
The survivors all smashed into the nearby buildings, leaving giant impact craters that their blood flooded out into. Their bodies mangled, each of these attacks now had faint auras which seemed to teeter on the brink of being extinguished.
The thousands of onlookers all went into an uproar as they stared at the young man who was still suspended in mid-air in horror, their eyes flashing with shock and terror.
The dozen or so people who attacked Sha Hu just now were all masters with famous names on Shadowed Soul Island. No one knew how strong these people were in the outside world, but on Shadowed Soul Island, every one of them would rank amongst the top one hundred masters!
These people were all loyal subordinates of Ming Yue!
However, after just one round of attacks by this young man, these dozen or so people were either dead or disabled, none of them able to get up. It was nothing less than an utter route!
Who was this young man? Why had they never seen or heard of him before?
Compared with this young man, Sha Hu’s name was already known to many people. On Shadowed Soul Island, it was not just Zhou An who recognized Sha Hu. Among the onlookers, many recalled Island Master Sha from a hundred years ago.
One told ten, ten told a hundred, and soon, every cultivator on Shadowed Soul Island knew what this situation was all about. It turned out that the former Island Master had come to seek revenge against the current Island Master! This was a once-in-a-lifetime drama that no one wanted to miss.
However, after the young man in front of them displayed his overwhelming might, none dared to chase after Sha Hu to spectate the excitement. Those cultivators who took orders from Ming Yue did not dare to move in the slightest. Still hearing the miserable cries from their comrades, as long as these people didn’t have a death wish, they knew better than to annoy Yang Kai.
Yang Kai glanced around and said with a smile, “Old Sha is going to challenge Ming Yue now. You may all spectate from a distance, but if anyone dares try to interfere, don’t blame this Yang for being merciless.”
In normal times, an unknown young man speaking such words would be ignored by all, but after seeing him repel the combined force of a dozen masters so easily, Yang Kai’s words held absolute authority.
No one dared to challenge him, and all the cultivators who had come to watch the show contented themselves to watching from afar, all of them wondering who was stronger, the former Island Master or the current Island Master.
At the centre of the island, a great battle had clearly erupted, and Sha Hu’s ferocity was clearly being transmitted to everyone present. Even a dozen kilometres apart, the force behind each collision could be felt as thunderous booms echoed across the sky, thrilling, and terrifying the crowd.
Yang Kai stood in place for a moment, then suddenly drew a line in the dirt, clearly marking the point which no one was to pass, then turned around and walked towards the battlefield without looking back.
Even after he left no one dared to cross this mark and could only spectate this earth-shattering battle from a distance. Although all of them were feeling quite anxious, they could only endure patiently.
Yang Kai crossed a dozen kilometres in just a few breaths to arrive at the battlefield.
At the base of the tallest building in the centre of the island, a few bloody corpses were strewn about, apparently killed by Sha Hu.
Some cultivators stood not far away, glancing back and forth between the battlefield and Yang Kai.
None of them dared to intervene at will. When Sha Hu first arrived here, he instantly killed a few people to set up his prestige. After witnessing such a display, these people did not dare challenge Sha Hu.
Today, only Ming Yue could fight Sha Hu.
Yang Kai did not pay attention to the masters who were spectating the battle and instead cast his eyes towards Ming Yue.
What Yang Kai saw was a neatly dressed middle-aged man with a scholarly aura, similar to Great Elder Mo Yu of Clear Sky Sect.
However, his physical strength was countless times stronger than Mo Yu.
The red light pulsing from Ming Yue’s body was extremely thick, showing how tyrannical his body was. Every time he threw a punch or sent out a kick, the wind would roar as if the world was being split apart.
Sha Hu’s strength was not inferior though, and by the time Yang Kai arrived, the two men had already exchanged hundreds of blows, leaving behind huge pits in the ground and smashing many of the surrounding buildings. Even the majestic central tower had a wall missing and was currently leaning unstably.
Yang Kai observed for a moment and could not help raising his brow.
Sha Hu regarded Ming Yue as his greatest enemy, and every time he mentioned Ming Yue in the past, his hatred and rage were clear, which was not unreasonable.
Yang Kai was also certain that three months ago, Sha Hu was definitely not Ming Yue’s opponent. Judging from the strength Sha Hu displayed when he first met him at the time, he could not have lasted more than a hundred breaths against the current Ming Yue.
However, Sha Hu had taken a lot of the Shadowed Heaven Pills that Yang Kai had refined over the past three months and achieved great progress in his physical strength, allowing him to now compete with Ming Yue on even terms.
The fight between these two was savage, almost to the point of trading wounds with each other.
This style of fighting was most suitable for cultivators with strong physiques, because with their rich vitality, injuries suffered in this kind of battle would be easy to restore.
Yang Kai had used this style of combat to kill powerful enemies more than once.
However, when the physical strength of two enemies was equal, this brutal style of fighting instead became a contest of endurance.
Only the one who could last longer and inflict greater damage would win out in the end!
At this point, Sha Hu seemed to occupy the advantage.
“Ming Yue, you didn’t expect that this day would come, did you? The enmity of these past hundred years, this old master has never forgotten, but that all ends today! Today, this will be your burial place!” Sha Hu shouted vigorously as he fought with Ming Yue, his fists leaving behind shadows as they wound past Ming Yue’s defences from impossible angles, striking his chest hard.
The red light which pulsed from Ming Yue’s body abruptly shook from this impact, but it soon stabilized and recovered.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Ming Yue slashed a knife down fiercely. This knife hand was akin to a peerless blade, slashing onto Sha Hu’s shoulder, causing the latter to grimace in pain for a moment.
“To be honest, you being able to live up until this day is a true surprise to this Island Master,” Ming Yue spoke in a casual tone, a stark contrast to Sha Hu’s violent anger. “But what surprises this Island Master even more is that your strength has actually grown to this level. It seems that you’ve had many opportunities in the past hundred years.”
Sha Hu laughed loudly, “I haven’t had any opportunities at all, I only had the good fortune to meet an honoured friend!”
Ming Yue frowned slightly hearing this, and even while heavily engaged, he glanced over towards Yang Kai.
He was able to judge from Sha Hu’s words almost instantly that Yang Kai, a stranger he had never seen before, was this so-called ‘honoured friend’.
“Ming Yue, you are no longer this old master’s opponent! This old master will surely rip your corpse into ten thousand pieces!” Sha Hu continued to roar as his emotions ran wild with excitement. However, while outwardly he shouted with absolute confidence, Sha Hu knew better than anyone else that acting on impulse and instinct would not be enough to defeat Ming Yue. The vicious words he spoke were all an attempt to disturb Ming Yue’s focus.
“This Island Master will wait and see then!” Ming Yue’s tone was still indifferent, as if he did not put Sha Hu in his eyes at all.
The battle raged on, with fists meeting flesh and blood constantly splashing out. Even the sound of bones breaking could be heard from time to time.
This was a simple, brutal, fierce, and thrilling battle which made all the onlookers’ hearts clench. Even Ming Yue’s subordinates who were watching from nearby had never seen him use his full strength, so, at this moment, they were all shown that Ming Yue being able to become the Island Master was not some fluke, his true combat effectiveness was far greater than any of theirs.
Even Yang Kai watched with great interest.
Although he was confident his physical strength was higher than Ming Yue’s and Sha Hu’s, this was a good opportunity to sharpen his own combat instincts. Both Ming Yue and Sha Hu were powerful cultivators who had great achievements in body tempering.
There weren’t many opportunities for cultivators to observe and emulate such a battle up close.
Yang Kai studied the battle while inserting himself into it in his mind, allowing him to reap some gains.
The battle between Sha Hu and Ming Yue continued with staggering intensity and speed, seemingly still evenly divided with no one person achieving a decisive edge.
During the battle, the two combatants would occasionally stuff some Shadowed Heaven Pills into their mouths to make up for their expended vitality and physical strength, maintaining the red surge outside their bodies at its peak.
Ming Yue’s group of subordinates were secretly nervous, not knowing what would happen to them if Ming Yue was defeated. They wanted to help but did not have the guts, so their only option was to deal with Yang Kai instead.
However, Yang Kai instantly crushed two of their companions, wiping away all thoughts of attacking him from the other’s minds.
Between members of their own group, their strength was basically equal, so even if some were stronger than others, the difference was not that big.
After Yang Kai crushed two of their allies like ants, they would have to be blind to not be able to realize the gap between them.
The battle between Yang Kai and Ming Yue’s subordinates ended as quickly as it began, not having any effect on the battle between Ming Yue and Sha Hu, but after sensing the strength of Yang Kai, Ming Yue had to pay more attention to him.
Sha Hu seized this opportunity to launch a fierce assault, bombarding Ming Yue with his fists indiscriminately.
The situation that had been locked in a stalemate began to slowly lean towards Sha Hu’s side.
Sha Hu’s momentum increased further, having taken the advantage, and the red light radiating from his figure became even stronger, allowing him to slowly suppress Ming Yue.
Ming Yue’s situation was becoming increasingly dangerous.
The faces of the cultivators who have been standing nearby watching the battle also turned pale, as even they could see that things were looking unfavourable for Ming Yue. Although this change was subtle at first, if this trend continued, Ming Yue’s disadvantage would only become worse until ultimately, he lost.
Was Sha Hu really that powerful? They could hardly believe their eyes.
Yang Kai also secretly breathed a sigh of relief. To be honest, the strength of Ming Yue and Sha Hu was equal, and at the beginning of the battle, even he could not judge who would emerge victoriously, but now, because of a small accident, Sha Hu’s victory was almost assured with Ming Yue’s chances becoming increasingly slim.
The situation played out exactly as Yang Kai expected, and as time passed, Ming Yue’s position became worse and worse, with Sha Hu becoming more dominant. In ten exchanges, eight of them were Sha Hu’s attacks while only two were retaliations from Ming Yue. Being on the defensive constantly, it was only a matter of time until Ming Yue’s strength was consumed and he was defeated.
Finally, after one of Ming Yue’s attacks failed to connect, revealing an opening, Sha Hu took the opportunity to close in and let out a loud roar, “Ming Yue!”
This shout seemed to contain all the anger he had pent up over the last hundred years. Sha Hu’s momentum surged madly as he dodged Ming Yue’s blow and thrust his fist towards his opponent’s heart.
Victory was within his grasp!
A grim smile appeared on Sha Hu’s face.
Ming Yue, whose life was hanging by a thread, was still not panicked, however, and as he glanced at Sha Hu indifferently from up close, a sardonic smile flashed across his face and he uttered coldly, “Sha Hu, it seems you still don’t understand how powerful this Island Master is!”
Sha Hu heart clenched as his instincts began screaming. Just as he was about to withdraw his fist, a burst of Saint Qi emerged from Ming Yue’s body, causing his already tyrannical momentum to soar. In the next instant, a Saint Qi barrier blocked Sha Hu’s blow, rendering it harmless.
Shi burst out as a follow-up.
Sha Hu’s movements instantly became sluggish as Ming Yue’s Shi enveloped and suppressed him.
Ming Yue’s palm shot out and struck the centre of Sha Hu’s chest.
*Wa…*
Sha Hu flew back through the air as he coughed up blood.
After staggering to his feet, the red light outside his body became extremely dim and his complexion was extremely pale.
Staring at Ming Yue who was simply standing in place aloofly, Sha Hu’s eyes shook as he called out hoarsely, “How can you…”
“Use Saint Qi?” Ming Yue smiled faintly, “Shadowed Soul Island has its own World Principles, and any cultivator that enters here is suppressed by those World Principles, making it impossible to use Saint Qi, but… This Island Master has overcome the World Principles here, which is why I am the Island Master, and you are not!”
“Impossible!” Sha Hu roared; his face filled with unwillingness.
“Nothing is impossible for this Island Master,” Ming Yue sneered towards Sha Hu, who was covered in blood, and as if to prove his words, he continued recklessly releasing power from his body.
Naturally, this power was in the form of Saint Qi!
The Saint Qi fluctuation of a Third-Order Origin Returning Realm master filled the air.
Sha Hu was dumbfounded and stood stunned on the spot.
In terms of raw physical strength, he was comparable to Ming Yue. He was almost able to kill Ming Yue just now thanks to his hundred years of tolerance and perseverance, but if Ming Yue could use Saint Qi, then it was basically impossible for Sha Hu to be Ming Yue’s opponent.
Sha Hu opened his mouth but realized there was nothing he could say.
The continuous high-intensity battle had almost turned him into a dried-up oil lamp, and after sensing Ming Yue’s intense aura fluctuations, the momentum Sha Hu had built up collapsed and a feeling of exhaustion overwhelmed him.
At that moment, a palm was placed lightly on his shoulder. When Sha Hu turned his head dully, he found Yang Kai had at some point arrived by his side.
“Yang Kai…” Sha Hu’s voice was dry, “Sorry, this old master has brought trouble to you.”
He misjudged the situation badly. He had come here for revenge, but now not only would he die, he would likely also drag Yang Kai along to the grave with him.
Being able to use Saint Qi on Shadowed Soul Island meant Ming Yue was essentially invincible here; no one could resist him.
“Old Sha is too serious, just take a break and let me finish things up here,” Yang Kai smiled slightly, without any of the panic Sha Hu imagined he would have.
Sha Hu raised his brow suspiciously, not knowing what Yang Kai had to rely on in this situation or how he planned to face an opponent who could use Saint Qi and Shi in this place, but seeing him so calm and relaxed, Sha Hu’s spirits lifted somewhat. Nodding, Sha Hu took the initiative to withdraw a few steps.
Ming Yue didn’t try to stop him and instead focused his attention on Yang Kai with great interest. Seeing this young man stare back at him without any fear, Ming Yue smiled slightly, “Why not submit to me? I can let you be the Vice Island Master of Shadowed Soul Island, under one, above ten thousand.”
Several of Ming Yue’s subordinates immediately looked at Yang Kai with clear envy and even some eagerness, as if they were only waiting for Yang Kai to agree before leaping forward to flatter him.
Vice Island Master was an honoured position. On Shadowed Soul Island, although Ming Yue had been the Island Master for a hundred years, no one had ever been able to become the Vice Island Master. Ming Yue did not seem to have any intention of promoting one of his subordinates to such a position, with many of them even subtly probing about whether such a position would even become available, but never receiving a positive response.
These subordinates did not dare raise a fuss though, so after a few attempts, they let the matter drop.
But today, Ming Yue took the initiative to offer this position to Yang Kai, so how could they not feel envious?
“Not interested!”
To their surprise, however, Yang Kai did not even think about it before shaking his head and refusing.
How could Yang Kai put the trivial position of Vice Island Master of Shadowed Soul Island into his eyes? He was the Star Master of Shadowed Star! If Shadowed Soul Island weren’t an isolated space with its own World Principles, it would definitely be a part of Shadowed Star and be under Yang Kai’s complete dominion. Under these circumstances, was not becoming Vice Island Master of Shadowed Soul Island too much of a drop in status?
Ming Yue raised his brow and said lightly, “That is a little disappointing to this Island Master.”
Yang Kai laughed and snickered, “You’re about to be even more disappointed.”
“Are you going to oppose this Island Master?” Ming Yue looked at Yang Kai with clear ill intent.
“There’s nothing to discuss, we simply walk different paths.”
Ming Yue frowned and sighed, “In this case, this Island Master will grant you death!”
Yang Kai burst into laughter hearing this and sneered, “You don’t have the skill! Old Sha was right about one thing.”
“What?” Ming Yue and Sha Hu asked at the same time.
“It’s absolutely impossible that someone like you overcame the World Principles here,” Yang Kai sneered.
World Principles were extremely profound, and even as the Star Master of Shadowed Star, Yang Kai, was unable to break the barrier its World Principles had created, so how could a mere Ming Yue accomplish such a feat?
Therefore, Yang Kai concluded that Ming Yue was definitely using some special methods to access his Saint Qi.
Yang Kai was quite curious about this method.
Ming Yue’s face twitched slightly, but he did not panic and soon frowned, “You are not the Island Master here, so how are you so certain this Island Master cannot overcome the World Principles here?”
“I just know,” Yang Kai smiled lightly, a look of complete confidence filling his face.
Ming Yue’s expression became gloomy after knowing of Yang Kai’s attitude. No longer taking an easy-going manner, Ming Yue coldly snorted and declared, “Whether this Island Master can overcome this place’s World Principles or not, this Island Master being able to use Saint Qi is a fact. Boy, today you die!”
“Only those without skill boast of their abilities,” Yang Kai snickered before shouting, “Come out!”
As soon as these words fell, a clear, crisp bird cry resounded across the sky and a massive bird composed entirely of beautiful red flames shot out from Yang Kai’s body.
As soon as this firebird spread its wings, it seemed like half of the sky was covered and an intense heat filled the atmosphere.
Everyone stared up at the huge Firebird in shock as they felt the rich burning aura coming from it. Ming Yue’s complexion instantly turned pale as his expression became dignified; he was shocked to discover that this firebird had no form and was instead composed of pure Fire Attribute energy mixed with a violent Thunder Attribute power.
Across its fiery red body, there were dazzling purple streaks of lightning that danced back and forth like snakes.
[Both thunder and flame comprising a living entity?] Ming Yue considered himself experienced and knowledgeable, but even he could not identify the origins of this firebird.
Things hadn’t ended yet though. After Liu Yan appeared, Yang Kai also summoned a small, simple-looking stone man in front of him. This stone man had a naïve look on its face and carried a long pitch-black stick on its shoulder.
This overly long stick appeared in stark contrast with the stone man’s small body, making it appear rather funny.
However, the moment after this small stone man appeared, it let out a low roar and its figure began to rapidly enlarge, going from less than a metre in height to several dozen metres tall in the blink, becoming a true stone giant!
Even the pitch-black stick that rested on its shoulder became thicker and longer proportionally.
Everyone looked up at this newly appeared pair with fear as they felt an indescribable sense of oppression coming from them, making it hard to even breath.
Ming Yue’s face filled with horror as he stared towards Yang Kai in shock.
“Kill him!” Yang Kai gave a light command.
Another piercing cry sounded across all of Shadowed Soul Island as Liu Yan flapped her wings and swooped down towards Ming Yue’s head, opening her mouth and spitting out a fireball covered in purple lightning.
Ming Yue cried out in shock and didn’t dare take this thunder fire meteor head-on, immediately using his Movement Skill to dodge.
With a bang, dust was thrown up into the air as a giant crater appeared where Ming Yue was originally standing.
Before Ming Yue could compose himself though, a rush of heavy footsteps approached.
*Dong dong dong…*
Xiao Xiao strode forward, his two big feet sounding like heavy war-drums, violently pounding the ground. Still twenty metres away from Ming Yue, Xiao Xiao swung the Heaven Shaking Pillar forward violently.
The incredibly heavy Heaven Shaking Pillar was like a toy in Xiao Xiao’s hands, but the violent wind which rolled off of it nearly lifted up and swept Ming Yue away.
Ming Yue’s face turned pale as he hurriedly stretched out his hand and in a brilliant flash summoned a black hexagonal shield in front of him. This hexagonal shield spun rapidly and exuded an Origin Grade Mid-Rank aura. At a glance it was obvious it was a powerful defensive artifact that an ordinary Origin Realm master would have trouble breaking through.
However, Ming Yue did not relax at all and his expression only grew more solemn, kicking off the ground with both feet to retreat backwards.
*Hong…*
The Heaven Shaking Pillar smashed onto the hexagonal shield, which failed to block its momentum in the slightest and directly exploded into countless fragments before the Heaven Shaking Pillar continued to smash towards Ming Yue with irresistible power.
Fortunately for Ming Yue, he had anticipated this outcome somewhat and was able to avoid a direct hit. However, merely being brushed with the shockwave from the Heaven Shaking Pillar was enough to leave Ming Yue in an extremely embarrassing state, his clothes ripped apart as the strong winds cut open his flesh, drawing blood from all over his body.
A terrible cry rang out above Ming Yue’s head at that moment, causing all his blood to run cold!
Swivelling his head up, he found Liu Yan floating above his head once again, sending down a rain of fire and lightning that covered a hundred-metre-wide radius with him at its centre.
There was no way to avoid this blow!
Lightning flashed and flames blazed, instantly transforming the region around Ming Yue into a burning purgatory and shaking all of Shadowed Soul Island with its might.
All of Ming Yue’s subordinates had long ago lost their ability to think as they watched Ming Yue’s figure being swallowed by the intense fire and lightning, all of them shivering as if they had been thrown into the middle of an icy blizzard.
Even Sha Hu, who prided himself on his physical strength, couldn’t help trembling in shock.
He didn’t realize that Yang Kai had not exerted his full strength when they fought back then. If at that time, Yang Kai had summoned this strange firebird and stone giant, how could he still have his life?
Whether it was the stone giant or the firebird, either was enough to absolutely crush him. The powerful physique he had cultivated over several hundred years wasn’t worth a fart in front of these two strange creatures.
Fortunately, the relationship between them was not horrendous to the degree they were irreconcilable, allowing them to go from enemies to friends.
When thinking back on those initial days, Sha Hu could not help feeling some fear as well as gratitude that he had made such a wise decision.
However… what exactly were Yang Kai’s origins? With such strength, couldn’t he dominate over all of Shadowed Star? It seemed that Sha Hu would have to ask Pang Zhen about Yang Kai’s background after this incident was over.
Sha Hu secretly made up his mind before focusing his attention back on the battlefield.
With just a glance though, he couldn’t help feeling stunned.
He found that Ming Yue, who was at the centre of the hellish flames, had actually not been killed immediately, instead, his vitality was simply severely weakened. Sha Hu didn’t know how Ming Yue managed to pull this off; after all, if they traded places, that single blow would have been enough to kill him ten times over.
Yang Kai obviously discovered this too, but instead of being surprised, he instead wore a look of interest.
A moment later, the raging flames and thunder dissipated and the sea of destruction ebbed. At the centre of the scorched earth stood Ming Yue, panting heavily and looking very embarrassed.
There were no longer any signs of his previously elegant demeanour, with his clothes completely ruined, his hair in a mess, and his skin filled with burns as his vitality fluctuated weakly.
If it weren’t for his intrepid physique, he would likely have already been killed.
Ming Yue being able to stand was thanks in large part to all the Shadowed Heaven Pills he had taken to temper his body over the years, highly enriching his vitality.
But standing was all Ming Yue could do at this point, he looked at Yang Kai blankly, his face filled with unwillingness as he clenched something in his hand.
Yang Kai’s gaze shifted and quickly discerned what Ming Yue was grasping.
It was actually a token, and one that Yang Kai was quite familiar with. From this token, there was a faint, but obviously Emperor Pressure.
[A Star Emperor Token!] Yang Kai frowned.
He had never expected that Ming Yue would possess a Star Emperor Token!
From what Yang Kai could sense, it was this Star Emperor Token that allowed Ming Yue to communicate with the World Principles of Shadowed Soul Island and allowed him to use his Saint Qi and Shi. It was also thanks to this that he was able to survive Liu Yan’s fierce attack just now.
[Could this damned place actually be related to Yang Yan?] This idea flashed through Yang Kai’s mind quickly.
Not delaying any longer, Yang Kai’s figure flickered and he arrived in front of Ming Yue, sending out a palm strike towards his chest.
Ming Yue was already an arrow at the end of its flight and couldn’t resist at all. This palm was the last straw, and even though Ming Yue saw it coming, he had no strength to resist.
With a muffled thud, Ming Yue fell onto his back while Yang Kai quickly snatched the Star Emperor Token and Space Ring from his hand.
With his back to Sha Hu and the others, Yang Kai carefully handled the token and quickly confirmed it to be a genuine Star Emperor Token because it was identical to the ones he already possessed!
Sending his Divine Sense into the Star Emperor Token, Yang Kai noticed that it seemed to have a subtle connection to a certain location on Shadowed Soul Island.
Yang Kai raised his head and looked in that direction.
“Old Sha, I’ll let you handle things from here, I’m going to investigate something,” Yang Kai said before immediately disappearing.
Sha Hu was taken aback, but didn’t pay the matter too much mind, instead turning towards Ming Yue’s subordinates and flashing a ferocious grin.
Those people only came back to their senses at this moment and began calling out in panic, “Island Master Sha, mercy! What happened a hundred years ago was all because Ming Yue forced me to act, not because I was willing!”
“Heh heh, whether it was voluntary or involuntary doesn’t matter to this old master. Misdeeds have costs. A hundred years ago, all of you joined forces with Ming Yue in his plot against this old master, and if it weren’t for this old master’s good fortune, he would never have been able to have his revenge today. Talk is useless, surrender your lives!”
Sha Hu released a brilliant red light from his body and rushed towards the shaking cultivators like a tiger entering a flock of sheep. After ten breaths, all of Ming Yue’s subordinates had been killed.
Having obtained his revenge, Sha Hu stood on the spot, looked up at the sky, and released a thunderous roar.
The thousands of cultivators on Shadowed Soul Island all looked towards the source of this howl with a myriad of different expressions.
They knew that a great change had come to Shadowed Soul Island.
In the meantime, Yang Kai arrived at the central point of Shadowed Soul Island.
After arriving here, the Star Emperor Token that belonged to Ming Yue in his hand began to vibrate, as if it was trying to escape Yang Kai’s grasp.
This place was quite picturesque, with several small huts being built here that seemed to have been abandoned long ago.
Yang Kai swept his eyes around with a suspicious expression on his face.
Although he felt that this place was somewhat strange, he was unable to determine what made it so through observation alone.
After thinking about it for a moment, Yang Kai let go of the Star Emperor Token.
The Star Emperor Token flew out immediately, drawing a beautiful arc in the air, before quickly arriving at a certain spot and hovering there, a series of black spots appearing around it in the next moment.
A chaotic nothingness pulsed from these holes, along with a powerful Space Force fluctuation.
Seeing this, Yang Kai’s expression suddenly became solemn.
These black holes were quite similar to Void Cracks and seemed to have always existed here, but had gone completely unnoticed. Only when a Star Emperor Token was brought close would they reveal themselves.
The shape of these holes was also the same as a Star Emperor Token.
Hovering mid-air, there were a total of nine holes, each of which seemed to be subtly connected with the others. These nine token-shaped holes seemed to be connected, forming an array pattern that was beyond Yang Kai’s comprehension!
Nine was a significant number, as Yang Yan had once told Yang Kai that she had produced a total of nine Star Emperor Tokens.
Yang Yan had refused to elaborate on what kind of mystery there was behind this number.
However, it obviously had something to do with this scene!
Yang Kai’s expression became thoughtful as he gradually connected everything he had seen and heard in the past regarding this matter and began formulating a guess as to what Yang Yan had meant.
Shadowed Soul Island was definitely related to Yang Yan, this truth was beyond a shadow of a doubt, otherwise, there wouldn’t be nine tiny Void Cracks here in the shape of Star Emperor Tokens.
Just as Yang Kai was lost in thought, the Star Emperor Token that he had recently acquired flew into a specific hole and covered it tightly, not leaving the slightest gap, as if the Void Crack had been filled or sealed by it.
After a moment of contemplation, Yang Kai flipped his wrist and summoned four more Star Emperor Tokens into his palm.
These four Star Emperor Tokens were obtained by Yang Kai through various chances over the past several dozen years since he entered the Star Field.
One of them was a parting gift from Gui Zu and had originally still contained one of the Great Emperor’s Divine Abilities. However, during the battle with Luo Hai on Scarlet Wave Star, Yang Kai had unsealed this Divine Ability and used it to kill his opponent.
Although the power within it had been used up, the Star Emperor Token remained, and Yang Kai had not discarded it.
The second token was obtained by Yang Kai during his first foray into the Flowing Flame Sand Field.
The third originally belonged to Ye Xi Yun, but was later transferred to Yang Kai.
The fourth had been preserved in the main hall of Star Emperor Mountain.
Counting the Star Emperor Token he obtained today, Yang Kai already had five in his possession.
Of the remaining four pieces, Yang Kai only knew that one belonged to Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce while the whereabouts of the other three were a mystery.
After the four Star Emperor Tokens were taken out, they began vibrating, trying to escape from Yang Kai’s control. Remaining calm, Yang Kai allowed them to leave his hand.
Unsurprisingly, these four Star Emperor Tokens were also drawn towards the Void Cracks up in the sky and quickly filled in four of the nine slots.
In the next moment, the five Star Emperor Tokens released a burst of light and a mysterious force began spreading out from them, swiftly covering Yang Kai.
The Saint Qi which had been stagnant in his meridians seemed to receive a strong impetus and began rapidly circulating through Yang Kai’s body.
Feeling this nostalgic sensation, Yang Kai could not help taking a deep breath, feeling refreshed.
At this moment, Yang Kai also confirmed how the Star Emperor Token Ming Yue had in his possession allowed him to use Saint Qi, allowing him to catch Sha Hu off guard.
He must have undergone a similar process here.
What Yang Kai could not determine was whether Ming Yue originally possessed a Star Emperor Token, or if he had accidentally discovered it here.
Ming Yue was dead now though, so there was no way to know.
Yang Kai stood straight like a spear on the spot, staring towards the floating formation fixedly.
Sending his senses towards this formation, Yang Kai sensed his consciousness being drawn far away.
He faintly noticed that a wider world was behind this thin veil! The vitality and excitement of this world far surpassed that of the Star Field where he now stood, and there were no doubt far more powerful cultivators and more terrifying heights there as well.
Yang Kai’s thoughts were immersed in this sensation, and it was some time before he was able to collect himself again.
He wanted to see what that world was like, but no matter how hard he tried, he was unable to get a clear picture and could only probe it with his Divine Sense. It was as if his Soul had entered a long channel, one that continued to advance forward without end.
Outside the central region, Sha Hu stood with crossed arms as he quietly gazed inwards.
He did not know why Yang Kai entered this place, but an entire month had passed since he had. Shadowed Soul Island was now under his complete control and all the cultivators who had betrayed him in the past had been swept away. Those that remained had all pledged loyalty to him.
Sha Hu became the Island Master of Shadowed Soul Island again!
On this day, Pang Zhen, Qian Mo, and Shang Ao came together to see Sha Hu.
Shang Ao had not died but was instead imprisoned by Ming Yue and had suffered torture. Even without taking Shadowed Heaven Pills, Shang Ao was able to display excellent combat strength, so one could only imagine how great his strength would grow after taking Shadowed Heaven Pills.
With such a powerful potential subordinate, Ming Yue was naturally reluctant to kill ruthlessly. The original plan was to imprison Shang Ao for some time to dampen his resistance and then find a way to force him to submit, but these plans were obviously all for nought.
After Ming Yue died, Shang Ao was rescued by Qian Mo.
The moment the three of them approached, at the perimeter of the central region, Xiao Xiao, who was still shouldering the Heaven Shaking Pillar, and the Artifact Spirit Liu Yan, who had assumed her enchanting human form, stared towards them vigilantly.
Being locked onto by Xiao Xiao’s and Liu Yan’s Divine Senses, the trio instantly went stiff and did not dare to move.
“They have no malicious intent, there’s no need to be wary of them,” Sha Hu’s mouth twitched as he quickly cupped his fists.
Xiao Xiao’s eyes rolled slightly but remained in place, still assuming a ready stance, prepared to launch an attack at any time. As for Liu Yan, whose sentience was slightly higher, she simply shot Sha Hu a cold glance before retracting her hostility.
Sha Hu could not help feeling somewhat ashamed.
He was also one of the greatest masters on the Limitless Ocean, and after three hundred years of struggle on Shadow Soul Island, despite being unable to use Saint Qi, having consumed so many Shadowed Heaven Pills, Sha Hu firmly believed he was now even stronger than before he came here. However, despite all that, he couldn’t even compare to these two subordinates of Yang Kai.
Needless to say, the stone giant clearly had astonishing power. Without his Saint Qi, Sha Hu knew that even if there were ten of him, he wouldn’t be able to defeat it.
The gorgeous woman’s strength was even more exaggerated. The violent Fire and Thunder Attribute energy which flowed through her body gave Sha Hu even more pressure than the stone giant.
Facing this woman, Sha Hu felt as if he was facing an Origin King, though he did not really know how strong an Origin King was.
After comforting Xiao Xiao and Liu Yan, Sha Hu turned his head to look at Pang Zhen and the others and asked, “What’s the matter?”
“Shang Ao and General Qian Mo wanted to express their gratitude to Sect Master Yang,” Pang Zhen replied respectfully.
“I understand,” Sha Hu nodded before turning to Qian Mo and Shang Ao and flashing a bitter smile, “But I’m afraid you’ll have to wait. As you can see, no one can enter this place now, you’ll have to wait for Yang Kai to come out on his own.”
“Then, we’ll wait,” Shang Ao coldly snorted.
After learning that he was able to regain his freedom this time thanks in large part to Yang Kai, Shang Ao wanted to thank him in person. As for Sha Hu, Shang Ao did not take him seriously.
There were deep-rooted grudges between Sea Temple and Sea God Palace and they would not be easily resolved overnight.
Sha Hu obviously understood this and didn’t care about Shang Ao’s indifference, instead asking with interest, “By the way, this old master has been busy cleaning up Shadowed Soul Island these days and has not had time to ask carefully. Pang Zhen, who exactly is Yang Kai, what are his origins?”
Hearing this question, Shang Ao and Qian Mo also could not help showing some interest.
Respect for the strong was universal amongst masters. Qian Mo and Shang Ao were both Generals of Sea God Palace and had both strength and status, but when compared to Yang Kai, they both found themselves lacking.
Living most of their lives in the deep sea, they knew very little about inland matters, even less than Pang Zhen, so they too were curious about Yang Kai’s background.
“Sect Master Yang… is the Sect Master of High Heaven Sect!” Pang Zhen thought for a while and replied solemnly.
“High Heaven Sect?” Sha Hu frowned slightly, “Why hasn’t this old master heard of such a Sect?”
Pang Zhen smiled bitterly, “Martial Uncle disappeared three hundred years ago, so naturally he has not heard of High Heaven Sect as it was only established about fifteen years ago.”
“Fifteen years… en, its heritage must not be deep then,” Sha Hu chuckled softly, “But with a Sect Master like Yang Kai, as long as it is given enough time, it will definitely rise to the level of Heaven Battling Union and Thunder Typhoon Sect.”
“Martial Uncle…” Pang Zhen looked like he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, “Thunder Typhoon Sect and Heaven Battling Union have already faded into history.”
“They have been destroyed?” Sha Hu’s expression filled with shock as he called out in alarm.
“En, they were both destroyed by Sect Master Yang’s High Heaven Sect!”
Sha Hu gasped and both Qian Mo and Shang Ao exchanged a shocked glance.
Although Qian Mo and Shang Ao did not know much about the current inland situation, they had at least heard of Thunder Typhoon Sect and Heaven Battling Union as these were behemoths that dominated Shadowed Star’s inland for thousands of years!
“Star Emperor Mountain was also destroyed by him!” Pang Zhen quickly threw out another shocking piece of information.
“What?” Sha Hu was completely astonished now, “Even Star Emperor Mountain was destroyed by him?”
“Yes and no, most of the masters from Star Emperor Mountain joined High Heaven Sect, so the current High Heaven Sect is considered the strongest Sect on Shadowed Star!”
“How does my Sea Temple compare?” Sha Hu asked urgently.
“Inferior in every way,” Pang Zhen spoke the truth, “But because we and High Heaven Sect are from the Limitless Ocean and inland respectively, there isn’t much intersection between us. Moreover, the headquarters of High Heaven Sect is located inside the Flowing Flame Sand Field, making it absolutely impregnable to outside attack.”
Sha Hu’s jaw dropped as his thoughts ground to a halt!
He naturally knew about the Flowing Flame Sand Field; after all, it was one of Shadowed Star’s Three Great Forbidden Zones. Normally, no one was able to enter it, yet now he heard High Heaven Sect had actually set up its headquarters inside of it. How was that possible?
Not only Sha Hu was dumbfounded, Qian Mo and Shang Ao were also in a state of stunned disbelief.
Pang Zhen paused here as he too could understand the shock in the hearts of Sha Hu and the two Sea Clan Generals.
Which master on Shadowed Star would not be shocked when they first learned such news? When this information reached the Limitless Ocean, Sea Temple’s leadership were also completely shocked, and the Temple Masters all had trouble sleeping and eating for quite some time, lest Yang Kai’s ambitions stretch out towards the Limitless Ocean.
However, time showed that Yang Kai had no such plans, and after several years of peace and quiet, the Temple Masters of Sea Temple gradually relaxed.
A few days ago, Yang Kai proposed setting up trade with Sea Temple on Sunrise Island, but the Temple Masters had not made any response yet, probably because they were uncertain about Yang Kai’s intentions.
After a long silence, Sha Hu seemed to gradually digest the information, then asked about Yang Kai’s background more carefully.
Pang Zhen reported everything he knew.
Sha Hu’s expression became more and more solemn as time passed, while Qian Mo and Shang Ao’s expressions also changed constantly, their eyes meeting frequently, as if secretly communicating with one another.
Suddenly, a change happened in the central region of the island and a figure strolled out.
Naturally, it was Yang Kai!
Shang Ao, Qian Mo, and Pang Zhen were all stunned for a moment but quickly cupped their fists with Sha Hu smiling slightly and asking, “Did you have any gains?”
Yang Kai greeted everyone before recalling Xiao Xiao and Liu Yan then nodding, “En, a few.”
“So you can also use your Saint Qi now?” Sha Hu asked in surprise.
In the battle against Ming Yue that day, his opponent had suddenly used both his Saint Qi and Shi, which truly frightened Sha Hu. After thinking hard about it though, Sha Hu could only attribute the cause of this to some secret hidden in the central region.
The depths of the central region’s mountains was the spot he had described to Yang Kai before, where he had sensed something unusual but was unable to discern what it was.
There was clearly some kind of secret hidden there and perhaps it was related to the reason why Ming Yue was able to use his Saint Qi, but Sha Hu was unable to figure it out. Now seeing Yang Kai like this though, and hearing he had some gains, Sha Hu was immediately able to make an educated guess.
“Using Saint Qi isn’t an issue,” Yang Kai nodded lightly, not as happy as Sha Hu imagined he would have been, but quickly adding, “I also found a way to leave this place.”
“What!?” Sha Hu exclaimed.
Nearby, Pang Zhen and the others also were shocked for a moment before they all wore overjoyed expressions and urgently asked, “Is that true?”
“Naturally,” Yang Kai nodded, “I came out to tell you this news actually. If any of you want to go out with me, you should begin preparing now, as I will be leaving in a few days.”
“Sect Master Yang…” Pang Zhen looked at Yang Kai eagerly, “Dare I ask Sect Master Yang, how many people can you take out?”
To the side, Shang Ao heard Pang Zhen’s question and immediately realized the importance of this issue.
“Taking everyone out won’t be an issue,” Yang Kai replied, “But…”
“But what?” Pang Zhen immediately became nervous.
“I can take the people from Sea Temple and Sea God Palace out free of charge, but as for the others… en, please spread the word that if anyone wants to leave this place, they need to help me harvest some Shadowed Heaven Lotus.”
Pang Zhen was taken aback for a moment but quickly understood and said with a wry smile, “Sect Master Yang’s plans are quite deep!”
He could imagine that once this news was spread, the cultivators who had been trapped on Shadowed Soul Island would flood into the sea to look for Shadowed Heaven Lotus, all of which would wind up in Yang Kai’s pockets.
Yang Kai chuckled and said, “I’m just charging a small fee.”
“When do you plan on leaving this place then, Yang Kai?” Sha Hu asked from the side.
“One month from now.”
“Alright!” Sha Hu nodded, “This old master will help you spread the word. As for my Sea Temple’s disciples, I will not let you work in vain. After we leave here, Sea Temple will offer you an appropriate thanks.”
“If Old Sha insists, then it would be impolite to refuse,” Yang Kai laughed.
“My Sea God Palace will also compensate Sect Master Yang fairly,” Shang Ao hurriedly expressed his opinion as well.
Yang Kai glanced at him and nodded lightly, not raising any objections.
The news that there was a way to leave Shadowed Soul Island spread like the wind, and soon it swept across the entire island.
After hearing this news, nine out of ten cultivators dismissed it as nonsense, thinking that it was just someone spreading a bad joke; after all, if there was a way to Shadowed Soul Island, none of them would have been trapped here for so many years. Countless cultivators had been trapped on Shadowed Soul Island over the years, many of them with astonishing skills and methods, so there should have been someone over the millennia who had found an exit.
But time had proven that Shadowed Soul Island was an inescapable cage, and anyone caught here would die here!
Such news suddenly popping up now was incredibly difficult to believe.
It was not until Sha Hu came forward to guarantee this information that the Shadowed Soul Island cultivators began to believe in it.
It was not long before almost every cultivator on Shadowed Soul Island set out in droves to search the nearby waters for Shadowed Heaven Lotus, hoping to earn their passage out of this forsaken place.
Shadowed Soul Island became a truly empty island.
In the waters tens of thousands of kilometres away from Shadowed Soul Island, Yang Kai rode atop the little dolphin’s back as she swam forward.
While the Shadowed Soul Island cultivators were scattered about looking for Shadowed Heaven Lotus, Yang Kai did not remain idle. Shadowed Heaven Lotus were such treasures that naturally the more he had the better. As such, the same day Sha Hu began spreading the news that a way out had been found, Yang Kai found the little dolphin and left Shadowed Soul Island to search the distant waters, relying on her instincts to find precious Shadowed Heaven Lotus.
Yang Kai’s gains were significant.
The far waters had always been difficult for Shadowed Soul Island cultivators to reach, so there were more Shadowed Heaven Lotus out there.
After swallowing hundreds of Origin Grade Shadowed Heaven Pills, Yang Kai’s physique had grown several times stronger than when he first entered Shadowed Soul Island, so the sea beasts that had previously given him some trouble were now powerless before him.
Yang Kai and the little dolphin went further and further out, their harvest becoming more and more abundant as time passed.
As the deadline he had set approached, Yang Kai had the little dolphin turn back and return to the island.
When Yang Kai returned to Shadowed Soul Island again, thousands of cultivators were already waiting for him.
Unfortunately, one month was not enough time for all the cultivators to harvest enough Shadowed Heaven Lotus to buy their way out. Some people were unlucky and never found any Shadowed Heaven Lotus, so they wore uneasy looks on their faces while they stood waiting, worried Yang Kai would not bring them out with him.
After meeting with Sha Hu and the others and understanding the situation, Yang Kai asked the cultivators of Sea Temple and Sea God Palace to help him collect the Shadowed Heaven Lotus.
The cultivators with Shadowed Heaven Lotus in their hands happily turned them over before walking towards the admitted side with peace of mind, eager to depart.
It only took a day to process this matter.
The residents of the island were now divided into two parts, one that had turned over Shadowed Heaven Lotus and another that had not.
The number of cultivators who failed to harvest any Shadowed Heaven Lotus was not large, only seven or eight hundred.
Yang Kai stood in front of these leftover cultivators and saw the anxiety and embarrassment on their faces. Smiling though, he called out loudly, “Don’t fear, this Yang will give you a chance. Since you do not have any Shadowed Heaven Lotus, you can redeem your freedom in other methods.”
“Little brother, dare I ask what methods are you proposing?” A cultivator who looked quite elderly asked.
Everyone also watched Yang Kai hesitantly, worried he would impose some kind of harsh demands on them.
“Some of you probably come from strong backgrounds or have good status back on Shadowed Star, as such, after leaving here, you can simply have your families or Sects pay some compensation for your freedom. If even this is not an option for you, you can serve this Yang as a labourer for ten years to earn your freedom.”
As soon as these words were said, the audience went into an uproar. Some cultivators were worried, but most looked quite happy.
Yang Kai was correct: Most of these leftover cultivators had powerful families or belonged to strong Sects on Shadowed Star, so as long as they were able to leave here, raising some funds would not be a problem.
A few materials in exchange for their freedom was a bargain.
If they could not raise enough funds though, serving as a labourer also didn’t seem to be a big problem. Yang Kai did not seem to be a wicked person, otherwise, he wouldn’t have even offered such an option. All he had to do was abandon them here on Shadowed Soul Island and be done with them.
Ten years of work and they could regain their freedom.
“If you are willing, please go to Island Master Sha and leave your Soul Brand. After you fulfil your end of this agreement, this Yang will return your Soul Brand to you!” Yang Kai shouted again.
The next moment, more than half of the eight hundred or so people remaining rushed towards Sha Hu’s direction while the rest hesitated for a moment before accepting their fate and following their companions.
To the side, Sha Hu, who had been informed by Yang Kai in advance, had already ordered the Sea Temple disciples to prepare. After these cultivators flooded up, the Sea Temple disciples began taking out pieces of white spirit jade and having the cultivators engrave their Soul Brands inside.
With these Soul Brands, anyone could easily control the life or death of these cultivators, so none of them would dare try to ignore today’s agreement.
Sha Hu squeezed out of the crowd and came to Yang Kai’s side before glancing back over it and saying with a wry smile, “Is Sect Master Yang’s High Heaven Sect lacking materials?”
Yang Kai simply chuckled, “Mosquito meat is also meat.”
Sha Hu glanced at him thoughtfully, before grinning knowingly and nodding.
He saw through Yang Kai’s intentions!
Yang Kai clearly wanted to bring all the cultivators of Shadowed Soul Island out of this place, otherwise, he would not have made such accommodations.
Yang Kai did this for two purposes. On the one hand, he was using these cultivators to help him search for Shadowed Heaven Lotus, and on the other hand, he wanted to deal with things in a way that avoided future criticism!
The only explanation for this was that he had a way to return to Shadowed Soul Island again after leaving and already considered this place his private property, thus wanting to clear out everyone else from it!
Considering all this, Sha Hu’s breathing quickened.
Without even mentioning the large amount of Shadowed Heaven Lotus that Yang Kai had harvested on Shadowed Soul Island these days, in the future, as long as he wanted to, he would be able to come back here and collect as many as he wanted.
It was conceivable that, in time, High Heaven Sect would become a terrifying behemoth!
Sha Hu thoughts were unreadable to Yang Kai, but he believed that Sha Hu could vaguely guess his intentions.
Of course, Yang Kai did not bother confirming anything as he had the right to dictate terms since he was the only one with the ability to come and go from this place.
Yang Kai only cared about securing this place as his own private Restricted Area!
After settling the last remaining eight hundred or so people, all Shadowed Soul Island’s cultivators were prepared to leave.
Everyone’s eyes now turned to Yang Kai, wondering what method he would use to take them out from this place, a mix of expectation and anxiety appearing on all their faces.
Even Sha Hu was no exception.
Although Yang Kai had spoken with complete confidence, and they did not doubt him, nobody could help becoming a bit nervous in the final moment.
As everyone looked on, Yang Kai remained motionless, simply standing in place silently with his eyes closed.
However, a pure and rich Spiritual Energy overflowed from his body.
The strength of this Spiritual Energy caused everyone present to pale in shock.
Potent streams of Spiritual Energy penetrated The Void and seemed to extend outwards towards some unknown location.
Yang Kai had cultivated the Dao of Space for many years, and tearing space was always the best method to escape from a trapped space, but this method had not been suitable to use to leave Shadowed Soul Island, as this was an independent isolated world with its own World Principle barrier. Unable to locate Shadowed Star, even if Yang Kai could tear space, he could only move about inside Shadowed Soul Island, not leave it.
However, now that he had touched upon Shadowed Soul Island’s World Principles and could use his Saint Qi, along with his connection to Shadowed Star as its Star Master, it was not too difficult for Yang Kai to determine the location of Shadowed Star.
Sending his Divine Sense across The Void, it did not take long for Yang Kai to find the barrier which separated Shadowed Soul Island and Shadowed Star.
Suddenly opening his eyes, Yang Kai’s Space Force poured out madly as he stretched out his hands as grasped the space in front of him.
Like dragons going out to sea, Yang Kai’s hands sank directly into The Void under everyone’s rapt attention.
Exclamations resounded as thousands of cultivators widened their eyes and stared at this incredible scene. Seeing Yang Kai’s two arms suddenly disappear was a phenomenon beyond their level of understanding.
The next moment, Yang Kai suddenly let out a deep shout.
Spreading his arms apart rapidly, the space in front of him was ripped open like a piece of cloth, revealing a pitch-black crack.
This crack grew bigger and bigger, and from it, came a terrifying, chaotic aura, like the maw of an ancient beast that was trying to swallow this world whole!
Yang Kai took a deep breath and released his grip after the crack expanded to about thirty metres in length.
However, rich Space Force was still pouring out of Yang Kai’s body like a sharp spear, thrusting into the Void Crack and slowly forming a stable Void Corridor connecting Shadowed Soul Island and Shadowed Star.
Sha Hu was dumbfounded.
A month ago, Yang Kai said that he had found a way to leave this place, and although Sha Hu did not doubt him, he was still unclear how Yang Kai was planning to achieve this.
Only now did he understand what Yang Kai was relying on.
He had actually cultivated the extremely rare and esoteric Dao of Space, and was so proficient in it that not only could he tear space with his own strength, he could even construct a safe Void Corridor!
Even considering the entire Star Field, there was likely no one else who was capable of this. Sha Hu believed that even those legendary Origin King Realm masters could not do what Yang Kai had just done.
“How long are you planning on staying here? Weren’t you all eager to leave?”
Just as Sha Hu was lost in a daze, Yang Kai’s voice suddenly entered his ears, and after regaining his composure, he swiftly waved his hand and shouted, “Follow this old master!”
Saying so, he dove into the Void Corridor constructed by Yang Kai and was swallowed by darkness.
The disciples of Sea Temple followed closely behind, disappearing one by one.
Everyone from the Sea Clan hurriedly followed, with Qian Mo nodding slightly to Yang Kai as she passed by. The little dolphin flipped her tail and made a series of cries as she went through, seemingly telling him to quickly follow.
After the cultivators of Sea Temple and Sea God Palace disappeared, the other cultivators rushed forward.
The Void Crack torn by Yang Kai was thirty metres long, wide enough to accommodate many people walking side by side, so even if there were thousands of cultivators waiting, the exodus proceeded extremely quickly. In less than half a cup of tea’s time, Yang Kai was the only one left on Shadowed Soul Island.
Turning his head and looking around, after confirming that there were no more people living here, Yang Kai entered the Void Corridor.
This Void Corridor was constructed by him, so Yang Kai knew how to traverse it better than anyone, allowing him to swim through The Void in but a moment before a flash of light appeared before his eyes and he appeared somewhere above the sea.
As the unique smell of sea breeze blew across Yang Kai’s face, he heard countless cultivators crying out and shouting, all of them clearly excited to have finally left Shadowed Soul Island.
From the moment they fell onto Shadowed Soul Island, they thought they would never be able to come out and would be forced to spend their whole life under the grip of Ming Yue, but now, they had actually returned home to Shadowed Star.
So, after Yang Kai emerged, many cultivators turned looks of gratitude towards him.
Regardless of whether Yang Kai charged them a certain amount of compensation, it was a fact that they had escaped from Shadowed Soul Island. Everyone was thrilled for having been delivered from imprisonment.
“Yang Kai!” Sha Hu quickly flew over and was relieved to see that Yang Kai was safe.
Yang Kai nodded lightly before he turned his head and stretched out his hand towards the Void Crack behind him, causing it to close and soon disappear.
Without this Void Crack, no one but Yang Kai would be able to return to Shadowed Soul Island.
“Where is this place? Are we somewhere on the Limitless Ocean?” Yang Kai asked.
“Pang Zhen and the Sea Clan’s people have already gone to investigate, they should be back soon,” Sha Hu replied.
Yang Kai nodded and waited quietly.
After about an hour, Pang Zhen and Qian Mo returned with joyful looks upon their faces.
“Martial Uncle, this is indeed the Limitless Ocean! We’re ten thousand kilometres east of my Sea Temple’s headquarters, Black Reef Island!” Pang Zhen reported excitedly.
“That’s good news!” Sha Hu also showed a smile on his face, “It’s been three hundred years since this old master last saw home. Yang Kai, this old master offers his sincerest thanks.”
Yang Kai grinned meaningfully, “Old Sha is too polite. If you really want to thank me, you might as well promise me one thing.”
“Name it! As long as it doesn’t violate the principles of this old master’s ancestors, this old master can promise you anything,” Sha Hu declared boldly.
Yang Kai nodded slightly and said, “It’s nothing so serious, I just want to establish an exchange of materials between my High Heaven Sect and your Sea Temple; after all, the products produced inland and out at sea are vastly different. Last time I spoke to Island Master Pang about this, Sea Temple didn’t seem to be keen on my proposal and failed to respond to me.”
Pang Zhen’s expression became a little embarrassed.
“Then there’s nothing to think about, this old master can agree to this matter immediately; after all, an exchange of goods will benefit both of us. My Sea Temple will not refuse! When this old master returns to the headquarters, he will see to it!”
“Many thanks, Old Sha.” Yang Kai smiled lightly.
Sha Hu was the former Second Temple Master of Sea Temple, and although he had disappeared for nearly three hundred years, his status and seniority remained unchanged. Since he had agreed, there would obviously be no problems with this matter.
“Sect Master Yang, I wonder if my Sea God Palace can participate in this matter as well?” Qian Mo suddenly asked with a smile from the side.
“Do you want to participate too?” Yang Kai looked at Qian Mo in amazement.
“Naturally. My Sea God Palace’s ability to collect deep-sea materials is even better than Sea Temple’s. Since Sect Master Yang is willing to form a trade relationship with Sea Temple, surely there is no reason for him to reject me Sea God Palace, right?”
“Of course I won’t refuse, my High Heaven Sect will gladly do business with General Qian Mo’s Sea God Palace,” Yang Kai laughed.
“Then it’s settled, it’s just that the inland and the Limitless Ocean are quite far apart, so the transportation of large quantities of materials may be troublesome…”
Sha Hu also nodded lightly, agreeing with Qian Mo’s statement. The reason why the deep sea and inland materials could not be exchanged on a large scale was primarily because of the distance between the two regions, a problem no cultivator on Shadowed Star had been able to solve up until now.
“There’s no need to worry about that, I will arrange a Space Array to connect High Heaven Sect with your two forces, then the distance between us won’t be a problem,” Yang Kai explained the solution he had come up with long ago.
Both Qian Mo and Sha Hu were stunned for a moment, but when they recalled the scene just now of Yang Kai tearing space, they believed he was capable of such a feat.
“In that case, this General will eagerly await Sect Master Yang’s arrival!” Qian Mo smiled.
“This old master will also be waiting to hear the good news!” Sha Hu added.
As they talked, many cultivators had already left this place. The people of Sea Temple and Sea God Palace had a brief discussion as well before bidding their farewells to Yang Kai and returning to their respective headquarters.
The little dolphin was reluctant to leave Yang Kai, however, and was unwilling to leave.
In the end, Yang Kai had to gift her a few bottles of Shadowed Heaven Pills to placate her.
After an hour, only the eight hundred or so cultivators who had yet to offer compensation to Yang Kai remained, all of them looking towards him, waiting for his orders.
“You can all travel to High Heaven Sect by yourselves. After you arrive there, someone will welcome and assign you some work. Those who need to contact your relatives or Sects can do so at will. As long as you deliver enough materials, this Sect Master will return your Soul Brands,” Yang Kai said.
“Many thanks, Sect Master Yang!” The hundreds of people cupped their fists one after another.
Yang Kai nodded but did not say anything more, his figure simply flickering as he disappeared.
Upon returning to Shadowed Star, he could once again mobilize the forces of the star as its Star Master. Every time he moved, Yang Kai could cross several tens of thousands of kilometres or even hundreds of thousands.
In less than half an hour, Yang Kai had already arrived outside the Flowing Flame Sand Field.
Looking at the familiar scene, Yang Kai smiled slightly. No matter how wondrous the outside world was, when the body and mind were exhausted, it was always best to return home!
Disappearing once more, Yang Kai re-appeared inside High Heaven Sect.
Without disturbing too many people, Yang Kai first visited his parents before he met with the Elders of High Heaven Sect to ask about the situation on Shadowed Star these past few months he had been missing.
Corpse Spirit Religion had basically been completely uprooted while all the surviving great forces of Shadowed Star’s inland were in a perpetual state of business. High Heaven Sect had become a true leader of Shadowed Star after this battle and was undoubtedly one of the most powerful Sects in existence, holding supreme prestige.
In fact, if Qian Tong of Shadow Moon Hall had not become an Origin King Realm master, this ‘one of’ could be removed.
Shadow Moon Hall, where an Origin King Realm assumed command, was indeed worthy of being on par with High Heaven Sect.
In addition, there were already many great forces and families on Shadowed Star who intended to ally with High Heaven Sect in hopes of following its lead. Ye Xi Yun had taken the liberty to agree to these requests entirely.
It could be said that the current High Heaven Sect had already surpassed the original Star Emperor Mountain, both in terms of strength and prestige.
Ye Xi Yun presided over High Heaven Sect’s general affairs, so there was no need for Yang Kai to put much effort into it. Even if Yang Kai was not there, everything would be handled properly.
After finishing his discussion with the Elders, Yang Kai went to see his Little Senior Sister again.
This trip to Shadowed Soul Island, Yang Kai’s biggest gain was naturally the ten thousand or so Shadowed Heaven Lotus of different colours. With so many Shadowed Heaven Lotuses, even if Yang Kai personally took action to refine them, it would take a lot of time and effort.
But for Xia Ning Chang, this was not an issue.
To her, Alchemy was cultivating.
Shadowed Heaven Lotus and Shadowed Heaven Pills could not be found in the outside world, so, Xia Ning Chang was very interested in them. After obtaining all the herbs and the pill recipe, she immediately entered retreat to focus on Alchemy.
Yang Kai was certain that High Heaven Sect would have a large number of Shadowed Heaven Pills in the near future, and with these special Body Tempering pills, the overall strength of High Heaven Sect would undoubtedly rise to a new level.
Yang Kai also had his own arrangements for these Shadowed Heaven Pills that would soon be released. Although ten thousand Shadowed Heaven Lotuses seemed like a huge number, if they were all refined into pills, they would produce only about seventy or eighty thousand pills at most.
Currently, there were over ten thousand High Heaven Sect disciples, so these seventy thousand pills could naturally not be freely distributed to everyone.
Besides the Origin Returning Realm masters who would be eligible to receive a certain amount of Shadowed Heaven Pills for body tempering, Yang Kai intended to have Shadowed Heaven Pills be distributed as rewards to the common disciples that made contributions to High Heaven Sect.
Of course, this was just some initials plans Yang Kai had thought up. If he wanted to implement them, he would need to first wait some time to see how the situation developed. Also, he didn’t plan to handle this matter personally and was intending to simply hand it over to Ye Xi Yun to manage.
After leaving Pill King Peak where Xia Ning Chang was, Yang Kai went straight to the sixth layer of the Flowing Flame Sand Field where Yang Yan was sleeping.
Upon arriving on the second level of the simple loft, Yang Yan noticed him and immediately pulled his Soul Avatar into her Knowledge Sea.
Just like the situation when they met last time, the pair’s Soul Avatars sat cross-legged opposite one another while a sea of extremely hot flames burned down below.
“I heard Ye Xi Yun say you went out to hunt down the Insect Emperor. How did it go?” Yang Yan asked.
“Now that I am the Star Master of Shadowed Star, how do think it ended?” Yang Kai grinned meaningfully.
“En, seems like he’s dead,” Yang Yan gently nodded, letting out a slight sigh in the next moment, “The Insect Emperor was a high-level master as well, but now, he fell in your hands. If his enemies were to learn about this, they likely wouldn’t be able to believe it.”
Yang Kai thought otherwise. Even if the Insect Emperor was an extremely powerful cultivator at one point, that was over ten thousand years ago. After his cultivation fell sharply, not even reaching the Origin King Realm, fighting the current Yang Kai on Shadowed Star was nothing short of suicide.
Of course, the biggest reason Yang Kai was able to kill the Insect Emperor was that Yang Yan had given him Shadowed Star’s Source. If not for this, with Yang Kai’s current ability, there was no way he could have killed the Insect Emperor.
His escape ability was simply too profound, to the point where even an ordinary Origin King would be helpless to hunt him down.
“Your harvest wasn’t small either, was it?” Yang Yan grinned lightly, “There must have been many good things on the Insect Emperor.”
“I didn’t actually find many good things, only the Soul Splitting Saber as well as a bracelet-like artifact.”
The Soul Splitting Saber and the bracelet-like artifact were both undoubtedly Emperor Artifacts, similar to the Annihilation Thunder Bead, Sealed World Bead, and Three Blazing Flame Rings. As for the role of the Soul Splitting Saber, Yang Kai knew that it was a powerful Soul-type artifact. Unfortunately, since it was an Emperor Artifact, it was currently too difficult for Yang Kai to effectively use. So, he could only slowly refine it and look forward to the day when he could wield it.
However, Yang Kai was completely confused about the bracelet artifact, not even knowing what its purpose held.
“The Insect Enslavement Bracelet?” Yang Yan raised her brow as she recalled the artifact’s name.
“It’s called the Insect Enslavement Bracelet?” Yang Kai parroted back.
“En, the artifacts the Insect Emperor used were all famous, and needless to say the Soul Splitting Saber and Insect Enslavement Bracelet were the most famous among them!”
“Oh? What use does this thing have then?” Yang Kai suddenly became interested.
“The Insect Enslavement Bracelet has many uses,” Yang Yan lightly smiled, “Not only is this artifact inherently capable of restraining all types of Exotic Insects, even having some suppressive effects on smaller Monster Beasts, but if the insects are raised inside of it, they will all become terrifying. If those insects were to be released, they would have no problem destroying the entire Star Field.”
Yang Kai’s expression became solemn as he asked in amazement, “There are Exotic Insects inside this Insect Enslavement Bracelet?”
Yang Yan giggled, “Where do you think the Insect Emperor kept those little things? Do you think he kept them all inside his body or something? The Insect Enslavement Bracelet is where he keeps all his Exotic Insects. He has several dozen, if not a hundred or so different species of Exotic Ancient Insects, many of which were thought to be extinct. Each of them is ruthless and serve a different purpose. In the past, I suffered greatly thanks to that Insect Enslavement Bracelet.”
The more Yang Kai listened, the brighter his eyes became, as if he had discovered a Heaven defying secret.
“Interested?” Yang Yan teased.
“To be honest, a little,” Yang Kai gradually calmed himself, “But I still think that cultivation should focus on one’s self first. This kind of control and enslavement method can only serve as an auxiliary. If one really spends all their effort on this kind of thing, I’m afraid they’re only sacrificing substance for style.”
Yang Yan shook her head slowly, “The Dao is split into three thousand paths, and insect enslavement one of them. If it were not a legitimate path to tread, the Insect Emperor would never have reached such heights in his day. It can only be said that your way and the Insect Emperor’s are different.”
“Our ways are different…” Yang Kai thoughtfully.
Yang Yan chuckled, “It’s still too early for you to think about such things, you should first break through to the Origin King Realm. After reaching the Origin King Realm, you’ll be able to see more and farther.”
“Above the Origin King Realm, is there an even higher realm?” Yang Kai asked suddenly.
“Naturally there is.”
“What about you?” Yang Kai looked at Yang Yan with scorching eyes.
“I exist above that realm!” Yang Yan replied lightly.
Yang Kai fell silent. From the information revealed by Yang Yan just now, it was not difficult for him to infer that there was indeed a higher realm above the Origin King Realm, and another above that as well; Yang Yan apparently belonged to that higher realm.
Before learning this, Yang Kai had not felt anything in particular, but after knowing about it, he felt that he was standing at the bottom of a mountain, looking up at its majestic heights, its peak still shrouded in clouds and mist, making him unable to see the complete scenery in front of him.
The road ahead was endless, the Martial Dao had no peak.
Yang Yan did not speak any more, choosing instead to observe Yang Kai’s reaction. She noticed that he had not become daunted or discouraged, but instead, after a short silence, his expression became relaxed while a burning flame lit in his eyes, showing a deep desire that filled his heart.
Yang Yan pursed her lips and smiled while applauding, “Your mentality is praiseworthy.”
Yang Kai replied bluntly, “I’ve cultivated for several dozen years now, crossing each boundary one step at a time, but even now I have only achieved some small successes. Even if the road ahead is thorny and difficult, I can only use all my might to traverse it so that sooner or later, I can stand at that same height as you and see the world as you see it!”
Yang Yan covered her red lips with her delicate small hand and smiled, “Should I call you a promising young man?”
“It’s up to you!” Yang Kai shrugged his shoulders and teased, “As long as you aren’t afraid of calling yourself old.”
Yang Yan immediately glared at him.
“By the way, can I use this Insect Enslavement Bracelet now?” Yang Kai asked.
“You better not,” Yang Yan’s expression became solemn, “The Exotic Insects inside the Insect Enslavement Bracelet are extremely fierce. With your current cultivation, even if you released them, you would not be able to command or control them, only resulting in severe backlash. Did you even see the Insect Emperor use that Insect Enslavement Bracelet against you?”
Yang Kai shook his head, “He only used the Ten Thousand Poison Evil Insect from beginning to end to control his subordinates or to perform Soul seizing.”
“That’s right, even the Insect Emperor didn’t dare to use it, let alone you. Wait until you reach the Origin King Realm first.”
“I understand!” Yang Kai nodded lightly. In any case, he now had so many methods at his disposal that he did not have much use for the Insect Enslavement Bracelet.
Next, Yang Kai told Yang Yan about Shadowed Soul Island and his speculations about it. Regarding this matter, Yang Yan did not deny anything and told him it was indeed sealed off by her.
However, Yang Yan did not explain why she sealed it or what was hidden inside.
“I can only tell you that inside Shadowed Soul Island is a door! If you really want to open it, you must first gather all the Star Emperor Tokens. Once you do, you’ll naturally understand.”
After leaving Yang Yan’s place, Yang Kai went to Snow and Ice Peak again.
Snow and Ice Peak was one of the eighty-one peaks of High Heaven Sect; one of the seventy-two auxiliary peaks with rich World Energy and beautiful scenery.
What was different though was that below it, was an Ice Attribute Earth Vein, so within a few dozen kilometres of Snow and Ice Peak, the climate was extremely cold regardless of what time of year it was. The temperature here was extremely low and occasionally there was heavy snow falling, blanketing the peak in a silvery-white colour.
This situation became even more obvious after Su Yan moved to Snow and Ice Peak.
Since Su Yan became the owner of Snow and Ice Peak, the cold aura here almost became so strong that it could not be melted. A cultivator with a slightly lower strength could not even get close to Snow and Ice Peak while the stronger ones would need to circulate their Saint Qi to resist the ambient cold.
However, this kind of environment was extremely comfortable for Su Yan.
Few others lived on Snow and Ice Peak, only the original Elders of Ice Sect: Qing Ya, Qian Yue, and Qian Hao.
Yang Kai went straight to the southwest corner of Snow and Ice Peak.
On the ground, there was a thick layer of ice that reflected the shining sun.
In the southwest corner, under a giant tree covered in silvery-white snow, Su Yan sat cross-legged beside the Ten Thousand Year Ice Jade Pedestal with a pair of white Saint Qi wings spread out from her pack, a dignified and sacred look covering her beautiful face. At this moment, Su Yan was forming a series of strange seals with her hands while a metre in front of her, Profound Frost, the sword she obtained from Ice Heart Valley, was suspended mid-air. As Su Yan gently breathed, the Ice Attribute Energy in the atmosphere flowed towards her and poured into her body, causing her white wings to lightly flap.
With Su Yan as the centre, within a thousand-metre radius, there was a peculiar aura permeating the air which seemed able to freeze everything in existence.
It was her Shi. It was close to the grand accomplishment stage!
Just as Yang Kai merged his Space Force with his Shi, Su Yan was merging her comprehension of the Ice Attribute into her Shi. Obviously, she had grasped the initial concept and was integrating her understanding into her Shi.
Waiting quietly for a while, Yang Kai found that Su Yan did not show any intention to end her cultivation.
Yang Kai did not interfere with her, instead just sitting down cross-legged while stretching out his hand and drawing some lines in the air.
These lines were drawn using Yang Kai’s Saint Qi and were arranged into a certain formation that gradually formed a profound and mysterious circular pattern.
After working for a while, Yang Kai frowned slightly, stretched out his hand, brushed away the drawing, and began again from scratch.
The array was something he had learned from Yang Yan just now, and it was the basis for constructing a Space Array. This Spirit Array, coupled with some special materials, a Space Array could be constructed.
However, Yang Kai had never even dabbled in Spirit Arrays before.
Thankfully, he possessed an advantage no one else did, he was proficient in the Dao of Space, so now, his biggest problem was becoming proficient in depicting the Space Array itself. Fortunately, he had received careful guidance from Yang Yan, a Grandmaster in this particular field.
Time passed slowly, and Yang Kai completely forgot everything else around him, his expression becoming more and more focused.
Yang Kai lost track of how many arrays he portrayed, but eventually, he created one that he was satisfied with and began pouring his Space Force into it with a thought.
With a light hum, the circular array released a brilliant light and began to slowly revolve.
An obvious trace of Space Force fluctuations began the pulse from the array as well!
Yang Kai grinned happily seeing this.
Sure enough, after mastering the Dao of Space, studying this kind of Spirit Array yielded twice the results with half the effort. If it had been some other kind of Spirit Array, even if Yang Kai studied diligently, he may not have been able to properly portray it in such a short time.
After mastering this foundation, what was left was to use the appropriate materials to build a physical platform into which he would engrave this Spirit Array in two separate locations, and he would have successfully created two Space Arrays that were connected to each other.
Yang Kai exhaled lightly in satisfaction.
“Is this a Space Array?” Su Yan’s voice suddenly came from the side.
Yang Kai looked up and found that she had at some point finished her cultivation and was now standing quietly beside him, staring at the shining, rotating circle in front of them as she asked softly.
“En,” Yang Kai nodded, stretched out his hand to pull Su Yan into his arms, and asked softly, “How is your cultivation?”
“Fortunately, I was able to cultivate my Shi to the grand accomplishment stage,” Su Yan leaned on Yang Kai with a satisfied look on her face, breathing lightly as she spoke, “It was all thanks to the Domain Stones Junior Brother gave me. Without them, it would have been impossible for me to make such rapid progress.”
“I have lots of Domain Stones left, so you don’t need to conserve them when you use them,” Yang Kai smiled softly, feeling relaxed both physically and mentally.
“En, coming to visit me so suddenly, is there something wrong?”
“No, it’s just been a long time since we’ve been together, so I came to see you,” Yang Kai smiled happily.
Su Yan nodded slightly before turning her gaze towards the clouds in the sky, her eyes narrowing slightly as she adjusted her soft body in Yang Kai’s arms to assume a more comfortable posture.
Yang Kai embraced her and did not speak again, simply staring up towards the Heavens together with her.
Under the giant silver tree, the snow gently fell as everything went quiet, the scene appearing quite poetic and picturesque.
In the distance, Qing Ya seemed to come to see Su Yan, but before she got close, she noticed the warm scene up ahead, smiled lightly, quietly turned around, and left.
…..
Half a month later, the Limitless Ocean, Sea Temple’s headquarters, Black Reef Island.
Black Reef Island was one of the three largest islands on the Limitless Ocean, and it possessed a rich World Energy aura, which was why Sea Temple had chosen to establish its headquarters here.
As the headquarters of a powerful Sect, it was naturally heavily guarded. Around the island, patrols of cultivators flew about while at its edges there were Sea Temple disciples constantly keeping watching.
Yang Kai flew over leisurely and landed on the outskirts of Black Reef Island.
Immediately, a group of Sea Temple disciples surrounded him, with their leader staring at him with an unkind look as he shouted, “Who goes there!? Report your name!”
Having just arrived here as a prospective guest, Yang Kai didn’t want to cause trouble, so he cupped his fists and said, “High Heaven Sect’s Sect Master Yang Kai. I’ve come to see Senior Sha about an agreement we previously made. Please inform Senior Sha of my arrival.”
“High Heaven Sect’s Sect Master?”
“Come to see Martial Ancestor Sha?”
The cultivators of this team immediately began whispering amongst themselves, with their leader giving Yang Kai a careful once over, as if trying to see if he was lying, even releasing his Divine Sense to try to probe him.
However, no matter how he tried, he was unable to grasp Yang Kai’s depths, this man was unable to detect anything and immediately understood that Yang Kai was a master far beyond him. Involuntarily putting on a serious look, after a moment of pondering, he replied, “Since you know that Martial Uncle Sha is here, it seems you are indeed familiar with him, but it has not been long since Martial Uncle Sha has returned to Sea Temple and he is quite busy, so whether you can see him or not will be up to him to decide.”
“That’s fine, I’ll wait here,” Yang Kai replied lightly.
The lead cultivator nodded before instructing the other cultivators on his patrol team to entertain Yang Kai while he took out a communication artifact and poured his Divine Sense into it.
A moment later, the communication artifact in the leader’s hand pulsed and after quickly checking it, the lead cultivator turned a strange expression to Yang Kai and said, “Please wait here for a moment, someone will come to see you.”
Yang Kai raised his brow slightly but still calmly nodded, “Good!”
He subconsciously felt that this trip might not go smoothly, and that the one coming to see him might not be Sha Hu!
After all, based on his friendship with Sha Hu, if the latter knew he had come, how could he make him wait here? Sha Hu would certainly have already ordered these people to welcome him warmly.
Inside Sea Temple, there seemed to be some turbulent undercurrents! Yang Kai thought to himself, but this had nothing to do with him. He was only here to complete the agreement he made with Sha Hu so he could begin trading inland materials for ocean materials. This was all for the future development of High Heaven Sect and was of great importance.
Things really proceeded as Yang Kai expected, and after waiting for less than a quarter of an hour, he noticed that a group of Origin Returning Realm masters flying over, but none of them was Sha Hu.
Soon, this group of people appeared in Yang Kai’s eyes.
The leader of this newly arrived group was a powerful cultivator at the peak of the Third-Order Origin Returning Realm. It was an old man with a dark tanned complexion. After lightly landing a dozen or so metres in front of Yang Kai, this old man swept his eyes over Yang Kai a few times before casually cupping his fists and saying, “Dare I ask, is Your Excellency really High Heaven Sect’s Sect Master?”
“Yes, I am. You are…” Yang Kai cupped his fists in return.
“This old master is Sea Temple’s Third Temple Master, Qi Yun Hai!” The old man said lightly.
“So it is Temple Master Qi!” Yang Kai raised his brows. Although he did not have many dealings with Sea Temple, he still knew that it had three Temple Masters. This Qi Yun Hai was obviously one of them.
“I heard that Sect Master Yang is here to see my Sea Temple’s Martial Uncle Sha?”
“Exactly, this Yang made an agreement with Senior Sha, is Senior Sha…”
“Martial Uncle has been missing for more than three hundred years and has only just returned to Sea Temple, so he is exhausted both physically and mentally and is currently recuperating. I am afraid he cannot see Sect Master Yang at this time,” Qi Yun Hai cut in and stated calmly. “Sect Master Yang is a guest from afar, so if you don’t mind, why not stay here and rest for a while? Although this old master lives here on the Limitless Ocean, he has still heard Sect Master Yang’s and High Heaven Sect’s resounding names but has unfortunately never had the chance to meet him. I hope Sect Master Yang can spare some time here at my Sea Temple.”
Although he spoke with enthusiasm, Qi Yun Hai’s tone was neither warm nor cold, so obviously he was just being perfunctory and not really inviting Yang Kai in to sit down.
Yang Kai looked back at Qi Yun Hai and said with a smile that was not quite a smile, “This is strange, when I separated from Old Sha half a month ago, he was hale and hearty, but now, he is suddenly exhausted both physically and mentally? I also had an agreement with him to meet at this time, so this Sect Master came to fulfil the said agreement. Dare I ask Temple Master Qi, is Old Sha not being able to meet with me his own intention?”
Qi Yun Hai’s cloudy eyes flashed and did not answer directly, instead asking in a threatening tone, “What is Sect Master Yang trying to imply?”
“Nothing,” Yang Kai snickered. “The agreement between me and Old Sha is not only of great benefit to my High Heaven Sect, but also of great benefit to your Sea Temple, but it seems that even with such benefits in front of you, your Sect wants to refuse. Since that is the case, this Sect Master has no need to accompany you any longer. On the Limitless Ocean, you are not the only great force!”
“You dare to collude with the Sea Clan?” Qi Yun Hai thought for a moment before his face changed drastically.
“Collude?” Yang Kai sneered, “Don’t try to tarnish this Sect Master’s reputation with your baseless rhetoric. Farewell!”
Yang Kai had a stomach full of grievances. Last time, on Sunrise Island, Pang Zhen had sent a message back to Sea Temple’s headquarters quickly, but Yang Kai had been forced to wait for many days without any kind of response. That was one thing, but now that he had come personally, Sea Temple still chose to shut him out, even sending the Third Temple Master forward to show Sea Temple’s intentions.
Since Sea Temple was unwilling to do business with High Heaven Sect, Yang Kai did not plan to beg them.
“You dare collude with the Sea Clan and still want to leave? Boy, if you don’t explain yourself clearly, don’t even dream of leaving Black Reef Island today!” A forceful voice boomed from nearby and a middle-aged man with an imposing appearance flew over and landed next to Qi Yun Ha while glaring at Yang Kai coldly.
Before Yang Kai could even say anything though, another voice boomed from inside Black Reef Island, “Bold! Yang Kai is this old master’s guest, who dares treat him impolitely?”
Hearing this voice, Yang Kai grinned and the unhappiness in his heart dissipated greatly; after all, he had not misread Sha Hu who had immediately come forward to defend him after noticing his arrival.
However, the situation right now was a bit more complicated than Yang Kai had anticipated.
Yang Kai had no intention to insert himself into other people’s affairs and simply stood waiting quietly, wanting to hear what Sha Hu had to say.
Soon, Sha Hu arrived and landed next to Yang Kai, a clear look of anger filling his face as he glared viciously at Qi Yun Hai and a middle-aged man.
Qi Yun Hai seemed to not dare meet eyes with Sha Hu and looked away, but the sturdy middle-aged man showed no fear and glared back at Sha Hu without flinching.
Sha Hu and the imposing middle-aged man’s gazes collided, and sparks seemed to fly, causing all the people from Sea Temple to not dare breath loudly, all of them standing aside in fear.
After a long time, Sha Hu sighed and the aggression in his eyes faded as he spoke to this middle-aged man despondently, “Huai An, Yang Kai is this old master’s guest, so he will entertain him himself, you and everyone else can withdraw!”
Hearing how Sha Hu addressed this middle-aged man, Yang Kai immediately understood who the latter was.
Sea Temple’s First Temple Master, Jiang Huai An!
Yang Kai had also heard Jiang Huai An’s name before. When he participated in Heavenly Fate City’s auction for the first time, this Jiang Huai An had used an incredible sum of money to buy one of the Origin Grade Low-Rank Origin Condensing Pills he had sold.
Yang Kai heard from Wei Gu Chang later that Jiang Huai An had bought this Origin Condensing Pill for his son.
However, this was Yang Kai’s first time meeting him.
Yang Kai casually examined this Sea Temple’s First Temple Master and found that Jiang Huai An had reached the peak of the Origin Returning Realm and his aura was a bit denser than Qian Tong when the latter was still at the same level. It seemed this man was qualified to be named Sea Temple’s First Temple Master.
Moreover… this man’s courage obviously was not small. Yang Kai did not know what kind of conflict there was between Jiang Huai An and Sha Hu, but it was obvious their relationship wasn’t very harmonious.
Jiang Huai An smiled and said, “Martial Uncle Sha’s words are somewhat improper. Although this Sect Master Yang may be your guest, he seems to want to collude with the Sea Clan, so Martial Uncle will have to forgive Martial Nephew for not being able to stand idly by. Martial Uncle should also understand the deep grievances between the Sea Clan and my Sea Temple. Every year, many of my Sea Temple’s disciples die tragic deaths at the hands of the Sea Clan, especially those from Sea God Palace. Saying Sea God Palace is my Sea Temple’s greatest enemy would not be an exaggeration. Martial Uncle, since you know this person, it would be best if you removed yourself from this situation and allowed Martial Nephew to process it properly. Once Martial Nephew is finished, he will give you a satisfactory explanation.”
Yang Kai raised his brow as he faintly realized that he seemed to be caught up in some kind of internal power struggle between Jiang Huai An and Sha Hu.
[It looks like every family has its own share of troubles] Yang Kai sighed secretly.
“Huai An, do you really insist on acting this way?” Sha Hu’s face became gloomy, not showing any intention of backing down.
“Martial Nephew is acting in Sea Temple’s best interest!” Jiang Huai An replied bluntly, showing neither evasiveness nor guilt, “Please forgive me, Martial Uncle!”
Sha Hu stared at Jiang Huai An unkindly, and there were even faint signs of him condensing his Saint Qi, as if preparing to attack. Perceiving this, Jiang Huai An actually showed no fear. Rather, an eager light flashed across his eyes, as if hoping Sha Hu would indeed act.
“Old Sha, what’s going on here?” Yang Kai asked in confusion.
Sha Hu turned his head and glanced at him before sighing and saying, “This old master is ashamed. Because he showed too much compassion, he has involved you in this mess.”
“Old Sha is too serious,” Yang Kai chuckled. “It’s just that all of this has left me a little baffled.”
“Just wait a moment while this old master settles this matter. I will speak to you after!” Sha Hu said.
“Sure!” Yang Kai nodded, putting on a posture of a bystander as he smiled lightly.
Sha Hu turned his gaze to Jiang Huai An and said with a heavy tone, “Huai An, many years ago, you were one of greatest geniuses of my Sea Temple, but you were too narrow-minded at the time. This old master had thought that after so many years had passed and you inherited the position of First Temple Master, standing higher and seeing further, your attitude would change, but you’ve greatly disappointed this old master. It seems that no matter how high you climb, or how deep the cultivation becomes, Jiang Huai An will always be the same Jiang Huai An from back then, nothing will change!”
After being defamed so blatantly by Sha Hu in front of so many of Sea Temple’s masters, Jiang Huai An obviously became somewhat annoyed and snapped, “Martial Uncle need not concern himself with how Martial Nephew handles his duties.”
Sha Hu slowly shook his head, “A man’s position may change, but his nature does not! This old master has been missing for three hundred years and was only able to return to Sea Temple thanks to Sect Master Yang’s assistance. After returning home, this old master brought with him an opportunity for Sea Temple to develop and grow, thinking he could contribute something to make up for all the years he failed to attend to the Sect, but now it seems that you, the first of Sea Temple’s three Temple Masters, believes this old master wants to use this as an opening to seize the position of First Temple Master. Nonsense! To be perfectly blunt, this old master could not care less about being a Temple Master of Sea Temple!”
Jiang Huai An’s brow twitched slightly as he stared at Sha Hu, as if trying to see whether he was telling the truth or lies.
Yang Kai, standing at the side, however, showed a look of understanding, finally comprehending what this situation was all about.
Obviously, Jiang Huai An was being overly suspicious and pessimistic, thinking that Sha Hu’s return was a threat to his status, so he was making things difficult here in an attempt to suppress Sha Hu.
As for colluding with the Sea Clan, it was just a convenient excuse. Even without this excuse, Sea Temple would have found some other reason to refuse Yang Kai’s proposal. It could only be said that Yang Kai had inadvertently stepped into a power struggle and was now being regarded as a type of bargaining chip.
Sha Hu obviously did not want to fight for power with Jiang Huai An. After living three hundred years on Shadowed Soul Island, Sha Hu had clearly moved beyond caring about status and fortune and was now solely focused on pursuing greater heights in the Martial Dao.
However, Jiang Huai An was now Sea Temple’s First Temple Master, so no matter how unhappy Sha Hu was with his attitude, he could not bring himself to take decisive action against him.
This was why Sha Hu had said this was all a result of too much compassion on his part.
Now that Jiang Huai An had come forward to threaten Yang Kai though, Sha Hu could no longer endure patiently and was forced to come forward.
All kinds of thoughts flashed through Yang Kai’s mind like sparks, allowing him to grasp the situation before him in short order.
“This old master will give you one last chance! Apologize to Sect Master Yang and I will act as if this never happened. From now on, you will remain the First Temple Master of Sea Temple while this old master can leave and never return!” Sha Hu looked at Jiang Huai An coldly and stated bluntly.
The latter’s brow furrowed as anger clearly flashed across his eyes.
Sha Hu relying on his age and status to talk down to him in such a commanding tone naturally made Jiang Huai An very unhappy. If he did as Sha Hu said and apologized to Yang Kai here, Jiang Huai An would lose all face as the First Temple Master; everyone would simply assume from now on that he was a puppet that Sha Hu arranged to show the public while he ruled from behind.
This was intolerable to Jiang Huai An.
“Martial Uncle, you are the most senior master in Sea Temple and Martial Nephew has always respected you, but today you have disappointed Martial Nephew greatly. As one of my Sea Temple’s Grand Elders, not only do you ignore Sea Temple’s position, you even demand this Temple Master apologize to an outsider. Martial Uncle, this Temple Master will also give you one last chance to leave and not participate in this matter. Do so, and Martial Nephew promises to continue respecting you as his Senior in the future, otherwise, don’t blame Martial Nephew for not showing due courtesy.”
“It looks like there’s nothing more to say,” Sha Hu sighed sadly.
He also did not expect that he would encounter such a farcical situation so soon after his long-awaited return to Sea Temple. If he had known this before, he would have simply chosen to remain on Shadowed Soul Island until he calmly died of old age.
“Martial Uncle, are you determined to fight against this Temple Master and against Sea Temple?” Jiang Huai An narrowed his eyes at Sha Hu while levelling some outlandish slander.
Sha Hu remained silent; his expression simply sorrowful.
“Since that’s the case, Martial Nephew won’t act polite!” Jiang Huai An suddenly yelled, “Start the array!”
As soon as these words fell, all Black Reef Island suddenly buzzed and trembled, and in the next moment, a bright light curtain shrouded the entire island and the sea within a hundred kilometres of the shore began to tumble and surge.
An incredibly rich Water Attribute aura gathered towards Black Reef Island rapidly as numerous strange beasts and weapons composed entirely of Water Attribute Energy quickly began to form densely.
A ruinous pressure erupted at the same time!
Sha Hu’s face changed drastically as he exclaimed, “The Blue Roaring Tidal Array! So, you were planning all along to embarrass this old master with this array?”
Jiang Huai An smiled and said, “Martial Uncle must be joking, this Spirit Array is not aimed at Martial Uncle; after all, you are still a member of my Sea Temple.”
Having said so, Jiang Huai An turned to look at Yang Kai.
“Rather than coping with Old Sha, you intend to use this to deal with me?” Yang Kai pointed to his own nose nonchalantly.
Jiang Huai An smiled coldly, “I’ve heard that Sect Master Yang is so powerful that even the leaders of Heaven Battling Union, Thunder Typhoon Sect, and Star Emperor Mountain cannot compare, so this Temple Master naturally must take some precautions!”
“Temple Master Jiang is too polite, it’s all just a little undue praise which was spread out by others.”
“Hmph! Sect Master Yang is the Sect Master of High Heaven Sect and should have kept his nose out of my Sea Temple’s affairs, but since you dare collude with the Sea Clan, that makes you an enemy of my Sea Temple! Sect Master Yang, surrender without a fight!” Jiang Huai An looked at Yang Kai proudly, as if he was completely confident that Yang Kai could not resist in the face of this Blue Roaring Tidal Array.
“Yang Kai, leave now!” Sha Hu suddenly shouted, “The Blue Roaring Tidal Array is my Sea Temple’s Sect Defending Array and can draw power from the surrounding rich Water Attribute aura. Once activated, it’s might is infinite and none below the Origin King Realm can break it! However, with your ability, it should not be difficult for you to leave. You go first, this old master will buy you some time!”
“As expected of Martial Uncle, your understanding of my Sea Temple’s Sect Defending Array is quite profound, but should Martial Uncle really be explaining these secrets to an outsider?” Jiang Huai An sneered at Sha Hu.
“Dissolute! This old master has already said that he has no intention of competing with you, why must you act so short-sighted? If you continue acting this way, sooner or later, Sea Temple will decline in your hands. For the sake of the ancestors, this old master does not want to fight with you.”
“Old Sha, stay calm!” Yang Kai gently patted Sha Hu’s shoulder, looking completely calm and relaxed.
“You… you!” Sha Hu stomped his feet in annoyance, “Once this Spirit Array is activated, the longer you wait, the more power it accumulates and the stronger its power becomes, if you continue to hesitate, even you won’t be able to escape.”
“Why should I escape?” Yang Kai chuckled, “It’s just a mere Spirit Array.”
“A wha…?” Sha Hu’s jaw went slack hearing Yang Kai’s nonchalant evaluation of the Blue Roaring Tidal Array. However, seeing Yang Kai’s extremely indifferent expression, Sha Hu’s furrowed brow relaxed, and he thoughtfully said, “Since you have such confidence, this old master won’t waste his breath, just be careful.”
“En,” Yang Kai nodded before his expression turned a little sullen, “Suddenly being treated as a bargaining chip makes this Sect Master very unhappy. Old Sha, does it matter if I kill this Jiang Huai An?”
Sha Hu heard this and sighed, “Keep him alive, this old master will deal with it himself!”
“As you wish!”
“You want to kill me? Let’s see if you have the ability!” Jiang Huai An glared angrily at Yang Kai.
Yang Kai’s calmness made him extremely annoyed and also gave him an unsettling feeling. He didn’t know whether Yang Kai really had something to rely on that allowed him to not fear the Blue Roaring Tidal Array; after all, there were too many rumours about Yang Kai and how he was a master that greatly surpassed the pinnacle of the Origin Returning Realm.
[However, no matter how tyrannical his personal strength is, this man could not be stronger than our grand Spirit Array, right?] Thinking so, Jiang Huai An’s anxiety calmed greatly and he stared at Yang Kai coldly, his expression filled with disdain.
As time passed, the power of the Blue Roaring Tidal Array became stronger and stronger, feeding on the abundant Water Attribute Energy in the surroundings, condensing more and more beasts and weapons within its range.
The pressure coming from this array made even Sha Hu pale slightly.
Yang Kai still did not show any intention of moving though, simply standing in place and seemingly appreciating the power of this Blue Roaring Tidal Array.
After a half cup of tea’s time, the power of the Blue Roaring Tidal Array has been raised to its peak.
The sounds of crashing waves grew ever louder, making everyone present feel somewhat uneasy as they looked up into the sky which was filled with countless beasts and weapons that seemed to be just waiting to pounce and rip Yang Kai into ten thousand pieces.
Jiang Huai An’s face now showed a completely relaxed expression as he knew that now, even if Yang Kai had astonishing ability, he couldn’t escape from the Blue Roaring Tidal Array.
This massive Sect Defending Array had been arranged and enhanced by countless masters over Sea Temple’s history and had never failed to shelter the Sect from danger in the past.
“Sect Master Yang, considering you are a guest of Martial Uncle Sha, surrender without a fight and this Temple Master can consider showing mercy, what do you say?” Jiang Huai An looked at Yang Kai lightly and snorted.
“I refuse!” Yang Kai shook his head, looking at Jiang Huai An with a smile, “I came here with sincerity, but never expected to be treated like this. Honestly, your Sea Temple annoys this Sect Master and if it were not for Old Sha here, this Sect Master would wipe away your Sea Temple from Shadowed Star, but since Sea Temple is Old Sha’s Sect, I will spare you from that fate.”
“You think you alone can remove my Sea Temple from Shadowed Star? Who gave you the gall?” Jiang Huai An roared, “You think you have such ability?”
Yang Kai grinned meaningfully and simply stared towards Jiang Huai An lightly before casually speaking a single word.
“Break!”
As soon as this word was spoken, the Blue Roaring Tidal Array which had already reached the apex of its strength, with countless strange beasts and floating weapons surrounding Yang Kai, suddenly released a popping noise and burst apart.
Even the bright light curtain covering Black Reef Island suddenly cracked and shattered.
The Sect Defending Array of Sea Temple was instantly broken!
It was as if Yang Kai’s words carried some supreme power that commanded even the world itself to obey him.
Sha Hu was dumbfounded, completely shocked to his core as he stared towards Yang Kai in utter disbelief, as if he did not know the man in front of him now.
Jiang Huai An also stood dumbfounded on the spot, staring at Yang Kai, then sweeping his eyes around his surroundings, unable to believe that the Blue Roaring Tidal Array had really been broken by a single word.
Third Temple Master Qi Yun Hai was even more stunned, his body trembling slightly.
The remaining Sea Temple masters also cried out in disbelief.
“What happened?” After a while, Jiang Huai An finally reacted and yelled at Qi Yun Hai, “What happened to the disciples managing the array? Why did they stop it?”
He obviously thought that the failure of the Blue Roaring Tidal Array was because the disciples had stopped operating it, not because of something Yang Kai had done.
Qi Yun Hai quickly took out a communication artifact, poured his Divine Sense into it, and contacted the disciples in charge of managing the Blue Roaring Tidal Array. A moment later, he hurriedly said, “First Temple Master, the disciples have not stopped the Spirit Array, but for some reason, it has simply ceased functioning.”
“How can this be?” Jiang Huai An’s eyes trembled as he stared at Yang Kai in horror.
Yang Kai grinned, “Don’t waste your time, the World Energy within a hundred thousand kilometres of this place is now under my control. Without my consent, your prided Spirit Array is nothing but a fancy decoration.”
“Nonsense!” Jiang Huai An screamed, “Even if you are an Origin King, it would be impossible to control the World Energy across such a wide area. Do you think this Temple Master is a fool?”
Yang Kai simply chuckled before lifting his hand up slowly.
Although his movements were not fast, quite slow in fact, as Yang Kai lifted his hand, the sea around Black Reef Island began to boil fiercely with massive bubbles continuously rising to its surface.
Massive vortices began forming around Black Reef Island one after another.
*Hong Hong Hong…*
Thick water columns then burst forth from these vortices, each one several dozen metres thick, soaring straight up into the sky, even bursting through the clouds above.
The entire world seemed to tremble, causing everyone’s footing to become unstable.
The sea level around Black Reef Island seemed to drop slightly as this happened.
The water columns which rushed up into the sky abruptly transformed into a series of azure water dragons, each one with vivid and realistic features, even their bodies forming thick blue dragon scales.
In the blink of an eye, around Black Reef Island, hundreds of water dragons formed purely from the convergence of seawater had appeared. In the next instant, all these water dragons rushed towards Black Reef Island, only pausing when they came to within a few dozen metres of its shores, their eyes all gazing down at the people before them imposingly.
Black Reef Island was instantly surrounded by hundreds of water dragons, each thousands of metres long, dozens of metres thick, and radiating an astonishing destructive pressure.
It was not difficult to imagine that Black Reef Island would quickly be destroyed if these hundreds of water dragons rushed forward.
Yang Kai, who was the culprit behind all of this, had only just lifted his arm slightly, not showing any signs of using his Saint Qi or any other kind of strength at all.
On Black Reef Island, panicked cries rang out constantly. Suddenly being surrounded by so many water dragons, the disciples of Sea Temple were naturally terrified. They did not know what was happening, but under the terrifying pressure, many fell to the ground or scrambled to escape chaotically.
Jiang Huai An could no longer restrain the panic in his heart as he trembled violently, looking at Yang Kai as if he was some kind of monster, unable to understand how he had managed to accomplish this.
No one dared doubt whether Yang Kai had the ability to remove Sea Temple from Shadowed Star anymore, as proof was now on display before them.
“Impossible! This Temple Master will never believe this, it must be some kind of illusion!” Jiang Huai An still seemed unwilling to give up and quickly came up with a rationalization for this situation, turning to Yang Kai and shouting, “It turns out that Sect Master Yang has cultivated a profound Illusion Technique, this Temple Master was almost fooled by you.”
“Stubborn fool!” Yang Kai coldly snorted before with a single thought he sent one of the water dragons towards Jiang Huai An.
Midair, the huge water dragon distorted and transformed into a water spear only ten metres long as it stabbed towards Jiang Huai An.
Jiang Huai An roared as he pushed his Saint Qi madly, stretching out his hands and executing some kind of Secret Technique that formed a kind of shield in front of him.
His efforts were in vain, however, and the water spear instantly pierced through the shield without stagnating in the slightest.
Jiang Huai An was shocked as he was forced to realize that everything in front of him was not an illusion, but real.
By the time he came to this understanding, it was too late for him to dodge.
The water arrow pierced through Jiang Huai An’s body, causing a great splash of blood as it shot out his back.
Jiang Huai An’s eyes widened as he collapsed backwards.
However, because of Sha Hu’s previous plea, Yang Kai did not kill him. Even so, this blow had taken most of Jiang Huai An’s remaining life, and if he weren’t given immediate treatment, his cultivation would definitely drop significantly.
“With a single word, the world obeys, with a single thought, mountains are flattened and seas are boiled… Yang Kai, have you refined Shadowed Star’s Source?” Sha Hu asked with a trembling voice, an amazed light flashing across his eyes.
“What?” Qi Yun Hai’s face changed drastically as he stared at Yang Kai in utter shock.
Refining the Star Source was something that only existed in legends. Once a cultivator refined a Star Source, they would become the Star Master of that Cultivation Star and become capable of controlling everything on it at will.
Qi Yun Hai was subconsciously unwilling to believe something so unthinkable was real, because it was said that if one wanted to refine a Star Source, it was necessary to be a Third-Order Origin King first!
There were, of course, rumours that Second-Order Origin Kings with great luck were able to refine Star Sources and became Star Masters.
However, even that was too distant a concept, especially for the cultivators of Shadowed Star.
Yang Kai was a trivial Third-Order Origin Returning Realm cultivator, so how could he have possibly refined the Star Source?
But if this were not the case, how else could the scene here be explained?
Even an ordinary Origin King may not be able to display such might, right? Only a Star Master who commanded the forces of nature themselves on a Cultivation Star and could dominate its World Energy as he pleased could condense the oceans themselves into water dragons!
“Old Sha’s eyes are quite sharp, I was indeed fortunate enough to have such an opportunity,” Yang Kai smiled slightly, not attempting to deny it.
Qi Yun Hai could not help groaning in his heart.
He suddenly discovered that he had done something with Jiang Huai An that he would regret for the rest of his life.
Was there anything more foolish than trying to plot against Shadowed Star’s Star Master on Shadowed Star?
“As I thought!” Old Sha sighed softly and shook his head ruefully, “Such foolishness!”
He was obviously blaming Jiang Huai An for his short-sightedness. Originally, his friendship with Yang Kai was quite good, but after this incident, Yang Kai’s impression of Sea Temple would definitely be poor, and this would have a dramatically negative influence on the future development of Sea Temple.
Somewhere on Black Reef Island.
Yang Kai was sitting cross-legged, his eyes closed, maintaining a state of mental tranquillity.
The light sound of footsteps rang out nearby, causing Yang Kai to open his eyes and see Sea Temple’s Third Temple Master Qi Yun Hai along with a small group of others.
Facing Yang Kai’s gaze, Qi Yun Hai quickly lowered his head, putting on a respectful look.
After learning that Yang Kai was the Star Master of Shadowed Star, Qi Yun Hai had not dared act presumptuous anymore. Although his cultivation was the same as Yang Kai’s, the latter was a genuine Star Master. Even if there were a thousand Qi Yun Hai’s, they would not be Yang Kai’s opponent.
Immediately, Qi Yun Hai professed wrongs and swore he had been enlightened, apologizing profusely for his mistakes.
Jiang Huai An had been crippled by Yang Kai, and the position of First Temple Master was vacant, so although Sha Hu was dissatisfied with Qi Yun Hai coveting life while fearing death, he had to compromise for Sea Temple’s sake and did not try to embarrass him further, even going so far as to ask Yang Kai to spare Qi Yun Hai’s life.
“Sect Master Yang, I’ve brought the people and materials you requested,” Qi Yun Hai stopped five metres away from Yang Kai and stood still while reporting respectfully.
Yang Kai raised his eyes and looked at the six people behind Qi Yun Hai, nodding lightly before stretching out his hand and saying, “Give them to me.”
“Yes!” Qi Yun Hai stepped forward and handed a Space Ring to Yang Kai.
Yang Kai swept the contents of this ring with his Divine Sense and upon confirming that everything he had requested was inside, he nodded, “Good, you may leave. Tell Old Sha that the Space Array here will take about seven or eight days to complete and that he need not worry about it. He can focus on settling the internal affairs of Sea Temple first.”
With Jiang Huai An being crippled, there were inevitably some turbulences in Sea Temple, so although Sha Hu had no intention of getting involved with such mundane matters, only he could assume command at this moment and was therefore quite busy.
“Many thanks for your consideration, Sect Master Yang, I will definitely bring Martial Uncle Sha your message.”
“En.”
Qi Yun Hai quickly left, seemingly not daring to remain near Yang Kai for a long time.
After he left though, Yang Kai looked at the remaining six cultivators. Among these six, there were males and females, old and young. What was unusual was that those who were old seemed to be very old, while those who were young were very young, possibly below twenty years old. These six also weren’t strong, the fiercest among them only a First-Order Origin Realm cultivator while the weakest was only a Third-Order Saint.
While Yang Kai observed these six, these six were also observing Yang Kai, their eyes filled with curiosity.
After all, this young man in front of them rumoured to be the Star Master of Shadowed Star! In other words, he was the lord of the Cultivation Star they lived on.
Before bringing them here, Qi Yun Hai had also specifically warned them to absolutely obey Yang Kai and to follow any instructions he gave them. If they were to offend Yang Kai in any way, they would suffer severe punishment under the Sect’s Laws.
“You are the best Array Masters in Sea Temple?” Yang Kai asked with a smile.
Among the six, an old man stepped forward, cupped his fists, and replied, “Reporting to Sect Master Yang, we six are indeed the most talented Array Masters in Sea Temple.”
“Good,” Yang Kai gently nodded, “Before Qi Yun Hai brought you here, he should have told you the reason, yes?”
“Third Temple Master said that we would be assisting Sect Master Yang in refining a Space Array to connect my Sea Temple and High Heaven Sect in order to facilitate an exchange of cultivation materials between our two forces,” The old man replied again.
“En. Since you understand, I won’t bother with any nonsense. In terms of materials, your Sea Temple has provided everything necessary and all that’s left is to refine them into an Array Base and then engrave the appropriate Spirit Array. I believe this shouldn’t be a difficult task for you.”
The old man seemed to realize that Yang Kai was not the domineering and wicked person he had imagined, and instead actually possessed a friendly attitude, allowing him to relax significantly. Proudly nodding his head, the old man replied, “As long as we are provided with the appropriate refining method, we six will definitely not disappoint Sect Master Yang. “
“Great!” Yang Kai smiled lightly as he beckoned the six people over and began explaining to them what kind of materials should be smelted together as well as the general shape the finished products needed to be refined into.
These six people had extremely high accomplishments in arranging Spirit Arrays, far better than Yang Kai’s at least, so after only a brief explanation, they had comprehended what they needed to do.
Next, Yang Kai took out the materials prepared by Sea Temple one by one, divided them into categories, and gave them to his six assistants to begin the refinement process.
The layout of a Space Array was extremely complicated, but before coming here, Yang Kai had already arranged one outside High Heaven Sect, so he had some familiarity with the process now.
Yang Kai did most of the primary work himself and had only asked Qi Yun Hai to bring these six people over in order to save him some time on the more menial tasks.
Yang Kai was not worried about what these six learned during this period, as the most fundamental Spirit Array of this Space Array was still exclusively held onto by him. As long as this array wasn’t leaked out, even if these six tried to arrange a Space Array of their own, it wouldn’t work.
In this remote clearing on Black Reef Island, seven people worked quietly.
Five days later, a Space Array with a ten-metre radius had been fully arranged.
Just looking at it, one could tell that this Space Array was not the same as the ones which were seen in major cities. It appeared much plainer and was essentially just a large circular platform.
The biggest difference, appearance-wise, was its significantly larger size.
This Space Array was designed to span a distance of several million kilometres and could accommodate up to fifty people at once.
This was incomparable to the Space Arrays currently on Shadowed Star.
With the basic structure now set up, Yang Kai now needed to engrave the actual Spirit Array himself. The six Array Masters of Sea Temple did not leave, however, and instead stood quietly to the side, paying close attention to Yang Kai’s movements.
Unfortunately, no matter how they looked, they were unable to glean any useful information.
Yang Kai’s Divine Sense shuttled back and forth inside the array base, rapidly portraying a series of mysterious and complicated patterns and runes which gradually formed the Space Array’s Spirit Array.
With his Conflagrated Spiritual Energy, it was easy for Yang Kai to leave precise markings on the already refined materials.
The entire process went incredibly smoothly, and Yang Kai was finished after only half an hour.
After checking it carefully, Yang Kai smiled upon confirming that there were no errors in the Spirit Array. Pouring his Space Force into the Space Array, Yang Kai activated it and established a connection with the Space Array he had arranged outside High Heaven Sect.
“Is it completed?” The old man asked hesitantly.
“Basically, as long as you insert enough Saint Crystals to power it, it should function properly,” Yang Kai nodded and replied.
The six people all gasped as they stared at Yang Kai in admiration.
A new Space Array! It had only taken five days to arrange such a massive Space Array! If they were to tell their peers about this matter, none would believe them.
On Shadowed Star, the method to arrange Space Arrays had long been lost while all the existing Space Arrays were relics from ancient times. The most the current cultivators could do was make some simple repairs, but they couldn’t arrange a new one.
Moreover, even in ancient times, when that layout method was still known, spending such a short time to arrange such a Space Array was certainly unheard of.
The ancient records of great Sects said that the arrangement of a Space Array was a laborious task that cost a massive amount of time and resources to complete.
It would already be a great accomplishment to complete a functional Space Array within a few years.
But now, they had arranged one in just five days!
The six Array Masters exchanged looks of disbelief amongst themselves as each of them felt a sense of excitement and glory in their hearts; after all, they had contributed to the arrangement of this Space Array.
“Sect Master Yang, is it possible for this old master to try it?” The old man rubbed his hands excitedly and asked.
Although being the first person to use this new Space Array did not have any substantial benefits to it, to him, it was a matter of honour.
“Wait a moment,” Yang Kai chuckled before taking out some strange materials from his Space Ring and quickly smelting them together.
Under his intense Saint Qi, the impurities in these materials were rapidly removed and the useful metals were gradually amalgamated and shaped.
The six people did not know what Yang Kai was doing but they all waited patiently in anticipation.
Soon, a small token appeared in Yang Kai’s hand. This token was unremarkable and dull in colour, not even giving off any energy fluctuations. The only distinctive feature was the ‘High’ character engraved on it.
This character had a certain charm to it, that evoked images of soaring dragons and phoenixes.
Yang Kai refined six such tokens in total and tossed one to each of the six waiting Array Masters.
Each of the six people caught their respective token and examined it carefully.
The old man seemed to think of something and wore a look of excitement on his face as he hastily asked, “Sect Master Yang, dare I ask, is this…”
He was misunderstanding something, however, thinking that Yang Kai had given them something precious.
“These are Transmission Tokens. Without a Transmission Token, the only result of activating this Space Array will be exile to The Void, never to return!” Yang Kai explained lightly.
The expressions of the six people changed greatly, only now understanding the purpose of these six tokens especially refined by Yang Kai.
The old man quickly composed himself as he realized the importance of these tokens and cupped his fists, “Sect Master Yang is quite meticulous, this old master is impressed. With these tokens, the risk of a large number of cultivators suddenly being able to invade either of our two forces using this Space Array can be mostly eliminated.”
When the other five people heard him say this, they finally understood the reason Yang Kai had refined these tokens.
Although Space Arrays were convenient in that they connected two distant places, if an enemy ever managed to take control of it, it would then become a risk as it would offer a means to invade directly into the heart of one’s force. However, with the Transmission Token refined by Yang Kai, this risk was mitigated.
Without a Transmission Token, it was impossible to use this Space Array.
Yang Kai just smiled and did not say anything. With a wave of his hand, he used his Saint Qi to envelope the six people and stood atop the Space Array, “Let’s test whether this array can be used then.”
Before the six Array Masters of Sea Temple had time to speak, Yang Kai had already inserted the necessary Saint Crystals to activate the array.
The Space Array immediately started up and after a burst of white light, the six Array Masters only felt a slight weightless sensation overcome them. By the time they reacted, the scenery in front of them had changed drastically.
Looking around, the earth was a charred, reddish-black colour and the surrounding air was filled with a rich Fire Attribute energy, making it a bit stifling.
This was completely different from the Limitless Ocean where Sea Temple was located.
Below their feet was a large round Space Array identical to the one they had just finished arranging. Around them, there were several cultivators busy erecting a large palace that was clearly a work in progress.
The busy cultivators nearby were all wearing uniform robes with a small ‘High’ character embroidered over their chests!
[High Heaven Sect disciples!] The six Sea Temple people immediately realized they had arrived at High Heaven Sect as the environment around them was very similar to the legendary Flowing Flame Sand Field.
The activation of the Space Array alarmed the nearby High Heaven Sect disciples, and a few quickly came to investigate, but upon discovering that the newcomer was Yang Kai, the disciples quickly cupped their fists in salute.
Yang Kai simply waved his hand, “I’m just testing whether this Space Array works properly, carry on with what you were doing.”
“Yes!” The disciples received their orders and dispersed.
This Space Array was placed outside the Flowing Flame Sand Field by Yang Kai in order to avoid the drawbacks of there being a direct entryway into High Heaven Sect’s headquarters.
This Space Array was of great significance, as it was the bridge which connected High Heaven Sect to the larger world.
Yang Kai intended to set up special Space Arrays in all major cities across Shadowed Star so that High Heaven Sect could reach anywhere at any time in an instant.
This would be of key importance to the future development of High Heaven Sect.
“Sect Master!” One High Heaven Sect disciple didn’t leave immediately but stood there respectfully cupping his fists.
“Is there something else?”
“Great Elder told me a few days ago that if Sect Master appears, I am to inform him that half a month ago, Shadow Moon Hall’s Sect Master Qian sent a request for Sect Master to visit Shadow Moon Hall to discuss a certain matter!”
“En,” Yang Kai nodded.
The disciple then retreated.
Yang Kai did not know what Qian Tong was looking for him for, but it should not be an urgent matter, otherwise, he would have come in person rather than simply requesting Yang Kai come see him. Additionally, the current Qian Tong was an Origin King, so few things in this world could threaten him.
Yang Kai did not consider this matter urgent and decided to prioritize finishing his current task before going to Shadow Moon Hall to meet with Qian Tong.
After experimenting with the Space Array, Yang Kai returned to Black Reef Island along with the six Sea Temple Array Masters.
The six cultivators seemed to still be a bit unsatiated.
The old man looked towards Yang Kai with extreme admiration and said, “Sect Master Yang, this old master has used many Space Arrays over his life, but every time, the farther the transmission distance, the more backlash he received; however, this Space Array causes no discomfort or dizziness at all, a truly brilliant achievement! This old master is in awe of Sect Master Yang’s great talent!”
The other five people also nodded in agreement.
Space Arrays were truly convenient tools to use, but teleporting over long distances caused great strain on a cultivator. This strain was not only related to one’s physical body, but also one’s Soul.
The further the distance one teleported, the greater the load.
Therefore, weaker cultivators did not dare use Space Arrays to teleport too far. Under the most extreme of circumstances, teleporting a greater distance than one was capable of withstanding would destroy one’s Knowledge Sea, leaving them brain dead. Even short-distance teleportations couldn’t be conducted too frequently.
Among these six Array Masters, all of them had used Space Arrays multiple times, so all of them were well aware of the drawbacks.
However, the ultra-long distance teleportation they just conducted, one on the order of several million kilometres, actually didn’t produce any kind of discomfort. Using this Space Array felt no more difficult than visiting a neighbour’s house.
In other words, the Space Array arranged by Yang Kai had far surpassed the ability of those ancient relics in terms of stability and usability.
This caused the six Array Masters to respect and admire Yang Kai even more than before.
Yang Kai just smiled lightly, “It’s nothing much. En, please transfer the Transmission Tokens in your hands to Old Sha and inform him that when everything in Sea Temple has been settled, he can send someone to High Heaven Sect to meet with Great Elder Ye to discuss the material exchange.”
“Is Sect Master Yang planning on leaving now? Do you not want to stop and rest for a few days and meet with Martial Uncle Sha?” The old man attempted to retain Yang Kai.
“No, I need to head for Sea God Palace,” Yang Kai waved his hand and his figure flickered, disappearing from where he stood.
A look of regret appeared on the faces of the six, but after a brief discussion, they hurried to the centre of Black Reef Island. The six Transmission Tokens were of great importance and they did not dare treat them carelessly.
Sea God Palace was the other great force on the Limitless Ocean together with Sea Temple and was composed of almost all the sentient ocean races.
In fact, Sea God Palace was stronger than Sea Temple both in terms of the number of masters it possessed and the strength it wielded.
Although there was some friction from time to time between these two giants though, neither side desired to go to war on a large scale, so they were able to coexist.
Sea God Palace’s headquarters was located somewhere deep underwater and composed of a sprawling number of beautiful undersea palaces protected by powerful Spirit Arrays. There was even breathable air in some places, the ocean held back by strong barriers.
To others, looking for the headquarters of Sea God Palace on the huge Limitless Ocean floor was akin to looking for a needle in a haystack. Even Sea Temple was unable to figure out where Sea God Palace was located.
But to Yang Kai, this was a simple matter.
After leaving Black Reef Island, it only took him a day to locate Sea God Palace and easily arrive at its entrance.
Here, he did not encounter any difficulties. Although the Sea Clan looked down on the Human Race, it also respected powerful masters.
Yang Kai undoubtedly was qualified to receive a courteous reception here.
What’s more, the little dolphin, the Sea Clan’s princess, was extremely close to Yang Kai.
Qian Mo and Shang Ao, two of the eight Generals, also owed Yang Kai a life-saving gratitude.
As such, forming a cooperative relationship with the Sea Clan was easier than forming one with Sea Temple.
Yang Kai immediately met with the Sea Clan’s king, the father of the little dolphin and patriarch of the Dolphin Flood Dragon Clan, Lie Kong. After engaging in a small exchange of pointers, Lie Kong realized how deep and unfathomable Yang Kai’s strength was and quickly agreed to his proposed trade arrangement.
Just like in Sea Temple, Yang Kai requested Sea God Palace provide him with some materials, and a third Space Array, as well as several Transmission Tokens, were produced inside Sea God Palace a few days later.
With Space Arrays in Sea Temple and Sea God Palace, High Heaven Sect was now able to obtain massive amounts of deep-sea resources anytime it wanted.
Now, whether these resources were used or sold, High Heaven Sect would never lose money. In fact, using this trade route, it would be possible for High Heaven Sect to rapidly expand its available materials, making it so that its disciples never had to worry about having enough cultivation resources to use.
This was an advantage that no other Sect on Shadowed Star possessed!
Yang Kai did not intend to stay in Sea God Palace for long, so after he finished arranging the Space Array, he bid farewell to Lie Kong and prepared to depart.
However, before leaving, something unexpected happened.
The little dolphin came swimming up to Yang Kai’s side with a bead in her mouth and handed it to him.
This bead was the size of a fist and was azure blue, just like the deep sea. Although this bead was not very large, after it was pushed into his hand, Yang Kai discovered that it was actually extremely heavy. What’s more, he could hear the sound of crashing waves coming from it and could sense an extremely rich Water Attribute energy inside of it.
After seeing this bead, Lie Kong, Qian Mo, and Shang Ao, who were all present to see Yang Kai off, wore solemn expressions.
Many others who were present also showed nervous expressions.
“This… I can’t accept it,” Yang Kai smiled slightly as he gently rubbed the little dolphin’s head.
Although he did not know what the story behind this bead was, he could tell from the looks on everyone’s faces that its value was definitely not trivial. He had just managed to establish a cooperative relationship with Sea God Palace so rashly accepting such a heavy gift would likely only make the Sea Clan unhappy.
The main reason Yang Kai refused though was because this gift was given to him by the little dolphin. The little dolphin only had the mental age of a young child and acted entirely based on its personal preferences. In short, she could not represent the wishes of the entire Sea Clan.
If this bead had been given to him by Lie Kong personally, Yang Kai would have gladly accepted it.
Seeing Yang Kai tactfully refuse, the leaders of the Sea Clan all showed relieved expressions.
The little dolphin, however, refused to give up, making a series of rapid cries as if to say it would not rest until Yang Kai accepted her gift.
Yang Kai tried hard to persuade her, but the little dolphin absolutely would not take the bead back, soon even shedding tears of unhappiness, putting Yang Kai in an incredibly awkward position, and forcing him to turn to Lie Kong for help.
Lie Kong anxiously looked at the little dolphin for a while before eventually his expression softened and he spoke, “Since Sect Master Yang has such a close relationship with my daughter, please accept her gift. It is clear that if Sect Master Yang does not accept it, she will be very sad; after all, Sect Master Yang is her lifesaver. Sect Master Yang need not refuse.”
Yang Kai frowned for a moment before asking, “May I ask what this thing is and what its function is?”
“This is one of the treasures of my Sea God Palace, the Sea God Bead, and while it may not be of much use to Sect Master Yang personally, anyone who cultivates Water Attribute Secret Arts or Secret Techniques will benefit greatly from it. This is a piece of the source of the sea, so the Water Attribute energy it contains is not only extremely pure, but also almost inexhaustible. The Sea God Bead was a birthday gift this King gave his daughter two years ago, so it is her personal property and she has every right to gift it to Sect Master Yang,” Lie Kong explained.
“The source of the sea…” Yang Kai’s eyes flashed, “This thing truly is of great use to me, so this Yang will not refuse.”
Lie Kong smiled and nodded.
The other leaders of the Sea Clean, seeing how matters had already gotten this far, had no objections in the end.
“However, this Sea God Bead is still a bit too precious for this Yang Kai to simply accept, so this Yang will exchange it for five hundred Origin Grade Shadowed Heaven Pills. What does Palace Master Lie Kong think?”
“Five hundred Origin Grade Shadowed Heaven Pills?” Lie Kong’s eyes lit up this time.
The expressions of many of the Sea Clan leaders also suddenly became excited.
The masters of the Sea Clan had already learned from Qian Mo and Shang Ao what Shadowed Heaven Pills were. Although they understood that Shadowed Heaven Pills were Heaven-defying treasures, the primary ingredient required to refine them only existed on Shadowed Soul Island, so even if they wanted them, they could not obtain them.
The little dolphin had some, but not many, all of which were given to her by Yang Kai before and were considered her personal items.
Who would feel right taking the Sea Clan Princess’ pills? Even Lie Kong only took a Shadowed Heaven Pill from her to study for a while before giving it back to his daughter.
Yet now, Yang Kai had offered them five hundred Origin Grade Shadowed Heaven Pills just like that. For the Sea Clan, this was a massive windfall. With these five hundred Origin Grade Shadowed Heaven Pills, several of Sea God Palace’s peak level masters could substantially increase their physical strength.
When he heard Yang Kai was willing to give Sea God Palace five hundred Origin Grade Shadowed Heaven Pills in exchange for this Sea God Bead, Lie Kong was momentarily unable to restrain his joy.
“Yup!” Yang Kai smiled and nodded.
Five hundred Origin Grade Shadowed Heaven Pills, although a huge fortune, was nothing to the current High Heaven Sect. The Shadowed Heaven Lotus Yang Kai brought back last time had all been given to Xia Ning Chang, and she should have refined a massive amount of pills after so many days.
Lie Kong coughed as he wet his dry lips, “How could we accept such generosity….”
“If Palace Master Lie Kong disagrees, then this Yang won’t feel comfortable accepting this Sea God Bead.”
Lie Kong paused for a moment before nodding, “Since Sect Master Yang is willing to go so far, this Lie Kong won’t be polite. This King agrees! May friendship between Sea God Palace and High Heaven Sect last forever!”
“Great, I will have someone send the five hundred Shadowed Heaven Pills to Sea God Palace within a few days,” Yang Kai cupped his fists to the Sea Clan masters, “This Yang will take his leave!”
Saying so, Yang Kai stepped directly into the Space Array and teleported to the outskirts of High Heaven Sect.
The Sea God Bead he obtained by accident this time was incredibly useful to Yang Kai. Although he did not cultivate any Water Attribute Secret Arts or Secret Techniques, the Five Elements Indestructible Sword Tempering Art required supreme treasures of each of the five elements.
Among the five elements, Yang Kai did not need to worry about the Fire Attribute supreme treasure. The energy contained within the Sun’s True Essence was so immense that it had barely even diminished even after he had cultivated with it for so long.
However, the supreme treasures Yang Kai used for the other four elements had more or less been used up.
Whether it was the Thunder Wood, Profound Yin Sunflower Water, Profound Gold, or Divine Nullification Sand, none of them would last much longer.
The Sea God Bead Yang Kai obtained this time could be used to replace the Profound Yin Sunflower Water when he cultivated the Five Elements Indestructible Sword Tempering Art in the future.
The Sea God Bead was formed from the source of the sea and had rich, pure Water Attribute energy. Compared with the Profound Yin Sunflower Water, the Sea God Bead was no doubt higher in both grade and quality, so there was no issue with it meeting Yang Kai’s requirements. Additionally, the energy stored within it was much greater than what was contained in the Profound Yin Sunflower Water.
It seemed Yang Kai would not need to worry about finding a new Water Attribute supreme treasure for a long time.
However, as it was right now, Yang Kai really did not have any difficulties finding supreme treasures of the other three elements either. All he needed to do was issue a command and supreme treasures would be delivered to him. Whether he could find a treasure comparable to the Sea God Bead was questionable, though.
After returning to High Heaven Sect, Yang Kai went straight to Ye Xi Yun and told her about the deal between him and Sea God Palace and asked her to send someone to collect five hundred Origin Grade Shadowed Heaven Pills from Xia Ning Chang.
Ye Xi Yun naturally did not refuse.
Over the next two months, Yang Kai travelled to various famous cities and Sects on Shadowed Star, constantly arranging Space Arrays.
Two months later, the Space Array outside of High Heaven Sect had been connected to almost all corners of Shadowed Star. Now, if a disciple needed to, they could rush to any major city they wanted to in an instant.
Such a massive project was something which had never appeared on Shadowed Star before. This way, High Heaven Sect could not only grasp and manage the situation across all of Shadowed Star at all times, but it could also purchase any kind of materials or products it wanted from anywhere it wanted.
Yang Kai’s final stop was Heavenly Fate City.
He needed to meet with Qian Tong as well, so Yang Kai figured he could finish up arranging a Space Array then have enough free time to handle whatever matter Qian Tong needed to consult him about.
On this day, Yang Kai arrived above Heavenly Fate City, and looking down at the post-war scene from the sky, Yang Kai could not help feeling a little nostalgic.
When he first came to Shadowed Star, he was nothing more than a Second-Order Saint, but after all these years he had managed to cultivate to the peak of Shadowed Star’s Martial Dao. In retrospect, it was here, on Dragon Cave Mountain outside Heavenly Fate City, that he started his rise, ultimately leading to today’s High Heaven Sect.
Bit by bit, Yang Kai recalled these past events as if they had only happened yesterday.
Yang Kai smiled slightly before flying straight towards the City Lord’s Mansion.
After being looted by Corpse Spirit Religion, Heavenly Fate City suffered heavy devastation, but after such a long period of rebuilding, today’s Heavenly Fate City was booming again.
Fei Zhi Tu was still Heavenly Fate City’s City Lord!
When Yang Kai met with him today, Fei Zhi Tu had already restored his cultivation to the Third-Order Origin Returning Realm.
It seemed that this was partly thanks to him enduring the torture of the Fang Feng Qi from Corpse Spirit Religion last time.
Yang Kai naturally felt happy for him, and Fei Zhi Tu was even more excited after seeing Yang Kai. Learning what Yang Kai came for, he immediately permitted him to do as he pleased.
Yang Kai did not stand on ceremony and immediately got to work arranging the new Space Array in Heavenly Fate City, connecting it to High Heaven Sect.
Just two days later, the Space Array had been completed.
As he arranged more and more Space Arrays, Yang Kai had become familiar with the process and was now much faster at it than when he started.
With a flash of white light, Fei Zhi Tu disappeared from atop the Space Array, and soon after, reappeared. Laughing heartily, he said, “Sure enough, I was teleported straight to High Heaven Sect. Our two Sects can now communicate at any time without delay.”
Yang Kai smiled and nodded before suddenly asking, “By the way, Senior, is Old Qian coming?”
When Yang Kai asked about Qian Tong, Fei Zhi Tu’s expression immediately became serious as he nodded, “He’s already here, but when he saw you busy setting up this Space Array, he decided not to bother you. You should go and meet him quickly; Old Ghost Qian seems to be having some kind of problem he cannot resolve.”
“A problem even Old Qian can’t resolve?” Yang Kai was stunned, not understanding what the matter was that rendered even a master like Qian Tong helpless.
While he was arranging the Space Array here, Yang Kai already had Fei Zhi Tu send a message to Shadow Moon Hall. Two days was more than enough time for Qian Tong to arrive.
Not delaying any further, Yang Kai quickly went to meet Qian Tong together with Fei Zhi Tu.
Inside a large hall in the City Lord’s Mansion, Yang Kai found three people waiting for him.
All three of these people were Yang Kai’s old acquaintances. Other than Qian Tong, Wei Gu Chang and Dong Xuan’er were also present.
Seeing Yang Kai, Qian Tong’s eyes lit up and he smiled bitterly, “Little brat, seems like you haven’t forgotten about me after all.”
“Sorry Old Qian, I thought whatever it was wasn’t a big deal, so I didn’t rush over. I’ve been running around Shadowed Star for the past few months,” Yang Kai smiled awkwardly. If he knew that Qian Tong was so anxious, he would have come to Heavenly Fate City first.
Qian Tong grinned wryly, “It’s nothing so urgent, otherwise, this old master would have gone to High Heaven Sect personally to find you.”
Wei Gu Chang and Dong Xuan’er both got up quickly to greet Yang Kai.
Yang Kai replied in kind, and after scanning them with his Divine Sense, he noticed both of Saint Qis were flowing quite vigorously while their auras pulsed slightly, an obvious sign that they were on the verge of a breakthrough.
The two were worthy of the most elite disciples of Shadow Moon Hall! Less than ten years after breaking through to the Origin Returning Realm, these two were about to make a breakthrough again. Logically speaking, even with the aptitude of Wei Gu Chang and Dong Xuan’er, their cultivation should not have progressed so rapidly, but Yang Kai figured their astonishing growth had something to do with the recent Corpse Spirit Religion upheaval.
Cultivators could often force out all their potential when facing desperate situations.
Wei Gu Chang and Dong Xuan’er had experienced numerous life or death battles during the war, which was of great benefit to their future cultivation.
When young people met, the scene inevitably became lively.
While Yang Kai talked with Wei Gu Chang and Dong Xuan’er, Qian Tong and Fei Zhi Tu did not interrupt, just sitting to the side and watching with smiles.
Only after a good long chat did Yang Kai turn to Qian Tong and ask, “By the way, what is this matter you wanted to consult with me about, Old Qian? I heard Senior Fei mention that even you were unable to resolve it.”
Qian Tong’s expression gradually became serious and he nodded, “Yeah, this old master really is helpless in this situation, which is why I came to you for help.”
“What’s the matter?”
“You should be able to tell if you take a closer look,” Qian Tong didn’t answer directly and instead began releasing a powerful and mysterious force from his figure.
Domain!
Domain was a power exclusive to Origin Kings and was the ultimate evolution of Shi.
Qian Tong had broken through to the Origin King Realm only a few years ago, so his Domain was not too powerful, but even so, when he released it, the entire world seemed to tremble.
Fortunately, he did not aim his Domain at anyone present, instead restraining it so that even if Wei Gu Chang and the others felt slugging and their Saint Qi circulation became slow, they did not suffer any harm.
Yang Kai paid close attention to Qian Tong as requested and soon frowned deeply, releasing his Divine Sense to probe the latter.
Seeing the look on Yang Kai’s face, Qian Tong immediately knew that he had already noticed something and continued to maintain his Domain, allowing Yang Kai to examine the situation more clearly.
After a brief silence, Yang Kai withdrew his Divine Sense, but his frown remained.
“Since you are the Lord of Shadowed Star, you should be able to tell, yes?” Qian Tong asked after withdrawing his Domain.
Fei Zhi Tu, Wei Gu Chang, and Dong Xuan’er were all confused as none of them noticed anything wrong with Qian Tong. From their perspective, Qian Tong seemed perfectly fine and his Domain, once released, was as powerful as ever.
“The World Principles here… are rejecting you?” Yang Kai asked suspiciously with a look of shock in his eyes.
“You really can tell,” Qian Tong sighed.
“What?” Fei Zhi Tu was shocked, “Old Ghost Qian is being rejected by Shadowed Star’s World Principles? How is that even possible?”
“Nothing is impossible,” Qian Tong smiled bitterly and shook his head, “If it weren’t for my being rejected by the World Principles here, do you think this old master would be struck by lightning for no apparent reason?”