Before he broke through to the Dao Source Realm, this Silver Moon Purple Frost Sabre would have some use to him.
His most precious artifacts were the four Emperor Artifacts he had on him, but none could be easily revealed in front of others. Apart from that, only the Dragon Bone Sword was left.
However, Yang Kai had already made up his mind to fuse the Dragon Bone Sword into his body, so this artifact was destined to disappear in the near future. The Silver Moon Purple Frost Sabre would be able to make up for this in the short term. This artifact wasn’t too high-grade, so it wouldn’t be noticeable when he used it, and it could also display the might of Principle Strength, which boosted its strength greatly.
Thinking so, Yang Kai put away the Silver Moon Purple Frost Sabre, not intending on refining it, as that would be a waste of time. This way, when he found something better, he could simply replace it.
Then, he solemnly took out the Space Spirit Jade from his Space Ring.
As soon as the dark round jade appeared, Yang Kai felt that it was different from earlier today. At this moment, the Space Spirit Jade was vibrating slightly while also exuding a profound and mysterious fluctuation. On its surface, a faint trace of black ripples even appeared.
The pitch-black jade seemed to grow even darker, like a pure emptiness that wanted to swallow in everything around it!
“Seems like it’s real!” Yang Kai saw this and confirmed that the Space Spirit Jade had undergone this change because Zhang Ruo Xi was nearby. When Yang Kai had seen it earlier in the day, it was completely still and tranquil.
But now, Yang Kai could clearly feel the Space Force fluctuations coming from the Space Spirit Jade. If someone was immersed in these fluctuations for a long time, it wouldn’t be impossible to comprehend Space Force.
Zhang Ruo Xi had lived with Lu Family for a month at one point, and during that month, Lu Bai Chuan had an opportunity to comprehend the Dao of Space.
Obviously, the reason why Lu Bai Chuan wanted his heir to marry Zhang Ruo Xi was entirely because of this Space Spirit Jade. It could even be said that the reason he turned on the Zhang Family was related to this.
However, Yang Kai wouldn’t be able to learn anything from these kinds of fluctuations. If Zhang Ruo Xi were to be exposed to this jade, however, he didn’t know if a change would occur.
This thing was currently in his hands, but ultimately, it stemmed from the Zhang Family. It belonged to Yang Kai now though, and it didn’t matter if he didn’t return it as this was a trophy that the Zhang Family no longer had any right to. But that also meant that Yang Kai couldn’t just go to the Zhang Family to ask about it either.
What’s more, the Zhang Family likely didn’t even know anything about this! If they had considered it valuable, they would not have given it away two hundred years ago as dowry to the Lu Family.
It seemed he would need to depend on himself.
Yang Kai thus began to study the Space Spirit Jade attentively.
Over the next two days. Yang Kai stayed with the Zhang Family, and he spent almost all his time trying to pry into the secrets of the Space Spirit Jade but got nothing for his investment.
When he realized that such investigations were pointless, he also determined that there was no reason to remain with them. As such, he immediately decided to bid farewell to the Zhang Family’.
The old woman and the middle-aged woman tried multiple times to get him to stay, but seeing Yang Kai determined to leave, they did not force the issue and instead saw him out personally.
“Benefactor, please take care of yourself in the future, if you ever have time to spare, my Zhang Family would be honoured if you grace us with your presence!” After two days of recuperation, the old woman looked much better, but due to her age and the damage she had suffered to her foundation, she was unable to completely restore herself.
Seeing her act so enthusiastic, Yang Kai simply smiled lightly and said, “If there is a chance, I will stop by. When the time comes, I hope old madam will not shut me out.”
“Benefactor is the sole reason my Zhang Family was able to overcome our crisis, but my Zhang Family really has nothing to repay you with… This Mistress has noticed the Benefactor is a lone traveller, so inevitably there must be some inconveniences in Benefactor’s daily life. As such, This Mistress hopes that Benefactor will allow Ruo Xi to accompany him so she may tend to his needs in the future!” The middle-aged beauty suddenly said while pulling out Zhang Ruo Xi who had been hiding behind her.
“Huh?” Yang Kai was stunned for a moment, never having expected the middle-aged woman to make such a proposal, causing him to unconsciously glance towards the young girl.
All Yang Kai could see, though, was the little girl lowering her head and playing with her clothes, her face blushing, her lips pressed tightly shut.
Yang Kai had a strange feeling in his heart, but soon understood the intentions of this middle-aged beauty.
She obviously felt that the Zhang Family was severely weakened now and feared that, powerful enemies would covet them in the future. She wanted to build a good relationship with him in hopes he would shelter the Zhang Family in the future, and Zhang Ruo Xi was the bridge she had chosen to build this relationship on.
If he really agreed, he likely wouldn’t be able to stand idly by if such calamity befell the Zhang Family out of consideration for Zhang Ruo Xi.
After understanding this, Yang Kai frowned as he instinctively repelled such ideas, but he did not immediately refuse.
Because according to his original idea, he was planning on handling affairs with Kang Si Ran first before coming to the Zhang Family to stay as a guest to study the Space Spirit Jade. If that wasn’t the case, he wouldn’t have agreed to the old woman’s invitation to visit in the future.
However, through some twist of fate, the Zhang Family was actually giving Zhang Ruo Xi to him.
While he found this kind of practice off-putting, he also could not help feeling that good fortune had fallen from the sky and landed in his lap.
Seeing Yang Kai hesitating, Zhang Ruo Xi seemed to become even more embarrassed. The middle-aged beauty, however, just smiled slightly and said, “Although Ruo Xi is a young child with low cultivation, unable to assist Benefactor in battle, she has good talent and is both quiet and clever. If Benefactor takes her with him, he will no longer need to worry about trivial matters in the future and can focus on his own cultivation as well as breaking through to the Dao Source Realm as soon as possible.”
The middle-aged woman vigorously promoted Zhang Ruo Xi in front of Yang Kai, while observing his words and expressions, “However… If Benefactor is adverse to this idea, then it seems Ruo Xi will not be able to enjoy this blessing.”
As soon as she said this, Zhang Ruo Xi could not help trembling slightly as she tightly gripped her small fists.
“Sister Ruo Xi is both refined and intelligent, how could I dislike her, it’s just…” Yang Kai frowned and glanced at the old woman while speaking but seeing her looking back at him with some expectation, he knew that this matter had already been discussed between these two women beforehand.
Perhaps, during the dinner that night, him glancing at Zhang Ruo Xi a few times had caused some kind of misunderstanding.
Seeing Zhang Ruo Xi’s head droop as she bit her thin lip, Yang Kai sighed in his heart and swallowed back the refusal he was about to make, “It’s just that I don’t want to force someone to do something against their will. Regarding this matter, I will have to ask Miss Ruo Xi’s opinion. If she wants to go with me, I can take her away from Zhang Family, but if she does not want to leave, then I’ll pretend I never heard anything.”
Hearing this, the middle-aged beautiful woman breathed a sigh of relief and smiled, “Of course.”
Saying so, she turned to Zhang Ruo Xi and asked, “Ruo Xi, you heard Benefactor’s words yourself, so speak your mind. Would you like to leave with Benefactor and serve him from now on?”
Zhang Ruo Xi did not lift her head and just nodded shyly.
The middle-aged woman smiled warmly and spoke once more, “Ruo Xi, you need to make yourself clear or Benefactor will not know your true thoughts.”
Zhang Ruo Xi’s voice was as quiet as a mosquito as she spoke a simple, “Yes!”
The middle-aged beauty smiled and turned to Yang Kai, “Benefactor, Ruo Xi is willing. No one is forcing her.”
Yang Kai sighed, “Good, in that case, she will accompany me.”
“Many thanks, Sir,” Zhang Ruo Xi bowed elegantly.
“You may rest assured, as long as you remain with me, no one will bully you, regarding this, old madam may feel relieved,” Yang Kai turned to the old woman and said with a serious face.
The old woman smiled, “It is Ruo Xi’s blessing to be able to follow Benefactor, and the Zhang Family believes in the character of Benefactor.”
Yang Kai nodded before turning to Zhang Ruo Xi and saying, “If you have anything you wish to say to your family, do so now, I will go on ahead and wait for you.”
Saying so, Yang Kai flew off a short distance.
Glancing back, Zhang Ruo Xi had thrown herself into the arms of the old woman, choking on her sobs, the old woman patting her shoulders to comfort her while telling her something.
Next, Zhang Ruo Xi bid farewell to the middle-aged woman and the other members of her family one by one. Before leaving, she kowtowed three times towards the Zhang Family home before turning around and walking out towards where Yang Kai stood.
When she got closer, she wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes with her hand and whispered, “Sir, I’m fine now.”
Yang Kai chuckled, “You don’t have to look so forlorn. I live in Maplewood City, so if you ever feel homesick in the future, you can come back here to visit, I won’t stop you.”
Zhang Ruo Xi shook her head and said, “Grandma said I am no longer a member of the Zhang Family so I do not need to return. I should only serve Sir with all my heart.”
Yang Kai was taken aback for a moment, before nodding, “Old madam seems to have considered things carefully.”
The old woman telling Zhang Ruo Xi this was obviously because she was afraid of upsetting Yang Kai, but how could she have known that he would not care about such things at all. The only reason Yang Kai agreed to bring Zhang Ruo Xi along with him was because of the Space Spirit Jade, not because he had any interest in her personally. Yang Kai couldn’t be bothered to explain any of this though, so he simply left it as it was.
Flying back, Yang Kai realized he did not have a good flight-type artifact, only the Star Shuttle he had from his native Star Field, which was far from sufficient for his current needs.
As such, he simply wrapped Zhang Ruo Xi in his Qi and flew back on his own.
Zhang Ruo Xi only had a First-Order Saint King cultivation, and had never left the Zhang Family before, nor experienced such a fast flight, so she kept her eyes closed shut with fright and her fists clenched tightly, like she was bracing herself on the way to the execution ground.
Yang Kai saw this, smiled, and shook his head, choosing not to say anything.
Soon after, Yang Kai arrived at the gates to Maplewood City, landed, and brought Zhang Ruo Xi into the city.
This little girl had apparently never seen the city due to her constantly attending to the old matriarch in the Zhang Family, so after entering, she could not stop her eyes from darting about, taking in all the new and dazzling sights.
Yang Kai noticed she was wearing a simple dress with no jewellery on her body and found it a bit pitiful. He wanted to give her something, but was afraid she would misunderstand his intentions, so he simply gave up.
Once back at his rented secluded home, Yang Kai took out the Identity Token and was about to open it when suddenly, someone rushed up to him and called out anxiously, “Alchemist Yang, you’re back.”
Yang Kai heard this voice, turned his head, and saw a familiar face he couldn’t help chuckling at, “It’s you again?”
It was none other than the shop-hand from Spirit Pill Plaza he was familiar with. Because Yang Kai often went in and out of Spirit Pill Plaza to refine Spirit Pills, he had a slight impression of this man.
“It is this humble one,” The shop hand bowed to Yang Kai. After straightening himself back up, he gave Zhang Ruo Xi a strange look, wondering why Yang Kai was being accompanied by a young First-Order Saint King girl.
“Why are you waiting here for me?” Yang Kai asked, looking at the shop-hand.
The shop hand promptly replied, “It’s like this, this humble one has been ordered by Shopkeeper Kang to wait here for Alchemist Yang to invite him to the upcoming auction fair.”
“Auction fair?” Yang Kai raised his brow, soon recalling that Kang Si Ran had mentioned this to him a few days ago. He said that the cultivators of Maplewood City had found a lot of treasures in the Five Colored Treasure Pagoda, so City Lord Duan Yuan Shan had organized an auction fair to let everyone exchange for what they needed.
It was just that Yang Kai’s pockets were a little light at that time, so he didn’t have much interest in it. As he hadn’t expressed much interest in participating, he was surprised Kang Si Ran would send someone to invite him.
[I’ve just obtained a lot of Source Crystals and treasures from the Lu Family, so it should be fine to check it out.]
Having considered all this, Yang Kai asked, “What’s so special about this auction fair? Why is Shopkeeper Kang so interested?”
The shop hand smiled mysteriously, glancing left and right before leaning in closer to Yang Kai and saying in a low voice, “Shopkeeper Kang said that a Dao Source Fruit will appear.”
“Really?” Yang Kai was astonished.
“Indeed! That’s why Shopkeeper Kang is so keen about this auction, and also wants to ask Alchemist Yang to join him to gather funds and snatch the Dao Source Fruit together.”
“Alright,” Yang Kai nodded.
“In addition, Shopkeeper Kang said that there is an ancient pill furnace among the items listed for auction, one that is at least of Dao Source-Grade Low-Rank. If Alchemist Yang can obtain this pill furnace, his refinement success rate will surely increase. This ancient pill furnace should be very attractive to all Alchemists.”
“I am indeed interested in this,” Yang Kai smiled. “Hmm, where is this auction held and when will it start?”
A smile appeared on the shop-hand’s face as he replied, “It will start at noon today. I have been waiting for Alchemist Yang for two days now, if Alchemist Yang had not just returned, he may have missed it.”
“So, it seems that I came back just at the right time. Good, go back and inform Shopkeeper Kang I will come to meet him right away.”
“Yes!” The shop hand replied before promptly retreating.
Although the two didn’t speak loudly, Zhang Ruo Xi, who was curiously watching things nearby, heard most of it. Waiting until the shop hand left, she asked Yang Kai curiously, “Sir, are you an Alchemist?”
Yang Kai smiled and replied, “I know a little something. Let’s head in first.”
Saying so, Yang Kai activated the barrier of the secluded home and took Zhang Ruo Xi inside.
The secluded home that he had rented in Maplewood City might not be the best, but it wasn’t bad either, having several rooms inside and being fairly spacious. Yang Kai gave a room to Zhang Ruo Xi to live in for now.
He also gave her an Identity Token and taught her how to activate and deactivate the protective barriers. He then warned her not to open the secluded home to anyone except him.
Zhang Ruo Xi nodded and agreed.
“You can go out for a walk if you are bored. Security in Maplewood City is fairly good, but you must stay away from the Black Market as the City Lord’s Mansion cannot supervise that area. If you went there with your cultivation, it would be very dangerous,” Yang Kai exhorted.
“Ruo Xi won’t go anywhere. Ruo Xi will be waiting for Sir’s return,” Zhang Ruo Xi stated in a quiet voice.
“As you wish. You can rest first, I will be going out for a bit,” Yang Kai said before leaving straight away.
Zhang Ruo Xi bowed respectfully to his disappearing figure.
After Yang Kai left, Zhang Ruo Xi started looking around the secluded home and realized that although it was neat and clean, it was also quite barren and empty. Considering she would be living here from now on, she began thinking about how to redecorate.
After taking some time to come up with a plan, Zhang Ruo Xi smiled happily before immediately taking things out of her Space Ring and arranging them.
…
Spirit Pill Plaza…
When Yang Kai arrived, someone immediately informed Kang Si Ran.
Not long after, Kang Si Ran came out and held Yang Kai’s hands enthusiastically, “Alchemist Yang, you finally showed up. If you didn’t appear, I’m afraid you would have missed this auction fair. Let’s go, time is running out, we need to arrive at the City Lord’s Mansion as soon as possible.”
“The auction fair is being held at the City Lord’s Mansion?” Yang Kai asked, astonished.
“Naturally! After all, this auction fair is organized by Sir City Lord himself, so of course, the venue is the City Lord’s Mansion. I will tell you about the treasures that will appear on the way.”
While on his way to the City Lord’s Mansion with Kang Si Ran, Yang Kai listened to the inside information from him. As they walked, Yang Kai came to realize that although Maplewood City’s cultivators had suffered serious casualties inside the Five Colored Treasure Pagoda, many had also managed to obtain good treasures.
Needless to say, the Dao Source Fruit would surely become the final item to be auctioned.
There were also several Dao Source Grade artifacts, which had attracted many Dao Source Realm masters of nearby great forces to participate in the auction.
Moreover, there were ancient pills, Secret Arts, and Secret Techniques.
In short, this auction would be an unprecedented event for Maplewood City, and all cultivators were looking forward to it. However, there were some prerequisites to participating in the auction; after all, there were many cultivators in Maplewood City and not everyone could be accommodated into the City Lord’s Mansion.
If one wanted to join the auction, other than being invited by the City Lord’s Mansion, only two kinds of people could enter freely.
Cultivators at or above the Origin King Realm, or someone with strong financial backing. If a cultivator didn’t meet either of these requirements, they weren’t even allowed to enter the auction house.
As the shopkeeper of the Spirit Pill Plaza, Kang Si Ran often dealt with the City Lord’s Mansion, so he had obtained an invitation long ago and was allowed to bring one person inside with him, meaning Yang Kai’s cultivation and financial resources didn’t need to be checked.
“Heavenly Martial Holy Land placed three Dao Source Fruits in the Five Colored Treasure Pagoda this time, one of which will appear in the auction. As for the other two, no one knows who obtained them,” Kang Si Ran said. He had always been eyeing the Dao Source Fruits and was quite annoyed that his luck wasn’t good enough to obtain one inside the Five Colored Treasure Pagoda. Today though, he had brought out his life’s savings to obtain this Dao Source Fruit.
However, he knew that he had little to no hope of success; after all, while he was the shopkeeper of Spirit Pill Plaza, how could his financial resources be compared with those from big Sects and families? If he were to attend the auction as a representative of Violet Source Chamber of Commerce, his situation would have been completely different, but using funds from Violet Source Chamber of Commerce would mean the Dao Source Fruit would ultimately not belong to him.
Hearing what he said, Yang Kai scratched his nose and remained silent.
After all, one of the Dao Source Fruits was still lying in his Space Ring. As for the third one, he had no idea about it.
Chatting and walking, the two soon arrived at the City Lord’s Mansion.
The City Lord’s Mansion entrance was bustling with people, many of them eager to enter while the guards were trying to maintain order. From time to time, people would try to push their way inside, but they would immediately be thrown out while being mocked and cursed.
“A mere Third-Order Origin Returning Realm wants to participate in the auction!? Go back and cultivate for a few more decades first! What, you have Source Crystals? Let me see, a few hundred thousand Source Crystals? You call this having Source Crystals!? Scram!” Loud cursing could be heard coming from the front as some unqualified cultivators wanted to pass through but were caught by the guards and unceremoniously expelled.
“First-Order Origin King, you are barely qualified.”
“A Third-Order Saint King like you wants to join in the fun? You think Father here won’t slap you to death? What, you have a million Source Crystals? Why didn’t you say so! Go on in.”
The guards were also very busy. The auction was about to start, but there were still countless cultivators who wanted to enter, leading to many big headaches.
“Ah, Shopkeeper Kang!”
Kang Si Ran and Yang Kai squeezed their way through the crowd to get to the City Lord’s Mansion’s gates where the guards immediately recognized Kang Si Ran and put a big smile on his face.
“Shopkeeper Kang, even if it is you, you must follow the rules. You have an invitation, right?”
“Of course,” Kang Si Ran smiled as he took out the invitation before handing it over under the envious gazes of the nearby cultivators.
The guard took it and after verifying its authenticity, he said with a smile, “Shopkeeper Kang, please enter, you only need to show the invitation at the entrance and someone will come to greet you.”
“Very good! Ah, right, this Kang will be bringing this friend in with me, that’s not a problem, right?” Kan Si Ran pointed at Yang Kai.
“According to the rules, it’s not a problem,” That guard only glanced once at Yang Kai before letting him go.
Kan Si Ran nodded before the pair left the crowd and made their way inside.
“Let’s go, the auction is about to start,” Kang Si Ran picked up his pace.
Soon after, the two entered the City Lord’s Mansion and after Kang Si Ran showed his invitation, a maid promptly led them to a private room numbered B9.
Kang Si Ran looked a little surprised by this number; after all, he could be regarded as someone famous in Maplewood City and although his cultivation wasn’t the strongest, with Violet Source Chamber of Commerce backing him, even City Lord Duan Yuan Shan dared not look down on him.
But now, he had only been assigned to a private room in the B Block, making it all the more evident that the people in the higher-ranked rooms either had higher strength, or bigger backgrounds.
Realizing this, Kang Si Ran frowned as a bad premonition came over him.
The auction site was a large hall inside the City Lord’s Mansion that had been temporarily remodelled specifically for the occasion. The hall was jam-packed with people and with just a glance, Yang Kai estimated that there were at least thousands of people here and over a hundred private rooms.
What’s more, there were many people who were still trying to enter. If not for Kang Si Ran’s status, the two of them might not have even been able to squeeze inside.
At this moment, the lower hall was bustling with noises and people as countless cultivators chatted with each other in small groups. Obviously, the auction had still not started.
Only the hundred private rooms remained silent, and whenever a cultivator down below glanced upwards, gazes filled with envy.
“Please sit,” Kang Si Ran said as he found a place for himself.
Yang Kai also took a seat. In any case, he had participated in several auctions over the years, so despite this being his first one in the Star Boundary, everything still felt quite familiar to him.
Yang Kai and Kang Si Ran took their seats and began chatting, but soon after, drums played and down in the auction hall, a short old man with white hair and beard jumped onto the auction platform all of a sudden.
This man’s appearance was quite eye-catching. He wore loose and baggy clothes, his hair was unkempt, and he had the red nose of a drunk. On his waist, there was a big green wine gourd. At first glance, everyone would think of him as a beggar from the streets.
As soon as the old man stepped on the stage, he let out a hearty laugh, lifted the big gourd on his waist like there was no one watching, removed the cork, and poured a strong-smelling wine straight down his throat.
After a few loud gulps, he actually gave a loud burp and narrowed his eyes slightly in satisfaction. He looked as if he would have no regrets even if he ended up dying right this moment.
The smell of wine quickly permeated through the hall.
“This…” Yang Kai was dumbstruck at this sight, his eyes looking as if they were ready to pop out at any moment.
He had participated in several auctions in his native Star Field, but in every one of those, the host had either been a sophisticated or seductive woman, or a scholarly well-kept man. He had never seen a host as unique as this old man on the high platform.
“Alchemist Yang, you only arrived in Maplewood City recently, so it’s not a surprise you don’t know him,” Kang Si Ran broke into a fit of laughter, and before Yang Kai could ask anything, he explained. “He is one of the two Vice City Lords of Maplewood City, no one knows his exact name, but since he calls himself Drunkard, everyone else does as well.”
“He’s one of the two Vice City Lords? Wouldn’t that make him a Dao Source Realm master?” Yang Kai was extremely shocked.
“Yes! He is a First-Order Dao Source Realm cultivator, but as for his specific strengths, that’s unknown. Rumour has it that his true strength isn’t much worse than that of City Lord Duan’s and he is actually capable of fighting cultivators above his realm,” Kang Si Ran said.
Yang Kai nodded his acknowledgement as he asked with a smile, “Is it okay to let him preside over the auction? I think he’s already drunk.”
To that, Kang Si Ran just smiled and said, “Don’t judge him by his appearance, Drunkard has a very prestigious reputation in Maplewood City, beating up ruffians and helping the down-trodden, being generous and kind to the poor. He is a good man.”
Yang Kai nodded, “If that’s the case, then there should be no problem.”
At that moment, Drunkard seemed to be reminiscing about the taste of his wine, but after a moment, he returned to his senses, glanced around, and cupped his fist, “I believe all our honoured guests recognize this old man already. En, it doesn’t matter if you don’t recognize me either. This old man isn’t here to make friends, but to host an auction anyways, so don’t stare at this old man; just focus on the auction items.”
Just as he said this, many cultivators in the hall broke into laughter. Yang Kai also found him quite interesting. This old man didn’t seem to have the slightest aloofness and arrogance a Dao Source master should have, but was instead calm and carefree.
“Good, this old man despises troublesome things, so obviously this old man didn’t want to host this auction, but Sir City Lord suddenly came out and offered me some good wine, getting me to agree to this while I was drunk. Sir City Lord is really too sinister, damn it all! Anyway, this old man is in a hurry, so act decisively during the auction because this old man won’t wait, he has to go out and bask in the sun as soon as possible,” Drunkard quickly said as he walked up to the dais.
Hearing what he said, many people put on serious expressions.
“Good, enough nonsense, let the auction begin,” Drunkard said in a low voice as he gestured towards the back.
A maid of the City Lord’s Mansion immediately came out from backstage, carrying a jade plate. On this jade plate was a white porcelain bottle. From the looks of it, the first item going to be auctioned today was a pill.
“Soul Condensing Pills, an ancient lost pill, three pills in total to be auctioned off together, the starting bid is 30,000 Source Crystals, and each raise should not be less than 1,000 Source Crystals, begin.” Finished with the introduction, Drunkard stood in place silently.
“Soul Condensing Pill, it’s really a Soul Condensing Pill!? If Soul Condensing Pills are being auctioned first, just what kind of treasures will appear next?”
“It’s said that taking a Soul Condensing Pill can temper one’s Soul, making their Spiritual Energy and Divine Sense stronger. I wonder if it’s true or not.”
“This is an Origin King Grade High-Rank pill! It can’t be refined by any of Maplewood City’s Alchemists under normal circumstances.”
After hearing the words ‘Soul Condensing Pill’, all the cultivators present instantly became enthusiastic; after all, it was difficult to increase the strength of one’s Soul, and a powerful Divine Sense was useful for many things, including searching, concealment, and even direct confrontations. These Soul Condensing Pills were useful to all cultivators.
“31,000!”
“32,000!”
“35,000!”
The bids kept rising in the hall, one after another, and even some from the private rooms participated. Not long after, the bottle of Soul Condensing Pills broke through the 50,000 Source Crystals mark.
It wasn’t until someone called out 60,000 Source Crystals that the hall temporarily turned calm.
“60,000 going once, going twice, going thrice, and sold! This bottle of Soul Condensing Pill is sold to the friend who just made the bid, please take your Source Crystals and go backstage to claim your item. Now, let’s move on to the next item!”
Drunkard, who had been standing on the high platform with his eyes closed, closed the deal all of a sudden and moved on to the next item without giving others even a chance to react.
“This…”
“So fast!”
“Is this an auction or selling by compulsion!?”
“Senior Drunkard’s conduct is really too much!”
An uproar immediately broke out in the hall, with many objecting. Obviously, no cultivator had experienced such an auction before. Normally, auction hosts would ask again and again for higher bids, like they feared selling the item at lower than the deserved price, but Drunkard didn’t seem to care about it at all.
It really seemed like he wanted to end the auction as early as possible and then go to sleep under the sun…
For a moment, the cultivators who had been hesitating on whether to increase the bid or not just now were extremely annoyed, while on the other hand, the man who made the last bid of 60,000 got up from his seat with a face filled with joy at having picked up a bargain and immediately rushed to the backstage to finalize the deal.
After having come to learn about Drunkard’s impatient style, every cultivator bid passionately during the subsequent auctions. When they found something they wanted, they didn’t hesitate, and the rate of bids coming in only grew faster and faster. Everyone was afraid that Drunkard would call the winner before they managed to call their bid.
This way, the auction suddenly progressed extremely quickly, and in less than half an hour, more than forty items had been auctioned off.
This was completely the opposite of all auctions Yang Kai had participated in before.
Pills, artifacts, Secret Arts, Secret Techniques, all appeared one by one. Some of these were put up for auctions by cultivators themselves from their personal or family collections, but most items originated from the Five Colored Treasure Pagoda.
These relics of the ancient battlefield naturally caused a lot of people to vie for them, making the atmosphere of the entire auction site extremely hot.
Yang Kai also gained a rough understanding of the market prices of the items sold.
An ordinary Dao Source Grade artifact apparently cost between 700,000 to 800,000 Source Crystals, and if its grade was slightly higher, then the price reaching a million to several millions was pretty normal.
Originally, Yang Kai felt that with a million Source Crystals, he was sufficiently wealthy, but now he realized he was still quite poor.
“Dao Source Grade Low-Rank Tiger Battle Armor, 1.8 million, going once, going twice, going thrice, and sold! Friend, please take your Source Crystals backstage to claim your item. Let’s move on to the next item,” Drunkard, having finished speaking, continued moving things along.
From backstage, a maidservant walked out, carrying a mysterious auction item on a jade tray which was covered by a red cloth. The audience could not see this item’s true appearance and could only tell it was about the size of a melon.
When the maid came closer, Drunkard suddenly grinned as he looked out at the audience meaningfully, “This item is extremely precious and would normally have been auctioned as the finale, but is being auctioned in advance under this old man’s strong suggestion. Presumably, many people here can guess what it is. Now then… let’s begin.”
Saying so, he lifted the red cloth on the jade plate, revealing its true appearance to everyone.
It was a small furnace that seemed to fit in one’s hand. This furnace had a black lustre to it and had many dragons and phoenixes carved into its surface, giving it an extraordinary appearance while an ancient and desolate aura permeated it.
Drunkard picked up the furnace with one hand and said with a laugh, “This Black Jade Furnace has been studied for many days by this old man and Sir City Lord, but we cannot tell what material it is refined from. We were only able to determine it is an Alchemy Furnace, and a Dao Source Grade Mid-Rank one at that.”
“A Dao Source Grade Mid-Rank Alchemy Furnace!” The audience in the hall cried out in shock.
Many priceless treasures and artifacts had appeared in the auction thus far, but only a few were Dao Source Grade Mid-Rank.
More importantly, this was an Alchemy Furnace, a treasure all Alchemists would fight desperately over.
Alchemists were extremely wealthy, but they wouldn’t hesitate to spend enormous amounts of money on a good Alchemy Furnace. What’s more, big Sects and families always cultivated their own Alchemists, so this Dao Source Grade Mid-Rank Alchemy Furnace would definitely make them excited.
With a good Alchemy Furnace, Alchemists could not only improve their chances of successfully refining pills, but also improve the quality of their pills, so the value of high-grade Alchemy Furnaces could be imagined.
Even Yang Kai, who had not bid on anything during the auction, couldn’t help his eyes from flashing when he saw this Alchemy Furnace, immediately sending out his Divine Sense to the stage to scan it carefully.
Many people were doing the same as him, so numerous powerful Divine Senses quickly surged forth and covered the stage, making for a lively scene.
“Is Alchemist Yang interested in this Alchemy Furnace?” Kang Si Ran asked with a slight smile as he was paying attention to Yang Kai’s every word and expression.
“I am somewhat, but…” Yang Kai wryly smiled and shook his head, “I probably can’t snatch it.”
Kang Si Ran thought for a moment before saying, “How would you know whether you can win it or not if you don’t try? Alchemist Yang, please don’t hesitate. If you are lacking in Source Crystals, this Kang can lend them to you.”
“Let’s wait and watch first,” Yang Kai remained noncommittal.
He knew that Kang Si Ran had brought a lot of Source Crystals to this auction, but those were for the Dao Source Fruit. If Kang Si Ran couldn’t obtain the Dao Source Fruit because of him, Yang Kai would feel troubled.
While he wanted this Alchemy Furnace, it wasn’t a necessity.
“Have you all taken a good look? Good, this old man might not be an Alchemist, but because the Secret Art I cultivate is Fire-Attributed, I can also bring out a bit of this Alchemy Furnace’s power. En, let this old man demonstrate the features of this thing.” Finished with his explanation, Drunkard tossed the Black Jade Furnace he had been holding up in the air and quickly formed a few seals.
Pouring his pure Source Qi into the Black Jade Furnace, it rapidly began to expand and soon became as tall as a person before falling heavily on the auction stage with a grand thump.
After the Alchemy Furnace expanded, the complex patterns on its surface became clearer.
Not only that, everyone was now able to see the inside of the Alchemy Furnace with their Divine Senses. Engraved inside were four dazzling, burning dragon heads.
“The Grandmaster who refined this furnace was definitely a genius who carved countless Spirit Arrays into it, all of which are good auxiliaries for Alchemy. As a result, as long as one understands what these Spirit Arrays are for, they would not need to portray them themselves during Alchemy, saving time and energy. Furthermore, the four dragon heads inside the Alchemy Furnace allow an Alchemist to have better control over the heat as well as providing another interesting feature.”
Saying so, Drunkard suddenly lifted his gourd and took a swig of his wine, causing his ruddy face to immediately become even redder. He then patted his chest and opened his mouth towards the Black Jade Furnace in a spitting motion.
A Fire Dragon flew out of his mouth in the next instant. One that soared forward, shaking its head and wagging its tail before crashing into the Black Jade Furnace and sinking into it like a stone falling into an ocean, disappearing from everyone’s sight.
Drunkard immediately formed another set of seals with a mysterious smile hanging on his lips.
Suddenly, a raging flame spurted out of one of the dragon heads inside the furnace. The flame seemed to be extremely hot and was blue in colour. Next, under Drunkard’s control, the flames grew more intense, then less.
A second dragon head also began spewing flames before the third, then finally the fourth.
Drunkard then withdrew his hands and stood to the side, motionless.
However, the flames inside the furnace didn’t go out, but instead continued to burn. From the looks of it, it would be some time before these flames went out.
“The Alchemy Furnace can even store flames?” A knowledgeable person quickly saw through the situation and commented.
“Precisely! Friend, you have sharp vision,” Drunkard broke into laughter, “This old man didn’t even use much strength, only about as much as a normal attack, but that was enough to provide enough energy to this furnace to burn for half a day. On top of that, once the flame intensity is set, it will absolutely not change until its energy supply is exhausted or the Alchemist alters it. Presumably, everyone understands how great an aid this would provide to an Alchemist, yes?”
Just as Drunkard’s voice fell, everyone in the hall immediately broke into a clamour.
He might not have explained clearly, but all the cultivators present understood how precious this Alchemy Furnace was.
When an Alchemist was refining pills, he would often need to add various herbs and portray different Spirit Arrays all while carefully controlling the heat by providing just the right amount of energy, making it a process that required extreme focus and precise control.
However, with this Black Jade Furnace, the situation was completely different. An Alchemist would only need to set the appropriate temperature and pour in sufficient energy to maintain it for the required period of time, allowing the Alchemy Furnace to remain in that exact state for an extended period without outside intervention.
The Alchemist could take advantage of this time to restore himself.
Many times, Alchemists would fail their refining not because of some mistake in their methods, but because of their physical or spiritual limits.
But with this Black Jade Furnace, there wasn’t any need to worry about this problem at all.
In addition to the various abilities of an ordinary Alchemy Furnace, it also had its own unique auxiliary features. On top of all that, it was of Dao Source Grade Mid-Rank, making it an extremely valuable to begin with. In the eyes of Alchemists, this Alchemy Furnace was no less valuable than an Emperor Artifact!
“Time is limited, so this old man will not show the other features of this Alchemy Furnace but this old man can guarantee that if any Alchemist can obtain it, their grade will increase by one whole rank!”
Everyone couldn’t help but gasp and marvel when they heard this.
An Alchemist’s rank was much harder to raise than a cultivator’s realm, especially when it came to Great Realms. Many Alchemists would become stuck at the Origin King Grade High-Rank, unable to make further progress for the rest of their lives, but if what Drunkard said was true, an Origin King Grade Alchemist had a chance to refine Dao Source Grade pills as long as they had the Black Jade Furnace, and the chances of success wouldn’t be low.
All these features and benefits not only made the Alchemists present on the scene unable to hold themselves back, but also made the representatives of the various Sects and families become enthusiastic.
“Dao Source Grade Mid-Rank Alchemy Furnace, Black Jade Furnace, starting bid, one million Source Crystals, each subsequent bid must increase the price no less than 50,000. Everyone, please.” Drunkard shouted as he stepped aside, chuckling.
“Starting price… one million…” The corner of Yang Kai’s mouth couldn’t help but twitch upon hearing this.
After listening to Drunkard’s extravagant and colourful description, he was naturally a little tempted to bid on this Black Jade Furnace.
The Alchemy Furnace currently had was the Purple Origin Furnace he obtained in the Emperor Garden many years ago. As an Origin King Grade High-Rank furnace, it’s grade wasn’t low, and had served him well over the years, but it wasn’t on the same level as the Black Jade Furnace here.
However, a starting price of a million Source Crystals made Yang Kai smile wryly.
The Source Crystals he had on hand totalled just about one million, which was barely enough to match the starting bid…
“Is this Black Jade Furnace really so marvellous?” The nearby Kang Si Ran also seemed surprised.
Although he was able to obtain some information in advance by relying on his connections with the City Lord’s Mansion, he obviously didn’t know the details of this Black Jade Furnace beforehand, so when he heard Drunkard’s introduction, his expression couldn’t help but become solemn.
If he could obtain this Alchemy Furnace, the pill output of his Spirit Pill Plaza would definitely increase significantly, which would in turn increase his value as a Shopkeeper. Perhaps he could even be rewarded with a promotion from the chamber of commerce.
However, when he thought about the Dao Source Fruit at the finale… Kang Si Ran hesitated.
He turned to glance at Yang Kai, and when he saw the wry smile on his face, he asked curiously, “Alchemist Yang, are you not going to bid?”
“No! I’ll just watch the excitement,” Yang Kai shook his head.
Kang Si Ran immediately understood and nodded in acknowledgement, remaining silent.
The auction had already begun as the two were speaking, but strangely, no one called a bid. The hall was completely silent as, obviously, everyone was waiting for someone else to make the first move.
For a while, the atmosphere in the auction house became tense.
If someone else had been hosting this auction, they would not show any signs of anxiety and would instead just wait confidently; after all, such a good treasure would naturally sell for a high price. However, this time, Drunkard was hosting the auction.
After waiting for only a brief time and seeing no one bid, Drunkard couldn’t help grinning and calling out, “It seems this will be the first item today to not be auctioned off. Good, since that’s the case…”
“Wait, Sir Vice City Lord, aren’t you being too impatient?” A man shouted out from one of the private rooms.
“Nobody’s bidding though? If no one bids, this old man will simply buy it himself. En, maybe he can sell it later and make a big profit!” Drunkard looked toward the speaker, smiling.
Hearing him say this, many people couldn’t help but roll their eyes at him.
The host of the auction actually wanted to participate in the auction, it was completely unheard of. Only someone like Drunkard could act so brazen.
“Well, since all my friends are being so reserved, then this one will offer a million to get the ball rolling,” the man in the private room helplessly said.
“One million is far too low, my Du Family bids 1.5 million for this Black Jade Furnace.”
“You dare think 1.5 million is enough? Ridiculous! My Jiang Family bids 1.8 million!”
After the first bid, another rapidly came in, then another, and another. Moreover, each of these bidders represented some powerful family or Sect, but that made sense as only such forces could afford to spend so many Source Crystals.
All of a sudden, the private rooms all began enthusiastically participating in the bidding, causing Drunkard to grin meaningfully at the sight while lifting his gourd to drink from it complacently.
The big families inside Maplewood City naturally had friction between them, and now that this Black Jade Furnace had appeared and was clearly capable of improving their respective strength, none of them wanted to let it go.
In just thirty breaths, the price of the Black Jade Furnace had reached 2.7 million and was rapidly increasing with no one willing to give up.
After another half a cup of tea’s time, the Black Jade Furnace’s reached 4 million and only then did several of the families stop bidding. Obviously, the current price had exceeded their limits.
Although this Black Jade Furnace was a good treasure, the Dao Source Fruit which could help a cultivator reach the Dao Source Realm directly was more valuable, so many people could only reluctantly give up in light of this.
At this moment, Yang Kai had completely become a spectator. The Black Jade Furnace had soared past the price he could afford so he had long ago given up.
“My Jiang Family needs this Black Jade Furnace, please give us some face. 4.1 million!” An angry voice suddenly reverberated from the Jiang Family’s private room.
Others truly fell silent as many didn’t dare to continue to compete with the Jiang Family; after all, the Jiang Family was one of the strongest in Maplewood City so it was unwise to offend them while also having to pay out a huge amount of Source Crystals.
Seeing this, the speaker from the Jiang Family called out in an overjoyed voice, “Sir Vice City Lord, if you could…”
But before he could finish, a coquettish voice suddenly sounded, “Uncle Jiang, don’t be so anxious, Little Sister still hasn’t called her bid. I offer 4.2 million.”
As soon as these words rang out, a man with thick eyebrows and sharp eyes inside the Jiang Family private room turned to the source of the sound and snapped, “Shopkeeper Zhuo?”
At this moment, Kang Si Ran also let out a cold snort, “Zhuo Ning Si! That slut really couldn’t help herself.”
As rivals, Kang Si Ran naturally knew that the owner of this sultry voice was the shopkeeper of the Pill Pavilion, Zhuo Ning Si, who had recently poached all his Alchemists from him.
Yang Kai also had some dealings with Zhou Ning Si, specifically on the day he went to Spirit Pill Plaza and signed a Soul Contract with Kang Si Ran. At that time, Zhou Ning Si wanted to poach him for her Pill Pavilion, but he refused.
As such, Yang Kai naturally had an impression of this charming woman.
Her decision to bid for the Black Jade Furnace was understandable; after all, she was the shopkeeper of Pill Pavilion, so buying the Black Jade Furnace would be of great use to her.
Kang Si Ran, hearing Zhou Ning Si’s bid, instantly grew angry. It seemed that he had recalled the various injustices he had to go through over the past few months and that fueled his rage.
On the other side, the man with the thick eyebrows inside the Jiang Family, distinguishing Zhuo Ning Si’s identity, furrowed his brow and said, “Shopkeeper Zhuo, my Jiang Family and your pavilion enjoy a cooperative relationship and have some friendship with one another. Is this really necessary?”
Zhou Ning Si chuckled and said, “Uncle Jiang, while you’re right, friendship is friendship and business is business. Little Sister is just itching to get her hands on this treasure, so naturally she has to offer a bid. Uncle Jiang, how about you be the magnanimous one and give this Black Jade Furnace to Little Sister? Little Sister will definitely host a banquet tonight to entertain Uncle Jiang in return for his favour. Hehe, I just don’t know whether you have the stamina to attend.”
She was blatantly seducing the Jiang Family master in front of thousands of cultivators.
Many cultivators in the hall snorted contemptuously upon hearing this.
“Slut!” Kang Si Ran was also filled with righteous indignation as he despised Zhuo Ning Si’s debauchery.
Inside the Jiang Family private room, the man with the thick eyebrows snorted coldly but remained unmoved and said indifferently, “Is Shopkeeper Zhou insistent on opposing my Jiang Family?”
“Oh, how could I dare? After this incident, Little Sister will personally come to the Jiang Family to apologize, but still, Little Sister can’t give up on this Black Jade Furnace,” Zhou Ning Si declared loudly, as if she was inhumanely wronged, her voice was filled with grief at the injustice she suffered. Everyone couldn’t help feeling some pity for her upon hearing this, but they also realized her last words were filled with determination, as if she was on a crusade that was simply unavoidable.
The Jiang Family man let out a cold snort and snapped, “In that case, let’s see who wins in the end. 4.3 million!”
Zhou Ning Si smiled and continued, without flinching for even a moment, “4.4 million!”
Before the Jiang Family could raise the bid, another voice called out from a different private room, “4.5 million!”
The Jiang Family’s man was stunned and Zhou Ning Si too was taken aback while Yang Kai, who was sitting in room B9, turned to Kang Si Ran in amazement and asked sceptically, “Shopkeeper Kang, are you…”
It was actually Kang Si Ran who had called the bid just now, joining the race for the furnace.
Kang Si Ran smiled and said, “I’m just making some trouble for that slut.”
Yang Kai nodded in understanding.
“I was wondering who was poking his nose into my business, so it is Shopkeeper Kang. En, so you were still alive you old fogey?” Zhuo Ning Si spoke with obvious ridicule.
Kang Si Ran broke out into laughter and replied, “Many thanks, Shopkeeper Zhou, I’m very much alive and well.”
“So, it is Shopkeeper Kang.” Obviously, the Jiang Family master heard Kang Si Ran’s voice and recognized it, laughing as he commented, “Since your two chambers of commerce are interested in this Alchemy Furnace, my Jiang Family will withdraw; after all, we are not an opponent of your two forces.”
Apparently, he mistakenly believed that Zhuo Ning Si and Kang Si Ran were bidding on behalf of the chambers of commerce behind them, so he immediately and swiftly retreated. He could afford to offend Zhuo Ning Si for the Black Jade Furnace, but offending both major chambers of commerce together was not an option for the Jiang Family.
What he didn’t know was that Kang Si Ran was just bidding maliciously while it was uncertain whether Zhuo Ning Si was representing Seven Glories Chamber of Commerce.
“Many thanks.” When Kang Si Ran saw him misunderstand, he didn’t try to explain himself and just cupped his fists instead.
Zhuo Ning Si quickly cut in, “Shopkeeper Kang, now only you and I remain, I wonder what Shopkeeper Kang’s bottom line is.”
“No comment, just make your bid, if you don’t, this Black Jade Furnace will belong to this old master,” Kang Si Ran let out a cold snort.
Zhou Ning Si, having met with gruff rebuff, became annoyed and stopped trying to talk to Kang Si Ran, instead just bidding again.
For a time, only these two competed for the Black Jade Furnace, each of them raising the price by 100,000, soon bringing it to 5 million.
Only at this moment did a meaningful grin appear on Kang Si Ran’s lips as he generously said, “Shopkeeper Zhuo, seeing you persist like this, this old master has no choice but to relent. En, this old master will withdraw here.”
“Damn Old Ghost!” From Zhuo Ning Si’s room, the sound of cursing and grinding teeth could be heard. Although her voice wasn’t loud, many could still hear her clearly.
Kang Si Ran broke out into laughter with a look of satisfaction on his face.
Atop the stage, Drunkard smiled at the sight of this, taking a step forward to announce the winner of the Black Jade Furnace when suddenly, a male voice resounded from a private room in the A Block, “You’re finished, right? If both of you are done, then… 6 million!”
As soon as this bid was called out, the entire auction hall fell silent, while even Drunkard paused in place, turning to the source of the sound in astonishment.
Zhuo Ning Si, who thought that she finally obtained victory, had her pupils shrink sharply as her pretty face distorted in anger.
“6 million? Did I hear that right?”
“Who is this guy? He raised the bid by a million Source Crystals! Is he crazy?”
“Shhh, keep your voice down! Whoever he is, he’s sitting in the A Block so he must be a Dao Source Realm master. If he hears you, you’re dead!”
“So what if he’s a Dao Source master? Do Source Crystals not mean anything to him? A million… if they were given to me…”
After a moment of silence, the hall broke out into an uproar, with all the cultivators whispering amongst themselves; after all, it was truly frightening for someone to increase the price by a million Source Crystals all at once.
After giving it a bit of thought, Drunkard seemed to have realized the identity of the bidder and a trace of fear flashed across his eyes before he stepped back and stood quietly in place.
Inside her private room, Zhou Ning Si’s mood couldn’t be worse; after all, she had the fruit of victory snatched by some troublemaker at the last moment. No one would be in a good mood after encountering such a thing.
While she was just a Third-Order Origin King, she still represented Seven Glories Chamber of Commerce so after a moment of silence, she asked in a cold voice, “Dare I ask what Your Excellency’s honoured name is?”
The bidder in the A Block’s room didn’t seem to have any intention to answer her.
Zhou Ning Si was annoyed and snapped, “Showing the tail but hiding the head, Your Excellency, don’t you dare to reveal your name?”
After she said this, the bidder finally sneered, “What a farce, this one is only participating in the auction according to its rules. What’s wrong, do I have to report my name before I call a bid? What kind of auction house has such rules? Vice City Lord, does your Maplewood City’s auction house have this custom?”
His last question was addressed to Drunkard.
Drunkard furrowed his brow, but after pausing for a moment, he cupped his fists and said, “Friend, you must be joking! Maplewood City’s auctions don’t have such a rule.”
“Good! Shopkeeper Zhuo, I will let this offence go this time because you belong to Seven Glories of Chamber of Commerce, but if you dare use such an arrogant tone with me again, don’t blame me for being ruthless!” A vast and intense Divine Sense suddenly spread from the A Block private room and assailed Zhuo Ning Si at that moment.
Zhuo Ning Si couldn’t help but turn pale as she immediately realized that this man did not care at all about her identity or status and that if she kept pestering him, he might really get annoyed and act against her.
And judging by the strength of this Divine Sense, the other party didn’t seem to be just a First-Order Dao Source Realm master but rather a Second-Order Dao Source Realm master!
Maplewood City’s Lord, Duan Yuan Shan, was a Second-Order Dao Source Realm master and was an overlord in the surrounding hundred thousand kilometre region, so who knew where this man who was on par with him suddenly appeared from?
Even if Zhuo Ning Si had the backing of the Seven Glories Chamber of Commerce, with this man’s strength, killing Zhou Ning Si silently wouldn’t be any trouble.
After realizing this, Zhuo Ning Si quickly backed down, squeezed out a smile, and said, “Since Senior is interested in this Black Jade Furnace, then this Mistress will withdraw. Congratulations, Senior.”
Let alone the fact that 6 million Source Crystals had already exceeded Zhuo Ning Si’s bottom line, this man was a master she could not afford to offend. If she competed with him, she would be the only one to suffer. Understanding this, Zhuo Ning Si judged it best to offer some polite words and retreat.
No one had expected that the Black Jade Furnace, which was fought for by so many Sects and families, would eventually fall into the hands of a mysterious person who only offered one bid.
After Drunkard came to the front of the stage and called for other bids thrice, the ownership of the Black Jade Furnace was settled.
“How surprising! I didn’t expect that the Black Jade Furnace itself would go for 6 million, there’s even the Dao Source Fruit still left to auction off…” Kang Si Ran said with some depression in his voice. Although he had brought a lot of Source Crystals this time, seeing the intensity of the previous bidding, the Dao Source Fruit would probably have nothing to do with him, so he couldn’t help feeling frustrated.
Yang Kai also had no idea how to comfort him, so he just maintained his silence.
The next item auctioned was a Spirit Pill. Atop the stage, Drunkard put on a meaningful grin and said, “Regarding this Spirit Pill, please let this old man explain a little bit.”
While he was introducing the item, a maid had already arrived with a display tray.
After he lifted the red cloth covering the item, everyone immediately saw a navy blue, longan-sized Spirit Pill lying quietly on the jade place.
This Spirit Pill wasn’t inside a jade bottle, as if the auctioneer wasn’t worried about the medicinal efficacies dissipating from improper storage.
When a sharp-eyed cultivator saw the Spirit Pill, he immediately cried out in shock, “Pill Veins! This Spirit Pill actually formed Pill Veins!”
“What!? Let me see… you’re right, it’s really Pill Veins! So, Pill Veins look like this…”
“It’s not just that, take a good look, this Spirit Pill seems to be quite aged, wouldn’t that mean…”
Many cultivators started discussing the pill while Drunkard was all smiles, looking extremely satisfied with the effects of his actions.
Although some Spirit Pills had appeared already during the auction, no Spirit Pill had formed Pill Veins. This was the first.
Furthermore, many cultivators had never even seen a Spirit Pill with Pill Veins, so everyone found it extremely marvellous and kept gawking at it.
“Sir Vice City Lord, may I ask if this Spirit Pill came from the Five Colored Treasure Pagoda?” Someone among the audience asked aloud.
Drunkard nodded and replied, smiling, “Exactly! And this Spirit Pill isn’t one placed inside by the major Sects just after it opened, it is a true Ancient Spirit Pill. Everyone can also see that the medicinal efficacy of this Spirit Pill had been perfectly preserved because of the Pill Veins. If this was not the case, even the most potent of Spirit Pills would have been reduced to ashes after so many years.”
After a Spirit Pill had been refined, it would be stored in a jade bottle to preserve its medicinal efficacy.
But even high-grade Spirit Pills would have their medicinal efficacy dissipate with time, becoming useless eventually.
But if the Spirit Pill formed Pill Veins, there was no need to worry about this issue. Pill Veins could absorb World Energy autonomously, thereby maintaining the pill’s medicinal efficacy. Pill Clouds, which were above Pill Veins, were even more remarkable. Spirit Pills with Pill Clouds would have their medicinal efficacy grow stronger over time.
The longer such a pill was preserved, the more terrifying its medicinal efficacy would become.
If an Origin King Grade pill formed Pill Clouds, its medicinal efficacy might even be comparable to an Emperor Grade pill after thousands of years of accumulation.
Yang Kai had even seen such a pill before.
When he obtained the Purple Origin Furnace in the Emperor Garden, there was a Purple Veins Dragon Flame Pill that formed Pill Clouds inside. This pill was refined by the owner of the True Alchemy Enlightenment Scripture and only the Heavens knew why it was still in the Purple Origin Furnace. Ultimately, Yang Kai had picked up a bargain when he obtained it.
The Emperor Garden had been sealed off for over ten thousand years, so this Purple Veins Dragon Flame Pill was nourished by its Pill Clouds for an equal length of time. As such, even though it was only an Origin King Grade Mid-Rank pill, even an ordinary Emperor Grade pill could not compete with it in terms of medicinal efficacy.
Such a pill was extremely useful, even to Emperor Realm masters.
This was the reason why Yang Kai didn’t dare to take it; he was worried its medicinal efficacy was too powerful and he could not withstand it.
He dared not make its existence public either as such a pill was extremely unique. There could be no more than ten such pills in the entire world, so one could imagine just how valuable it was.
Even with his current strength, Yang Kai didn’t dare to take this Purple Veins Dragon Flame Pill easily and could only wait for his strength to improve until he could withstand its potency.
“Sir Vice City Lord, what is the grade of this Spirit Pill? What are its uses?” A cultivator on the lower floor asked the question that was running through everyone’s mind.
Drunkard smiled and replied, “You don’t have to ask, this old man was about to explain. After many Alchemists studied this pill together for several days, they finally came to the conclusion that this Spirit Pill is a Dao Source Grade Mid-Rank pill, and its function is very attractive.”
Having heard Drunkard’s reply, the cultivators in the auction hall suddenly grew energetic and looked up at the stage with rapt attention.
“What the exact name of this pill in ancient times was, no one knows for sure, and its pill recipe has long been lost. Sir City Lord decided to name it the Marrow Washing Pill, and as for its specific purpose… heh heh, you can tell it by its name. It can wash one’s marrow and cleanse their physique, allowing one to be reborn and thereby enhancing that cultivator’s aptitude.”
Just as Drunkard’s voice fell, many cultivators in the audience suddenly exclaimed, all of their gazes turning sharp and hot.
Even the masters in the various private rooms released their Divine Senses to investigate this Spirit Pill.
It was no surprise everyone showed such a reaction, though. After all, how rare and valuable was a Spirit Pill that could wash one’s marrow and cleanse one’s physique to increase one’s aptitude? Besides a few legendary pills and treasures, no such pill existed in the Star Boundary.
But this Marrow Washing Pill indeed had such a Heaven-defying effect.
Who would dislike having better aptitude? This was something all cultivators dreamed of. Why were some Third-Order Origin Kings unable to break through to the Dao Source Realm? Some might be unable to because of their Secret Art, or due to old injuries, or some other reason.
But the most common reason by a large margin was simply because their aptitude was insufficient!
If they could improve their aptitude just a little bit, they might be able to remould themselves and reach the Dao Source Realm.
And the Marrow Washing Pill before them obviously represented hope for such a future, so everyone coveted it.
“No, something’s wrong, isn’t it, Sir Vice City Lord?” A man’s voice suddenly spread from a private room. It was the Jiang Family master who had bid many times before. “If this pill really had such a magical effect, how could anyone be willing to put it up for auction instead of just taking it for themselves? This Jiang does not believe that any cultivator with even the slightest bit of brains would make such a decision. Sir Vice City Lord, there’s more to this pill than that, isn’t there?”
Hearing this, those coveting cultivators with fiery eyes were instantly shocked as they felt that the Jiang Family master made a lot of sense. If this Marrow Washing Pill really had such amazing effects, which fool would put it up for auction? It could even be said that City Lord Duan Yuan Shan would immediately have taken it upon learning of its effects.
Just now, Drunkard’s elaborate description had made everyone subconsciously ignore this concern, but now that they were reminded by the Jiang Family master, they immediately woke up and asked Drunkard to give a clear explanation.
Drunkard, looking at the Jiang Family private room, grinned meaningfully and said, “Brother Jiang is correct. Although this Marrow Washing Pill has a Heaven-defying effect, it does have some drawbacks as well!”
“Oh? I’d like to hear the details!” The Jiang Family master immediately asked.
“First, although this pill is able to wash one’s marrow and cleanse one’s physique, it can only be taken for cultivators at or below the Saint King Realm, becoming completely ineffective to those above the Saint King Realm. Secondly, the effects will only last until its user has cultivated to the Origin King Realm. Once the consumer breaks through to the Origin King Realm, their physique and aptitude will return to their previous level. Of course, except for these two points, this pill has no other side effects and will not have any harmful after-effects, of this everyone may rest assured.”
“There’s actually such a strange pill in this world?” The Jiang Family master was taken aback for a while.
A smile appeared on Drunkard’s lips as he said, “No one knows what the ancient world was like. This old man has no idea why this kind of pill was created in ancient times, but there are so many capable and eccentric people in history, so it’s not surprising that such a pill appeared.”
“This Jiang understands. Many thanks, Sir Vice City Lord, for your explanation.”
“Good, this is what this old man ought to explain. Now that everyone has understood the purpose of this Marrow Washing Pill, let’s start with the auction. The starting bid is 100,000 Source Crystals and each raise shall not be less than 5,000.”
“100,000!”
“150,000!”
“200,000!”
Although this Marrow Washing Pill had many limitations, like being useless to cultivators above the Saint King Realm and having the boosted aptitude return to its original level after breaking through to the Origin King Realm, it still aroused the interest of many people.
This was only natural as all the cultivators participating in the auction had their own juniors and heirs. This pill might be useless to them personally, but it could still be given to their descendants. There was a massive gap of two Great Realms between the Saint King Realm and Origin King Realm, so if one’s aptitude was improved even for that short span, it could greatly shorten their cultivation time.
However, its various restrictions doomed this pill to not have too high a price.
The bids soared upwards, quickly breaking through the 200,000 mark.
In the B9 private room, Yang Kai’s brow rose as he too began bidding.
Kang Si Ran looked at him with amazement and asked, “Alchemist Yang, do you have a little friend in need of this thing?”
Yang Kai, pondering for a moment before nodding, “You could say that. Furthermore… since I have come to this auction, I can’t just go back empty-handed, can I?”
“En, I suppose so,” Kang Si Ran nodded. He had also bid on a few useful items before that were relatively cheap, but this was actually Yang Kai’s first time bidding for anything.
“Alchemist Yang, don’t hesitate to bid, if you don’t have enough Source Crystals, this old master will assist you,” Kang Si Ran generously said.
“Then I will thank Shopkeeper Kang in advance,” Yang Kai smiled and continued to raise. “250,000!”
The reason why he participated in bidding for this Marrow Washing Pill was naturally because of Zhang Ruo Xi. This Zhang Family Young Lady just so happened to be a First-Order Saint King and was a prime candidate for taking this Marrow Washing Pill.
He might have no friendship or feelings for this little girl, but he still wanted her help to unlock the secrets of the Space Spirit Jade at the end of the day. Perhaps he would be with Zhang Ruo Xi for a long time in the future, so it wouldn’t hurt him to help her grow up quickly. It would also lighten the burden on him if she was stronger.
Most importantly though, Yang Kai had accepted her while having such plans for her which he had not revealed from the outset, so he felt that giving her a little compensation would relieve the guilt in his heart.
As the price soared, fewer and fewer people participated in the bidding as even though it was a rare Ancient Spirit Pill, it was useless to them. Except for some cultivators who were interested in cultivating their descendants, others had already withdrawn.
When Yang Kai offered 300,000, only a single woman continued to compete with him. This woman was sitting in the lower hall and didn’t seem to be too wealthy. She was also only a Second-Order Origin King.
She hesitated for a while before continuing to increase the price.
Naturally, Yang Kai did not give up.
After Yang Kai called out 320,000, the woman let out a sigh and seemed to have given up.
Seeing this situation, Drunkard immediately stepped forward and declared, “320,000 going once, going twice, going three times, and sold. Please go backstage to pay and finalize the deal!”
Yang Kai smiled upon hearing this before promptly standing up and saying to Kang Si Ran, “I’ll be right back.”
“Alchemist Yang, please return as soon as possible. If I’m right, the Dao Source Fruit is about to appear,” Kang Si Ran looked towards the stage with great expectation.
Yang Kai nodded and left the room.
Walking backstage, he paid 320,000 Source Crystals, and obtained the Marrow Washing Pill.
Spending so many Source Crystals to buy a Spirit Pill was indeed a little extravagant for Yang Kai today; after all, this was almost a third of the Source Crystals he had on hand, and more importantly, it was useless for him.
But in the long run, it was fine.
Furthermore, Yang Kai could also study the ingredients of this Marrow Washing Pill himself, and if he could derive its recipe, it would be of great use to him. Regardless of anything else, this was an Ancient Spirit Pill that had been lost to history, so if Yang Kai could learn its pill recipe, he could refine more in the future and sell them himself. At that time, he wouldn’t need to worry about making back his investment.
When Yang Kai returned to the private room again, it seemed that another item had been auctioned off for some unknown price.
“They still haven’t reached the finale, the Dao Source Fruit?” Yang Kai asked in astonishment as he took his seat.
Kang Si Ran shook his head, smiling wryly, “There seems to be a lot of items to be auctioned this time, but it should appear soon.”
Yang Kai nodded and didn’t make a comment, instead casting his gaze towards the stage.
There, a mysterious smile appeared on Drunkard’s face again as he looked around and spoke, “The next item is an extraordinary one indeed; in fact, it wasn’t an item that was supposed to be auctioned today, but it was submitted by a certain friend who suddenly came today. Although it is something of a violation of policy, Sir City Lord judged that this item was indeed worthy enough to be auctioned today, so it has been allowed to appear. Hehe, everyone, if you cultivate Fire Attribute Secret Arts or have a Fire Attribute Artifact, please pay close attention.”
As he said this, he gestured toward the back and immediately a maid walked out, carrying a round bowl in her hands.
Inside the auction hall, all the cultivators focused their gazes on this bowl curiously, especially those cultivators who cultivated Fire Attributed Secret Arts, Secret Techniques, or had a Fire Attribute Artifacts, they were particularly interested.
Judging by its appearance, it was quite apparent that this bowl was a sealing artifact, and the runes on its surface continued to flash and pulse as they swam across its surface like fish in a pond.
Most of the cultivators present here had sharp insight so they naturally understood that the item to be auctioned wasn’t the bowl itself, but whatever was sealed inside it.
“Interesting! I wonder what it contains,” Kang Si Ran smiled lightly as he paid even closer attention.
Yang Kai, on the other hand, furrowed his brow the moment the bowl appeared.
For some reason, he felt a mysterious connection to whatever was inside the bowl, but because it was surrounded by multiple barriers, this feeling was very weak, almost imperceptible. If not for the throbbing and restlessness in his heart, even he wouldn’t be certain it was real and not just his imagination.
Yang Kai released his Divine Sense to investigate, but he couldn’t break through the barriers to investigate the situation inside and he did not dare to use force, so he could only frown deeply.
“Alchemist Yang, do you know what’s inside?” Kang Si Ran, noticing that Yang Kai’s expression didn’t seem right, asked curiously.
Yang Kai subconsciously shook his head, but his eyes remained completely glued onto the bowl.
The next moment, Drunkard started giving an introduction, “This item was submitted by a Dao Source Grade friend, but because that friend happened to cultivate a Water Attribute Secret Art, this item wasn’t useful to him, so he could only reluctantly part ways with it. If that was not the case, it would have been put up for auction.”
“Sir Vice City Lord, don’t leave us in suspense, it doesn’t suit your personality,” some impatient cultivator urged.
Drunkard let out a chuckle as he said while nodding, “En, but I will still have to provide some explanation. There were rumours a few months ago in Maplewood City that a Fire Attribute Artifact Spirit had appeared in the nearby Clear Jade Mountain. Many cultivators went to search for that Artifact Spirit, but ultimately it was determined that it wasn’t a Fire Attribute Artifact Spirit but an infant Luan Feng. My Maplewood City’s cultivators competed for this baby Luan Feng, leading to many casualties but no result. At the last moment, a mature Divine Spirit Luan Feng appeared and breathed out its World Extinguishing Black Flame, incinerating everything within a hundred kilometres to ashes. Those flames are still burning at Clear Jade Mountain to this day. The might of a Divine Spirit is truly horrifying.”
He sighed for a moment, as if he really saw those World Extinguishing Black Flame with his own eyes.
“Sir Vice City Lord, could the item here being auctioned really be… an infant Divine Spirit?” A cultivator on the floor of the hall, upon hearing Drunkard, make an excited guess.
The same guess happened to be running through the minds of many others, and in an instant, rapid breathing spread across the hall as everyone stared greedily towards the bowl.
Drunkard just chuckled, however, and spoke, “An infant Divine Spirit? You guys really think we’d keep an infant Divine Spirit here? Forget about whether anyone would dare to bid on it, my Maplewood City wouldn’t even dare to auction it. If anyone here dared to provoke a true Divine Spirit, Clear Jade Mountain’s present situation would be Maplewood City’s future. Who could bear responsibility for bringing about the death of everyone present today?”
As these words echoed in the hall, a chill ran down the spines of everyone present, and after giving it a second thought, they all realized it was indeed true. In this world, who would have the courage to put the descendant of a Divine Spirit on auction? That was no different from courting death.
“Then, Sir Vice City Lord, why do you speak of this…”
Drunkard grinned and continued, “The main point is not about the infant Divine Spirit, but the Fire Attribute Artifact Spirit! I really don’t know what you all were listening to. Good, this old master will let you see what it is that is being auctioned today!?”
As he said this, he formed some seals with his hands and struck the bowl lightly. The seals around the round bowl began to flash as a crisp and resonant cry suddenly came from inside it. Immediately after, a fiery red light shot out.
*Chi…*
Suddenly, a three meter tall burning flame appeared above the auction stage and rapidly condensed into the appearance of a flaming bird similar to a Divine Spirit Phoenix. Amidst this firebird’s flames though, purple arcs of lightning could also be seen flashing.
To everyone’s surprise, this strange bird actually possessed the power of two attributes, lightning and fire.
Furthermore, the aura it was emanating was extraordinary, equal to that of a Third-Order Origin King. Its flaming body appeared quite majestic and with its wings spread, it was a beautiful sight to behold.
Raising its head, it let out a long cry, one that was filled with stubbornness, anger, and resistance.
“Liu Yan!”
Yang Kai in room B9 immediately stood up as his pupils shrank and he cried out in surprise.
“Alchemist Yang?” Kang Si Ran turned a strange look to Yang Kai, having no idea why Yang Kai showed such a big reaction, but when he noticed the look of pleasant surprise mixed with fury on Yang Kai’s face, he suddenly seemed to understand.
Yang Kai had never expected to meet Liu Yan in this kind of situation.
In the Starlight Channel back then, he and his two companions, as well as President Ai Ou, Red Moon Tribal Lord, and the others had been separated. To this day, he still had no idea where any of them were.
Leaving aside President Ai Ou and Chi Yue, Yang Kai had always been deeply worried about Xiao Xiao and Liu Yan because one of them was a Stone Puppet with low intelligence and the other was an Artifact Spirit. No matter which one was discovered, they would certainly face grave danger. This was especially true for Liu Yan as she was particularly attractive to cultivators who cultivated Fire Attribute Secret Arts or had Fire Attribute Artifacts.
If Liu Yan’s Artifact Spirit body could be refined by a cultivator cultivating a Fire Attribute Secret Art, that cultivator’s strength would increase dramatically, and if she were to be integrated into a Fire Attribute Artifact, it would raise the grade of that Fire Attribute Artifact significantly.
What Yang Kai was afraid of had come true. It had been apparent now that Liu Yan had really been caught by a master and put on for auction. It was rather clear that many cultivators would be fighting to get their hands on her next.
Fortunately, Yang Kai was also at this auction, so there was some room to manoeuvre. It was a blessing in disguise!
This also explained why when the bowl was first brought out, Yang Kai felt a kind of spiritual connection to the sealed object inside.
When Liu Yan didn’t have much sentience, Yang Kai had left a Soul Imprint on her natal body, so naturally there was a connection between their two Souls which had not been cut off.
And as soon as Yang Kai stood up, Liu Yan on the high stage also seemed to become aware of his presence and her pair of fiery eyes turned towards private room B9 where he was. Immediately, she let out even more resonant cries as she flapped her wings hard, trying to fly to him.
But Drunkard noticed this and promptly formed another hand seal, causing some chain-like seals to appear on Liu Yan’s body, restraining her wings and forcing her back down.
“Stop!” Yang Kai couldn’t help shouting out in anger when he saw this.
However, as soon his voice escaped his mouth, he realized that he had acted a little recklessly. Liu Yan might have belonged to him originally, but now she had been captured and put up for auction.
He did not have the power or status to force Drunkard to show mercy to Liu Yan; on the contrary, his actions might let others see through their relationship.
As this thought flashed across his mind, Yang Kai took a deep breath and calmly said, “Sir Vice City Lord, please act gently, this one is very interested in this Artifact Spirit, please don’t hurt it.”
Drunkard had a friendly temperament, so after hearing this, he glanced in Yang Kai’s direction and said with a smile, “Rest assured, this old master has a sense of discretion and will not harm it. En, as everyone just saw, this Fire Attribute Artifact Spirit is the item to be auctioned now, and it is no ordinary Artifact Spirit at that! It has already achieved a high degree of sentience! If it can be refined into an artifact, it will be extremely useful.”
On the stage, Drunkard worked hard to promote Liu Yan, introducing her various unusual features, weaving an extravagant and colourful description that immediately piqued the interest of countless cultivators.
In his private room, Yang Kai sat back on his chair as a gloomy look covered his face.
In the current situation, if he wanted to snatch Liu Yan back, he could only do so by winning this auction, or forcing the thousands of Origin Kings and dozens of Dao Source Realm masters present to submit while he seized her by force.
The latter obviously was impossible of course. Although Yang Kai was a Third-Order Origin King and had several Emperor Artifacts on him, if he really tried to use force here, he would only be courting death.
However, he didn’t have many Source Crystals on him either. At the very least, there weren’t enough for him to win Liu Yan at auction.
He was extremely distraught for the moment.
Kang Si Ran seemed to have gotten some hints about what was going on and after a moment of silence, he asked in a low voice, “Alchemist Yang, do you have any relationship with that Artifact Spirit?”
Yang Kai nodded and explained, “Since Shopkeeper Kang has noticed already, I won’t hide it from you. Her name is Liu Yan, she was originally my Artifact Spirit!”
“Oh? She was Alchemist Yang’s Artifact Spirit?” Even though Kang Si Ran had long ago guessed, he was still greatly shocked when he heard Yang Kai’s confirmation.
“She is not just an Artifact Spirit though! To me, she is a friend as well!”
“A friend…” Kang Si Ran looked at Yang Kai with surprise, unable to wrap his head around his words; after all, could someone actually regard their Artifact Spirit as a friend? He found the whole concept hard to imagine.
Confounded, Kang Si Ran didn’t ask any more questions about it and instead just said, “So it seems Alchemist Yang wants to participate in this auction?”
“Yes, but I don’t have many Source Crystals on hand,” Yang Kai furrowed his brow, wondering whether he should take out something to leverage for more.
[Perhaps… I can take out a piece of Heavy Earth? I don’t need to take out much of it, just a thumbnail-sized piece should be enough to pay for this auction.]
[But once the Heavy Earth appears, it will cause a lot of trouble.]
“Haha, since this Artifact Spirit has such a relationship with Alchemist Yang, Alchemist Yang should bid for it without restraint. Don’t worry about Source Crystals, this old master can pay for them on your behalf. Alchemist Yang can pay me back when he has enough Source Crystals of his own,” Kang Si Ran generously offered.
Yang Kai turned to Kang Si Ran and asked with a frown, “But Shopkeeper Kang, don’t you need those to bid for the Dao Source Fruit?”
Kang Si Ran waved his hand and smiled. “At first, this old master indeed had some plans for the Dao Source Fruit, but now, this old master does not expect to win it with the few Source Crystals he has on him. I had not expected so many Dao Source Realm masters to appear at this auction, and their wealth is undoubtedly far superior to this old master’s. Since Alchemist Yang is in such urgent need, this old master will offer his assistance. As for the Dao Source Fruit… heh heh, we’ll just have to go and explore that cave mansion. Who knows, there might even be a Dao Source Pill inside!”
“Shopkeeper Kang, how many Source Crystals do you have?” Yang Kai asked in a solemn tone.
Kang Si Ran raised his palm and stretched out his fingers, “I don’t have more than this, I hope it will be enough to help Alchemist Yang.”
“Excellent! Many thanks, Brother Kang, I will not forget this kindness,” Yang Kai earnestly thanked.
Kang Si Ran’s generosity had touched Yang Kai’s heart and he secretly decided that if Kang Si Ran didn’t get the Dao Source Fruit this time, or find a Dao Source Pill in the cave mansion they were planning to explore soon, he would give Kang Si Ran a Dao Source Pill when he refined them in the future to repay today’s favour.
Having been in contact with Kang Si Ran these days, Yang Kai felt that he was a good man and someone worth making friends with.
With Kang Si Ran’s assistance, Yang Kai confidence had been greatly boosted; after all, the earlier Dao Source Grade Mid-Rank Alchemy Furnace only sold for 6 million Source Crystals, and obviously, Liu Yan’s value was not higher than that of the Black Jade Furnace. Even if she was an Artifact Spirit that had gained sentience, she was still only at the Third-Order Origin King level, so the assistance she could provide for real masters was limited.
However, there was still something else to worry about.
Just as Yang Kai was considering this, on the stage, Drunkard continued to speak, “This Artifact Spirit seems to have had many fortuitous encounters and not only possesses rich, pure Fire Attribute energy, but it can also control Thunder Attribute energy. Everyone should not underestimate this Artifact Spirit; an ordinary Third-Order Origin King would certainly not be its opponent in a one-on-one situation, only a Dao Source Realm master could possible subdue it, so even if some friends out there don’t cultivate Fire Attribute Secret Arts, obtaining this Artifact Spirit will still be of great use as it could act as a powerful assistant!”
Yang Kai’s face turned even blacker when heard Drunkard singing Liu Yan’s praises, cursing in his heart as he wished he could rush up to the stage and sew Drunkard’s mouth shut.
The more he praised Liu Yan, the more enthusiastic the bidders would be and the worse things would be for Yang Kai.
“And, last but not least, this Artifact Spirit… heh heh, also has another form,” A meaningful grin suddenly appeared on Drunkard’s face as he gazed out across the crowd before forming another seal, causing the chain-like seals around Liu Yan to tighten again. Liu Yan cried out in pain as she was forced to transform into a charming and graceful woman wearing fiery-red robes.
“Si…”
“She can take on a human form!?”
“What kind of chance did this Artifact Spirit encounter!”
“Good good, her body is almost completely corporeal, this has gone far beyond the range of a mere Artifact Spirit. I wonder just what it would feel like to touch her?”
When the many cultivators saw Liu Yan show her human form, they couldn’t sit still and started shouting and clamouring over one another.
Liu Yan, who stood on the stage, had an extremely cold look on her face, her expression saying she would not let anyone approach within a thousand kilometres of her, but this coldness only added to her beauty, and many male cultivators began howling like wolves under the gaze of her phoenix eyes.
What’s more, all of Liu Yan’s beautiful curves were particularly emphasized now that she was bound by the chain-like seals, causing obscene thoughts to surface in many men’s hearts.
Yang Kai face-palmed and heaved a heavy sigh.
Kang Si Ran, who happened to be taking a sip of tea just now, couldn’t help spitting it out awkwardly before he hurriedly wiped his mouth and turned an odd look to Yang Kai, “Brother Yang… this old master now understands what you meant when you said she was your ‘friend’.”
“Brother Kang, it’s not what you think…” Yang Kai tried to defend himself, helplessly.
“We are both men, I understand,” Kang Si Ran grinned meaningfully.
Yang Kai just rolled his eyes and closed his mouth as any argument he made was useless.
“Everyone, as you’ve seen, this Artifact Spirit is not only a very powerful companion, but even just walking next to her will bring you great prestige and face. To be honest, the first time this old master saw her beauty, he was quite tempted to keep her for himself. Unfortunately, this old master is already too old for such things. If that were not the case, I would be competing with you as well,” Drunkard laughed, “Good, enough nonsense. A Fire Attribute Artifact Spirit, the starting bid is 1 million Source Crystals and each raise cannot be less than 50,000. Everyone, please begin!”
The starting bid of Liu Yan was the same as that of the Dao Source Grade Mid-Rank Alchemy Furnace, causing Yang Kai to frown as he was struck with a bad premonition.
Sure enough, just as Drunkard finished speaking, everyone started to call their bids one after another.
Just ten breaths later, the bids had broken through the 2 million mark.
“3 million!” Suddenly, a clear voice came from a private room in A Block, dumbfounding everyone and forcing the cultivators who were just about to increase their own bid to fall silent.
A direct increase of 1 million had happened once before, and from this same person no less.
“It’s that Senior!” Someone couldn’t help but cry out loud when he recognized that the voice belonged to the Dao Source Realm master who had won the Black Jade Furnace.
“Wow, this Senior is really rich, he just bought the Black Jade Furnace for 6 million and now he’s bidding for this Artifact Spirit again.”
“What do you know? If he can obtain both, they will complement each other perfectly! By integrating this Artifact Spirit into the Black Jade Furnace, he might be able to raise it to a Dao Source Grade High-Rank artifact. It might even be able to touch the level of an Emperor Artifact.”
“So that’s how it is! It seems this Senior is determined to win this Fire Attribute Artifact Spirit.”
“Heh heh, then let’s see how good this Senior’s financial resources are; after all, there are many people interested in this Artifact Spirit.”
When he heard the voice calling 3 million, Yang Kai couldn’t help feeling a headache coming on.
He naturally knew who the owner of the voice was and why the other party was interested in Liu Yan. Naturally, it was all because this man had just won the Black Jade Furnace. It was just as the cultivators in the hall were discussing, this man probably wanted to integrate Liu Yan into that Alchemy Furnace to improve its grade.
The other party was clearly quite wealthy, and was also very powerful, so as soon as he called his bid, many people who were preparing to call their own bid shut their mouths, causing the auction hall to sink into dead silence for a moment, with no one seemingly willing to compete.
Yang Kai was left with no choice but to make a move seeing this and loudly shouted, “4 million!”
It was only Liu Yan, he couldn’t give up! Even if meant going bankrupt, he would not hesitate for an instant.
Just as Yang Kai’s voice echoed through the hall, the cold expression on Liu Yan’s face, which had remained like ice the entire time, couldn’t help shivering slightly and whether consciously or unconsciously, she glanced towards room B9 before turning her gaze away, the corners of her lips curling upwards ever so slightly.
She knew in her heart that Yang Kai would not let her fall into somebody else’s hands.
“Apparently there’s another fierce expert here.”
“Haha, things have become interesting now, I wonder who will be the final winner.”
“It will depend on who has more Source Crystals.”
Yang Kai raised the bid from 3 million to 4 million in one breath, matching the previous up-bid of 1 million Source Crystals. This way, his momentum wouldn’t be inferior to the other party. In the A Block private room, a lean man who looked like he was in his forties with a slightly rugged physique couldn’t help frowning for a moment, releasing his Divine Sense towards B9.
Although there were barriers around these private rooms to isolate the general Divine Sense investigation, as these had only been set up recently, they weren’t that powerful, and the lean man’s Divine Sense instantly broke through them to press down on Yang Kai and Kang Si Ran.
Kang Si Ran immediately let out a grunt, his face turning pale as he felt like he was being suffocated.
Yang Kai felt the same, but as soon as he circulated his Spiritual Energy, he recovered unharmed.
[A Second-Order Dao Source Realm!] Yang Kai’s heart sank, clearly inferring the other party’s strength from the intensity of his Divine Sense.
“Brother Han!” As the host of the auction, Drunkard naturally could not let a powerful master suppress other competitors using force or status, so he immediately shouted, “Please stop!”
He directly called out the surname of the lean man, clearly indicating he knew his identity from the start.
Upon hearing this, the lean man surnamed Han let out a sneer and said, “This Han meant no harm, he just wanted to take a look at his competition. Vice City Lord doesn’t need to pay it any mind.”
Drunkard furrowed his brow and said in a calm manner, “If that is the case, that would be best. Brother Han is an honoured guest, so you know the rules of the auction.”
“You don’t need to remind me,” The man surnamed Han let out a cold snort, clearly quite unhappy.
Drunkard nodded solemnly before speaking, “Then, let us continue with the auction. The friend in room B9 has bid 4 million, will Brother Han raise his bid?”
After Drunkard finished speaking, before the man surnamed Han could even make a sound, a loud laugh suddenly reverberated from another A Block private room. “This Young Lord bids 4.5 million!”
This laughter was filled with arrogance and his tone gave off an aloof, disdainful impression, causing anyone who heard it to instinctually feel disgusted. Even Drunkard up on the stage furrowed his brow upon hearing this voice.
The man surnamed Han’s face turned even grimmer as the Divine Sense he had just withdrawn swept towards this new competitor.
The man surnamed Han was a Second-Order Dao Source Realm master, a man who could stand shoulder to shoulder with City Lord Duan Yuan Shan, so even if he was warned by Drunkard just now, he still didn’t care about it. Obviously, he wanted to repeat the same threat he just used to put a little pressure on the bidder in the next room, forcing him to retreat.
Swiftly, the powerful Divine Sense of a Second-Order Dao Source Realm master broke through the barrier of the private room.
But what the man surnamed Han didn’t expect was that before he could exert any kind of pressure, a burst of Spiritual Energy that was in no way inferior to his own immediately surged out of the room, blocking his Divine Sense.
The man surnamed Han’s pupils instantly constricted. but he was still too late to withdraw his Divine Sense so he could only grit his teeth and meet his opponent head-on.
An invisible clash happened inside the auction hall as the Divine Sense of the man surnamed Han was pushed back, causing him and the other master to let out stifled grunts.
This collision of Spiritual Energy had ended in a draw.
“Second-Order Dao Source Realm!” The man surnamed Han’s face turned black as he now understood why the man who had just placed a bid, sounded so arrogant. It was because he had the protection of a true master. Obviously whoever was in this room did not have a small background.
The man surnamed Han couldn’t help looking gloomy.
“Haha, this Young Lord had already bid 4.5 million, is there anyone willing to offer more? If not, then this Artifact Spirit will belong to this Young Lord,” the man who made the last bid didn’t seem to care about the contest between the two Dao Source Realm masters and began shouting arrogantly.
Inside that private room, a middle-aged man slightly furrowed his brow as he gently rebuked, “Young Palace Master, this Fire Attribute Artifact Spirit isn’t worth 4.5 million Source Crystals. Buying it for that much will only result in a loss. What’s more, you do not cultivate a Fire Attribute Secret Art and you don’t own any powerful Fire Attribute Artifacts, so why do you want to buy it? If this matter came to be known by the Palace Master, I’m afraid…”
“You only know shit!” Opposite the middle-aged man was a handsome young man holding a folding fan. He was dressed like a Young Lord and when he heard the middle-aged man’s rebuke, he just pursed his lips and said, “This Young Lord indeed doesn’t cultivate a Fire Attribute Secret Art, nor does this Young Lord have a Fire Attribute artifact, but… don’t you think that this Artifact Spirit is very beautiful? Besides, this Young Lord is curious about one more thing, what will she feel like? Would she feel any different from a human? If that’s the case, heh heh, no matter how many Source Crystals are spent, this Young Lord is willing.”
The middle-aged man momentarily frowned upon hearing this, but he knew he couldn’t interfere much in the end. All he could do was shake his head and smile wryly as he knew this Young Lord of his was obsessed with women, especially the cold, mature beauties. In other words, this Artifact Spirit’s figure was perfectly in line with his Young Lord’s tastes.
“5 million!” Yang Kai in room B9 raised the bid without a change in his expression.
“Bastard!”
As soon as Yang Kai made his bid, the Young Lord quickly stood up and shouted, completely discordant with the occasion, “Do you dare to try to snatch something that this Young Lord is interested in? Are you trying to oppose my Flying Saint Palace? This Young Lord bids 5.1 million!”
Everyone immediately understood his identity when he said this.
The bidder was impressively the Young Palace Master of Flying Saint Palace, Ning Yuan Cheng!
Yang Kai was also taken aback. [No wonder I found this guy’s voice a little familiar, so it’s that Ning Yuan Cheng.]
Yang Kai had dealt with this arrogant young master more than once. The first time was when he helped Mo Xiao Qi escape from Ning Yuan Cheng’s encirclement and the second was in the Five Colored Treasure Pagoda. But as his mind was completely preoccupied with Liu Yan, Yang Kai didn’t pay any attention to him and as such had failed to recognize his voice immediately.
[In that case, the Divine Sense that clashed with that man surnamed Han must be Ning Yuan Chen’s guard, Liu Yi Zhi.]
“What thing is Flying Saint Palace? If your father Ning Bo Yang was here, this Han might give him some face and give up on this Artifact Spirit, but you… hmph, you’re not worthy! 5.2 million!” The man surnamed Han shouted from his private room with a sneer.
“And who might Your Excellency be?” Ning Yuan Cheng’s face turned gloomy as he interrogated.
The man surnamed Han simply cackled, “Go back and ask your father, he will tell you who I am.”
“Damn you, how dare you look down on this Young Lord!?” Ning Yuan Cheng’s face turned livid in anger.
“Young Palace Master, this is someone else’s territory and that man surnamed Han is not someone to be taken lightly, we should… give way,” Liu Yi Zhi persuaded.
“Give way!? Why should I!? This Young Lord cannot swallow this insult. So, he dares to look down on this Young Lord? Good, we will see who has more Source Crystals then, he must be seeking death to try competing with this Young Lord!” Ning Yuan Cheng appeared to have lost his mind and immediately lashed out, “5.5 million!”
“5.6 million!” The man surnamed Han calmly raised his bid.
“6 million!”
“6.1 million!”
…..
Unlike before, Yang Kai couldn’t even find the chance to intervene in the later bids, and when the price soared past 6 million, he knew that he had no hope.
Kang Si Ran only had 5 million Source Crystals, and Yang Kai only had a few hundred thousand, so in total he had less than 6 million. Unless he really took out some Heavy Earth as leverage, he didn’t have enough.
However, the Heavy Earth was far too precious and would only attract endless trouble if he brought it out now, so upon realizing he had no hope of winning this bidding war, Yang Kai simply fell silent.
Kang Si Ran snuck a glance at Yang Kai and couldn’t help but sigh as he tried to comfort, “Brother Yang, please accommodate change.”
Yang Kai gently nodded but didn’t speak anymore.
At this point, anyone could tell that the current competition had become something more than just trying to secure interests. If the man surnamed Han was bidding to use Liu Yan for his Black Jade Furnace, then Ning Yuan Chen was bidding to not lose his face.
And even if the man surnamed Han had amazing financial resources, he had just spent 6 million Source Crystals to buy the Black Jade Furnace, so he might not have too many left now.
When the bids rose to 7 million, the man surnamed Han’s voice sank and his face turned gloomy.
Finally, when Ning Yuan Chen shouted 7.5 million, the man surnamed Han finally fell silent.
“Ha, before you try to rob something from this Young Lord, you should consider your own worth first! This Young Lord has never missed anything he has set his eyes upon!” Ning Yuan Cheng loudly mocked.
“Young Lord, it’s best to be lenient whenever possible,” the nearby Liu Yi Zhi suggested in a whispering voice.
“And why should I? That man didn’t put this Young Lord in his eyes, so must this Young Lord kneel down and lick his feet? Nonsense!” Ning Yuan Cheng flicked open his fan and began fanning himself triumphantly.
Liu Yi Zhi sighed in resignation, knowing it would be useless to say anything more.
“Flying Saint Palace’s Young Palace Master has bid 7.5 million, does anyone have a higher bid? 7.5 million going once, going twice, going thrice, and sold. The Fire Attribute Artifact Spirit now belongs to Young Palace Master Ning, please send someone backstage and pay the Source Crystals and collect your item.” A smile appeared on Drunkard’s wrinkled face. As he was hosting the auction, he would naturally get greater benefits for selling items for better prices.
After he finished speaking, a serious look appeared on Drunkard’s face as he solemnly said, “We have arrived at the finale of the auction and at the item all of you have been waiting for. En, this old man will say nothing more and will simply present it.”
As he spoke, a maid immediately carried out a jade tray from the back.
This was the final item, the Dao Source Fruit that had been contributed by Heavenly Martial Holy Land to this time’s opening of the Five-Coloured Treasure Pagoda. For a moment, everyone’s eyes fixed onto the tray.
Many cultivators had never seen a Dao Source Fruit before, so even if they knew there was no chance for them to obtain it here, they still wished to satisfy their curiosity by taking a good look at it, perhaps giving them something to boast about in the future.
Many people came to this auction just for this Dao Source Fruit, and all of the Dao Source Realm masters in A Block private rooms had purposefully not made any bids before to save their resources, not even participating in the auction for the Black Jade Furnace or Liu Yan.
These masters came for a single purpose, the Dao Source Fruit!
On the off-chance that they could obtain this Dao Source Fruit and refine it into Dao Source Pills, they may be able to obtain five to six pills if they were lucky. In other words, they would be able to create five to six Dao Source Realm masters for their force, a massive temptation for any Sect or family.
This last auction was doomed to be a fierce competition between the big forces present.
As for Yang Kai, his mind was no longer on the auction at all.
The Dao Source Fruit might be attractive to others, but as far as he was concerned, it wasn’t even worth a glance; after all, he already had a Dao Source Fruit in his possession. More importantly, he didn’t have the financial resources to partake in this auction.
At this moment, Yang Kai’s focus was on silently sensing Liu Yan’s position.
Although there was only a subtle connection between Liu Yan and him because of the seals around the bowl she was trapped in, he could still sense her general position, allowing himself to remain calm.
Since he couldn’t compete for Liu Yan openly because of his meagre wealth, he could only choose to snatch her.
Fortunately, Ning Yuan Cheng eventually won the bid for Liu Yan, so Yang Kai would not feel the least bit burdened after robbing him. He had some grievances to settle with Ning Yuan Cheng anyway, and had even gotten into a fight with him at the entrance to the second layer of the Five Colored Treasure Pagoda.
Yang Kai didn’t care about the other members of Flying Saint Palace’s delegation, but the Second-Order Dao Source Realm Liu Yi Zhi was a bit tricky to deal with.
A Second-Order Dao Source Realm master wasn’t someone Yang Kai could face on his own currently. Fortunately, he had his two Blood Beasts, the Monster Insect Queen and the Blue Flame Thunder Wolf, one of which had the strength of a Second-Order Dao Source Realm master, while the other had strength on par with a First-Order Dao Source Realm cultivator. As such, it shouldn’t be too difficult for him to tie down Liu Yi Zhi if they worked together.
As long as Liu Yi Zhi was taken out of the picture, Yang Kai could easily snatch Liu Yan from Ning Yuan Cheng, who was clearly just an embroidered pillow, impressive looking on the surface, but soft and weak on the inside.
Having made up his mind, Yang Kai now had to plan carefully to limit any outside variables that could interfere with his mission.
While Yang Kai’s mind was elsewhere, the auction hall was already in full swing because of the Dao Source Fruit.
Even Kang Si Ran joined the bidding, but with his limited resources, he could only make two bids before the price soared past the point he could afford, forcing him to give up.
After someone shouted 8 million, Kang Si Ran slumped down on his chair and heaved a long sigh.
However, Yang Kai could not afford to care about this at the moment as he was focused on sensing Liu Yan’s aura which was already inside the private room of Flying Saint Palace. Apparently, the deal had already been settled with the City Lord’s Mansion; however, Ning Yuan Cheng didn’t seem to be that anxious to leave and instead stayed where he was to spectate the fierce struggle for the Dao Source Fruit.
The bidding for the Dao Source Fruit was extraordinarily fierce. At the beginning, Origin King Realm cultivators could participate, but in the later stage, only Dao Source masters were eligible to bid.
While they were calling their bids, they were fighting openly and covertly, clashing with each other with Divine Senses all over the auction house. From time to time, a stifled groan would be heard from some private room, obviously the result of someone suffering a loss.
And the host of the auction, Drunkard, seemed to have already expected it and didn’t care one bit. As for the City Lord’s Mansion, no one stepped out to stop the chaos, simply allowing them to fight amongst themselves.
With the rising bids being called out one by one, the atmosphere of the auction hall grew more and more intense, making the cultivators sitting in the lower hall flabbergasted.
Yang Kai also gained some insights from this mess, learning about how deep the heritages of these masters backed by their powerful families and Sects really were.
The auction lasted for more than an hour, and the Dao Source Fruit was eventually won by the Dao Source Realm master in the A Block private rooms for the steep price of 11 million.
Throughout the Star Boundary, most second and third-class Sects would find it difficult to spend 11 million Source Crystals all at once, but if they could create a few Dao Source Realm masters in exchange, raising the overall strength of their force, it was well worth the price.
Finally, the auction had come to an end.
Yang Kai and Kang Si Ran left the auction house together, with many other cultivators also leaving in groups of twos or threes, excitedly chatting about what they had seen just now.
“Brother Yang, I will go back for a few days to make preparations before we set off. I hope that place… will not disappoint me,” Kang Si Ran whispered to Yang.
Yang Kai naturally knew what place he was referring to exactly and promptly nodded, “Good! Then I will wait for Brother Kang’s message.”
“I will take my leave then, goodbye,” Kang Si Ran cupped his fists before he turned around and left.
After he had left, Yang Kai also turned around and headed off.
After a while, he arrived at a certain street and casually found a tavern to enter. Sitting down next to a window, he ordered some wine and food and began enjoying himself.
The reason why he didn’t return to his rented secluded home was that he wanted to track Liu Yan. It wasn’t easy to make a move inside Maplewood City, so he could only wait for the Flying Saint Palace group to leave the city.
The Flying Saint Palace could also be considered a great force in the Southern Territory, and naturally because of the appearance of Luan Feng last time and the opening of the Five Colored Treasure Pagoda as well as the later auction fair, the Flying Saint Palace delegation had remained inside Maplewood City for some time.
However, according to Yang Kai’s calculations, they should not be staying for too much longer, so he waited patiently for the right opportunity.
But Yang Kai didn’t expect he would have to wait two whole days.
During this time, the Flying Saint Palace group had been staying inside their inn; never leaving. Yang Kai could still vaguely perceive Liu Yan’s aura and wasn’t worried about losing sight of her or worried about being discovered by the Second-Order Dao Source Realm master, Liu Yi Zhi.
Yang Kai reckoned that the people from Flying Saint Palace were staying in Maplewood City because Ning Yuan Cheng wanted to subdue Liu Yan.
His guess wasn’t wrong.
At this moment, in a room on the upper floor of the inn, Ning Yuan Cheng was angrily staring at the bowl in front of him as he formed some seals, causing a strange flaming red bird to immediately emerge from the bowl.
Liu Yi Zhi was standing by Ning Yuan Cheng’s side, seemingly never having left that spot.
“Slut!” Ning Yuan Cheng seemed to be fuming for some reason and was now lashing out in anger at Liu Yan, “Hurry up and show your human form, don’t pretend to be ignorant! Don’t think for a moment that this Young Lord doesn’t know that your intelligence is high and you can understand all of my words.”
Liu Yan, who had been trapped under many seals, just kept flapping her wings while quietly hovering mid-air, not making a single cry or trying to cause any trouble.
And just when Ning Yuan Cheng showed an opening though, she swiftly opened her beak and shot out a ball of thunder fire towards him.
This scene had apparently happened many times so Ning Yuan Cheng wasn’t surprised by it. He didn’t even dodge as Liu Yi Zhi, who had been guarding him, simply waved his hand at the thunder fireball and erased it.
“Heh heh, your temper is fiery! Excellent, this Young Lord likes that about you, but since you are reluctant to show your human form, don’t blame this Young Lord for being ruthless. Deacon Liu, get ready, we are returning to the Saint Palace!”
The nearby Liu Yi Zhi was overjoyed after hearing this and immediately confirmed, “Young Palace Master, are we going back?”
“En, I have tried for two days, but I still can’t make this bitch submit, so there’s no reason to remain here any longer. Let’s return to the Saint Palace first where I can seek assistance from Lord Father. At that time, I’d like to see how she refuses to bow to me,” Ning Yuan Cheng let out a cold snort before he formed some new seals and forced Liu Yan back into the bowl.
After half an hour, the team from Flying Saint Palace checked out of the inn and walked towards the city gate.
Yang Kai, who had been meditating in a room in the same inn, suddenly opened his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief, “They’re finally leaving.”
If Flying Saint Palace didn’t leave, he would really be troubled; after all, he had promised Kang Si Ran that he would go with him to explore that cave mansion soon, so he really didn’t want to draw out this conflict any longer.
While it wouldn’t be a big deal to explain to Kang Si Ran that he needed a few more days, doing so would still break the trust between them.
At this moment, the Flying Saint Palace disciples were walking towards the city gate to leave Maplewood City as Yang Kai had expected.
He didn’t immediately follow them, however, and instead waited for a while before also leaving his room and making his way towards the same city gate.
Sometime later, on a plain millions of kilometres away from Maplewood City, Yang Kai hurriedly flew forward.
Because of his subtle connection with Liu Yan, he had a clear idea about the location of Flying Saint Palace’s group so he wasn’t worried about losing them.
However, he didn’t have a suitable flight type artifact on hand, so he was also unable to catch up with the opposite party, making him a little impatient.
While rushing forward at full speed, Yang Kai suddenly felt a powerful and overbearing Divine Sense sweep past him. This sudden situation made Yang Kai’s expression change and he forced himself to stop.
That Divine Sense was devoid of murderous intent, but it was still extremely cold, and after sweeping over Yang Kai, it casually withdrew.
Yang Kai stood in his place, a little confused, only a moment later realizing something and muttering under his breath, “There’s someone else chasing after Flying Saint Palace? This feeling… it’s that man surnamed Han.”
During the previous auction, a man surnamed Han had used his Divine Sense to pressure Kang Si Ran and Yang Kai. This memory was still fresh in Yang Kai’s mind so he was immediately able to identify the other party.
It was just that he hadn’t expected that someone else would be eyeing Flying Saint Palace’s group, just like he was.
If it weren’t for the fact that the other party had confidence in his strength and didn’t attach any importance to a mere Origin King, Yang Kai might not have noticed him.
Once he attacked the Flying Saint Palace delegation, this man surnamed Han might have taken advantage of and used him.
Thinking so, Yang Kai couldn’t help breaking out into a cold sweat.
Fortunately, the man surnamed Han didn’t have such plans, otherwise, things would have become really troublesome.
The man surnamed Han wanted to use his Divine Sense to intimidate Yang Kai, apparently, and force him to retreat from these muddy waters, and if it were any other Origin King, this tactic might really have worked, but Yang Kai had a reason he needed to persist.
After a while, Yang Kai continued his pursuit; however, this time, he was no longer as anxious and instead just pressed forward in a steady manner.
In any case, the man surnamed Han was going to confront Flying Saint Palace, so Yang Kai wasn’t in a rush to make the first move. It would be best for him to act once both sides were mutually wounded, or better yet, killed one another.
Presumably, the man surnamed Han was chasing after Flying Saint Palace’s group for Liu Yan. During the auction, his finances were weaker than Ning Yuan Chen’s, so he could only rob them to get what he wanted now.
He just happened to have the same plan as Yang Kai.
With the man surnamed Han as the vanguard, Yang Kai became far more relaxed and while continuing the chase, he began to strategize about his next move. It would be better if he could prevent both sides from discovering him while approaching as close as possible.
But after thinking about it for a long time, he couldn’t come up with a good strategy, causing him to be a bit depressed. All he could do now was act according to the circumstances.
After another half a day, when it was beginning to get dark, Yang Kai, who was still flying, suddenly raised his eyes to look into the distance as his expression changed.
Flickering lights could be seen in that direction, and if one listened carefully, they could vaguely hear intermittent explosions coinciding with those flashes as well as intense bursts of Spiritual Energy.
“He finally made his move!” Yang Kai was ecstatic and hurriedly used his Nihility Secret Technique before continuing his approach.
In addition to having a miraculous effect of avoiding fatal attacks, Yang Kai’s Nihility Secret Technique could also conceal his aura and appearance. This Secret Technique was derived from his comprehension of the Dao of Space and was far superior to ordinary concealment technique from big sects.
Unless there was a cultivator with a cultivation a whole Great Realm higher than Yang Kai, it would be impossible for them to detect his existence unless they performed a thorough search.
After flying forward for half an hour, Yang Kai had finally arrived at the location of the fight.
Under the moonlight, a flying ship was suspended mid-air and vague figures could be seen on the deck all looking towards a certain direction.
One of the figures was, impressively, Flying Saint Palace’s Young Palace Master, Ning Yuan Cheng. As for the others, they were naturally the disciples of Flying Saint Palace.
In the sky about a thousand meters away from the ship, two figures were entangled with each other, apparently fighting in close quarters.
Yang Kai looked closely and found that the two figures were the man surnamed Han and Liu Yi Zhi.
The fight between them was intense but steady as both of them were in the same realm, so the one who persevered longer and wore down his opponent would be the winner.
Judging from how they were confronting one another though, it didn’t seem like either side was holding back. Obviously, both of these men had experienced many battles, and by the looks of it, the fight would continue for some time.
After watching for a while, Yang Kai turned his gaze towards Flying Saint Palace’s ship artifact.
At this moment, Ning Yuan Cheng was standing on the deck with a leisurely look on his face, seemingly not worried at all that Liu Yi Zhi would be defeated. He gently fanned himself with his folding fan and would sometimes point towards the battlefield.
Naturally, the Flying Saint Palace disciples repeatedly nodded to his comments and orders.
Additionally, there was a rippling green light shield around the ship, enveloping it in a protective layer.
Obviously, this was the defensive barrier of the ship.
Yang Kai slightly furrowed his brow.
Now that the two Second-Order Dao Source Realm masters were busy fighting each other, it was a good opportunity to make his move, but the ship’s barrier also seemed pretty sturdy, so Yang Kai wasn’t sure he could break through it in one go, much less do so quietly. Yang Kai reckoned he would expose himself as long as he approached the ship.
After considering it for a long time, he decided to wait for an opportunity to present itself.
Reaching this conclusion, he turned his attention back to the battlefield of two Dao Source Realm masters.
Even after so long, Flying Saint Palace’s Liu Yi Zhi and the man surnamed Han were still fighting furiously with one another, neither showing weakness, but Yang Kai could subtly tell that something wasn’t right.
If the man surnamed Han didn’t have any confidence to attack and defeat Flying Saint Palace’s group, he would not have recklessly shown himself here, otherwise not only would he fail to obtain what he wanted, he would also offend Flying Saint Palace. Anyone with a little bit of brains wouldn’t do this.
Since the man surnamed Han chose to make a move, he must have a card up his sleeve.
Yang Kai was taken aback after this thought crossed his mind and immediately rejoiced that he had not acted recklessly just now.
“Who is Your Excellency? Why not state your name? What’re your intentions acting so secretively here?” In the sky, the Dao Source Grade sabre in Liu Yi Zhi’s hand flashed as it slashed towards the man surnamed Han.
The man surnamed Han floated back into the distance, borrowing the momentum of their recent clash while leisurely flicking his own sword before pointing back at Liu Yi Zhi and sneering, “You can’t recognize me because of your inexperience, yet you actually want to find fault with that? How ridiculous.”
Liu Yi Zhi furrowed his brow and shouted in a solemn tone, “I know that Your Excellency is surnamed Han, but Heaven knows how many people are surnamed Han in this world? I don’t care where Your Excellency is from, if you withdraw, this Liu will not pursue today’s matter. Continue to antagonize this Liu, however, and you will become an enemy of my Flying Saint Palace and this Liu will no longer show any mercy.”
“Flying Saint Palace is it?” The man surnamed Han snickered sarcastically, “Oh, I’m so scared! Do you think a trivial Flying Saint Palace can make this Han have reservations? Not to mention Flying Saint Palace, even if it was Star Soul Palace, why would I care? Star Soul Palace has been hunting this master down for more than a few years now, but isn’t this master still alive and kicking?”
“Huh?” Liu Yi Zhi muttered in surprise as he stared at the man surnamed Han in shock, startled greatly by this remark.
Star Soul Palace was the real overlord of the Southern Territory, and none dared to challenge its authority or power, but judging from this man’s remarks, he actually seemed to be a fugitive from Star Soul Palace, yet somehow he was still alive, and living quite comfortably at that.
“You… you couldn’t be…” Suddenly, a name flashed across Liu Yi Zhi’s mind, one he had heard about over a decade ago, shocking him to his core. Pointing at the man before him, he shouted, “I know who you are! You’re Han Leng, the one who was banished by Star Soul Palace!”
Over a decade ago, a disciple of an Elder-level Emperor Realm master of Star Soul Palace committed a huge mistake. Originally, he should have been executed according to the rules of Star Soul Palace, but somehow, it seemed he got wind of his impending sentence, killed several of his fellow disciples, stole some kind of precious treasure from Star Soul Palace, and escaped. Star Soul Palace had been searching for him ever since.
Back then, this matter had provoked many lively discussions in the Southern Territory as many Star Soul Palace disciples had been sent out to hunt down this traitor. They wanted to capture him alive and return him to Star Soul Palace to face justice, but unfortunately, no one succeeded and many had lost their lives to Hang Leng instead.
This matter had left a stain on Star Soul Palace, but the other Sects and families dared not discuss it in public, only whispering about it behind closed doors.
Over the past decade, Star Soul Palace had never ended its pursuit of this traitor, but unfortunately they also never managed to capture him.
Later, there were even rumours that this traitor was the illegitimate son of that Emperor Realm Elder, and that Elder had personally released him back then. Of course, no one knew whether this news was true or false.
Liu Yi Zhi, as a part of the upper echelons of Flying Saint Palace, naturally knew of such secrets and also knew that the traitor’s name was Han Leng.
At first, Liu Yi Zhi hadn’t associated this man with Hang Leng, but after hearing the latter’s words just now, he immediately drew this conclusion.
“Are you really that traitor Han Leng of Star Soul Palace?”
“So what if I am?” Han Leng opposite Liu Yi Zhi admitted without shying away, chuckling as he wore a complacent grin on his face, like he had prevailed in his schemes, “Now, it’s too late for you already!”
Liu Yi Zhi’s heart clenched when he heard this and instinctually shouted, “Shit!”
Just as he said this, he turned around and tried to fly towards the ship, looking quite frantic as if something terrible was about to happen.
But right then, Han Leng quickly formed some hand seals with a serious look on his face and in the next moment, a bright shining moon actually appeared in the sky, blinding everyone’s eyes, making it almost impossible for anyone to see anything around them.
Suddenly, a beam of white light shot down from the bright moon and poured directly into Han Leng.
In the next moment, rays of moonlight radiated in all directions with Han Leng as the centre.
In just three breaths, the area within a range of several dozen kilometres was shrouded in an inexplicable force, forming an isolated region. Within several dozen kilometres of Han Leng, one could only see bright moons of all sizes filling the sky; round moons, waning moons, crescent moons, but no stars.
At that moment, it had already become another world.
“Heavenly Lunar Cycle Grand Array!” Liu Yi Zi’s face suddenly turned incomparably grave as he confirmed the reason for this change.
“Heh heh heh!” Han Leng’s figure had already disappeared. At this moment, his voice was radiating from all directions, making it difficult to locate him. “That’s right! Since you recognized this Spirit Array, you can die satisfied.”
“When did you set it up?” Liu Yi Zhi asked with an ashen face.
“Having known that you are from Flying Saint Palace, your route was easy to figure out, so how hard could it be to arrange an Array in advance? You can only blame your Young Palace Master for not placing anyone in his eyes, as if no one would dare provoke your Flying Saint Palace,” Han Leng’s voice continued to drift from everyone.
On the deck of the nearby ship, Ning Yuan Cheng’s face also became extremely ugly.
Although he appeared extremely safe on the deck of the ship, it was already surrounded by the Heavenly Lunar Cycle Grand Array at this moment, and judging by Liu Yi Zi’s expression, this Han Leng seemed to be an extremely dangerous enemy and this Spirit Array was somehow extraordinary.
Having considered all this, he suddenly pointed at the Flying Saint Palace disciples on the deck and ordered, “Go and quickly help Deacon Liu, this Young Lord will coordinate the battle from here!”
There were more than a dozen Origin Kings with him on the ship, most of them Second or Third-Order, so their combined force wasn’t weak at all.
These disciples didn’t hesitate for a single moment after hearing his order and used their Movement Skills to fly up from the ship, heading toward Liu Yi Zhi.
“Don’t come out!” Liu Yi Zhi subconsciously shouted, but it was too late.
The moment these disciples flew out of the ship, countless beams of silvery moonlight that seemed gentle and harmless at first glance shot out from the various moons.
However, the Flying Saint Palace disciples had an extremely rich combat experience and would not simply let these beams of moonlight hit them before understanding the nature of this Spirit Array, so they hurriedly dodged these beams, one after another.
One of the Second-Order Origin Kings was too late to react though and half of his body was struck by a moonlight beam.
Immediately, the left half of the Second-Order Origin King’s body melted away without any sound or sign.
The protective Saint Qi around his body didn’t play any role at all.
Seemingly only barely feeling a thing, the Second-Order Origin King turned his head to look at himself, but what he saw next crushed his soul…
He immediately screamed as he plummeted straight to the ground, but before he landed, he had already stopped breathing.
Such a strange scene had naturally caught everyone’s eyes, and almost everyone gasped at the sight of this as a chill running down their spines.
“You… haa…” Liu Yi Zhi sighed heavily. Although he was cursing Ning Yuan Chen in his heart, he didn’t voice out his thoughts. Rather he quickly adjusted himself and shouted, “Since you’ve come out already, follow me to break this Array! The Heavenly Lunar Cycle Grand Array is indeed amazing, but the one who arranged it doesn’t seem too skilled. As long as we work together, we can carve our way out.”
The Origin Kings panicked when they saw their companion die so tragically, but after being pacified by Liu Yi Zhi, they immediately steadied themselves as they steeled themselves and gathered towards Liu Yi Zhi.
Han Leng’s sneers immediately echoed from every direction as the countless silver moons shook under his control. One after another, beams of moonlight shot towards the Flying Saint Place cultivators from all directions, all while Han Leng’s position remained hidden.
“Block!” Liu Yi Zhi shouted fiercely as he took the lead to brandish the sabre in his hand. A blade of light immediately left the sabre, growing to several dozen meters before flying towards the front. The others didn’t dare to tarry and also hastily cast their respective Secret Techniques and brandished their artifacts.
In a flash, colourful flashes of light glimmered as they crashed into the oncoming silver beams, one after another.
However, the stalemate only lasted for a moment before the silver beams broke through the Flying Saint Palace’s group’s defence and struck towards them.
Liu Yi Zhi’s pupils constricted as he hurriedly shouted at the top of his voice, “Scatter!”
Some people with quick reactions immediately dodged to the side, but those who reacted slower weren’t lucky enough to escape.
Just like this, the Flying Saint Palace disciples, who had just gathered around, were immediately sent running.
Before they could gather again, the Heavenly Lunar Cycle Grand Array was triggered once more as countless silver beams of moonlight shouted.
This time, the Flying Saint Palace cultivators weren’t so lucky. Many had just stabilized their footing and hadn’t had the time to catch their breath, so three of them were unable to avoid the moonlight beams and were struck head-on.
These moonlight beams shot out by the Heavenly Lunar Cycle Grand Array were incredibly lethal, with extreme corrosive and penetrating ability. Just like how the Flying Saint Palace disciple tragically died before, all those who were struck by these moonlight beams screamed miserably one after another as they watched parts of their body melt, their auras ceasing to exist shortly after.
And all the Saint Qi protection around their bodies didn’t work at all. Even the defensive artifacts of these cultivators were melted in half.
“Deacon Liu, save me!” One person didn’t immediately die, but the moonlight beam had left a large hole in his abdomen that one could clearly see his five viscera, six organs through. This man struggled to fly toward Liu Yi Zhi, shouting for help.
The corrosive force around the wound on his abdomen was like maggots on rotting bone, unable to be dispelled and quickly corroding the other intact body parts. As this disciple flew towards Liu Yi Zhi, the wound on his abdomen continued to expand and soon even his bones were exposed.
Suddenly, a slap landed on this person’s head, causing it to burst.
The Flying Saint Palace disciples in the vicinity, who were still alive, went silent for a moment as they turned looks of horror towards Liu Yi Zhi.
“He couldn’t be saved!” Liu Yi Zhi shouted in fury, “Rather than let him suffer, it’s better to give him a quick and painless death!”
“Hahaha!” Han Leng’s laughter suddenly echoed from everywhere, “Is everyone from Flying Saint Palace so cruel? You’ve opened this Han’s eyes today.”
Having been ridiculed by him, Liu Yi Zhi immediately grew angry out of shame and lashed out in anger, “If your surname is Han, I dare you to show your figure and fight fairly against this Liu! Cowering behind a Spirit Array, how can that be considered your own skill!?”
“Ridiculous! How ridiculous! If this Han taking advantage of this Spirit Array can’t be called my skill, can your act of using many to bully the few be called skill?” Han Leng rebuked in contempt.
Liu Yi Zhi’s provocations had no effect, leaving him with no other choice. Liu Yi Zhi turned to the surviving Flying Saint Palace disciples and shouted, “Why are you just standing there doing nothing! If you want to survive, attack this Spirit Array with your full strength!”
Nobody dared to be negligent after hearing this and quickly displayed their most powerful attacks, aimlessly bombarding the surrounding space.
Although Liu Yi Zhi’s brutality had scared them just now, they knew that he was right. Surrounded by this Heavenly Lunar Cycle Grand Array, they could only continue attacking if they wanted to survive.
“A bunch of clowns!” After ridiculing everyone, Han Leng’s figure suddenly appeared somewhere mid-air. Forming a series of hand seals, he had the silver moons shoot untold beams of moonlight towards a certain spot, condense together, causing a massive sense of oppression to those down below.
“Go!” The huge beam of moonlight immediately shot in the direction of a certain Flying Saint Palace disciple with the wave of Han Leng’s hand. The speed of this beam was much faster than before and was impossible to guard against.
That disciple didn’t even have the chance to make an evasive action before he was directly enveloped by that beam of moonlight and vanished from the face of this world.
Liu Yi Zhi seemed to have been waiting for this very moment though, and as soon as Han Leng’s figure was exposed, Liu Yi Zhi spat out a mouthful of Blood Essence onto his sabre, causing it to vibrate slightly. In the next instant, his figure disappeared from its place and reappeared again before Han Leng, slashing down at him with his sabre.
Under Liu Yi Zhi’s anticipating gaze, Han Leng’s figure was cut into two.
A look of joy immediately appeared on Liu Yi Zhi’s face, but soon after, he realized there was something wrong.
Although Han Leng’s body was split into two, no blood flowed out. Soon after, Han Leng’s severed figure distorted before it disappeared altogether.
What he hit was Han Leng’s phantom, while Han Leng had clearly hidden again long ago.
Liu Yi Zhi furrowed his brow, finding the situation very difficult to deal with. In terms of cultivation, Han Leng and he were on par with each other and their combat power was almost equal, so it was reasonable to say that it was impossible for Han Leng to have such an obvious advantage. However, with the assistance of the Heavenly Lunar Cycle Grand Array, Liu Yi Zhi couldn’t grasp Han Leng’s location at all and was forced to defend passively, causing him to grow increasingly anxious.
The huge beam of moonlight didn’t disappear after its first kill and instead kept flying back and forth within the range of the array, melting away one Flying Saint Palace disciple after another.
In just a short span of a dozen or so breaths, only two Origin Kings remained.
The two Origin Kings both looked at each other and noticed the intention to escape in each other’s eyes. They knew that if they didn’t make a run for it, they would definitely die.
And so, their figures bolted straight towards the ship.
With a flash of moonlight, one of them was struck by the large beam and disintegrated before he could even scream. The last man managed to escape to the front of the ship where he cried out, “Young Palace Master, please let your subordinate in.”
On the deck of the ship, Ning Yuan Chen stood there with a panicked look on his face, turning a deaf ear to the cries of that disciple and instead angrily lashing out at him “Get away from here, don’t lead that thing here!”
“Young Palace Master, you…” The disciple looked at Ning Yuan Cheng as desperation filled his face, but before he could finish his words, the beam of moonlight struck him from behind, piercing a hole straight through his chest.
*Honglong…*
A thunderous clap resounded through the sky.
The thick moonlight beam’s remaining power hit the protective screen of the ship, causing a sizzling noise to ring out as if something was being melted. The light shield around the ship was also flickering.
Ning Yuan Cheng couldn’t help but stumble a few steps back before falling down on his butt.
Luckily, the grade of this ship wasn’t low, seemingly reaching the Dao Source Grade, so its defence was quite good.
“So that’s how it is, I’ve finally caught you!” The moment the moonlight beam disappeared, Liu Yi Zhi suddenly appeared before the ship and slashed the sabre.
Suddenly, a figure appeared in front of him. It was none other than Han Leng, his face somewhat pale and there was a fresh cut on his robes. Apparently, he had been hit by Liu Yi Zhi’s attack just now.
Facing each other before the ship, Han Leng’s face was gloomy while Liu Yi Zhi looked solemn.
“It seems you noticed some clues,” Han Leng’s face was a little pale, seemingly having become exhausted from maintaining the operation of the Spirit Array.
“Indeed,” Liu Yi Zhi lifted his sabre, “This Liu had heard of the Heavenly Lunar Cycle Grand Array long ago, but after seeing it today, I realize that it is just an auxiliary Spirit Array. You have been hiding in the moonlight this whole time; this Liu had almost failed to notice this!”
Han Leng broke into laughter, “Deacon Liu really has a sharp eye, this Han had been trying to hide his whereabouts, but I hadn’t thought I would still be discovered by you.”
“Since I have found this flaw, today this place will be your burial ground!” Liu Yi Zhi pointed the sabre at Han Leng as his voice grew colder.
However, Han Leng just grinned wider as he said, “That will depend on whether you have the ability or not.”
Saying so, he formed a few hand seals as the countless silver moons started vibrating again.
“Are you still trying the same old trick?” Liu Yi Zhi fiercely shouted as he slashed the sabre in his hand all around him, sending out arcs of sabre Qi one after another. Principle Strength began to vibrate in the surrounding, causing the silver moons to distort and shatter, “The Heavenly Lunar Cycle Grand Array is just so-so!”
“Is that so?” A strange look appeared on Han Leng’s face before his entire figure blossomed with a dazzling radiance, like he had turned into a brilliant full moon.
“What!?” Liu Yi Zhi turned pale with fear as he instinctively felt a lethal threat. Hurriedly, he summoned a shield-like artifact before him, one that rotated rapidly as it expanded to the size of a tabletop, shielding Liu Yi Zhi’s entire figure behind it.
Right then, Han Leng seemed to have finished his preparation and a piercing blade of moonlight flew straight out towards Liu Yi Zhi like an arrow flying off the bowstring.
Not only that, the silver moons in the surrounding, which had been de-stabilized, also shot beams of moonlight under Han Leng’s control, pouring into the sword of light.
The light sword grew larger and in just a few short breaths, it became several dozen metres long.
A terrifying pressure immediately came bearing down from the sky, not only causing Ning Yuan Cheng, who had just fallen on his backside, to turn pale, but also causing Liu Yi Zhi, who was desperately urging his shield artifact, to feel a deathly threat.
Only now did he realize that he had vastly underestimated Han Leng and the Heavenly Lunar Cycle Grand Array.
The Heavenly Lunar Cycle Grand Array was a Spirit Array that originated from Star Soul Palace, and as the overlord of the Southern Territory, it was an outstanding masterpiece. Liu Yi Zhi might have seen through some of its intricacies, but he couldn’t see through them all. By underestimating this Spirit Array, he had brought about his own defeat.
“Young Palace Master, quickly escape!” Liu Yi Zhi gritted his teeth and shouted before biting the tip of his tongue and spewing his Blood Essence forward.
The shield artifact guarding him suddenly started glowing brightly, its defensive strength seemingly increasing another level. At the same time, the sabre in his hand buzzed violently while even Liu Yi Zhi’s aura began to inflate and grow chaotic.
“Self-destruct?” Han Leng’s cry of shock sounded from the Heaven-shaking light sword, a hint of fear apparent in his voice.
Not all artifacts in this world could self-destruct, but those that could would release massive amounts of destruction when they did. However, if someone really did this, not to mention that he would lose the artifact, the owner of the artifact would definitely suffer severe backlash.
The long-sword artifact in Liu Yi Zhi’s hand was a Dao Source Grade Low-Rank artifact, and the force of its self-destruction would definitely not be low, so Han Lend didn’t dare to take it head-on.
“Don’t even think about it!” Han Leng’s face distorted as he hid inside the moonlight sword, pressing his attack even harder, seemingly wanting to take Liu Yi Zhi’s life before the artifact could self-destruct.
A dazzling brilliance suddenly covered the entire world as a deafening thunderclap shook Heaven and Earth.
The surrounding World Energy fluctuated while even the local World Principles became disordered.
A black hole had suddenly appeared in Liu Yi Zhi’s location.
The power of that artifact’s self-destruct had actually shattered space, proof of how terrifying the explosion was.
An endless suction force appeared from this tear in space, swallowing everything around it before it fiercely constricted and disappeared under the restorative power of the local World Principles.
Many of the silver moons in the sky had gone dim as Han Leng’s final blow had seemingly drained most of the Heavenly Lunar Cycle Grand Array’s remaining power.
Han Leng’s figure was also revealed.
At this moment, his face was extremely hideous, his body covered in blood and his left arm twisted in an unnatural angle, a ghastly sight to behold.
The clash between the final blows of two Second-Order Dao Source Realms had left Han Leng with serious injuries, and after stabilizing his stance, Han Leng coughed a mouthful of purple-black blood, his fierce aura suddenly dropping noticeably.
As for Liu Yi Zhi, his figure was nowhere to be found and not even a bit of his aura could be felt within a range of a thousand metres. Only the shield artifact he had summoned was left, tattered and falling from the sky, its surface dull and dim, seemingly having lost its spirituality.
This shield-like defensive artifact had been completely destroyed.
If even his defensive artifact was destroyed like this, Liu Yi Zhi’s end could be imagined.
“Damn it!” Han Leng’s face turned ashen as he ground his teeth and cursed, coughing up another mouthful of blood while breathing heavily.
Only now did Ning Yuan Cheng, who had been hiding in the ship and watching the battle, finally react. He got up in a hurry and started forming hand seals while trembling in panic, turning the ship around and trying to escape.
Even Liu Yi Zhi had lost to Han Leng, so how could Ning Yuan Cheng have the guts to stay here any longer? At this moment, all he could think of was getting farther away from here as quickly as possible.
But how could Han Leng let him do this? Just as the ship started moving, Han Leng let out a cold snort and braced himself, then his figure distorted and once again disappeared.
Immediately afterward, the remaining dim silver moons glowed brighter for a moment before condensing a large beam of moonlight one last time and firing it straight at the ship.
Obviously, Han Leng was planning on killing Ning Yuan Chen, otherwise, once word of this matter got out, Flying Saint Palace would not let him go.
The moonlight beam was extremely fast and struck the defensive shield of the ship in the next instant. The force of this beam striking the ship wasn’t small either, causing Ning Yuan Cheng on the deck to be thrown off his feat.
*Cilala…*
Suddenly, a harsh sizzling noise rang out as the powerful corrosive force of the moonlight beam rapidly drained the power of the ship’s shield. Han Leng’s figure was revealed at this moment, as well, as he emerged from the moonlight beam, his sword shining brightly due to the power he borrowed from the array to try to shatter the ship’s shield in one blow.
“Han… Senior Han, do you really need to kill me? You can just let me go, if you do, I swear I won’t speak a word about what happened today.” Although Ning Yuan Chen was a Third-Order Origin King, before the attacking Han Leng, who was like a tiger descending from the mountain, he began begging for mercy before even thinking about counterattacking.
Hang Leng said nothing, his eyes becoming colder and colder, scaring the life out of Ning Yuan Cheng who only begged more pitifully.
*Kacha…*
Suddenly, a cracking sound reached Ning Yuan Cheng’s ears, sounding like the toll of a death knell to him. His face turned pale and his eyes immediately focused on a frightening scene before him. There was now a crack in the defensive shield of the ship, indicating it was on the brink of collapse.
*Kachacha…*
The cracks rapidly expanded and soon, they formed a spider-web like pattern across its entire surface.
Finally, with a thunderous shout from Han Leng, the ship’s defensive shield shattered and at the same time, the world of silver moons covering the surrounding area also disappeared.
The Heavenly Lunar Cycle Array had finally exhausted all of its energy and was automatically dispelled.
The moonlight beam too had disappeared, leaving just Han Leng’s sword light which shot straight toward Ning Yuan Cheng in a fearsome manner. By the time he pulled the long sword in his hand back, Han Leng was already standing not too far away behind Ning Yuan Cheng.
Ning Yuan Cheng instinctively took a defensive stance, feeling the threat to his life, but that was all he did.
A moment later, a little red dot appeared on Ning Yuan Cheng’s forehead before he collapsed onto the deck of the skip with a dull thud.
And with no one controlling Flying Saint Palace’s flying ship, it also fell down from the sky, crashing in a cloud of dust.
Not far away, the hidden Yang Kai, who had been watching the battle from the beginning with indifference, narrowed his eyes as he stared towards Han Leng’s back.
[He eliminated so many cultivators from Flying Saint Palace alone. He might have relied on the power of the Spirit Array, but his personal strength should not be underestimated. Even so, after such an intense battle, he must be thoroughly exhausted. He probably can’t even display half of his usual strength right now.]
Yang Kai felt that if he made a move now, he would have a ninety percent chance of succeeding. This was a typical example of a fisherman reaping the benefits of a fight between snipe and clam.
However, Yang Kai was still wary that Han Leng had some final card left in his hand, like how Liu Yi Zhi self-destructed his own artifact just now. If that was the case, he would have to pay a big price if wanted to win.
While Yang Kai was preoccupied with his thoughts, Han Leng’s figure had already flown up from the ship. He seemed to have searched Ning Yuan Cheng’s corpse and was now holding a Space Ring in his hand. Not long after, a round bowl appeared in his palm with a flash of light.
Examining it for a moment, Hang Leng wore a satisfied smile before storing the bowl back into the Space Ring.
Seeing this, Yang Kai immediately understood that the purpose of Han Leng’s trip was the same as his own: it was all for Liu Yan, who was sealed in that bowl.
But even after having dealt with everything, Han Leng still didn’t immediately leave. Rather he raised his eyes, looked squarely in Yang Kai’s direction, and said in a cold voice, “Kid, you’ve been watching for quite some time now, haven’t you seen enough?”
Yang Kai furrowed his brow and didn’t immediately show himself.
Seeing this, Han Leng coldly smiled and continued, “What’s wrong? Does this Han have to invite you to come out personally?”
As he spoke, the long sword in his hand gleamed slightly.
Yang Kai looked a little astonished, knowing the other party wasn’t deliberately acting mysterious and really knew he was here.
With there being no point in continuing to hide, Yang Kai dispersed his Nihility Secret Technique and revealed himself.
Han Leng raised his brow and praised liberally, “What a marvellous Concealment Technique, fascinating!”
Yang Kai, looking at him, pursed his lips into a smile and said, “Senior Han, you flatter me. No matter how marvellous my Concealment Technique is, didn’t you still see through it? What I don’t understand is how Senior Han managed this?”
“It seems that you are very confident in your technique,” Han Leng swept his eyes over Yang Kai, relaxing completely after noticing he was just a Third-Order Origin King and nonchalantly saying, “Truthfully, I am likely unable to see through your technique with just my ability, but… since you were inside the Heavenly Lunar Cycle Grand Array…”
Yang Kai was struck with realization and nodded, “So, that’s how it is!”
Han Leng, looking at Yang Kai, indifferently asked, “Kid, why are you hiding here? You wouldn’t be thinking of being the oriole stalking the mantis hunting the cicada, would you?”
Yang Kai chuckled and said without hesitation, “I did have this idea, but if Senior Han can give me that bowl, I will leave immediately.”
“So, you want that Fire Attribute Artifact Spirit?” Han Leng’s face sank as if he had thought of something before nodding, “So you were the other one bidding at the auction.”
“Indeed! Unfortunately, my finances are lacking and I could only choose this method instead.”
“Do you think you can snatch something from this Han’s grasp? Do you not know how to write ‘death’?” Han Leng smiled in disdain.
“Since I dare to come here, I naturally have confidence in my ability. What’s more, Senior Han has just fought an intense battle and is completely exhausted, it would not be a wise decision to become my enemy at this moment.”
Listening to Yang Kai talk in such a leisurely manner, Han Leng’s eyes twitched slightly.
[What right does a Third-Order Origin King have to dare act so presumptuous in front of me? But what he said also makes sense; since he dares to come, he must be depending on something, and whatever he is depending on is definitely making him unafraid of me.] Considering all this, Han Leng’s mood couldn’t help but sink.
He didn’t want to fight another battle at this point, as although the injuries he had suffered weren’t fatal, they weren’t light either. More importantly though, he did not have much Source Qi left.
“Good good, it’s been a long time since someone dared to be so presumptuous in front of this Han. Kid, I’ll remember this, and I hope you don’t die young,” Han Leng looked at Yang Kai for a moment before he suddenly started speaking with a sneer.
Yang Kai smiled lightly and replied, “Senior Han, it would also not be a wise decision to try to flee as, unfortunately for you, I’m quite good at tracking others. You won’t be able to escape from me.”
Saying so, Space Force pulsed from Yang Kai’s figure as it disappeared from its place.
In the next moment, he appeared on the opposite side of Han Leng as if he had been standing there all along.
Even someone as experienced and knowledgeable as Han Leng couldn’t help but be taken aback at this moment, calling out in shock, “What kind of Movement Skill was that?”
[The speed of his mysterious Movement Skill is indeed better than mine. It seems he’s not idly boasting about his speed and tracking skills. If this kid used this Movement Skill to continuously attack and harass me, I’ll never be able to rest and recover.]
Han Leng’s face blackened at once.
Yang Kai’s grin grew wider, but just as he was about to apply more pressure, his eyes widened in shock as he stared behind Han Leng’s back with a look of pure disbelief and shouted, “Behind you!”
Han Leng couldn’t help but sneer, “You dare to play such paltry tricks before this Han…”
He thought that Yang Kai was deliberately trying to divert his attention and then sneak attack him.
This kind of trick was so naive that even a child wouldn’t be fooled by it, so how could a battle-hardened veteran cultivator? If he really believed Yang Kai and looked behind himself, Han Leng was sure he would be attacked by Yang Kai the next moment.
But as soon as he said this, a sense of crisis struck him.
There really seemed to be some strange movements behind him.
Han Leng was struck with panic and quickly mobilized his defensive Source Qi while at the same time kicking the air to dodge.
But he had reacted too late.
Behind him, an extremely sharp, cyan-coloured spike appeared and shot out towards his back.
The speed of this spike was extremely fast, so fast that it seemed to split space apart as it advanced.
Han Leng’s defensive Source Qi couldn’t stop the spike at all and it swiftly pierced right through him, leaving a small puncture wound on his forehead. The fact that the spike pierced through his entire head proved how powerful this blow was.
Han Leng was quite strong though, so he didn’t die immediately even after suffering this fatal injury. Turning around to see who had attacked him though, he couldn’t help calling out in alarm, “How is this possible? That’s impossible!”
He believed that it was Liu Yi Zhi, who had sneak attacked him from the back; after all, Liu Yi Zhi had disappeared after the final blow and judging from that, Liu Yi Zhi was vaporized, or had seized the opportunity to hide.
After Han Leng was sneak attacked, he thought that Liu Yi Zhi had simply been hiding because of this.
But when he saw one who performed the sneak attack, only then did he realize that he couldn’t have been more wrong.
The sneak attacker standing behind him and looking at him with a sly smile wasn’t Liu Yi Zi, but Ning Yuan Cheng, the one he had killed with his own hands!
He found this scene completely unbelievable. Ning Yuan Cheng was only a Third-Order Origin King, and after stabbing him with his sword, Han Leng had searched Ning Yuan Cheng’s corpse, so Han Leng was certain the other party was dead.
How could the dead rise?
But when Han Leng noticed certain changes in Ning Yuan Cheng’s appearance, he was struck with realization and muttered to himself, “So it’s like that…”
After having spoken these words, his head slumped to one side as he stopped breathing.
At the same time, the nearby Yang Kai’s felt his skin crawl and his fists clenched as he called out in alarm, “Wood Spirit!”
From where he stood, he could almost clearly see what just happened.
While he was talking to Han Leng, Ning Yuan Cheng, who was supposedly dead, strangely and silently stood up, opened his mouth, and shot a green wooden thorn from it which then pierced through Han Leng’s head.
The reason why Han Leng was so easily killed was partly due to his exhausted state and partly because of Yang Kai’s warning.
Han Leng mistakenly thought that Yang Kai was setting a trap for him, so he never thought that there was really fatal danger lurking behind him, and by the time he did notice, it was already too late.
How could a dead cultivator spit out a green wooden thorn? Yang Kai had seen something similar inside the Five Colored Treasure Pagoda, as well as in Maplewood City, so he recognized it at a glance.
Surprisingly, it was the ancient Wood Spirit that had caused chaos in Maplewood City before!
On the day, when the Wood Spirit disaster struck Maplewood City, six Emperor Realm masters had personally taken action and because of this, thousands of cultivators had lost their lives in Maplewood City. After the turmoil, the City Lord’s Mansion had issued a statement saying the Wood Spirit disaster had been dealt with, making everyone feel at ease.
But now it seemed that this was just a method the City Lord’s Mansion had used to calm the public, while the Wood Spirit was not completely wiped out and had instead found a way to infect some cultivators.
It was just that this Wood Spirit had concealed itself extremely well, not only escaping the notice of those six Emperors, but even Ning Yuan Cheng and Liu Yi Zhi, who had been guarding him closely.
If it weren’t for Ning Yuan Cheng’s sudden death this time, the Wood Spirit Seed definitely would not have been exposed. If the host died, the Wood Spirit Seed would naturally not have any place to hide.
Everything was just a coincidence!
Yang Kai had already figured everything out in a blink of the eye, but his heart couldn’t help sinking as he did.
During those few days in Maplewood City, he had also participated in the hunt for Wood Spirit Clones and deeply understood how difficult it was to deal with these things. Moreover, at that time, he had teamed up with a dozen or even several dozen cultivators, but many had still been wounded during those fights. Now, he had to deal with one all alone.
While various thoughts were running through Yang Kai’s mind, a weird gurgling noise could be heard coming from Ning Yuan Cheng, and along with this noise, Han Leng’s body quickly started shrivelling up.
This was one of the Wood Spirit’s innate abilities, draining the vitality of cultivators to strengthen itself.
Originally, Ning Yuan Cheng was emitting the aura of a Third-Order Origin King, but as he continued to swallow Han Leng’s essence, his aura rapidly climbed and soon reached the peak of the Third-Order Origin King Realm, touching upon the Dao Source Realm!
Yang Kai’s pupils couldn’t help but shrink as he knew it would be too late if he didn’t take action now, shouting furiously, “Don’t even think about it!”
As he spoke, a flame sword suddenly appeared in his hand as he channelled his Fire Sword Qi from his Five Elements Indestructible Sword Qi.
His figure distorted as he used the Space Force and appeared before Ning Yuan Cheng, immediately swinging down his sword hard!
With a deafening explosion, the air grew extremely hot!
The Wood Spirit was a Wood Attribute creature so Fire Attribute energy was its nemesis. This was what Mo Xiao Qi had told Yang Kai once and Yang Kai had confirmed this multiple times while hunting down Wood Spirit Clones in Maplewood City.
Against Wood Spirit Clones, Fire Attribute energy was more effective than Space Force.
This attack went straight at Ning Yuan Chen’s head, and if it hit its target, it would definitely split Ning Yuan Cheng in two.
But how could the Wood Spirit Clone let Yang Kai succeed so easily? Ning Yuan Cheng’s mouth was still wide open as he constantly devoured the vitality via the green spike pierced through Han Leng’s head, but as the flame sword descended upon him, his eyes flashed a bright gleam and he swung his arms out. The two arms distorted and crackled as they transformed into two thick and long vines, one sweeping towards Yang Kai’s waist while the other defended against the flame sword.
*Huchichi…*
The Fire Sword Qi could only leave a deep cut on one of the vines, unable to slice through it completely, but this still drew a cry of pain from Ning Yuan Cheng.
Simultaneously, the other vine was already upon Yang Kai.
Yang Kai’s pupils shrank as he didn’t dare to remain in place, immediately retreating.
The vine only struck air!
The cut left by Yang Kai’s flame sword on the other vine burned brightly for a moment, but soon a burst of green light erupted and the flames were extinguished, restoring the vine to its original state instantly!
“How is that possible?” Yang Kai called out in shock as he stabilized his footing.
He had killed quite a few Wood Spirit Clones in Maplewood City, and although the vitality of these Wood Spirit Clones was extremely tenacious and they were quite difficult to kill, Yang Kai had never encountered one with such astonishing restorative ability.
Yang Kai hadn’t held back any of his strength in his last attack, so from his previous experiences, he was certain the wound he inflicted would have been serious and difficult to repair.
But to his shock and dismay, the Wood Spirit Clone was practically uninjured.
Yang Kai couldn’t help but become vigilant seeing this and vaguely felt that the Wood Spirit Clone in front of him was somehow different.
Right when Yang Kai’s attack ended in vain, Han Leng’s corpse was sucked dry and Ning Yuan Cheng finally withdrew the wooden spike back into his mouth, a look of contentment appearing on his twisted face.
“First-Order Dao Source Realm!” Yang Kai’s expression turned cold as he sensed the aura emanating from Ning Yuan Cheng.
On the opposite side, Ning Yuan Cheng glared at Yang Kai with hatred, as if blaming Yang Kai for ruining his good deed. Ning Yuan Cheng’s figure shook as the clothes on his body were ripped into pieces and green vines suddenly exploded from his figure, the tips of these vines seemingly as sharp as swords.
In an instant, Ning Yuan Cheng’s entire figure had changed greatly.
He couldn’t even be described as humanoid anymore! Now, he was just a Wood Spirit Clone, nothing more. Only on the upper part of the trunk did some traces of Ning Yuan Cheng’s facial features remain while the rest of his figure was simply countless dancing vines.
Some of the vines stabbed toward Yang Kai like whips falling from the Heavens while other vines swept towards the dead bodies of the Flying Saint Palace disciples, piercing them and devouring their physical essence, a terrifying and imposing sight to behold.
Immediately, slurping noises could be heard coming from all around as the corpses of the many fallen cultivators started withering at a speed visible to the naked eye.
“In your dreams!” Yang Kai’s face turned fierce at the sight of this as he hurriedly gathered Fire Sword Qi into his hands and slashed outwards.
*Chi chi chi chi…*
Scorching hot Fire Sword Qi blades flew through the air and pierced the corpses of the Flying Saint Palace disciples, the flame burning their corpses into ashes in a flash.
A Dao Source Realm Wood Spirit Clone was already difficult enough to deal with, so how could Yang Kai possibly give it an opportunity to strengthen itself further?
When the Wood Spirit Clone saw this, it turned around and faced Yang Kai. On its trunk, Ning Yuan Cheng’s face twisted letting out a piercing scream as if it was extremely angry. Immediately, its body shook as countless roots shot into the ground and dug in.
Immediately after, the Wood Spirit Clone shook as countless vines madly started attacking Yang Kai, like arrows raining down from the sky.
Yang Kai grit his teeth as he used his Space Force to dodge this attack and released his Monster Insect Queen and Blue Flame Thunder Wolf with a wave of his hand.
“Kill!” Yang Kai fiercely ordered as he appeared before the Wood Spirit in a flash and swung his flame sword again, bringing a billowing wave of heat down upon the Wood Spirit.
At the same time, the Monster Insect Queen swung its blue and purple twin swords in a cross shape while spreading out an icy cold domain filled with gently falling snowflakes.
Clear Sky Snowfall!
The snowflakes danced through the air as they slowly fell, but each one of them was incomparably sharp. As these tiny flakes fell on the vines of the Wood Spirit, small wounds started to appear on its vines, drawing green blood from it while their frigid Ice Attribute energy seeped into the wounds, greatly hindering the vines’ healing ability.
The Monster Insect Queen took this opportunity approach while brandishing its swords to unleash a storm of slashes towards the Wood Spirit, coordinating its assault with Yang Kai’s movements.
The Blue Flame Thunder Wolf on the other hand gained some distance and opened its jaws to fire a barrage of blue flame balls at the Wood Spirit, setting off a series of loud explosions everywhere.
In a flash, Yang Kai and the two Blood Beast had suppressed the Wood Spirit Clone to the point that it couldn’t mount any counterattack and was only able to passively defend itself.
This scene wasn’t surprising. Even though this Wood Spirit Clone had advanced to the First-Order Dao Source Realm after devouring Han Leng’s physical essence, the Monster Insect Queen could display strength equal to a Second-Order Dao Source Realm master, while the Blue Flame Thunder Wolf wasn’t weak either and used Fire Attribute energy attacks, which was the bane of the Wood Spirit.
Coupled with Yang Kai, it would be strange if the Wood Spirit Clone wasn’t suppressed.
Under the cooperation of one man and two Blood Beasts, the countless vines of the Wood Spirit were cut to pieces rapidly, scattering vines and green blood across the ground that continued to wriggle, as if they were still alive.
However, after these cut-off vines bled out all their green blood, they swiftly shrivelled up and withered into dust that was swept away by the wind.
The Wood Spirit screamed again and again, pushing its own energy in anger and re-growing its vines constantly, making it seem like a futile effort to even try to kill it.
Yang Kai couldn’t help but be in awe a little at the sight of this.
He always felt that this Wood Spirit Clone was a little different from the ones he had dealt with before, and because it was seemingly more difficult to handle, he became more vigilant. Wrapping his Fire Sword Qi around his entire body, Yang Kai made sure the Wood Spirit didn’t have a chance to infect him as well.
A quarter of an hour later, the fight raged on as Yang Kai and the two Blood Beasts seemed to have the upper hand, but still failed to give any fatal injuries to the Wood Spirit, locking the two sides in a kind of stalemate.
Suddenly, the Blue Flame Thunder Wolf that had been using its Fire Attribute attacks to suppressed the Wood Spirit, seemed suddenly lose strength and paused its barrage.
*Chi Chi Chi Chi…*
With piercing noises, roots suddenly sprang out from below ground and bound the Blue Flame Thunder Wolf.
These roots were naturally the ones the Wood Spirit had stuck into the soil before.
The Blue Flame Thunder Wolf whimpered as it struggled hard but was unable to free itself.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, a vine stabbed straight into the Blue Flame Thunder Wolf and in the next instant, a familiar sucking sound rang out as the vine began to devour the physical essence of the Blue Flame Thunder Wolf.
The Blue Flame Thunder Wolf was originally an Eleventh-Order Monster Beast, possessing strength on part with a First-Order Dao Source Realm cultivator, and even after being killed and refined into a Blood Beast, its physical essence had not been lost. Rather, its vitality had become stronger because it was being supported by Yang Kai’s Golden Blood Thread.
Swallowing the Blue Flame Thunder Wolf’s vitality rapidly made up for the damage the Wood Spirit had suffered until now, and a clear look of joy and surprise filled the distorted facial features on its trunk.
Yang Kai’s heart sank when he saw this and immediately shouted, “Return!”
With his shout, the Blue Flame Thunder Wolf that had been tied down by the roots shook and turned back into a Golden Blood Thread that rapidly flew over to Yang Kai. As Yang Kai secretly checked its condition, his face immediately turned ugly when he realized that about one-third of the vitality in this Golden Blood Thread had disappeared in that short moment.
In other words, one-third of the Blue Flame Thunder Wolf’s vitality had been devoured. If he wanted to supplement it, Yang Kai would have to use his own Golden Blood.
On the other side, the Wood Spirit became enraged after failing to swallow the Blue Flame Thunder Wolf.
It no longer cared about Yang Kai and instead turned its attention to the Monster Insect Queen.
Having gained huge benefits after swallowing the Blue Flame Thunder Wolf’s vitality just now, it naturally wanted to repeat its trick.
The ground under the Monster Insect Queen suddenly split as untold roots flew out like snakes, trying to trap the Monster Insect Queen.
But how could it be that easy to tie down the Monster Insect Queen? The blue and purple dual swords glowed faintly as bitter cold Sword Qi waves flew out in all directions. Ice Principles swirled through the air around the Monster Insect Queen’s body, greatly reducing the speed of these roots, resulting in them not only failing to trap the Monster Insect Queen but also suffering serious damage in the process.
Yang Kai regained his confidence at the sight of this.
If the two Blood Beasts couldn’t be used in this battle, it would definitely become much harder for him, but now it seemed that the Monster Insect Queen’s performance was much better than Yang Kai had expected.
The Monster Insect Queen was born from the fusion of a Sentient Sword Intent and a Blood Beast, so the strength it could unleash in combat was far superior to the Blue Flame Thunder Wolf’s.
Yang Kai was about to charge in again, teaming up with the Monster Insect Queen to besiege the Wood Spirit, when his brow suddenly rose as he sensed a kind of anxious call.
This summon came from the sealed Liu Yan!
Even though Liu Yan was sealed inside that strange bowl, she seemed to have sensed the battle outside and was now stimulating the Soul Mark Yang Kai had left in her Divine Sense many decades ago.
Startled for a moment, Yang Kai quickly slapped his forehead as he scolded himself for being an idiot.
He had only been thinking of teaming up with his two Blood Beasts to fight just now and had forgotten about Liu Yan’s existence. Liu Yan was a Fire Attribute Artifact Spirit, a pure amalgamation of Fire Attribute Energy, so even if her cultivation wasn’t as high as the two Blood Beasts, her role in this particular battle might be even stronger than them.
As long as Liu Yan came out, what would there be to fear about a trivial Wood Spirit?
Thinking so, Yang Kai immediately focused his gaze on Han Leng’s corpse, which lay near the Wood Spirit.
He gave an order to the Monster Insect Queen and had it suppress the Wood Spirit on its own while Yang Kai directly soared over to Han Leng’s corpse, reached down, and picked up the two Space Rings.
Of the two Space Rings, one belonged to Han Leng and the other to Ning Yuan Cheng. The round bowl in which Liu Yan was sealed was stored in the latter’s Space Ring.
After having acquired them, Yang Kai immediately withdrew.
Right at that moment, the Wood Spirit seemed to notice Yang Kai’s movements and sent out countless vine whips at him, as well as a faint streak of green light which struck his body and disappearing in a flash.
Yang Kai was shocked as he quickly blocked the attacking vines while withdrawing, a confused look appearing on his face once he reached a safe distance.
He had clearly seen that faint beam shooting out from the Wood Spirit but he couldn’t see where it went.
He quickly scanned his own body with his Divine Sense but he couldn’t find anything strange, causing his expression to turn unsightly.
He carefully scanned himself again but was still unable to find anything. Short on time though, Yang Kai grit his teeth and ignored this anomaly temporarily and took out the bowl sealing Liu Yan from Ning Yuan Cheng’s Space Ring.
As he poured his Divine Sense into the bowl, he immediately sensed Liu Yan.
“Master!” Liu Yan’s voice reached him, “It’s good to see you again, I knew you wouldn’t abandon me.”
Yang Kai chuckled and said, “Of course I wouldn’t abandon you, but now isn’t the time to reminisce about. I’ll find a way to unlock this seal quickly, as there’s an enemy here I need your help dealing with.”
“En!” After replying, there were no other movements from Liu Yan’s side.
Yang Kai flew to the distance and meticulously checked the seals on the round bowl.
This bowl was clearly a special kind of sealing artifact, one that wasn’t of much other use or of great value. It was mainly used to seal energy bodies like Liu Yan’s and after being trapped inside, Liu Yan clearly couldn’t unlock the barrier. Fortunately, it seemed that unlocking these seals from the outside was relatively straightforward.
As Yang Kai’s Divine Sense was far stronger than an ordinary Origin King’s, it only took the time it takes to finish a cup of tea for him to find some clues.
Pouring his Divine Sense into the bowl, Yang Kai swiftly unlocked one seal after another.
When the last seal broke, Liu Yan’s joyous shout came from the bowl, “I’m free!”
Liu Yan swiftly turned into a fiery beam of light and flew out of the bowl with a loud, joyous cry.
With her advent, the temperature in the surrounding air rose dramatically.
Liu Yan spread her wings and her enormous body seemed to cover half of the sky, her eyes burning with intense flames as she stared down towards the Wood Spirit which was engaged in battle with the Monster Insect Queen.
Immediately, a sharp, crisp cry escaped from her mouth as she swooped down like a meteor falling from the sky.
At this moment, the Wood Spirit was locked in combat with the Monster Insect Queen. Despite being a Minor Realm higher in cultivation, and having mastered Ice Principles, the Monster Insect Queen was barely holding her ground against the Wood Spirit. Without Yang Kai’s help, she was now locked into a stalemate.
This made it quite clear just how strong the Wood Spirit was.
When Liu Yan, wrapped in her intense flames, swooped down from the sky, however, the hideous face on the Wood Spirit’s trunk finally showed a look of fear and panic. It had not even shown this kind of look when it was up against Yang Kai and two Blood Beasts.
Countless vines shot straight out at the oncoming Liu Yan from the ground, each one like a powerful spear throw with extraordinary strength.
But Liu Yan didn’t care to pay these vines any mind, simply opening her beak and spewing out a jet of crimson flames wrapped in arcs of purple lightning.
Almost all of the vines were reduced to ashes by its scorching flames while the few that made it through simply passed through Liu Yan’s body without causing any damage to her.
It could be said that she was the ultimate nemesis for this Wood Spirit! All the Wood Spirit’s abilities had no effect on her while her abilities greatly restrained it.
Not only that, the power of thunder and lightning mastered by Liu Yan travelled back along the Wood Spirit’s vines, causing it to freeze up in shock.
Most of Liu Yan’s flames were refined by devouring the Sun’s True Essence, while her lightning came from the sentient Heavenly Thunder Fire she had devoured in the past. In terms of ferocity of flames, while Liu Yan’s might not be comparable to the Luan Feng’s World Extinguishing Black Flame, it was definitely quite extraordinary.
How could Wood Spirit resist?
After Liu Yan’s body of flame passed through the Wood Spirit, more than half of its vines were burned to coke and its originally hideous and distorted face filled with panic.
It didn’t dare to remain and immediately uprooted itself, using its roots like tentacles as it scampered across the ground towards the distance.
It had actually decided to flee.
Yang Kai had been waiting for this very moment, so how could he let the Wood Spirit escape now?
With the help of his Space Secret Technique, he appeared right in front of the Wood Spirit and stared at it with a cold look in his eyes. Then, he spread his hands and brought them together, creating an enormous Moon Blade.
Just when Yang Kai was about to release the Moon Blade to give the Wood Spirit the final blow, the Wood Spirit let out a scream, and right then, Yang Kai felt a sudden burst of sharp pain from his arm, causing his wrist to momentarily shake and disrupt the Moon Blade’s launch.
Immediately after, loud slicing noise rang. Even though the huge Moon Blade was formed using Space Force and wasn’t exactly a counter to the Wood Spirit, its might could not be taken lightly. Yang Kai’s aim might have been disrupted at the last moment, causing him to miss the Wood Spirit’s vitals, but the Moon Blade still left a huge gaping cut on its body.
The cut was clean and some green blood gushed out from the wound like a fountain.
It was then that Liu Yan swooped in, transformed into a giant ball of flame, and engulfed the entire Wood Spirit.
The nearby Moon Inspect Queen brought its dual swords together and made a slashing motion that created a giant Sword Wave that cut straight into Liu Yan and the Wood Spirit.
The Wood Spirit immediately let out a sharp and piercing scream.
Yang Kai, on the other hand, backed off several dozen metres as he hurriedly tore off his clothes and stared at his right arm, calling out in shock in the next moment, “Wood Spirit Seed!”
At this moment, there was a light green rice grain-sized thing embedded in the skin of his right arm and Yang Kai could feel his vitality uncontrollably flowing towards it.
As more and more of Yang Kai’s vitality flowed into it, this little seed actually showing signs of breaking out of its shell.
Yang Kai immediately understood what it was. Obviously, this Wood Spirit Seed had penetrated his flesh along with that faint green beam of light from before.
No wonder even the six Emperors were unable to completely eradicate the Wood Spirit, it was actually able to conceal one of its seeds this well. Yang Kai couldn’t even find it after carefully inspecting his body twice. If it wasn’t for the Wood Spirit trying to interfere with his attack just now to save itself and escape, perhaps this Wood Spirit Seed would not have activated.
And it was exactly because of the activation of this Wood Spirit Speed that Yang Kai’s Moon Blade lost its accuracy.
As for what happened to the cultivators parasitized by the Wood Spirit Seeds in Maplewood City, Yang Kai couldn’t be any clearer. All this thing needed was a short time to devour a cultivator’s vitality and essence before it took over that cultivator’s body and turned them into a Wood Spirit Clone without any will of its own.
Naturally, Yang Kai didn’t want to follow in those people’s footsteps.
Seeing the Wood Spirit Seed devouring more and more of his vitality, Yang Kai grit his teeth and formed a minute Space Blade on his fingers before slicing into the flesh around where the Wood Spirit Seed was embedded and tearing it out, trying to stifle his pained groan in the process.
Blood streamed down his arm.
Having been separated from his body, the small piece of flesh that Yang Kai had just torn out was devoured by the Wood Spirit Seed in a very short time. The next moment, the Wood Spirit Seed also turned into a small seedling that shot out some thin vines that tried to invade Yang Kai again.
Yang Kai let out a cold snort and immediately summoned his Sealed World Bead before slipping inside it.
Inside the Small Sealed World, Yang Kai held the Wood Spirit’s Seedling as he released flames from his palm, completely wrapping it up.
Accompanied by a sharp and piercing screech, the incomplete Wood Spirit Clone was burnt to ashes.
After doing all this, Yang Kai took out a healing pill from his Space Ring and swallowed it before sitting down cross-legged and beginning another careful examination of his body, using the Small Sealed World’s Principles to dramatically boost his senses.
He was truly wary of these Wood Spirit Seeds.
He was unable to find any hidden Wood Spirit Seeds with his Divine Sense earlier, but things were completely different inside the Sealed World Bead. Here, he could use the World Principles to perform a much more intensive examination than his Diving Sense could perform alone.
After checking a few times, Yang Kai was finally sure that there weren’t any more and he finally relaxed.
After this brief period, the wound on Yang Kai’s arm had almost recovered. His Golden Blood had extraordinary restorative properties and coupled with his powerful physique, this kind of minor injury was nothing to him.
After heaving a sigh of relief, Yang Kai stood up and left the Sealed World Bead.
After returning back to the plains again, Yang Kai looked around and found the surroundings at peace, lacking any sounds of fighting.
Not too far away, Liu Yan, who had already taken her human form, gently jumped to Yang Kai’s side as a smile finally appeared beautiful face that was usually as cold as ice. Standing next to him, she happily shouted, “Master!”
Yang Kai nodded and asked, glancing at the ashes on the ground, “Is it dead?”
Liu Yan nodded, “Yes!”
While speaking, she turned her eyes towards the Monster Insect Queen and calmly said, “Master, your new helper is pretty good, she’s even fiercer than me.”
Yang Kai glanced at her and seemed to notice something in her gaze, causing a smile to appear on his lips as he said, “Although it’s quite good, its room for growth is very limited. In the future, it will reach the Third-Order Dao Source Realm at best, but you are different. You have gained sentience and you can actively strengthen yourself, so you will definitely be stronger in the future.”
“Yes, Master,” Liu Yan responded, lowering her head, but she couldn’t hide the corners of her lips rising into a small arc.
Yang Kai beckoned to the Monster Insect Queen, which swiftly flew over to him. Yang Kai then had it return to his Sealed World Bead.
Glancing around, Yang Kai saw that this stretch of wilderness had become a wasteland. In just half a day, two Second-Order Dao Source Realm masters and dozens of Origin Kings had lost their lives here, causing Yang Kai to sigh slightly.
“Check if there are any Space Rings remaining,” after giving the order, Yang Kai started searching with Liu Yan.
Not long after, eight Space Rings lay in Yang Kai’s hands. These Space Rings belonged to Flying Saint Palace’s disciples, and Yang Kai didn’t pay much attention to them as he knew there wouldn’t be much of value in them.
Yang Kai had already collected Ning Yuan Cheng and Han Leng’s Space Rings, but as for Liu Yi Zhi’s, it was likely destroyed in the previous fight so there was no point searching for it, causing Yang Kai some slight disappointment.
After all, the Space Ring of a Second-Order Dao Source Realm master should have a lot of treasures in it.
“Master, what do you think we should do with this?” Liu Yan asked, looking at the ship on the ground with a curious look in her beautiful eyes.
After being separated from Yang Kai in the Starlight Channel, she didn’t have the time to appreciate various wonders of the Star Boundary. She knew very little about this ship, only that it was a kind of flight-type artifact.
“Of course, we’re going to keep it,” Yang Kai grinned, walking up to the ship and circling it a few times as a satisfied look appeared on his face.
Yang Kai had personally learned how fast this thing could fly as he had been unable to catch up to it despite his best efforts just a day ago. In the subsequent battle, the defensive shield of the ship had even withstood the attacks of the Heavenly Lunar Cycle Grand Array for a time, obviously indicating that its defensive strength was also quite good.
This was absolutely a Dao Source Grade flight-type artifact!
Yang Kai currently lacked a flight-type artifact for travelling, so how could he let go of such a treasure after encountering it? It might belong to Flying Saint Palace, and if anyone saw Yang Kai using it, they might link him to Ning Yuan Cheng’s death, but as long as Yang Kai was careful and didn’t use it in front of outsiders, everything would be alright.
The ship was too big, however, and Yang Kai couldn’t refine it immediately to make it shrink, so he could only expend a large amount of his Spiritual Energy to put it into the Sealed World Bead, for now, and deal with in the future.
“Let’s go!” Yang Kai summoned Liu Yan and began returning to Maplewood City. Now that the matter of Liu Yan had been settled, he could accompany Kang Si Ran to explore the hidden cave mansion without any worries.
But right then, a gust of wind blew over and Yang Kai, who was about to turn around and leave, couldn’t help but pause, looking suspiciously in a certain direction.
“What’s wrong?” Liu Yan asked, surprised.
Yang Kai didn’t answer and instead just stared intently for a time before suddenly soaring over to where the Wood Spirit Clone was killed.
Originally, only the ashes of the Wood Spirit Clone were left here; however, under the last gust of wind, something glimmering in the ashes had caught Yang Kai’s attention.
Kneeling down, he swept away the rest of the ashes and discovered something.
Yang Kai instantly retreated as a vigilant look appeared on his face. In that moment, he almost instinctually released a Moon Blade.
Liu Yan slowly came over and stood beside him, sweeping her gaze towards the ashes before a gasp leaked from her lips, “A seed?”
She glanced at Yang Kai and, getting his nod, she stepped forward and reached out her fingers to pick this seed up.
Upon closer examination, the pair confirmed it was indeed a seed, one the size of a grain of rice, obviously something left behind after the Wood Spirit was burnt to ashes.
Since it could survive Liu Yan’s intense flames though, this seed was clearly not ordinary.
Obviously, it was a Wood Spirit Seed!
And the reason why Yang Kai showed such vigilance was all because of this. He had suffered a small loss just now and had even been forced to cut out a piece of his flesh to resolve a similar Wood Spirit Seed crisis.
Once bitten by a snake, one would be afraid of ropes for ten years.
But the strange thing was that this Wood Spirit Seed seemed completely different from the Wood Spirit Seed which had implanted itself in Yang Kai’s arm. It wasn’t green, but instead, the left side glimmered gold while the right released a dazzling silver, looking extremely unusual.
“Is there anything amiss with it?” Yang Kai asked vigilantly.
Liu Yan nodded and said, “There is indeed a problem, it still has a faint Soul fluctuation. It seems to still be alive.”
“I see,” Yang Kai ground his teeth.
If he hadn’t instantly backed away just now and had picked up the Wood Spirit Seed instead, he might have been parasitized again. Just from the looks of it, this Wood Spirit Seed was extraordinary, and if it had taken root in his body, he probably wouldn’t have been able to deal with it by just cutting out a piece of flesh.
Fortunately, he had Liu Yan, who was the nemesis of this Wood Spirit and didn’t fear its peculiar abilities.
“Good good! This little thing actually dares try to trick me!” Yang Kai coldly smiled and beckoned Liu Yan, “Come with me!”
Saying so, he quickly brought Liu Yan into the Sealed World Bead.
In the Sealed World Bead, Yang Kai sat in a cross-legged position, looking as tranquil as an ancient well.
In front of him was his Purple Origin Furnace, with its lid closed and an intense heat coming from it.
From time to time, knocking sounds could be heard coming from inside the Purple Origin Furnace, as if something was struggling inside it, trying to escape. At this moment, Yang Kai was pouring his Qi into the Purple Origin Furnace, trying to suppress whatever was struggling inside.
As time went by, the Purple Origin Furnace turned extremely red, so hot that it began distorting the surrounding space.
Meanwhile, the struggle inside the furnace was also growing weaker and weaker.
After an entire day, the furnace finally calmed down. Yang Kai called for Liu Yan before opening the Purple Origin Furnace with the wave of his hand. Immediately, Liu Yan turned into a fiery beam and shot out from the furnace before assuming her human form before him.
“Master,” Liu Yan greeted Yang Kai and handed him the gold and silver coloured Wood Spirit Seed before adding, “Master, you may rest assured, this thing could not be any deader.”
“Good job.” Yang Kai nodded with satisfaction, taking the peculiar Wood Spirit Seed and pouring his Divine Sense into it, confirming that Liu Yan was indeed right. The faint Soul wisp hidden inside the Wood Spirit Seed had completely disappeared.
Obviously, the Soul wisp belonged to the Wood Spirit, and unless it was completely destroyed, the Wood Spirit would continue to live on.
But after being thrown by Yang Kai into the Purple Origin Furnace and refined by Liu Yan for a full day and night, how could the residual Soul of the Wood Spirit survive? It had long been wiped out by the scorching heat.
At this moment, the seed in Yang Kai’s hand could no longer be regarded as the Wood Spirit’s seed, but the original seed before the Wood Spirit grew from.
Yang Kai had no idea what the Wood Spirit’s actual body was before it gained sentience; after all, he had never seen a seed like this before.
But since it could stand being burned by the joint effort of Liu Yan’s and his flames for an entire day and night without getting damaged, it was far from ordinary.
If this seed was planted, it might gain sentience again after tens of thousands of years, becoming another Wood Spirit, but that one would have nothing to do with the previous one.
“What are you going to do with this thing?” Asked Liu Yan, glancing at Yang Kai.
“I don’t know. What do you suggest?” Yang Kai looked up at her.
Liu Yan also shook her head, “Master, that is up to you; however, I feel that the two energies flowing in this seed would bring you a great advantage.”
“Oh? Why do you say that?” Yang Kai asked in surprise.
“I just have a feeling, that’s all. If you really want me to explain it, I can’t describe it exactly,” Liu Yan smiled.
Yang Kai gently nodded before returning his gaze to the peculiar Wood Spirit Seed and pondering. Suddenly, his eyes lit up as if he had come up with a good idea.
The next moment, his figure flickered as he directly arrived at the medicine garden of the Small Sealed World. Then, he looked for a good spot, dug up a little bit of earth, and planted the Wood Spirit Seed in his hand.
He had no idea what this Wood Spirit Seed was or what its uses were, but since that was the case, he could just grow it himself to investigate.
And in this world, what place would be more suitable for planting the Wood Spirit Seed than the medicine garden inside the Sealed World Bead?
This was a medicine garden with a vast amount of Heavy Earth buried beneath it and five Earth Vein Crystals supplying rich amounts of World Energy. In this place, the growth period of the Wood Spirit Seed would be greatly shortened and in just a few years, Yang Kai would be able to figure out what it was.
After carefully re-checking, Yang Kai clapped and smiled in satisfaction. The next moment, his figure distorted again as he reappeared before Liu Yan.
“It’s done! Let’s return to Maplewood City. Accompany me, I need to ask you some questions,” Yang Kai said, looking at Liu Yan.
“Yes.” Liu Yan nodded before she turned into a fiery beam and shot straight into Yang Kai’s body, disappearing right after.
Yang Kai then left the Sealed World Bead, determined his bearings, and swiftly headed towards Maplewood City.
…..
Somewhere about ten thousand kilometres away from Maplewood City, Flying Saint Palace.
Surrounded by mountains and rising clouds, Flying Saint Palace was a majestic sight to behold.
And on a certain peak, an old man with a naked chest and white hair was sitting cross-legged, facing east. This old man’s eyes were closed as he inhaled and exhaled slowly. Every time he breathed out, his breath seemed to transform into birds and beasts that would walk or run away, disappearing into the depths of the forest in the blink of an eye. He was clearly cultivating some strange, profound Secret Art.
Suddenly, the old man opened his eyes and a gleam appeared in their depths, causing anyone who saw it to shudder.
“Hmph, this old master said not to disturb him unless it was something of critical importance. Tell me, what is the matter this time? If it turns out to be something trivial, it will be your head!” The old man suddenly stated in a cold tone without even turning his head.
Several dozen metres behind him, a middle-aged man in black robes immediately froze as drops of cold sweat trickled down his forehead. Promptly cupping his fists, he reported in a trembling voice, “Reporting to the Palace Master, Young Palace Master’s life crystal has shattered!”
Judging by the middle-aged man’s words, this old man happened to be Flying Saint Palace’s Palace Master, Ning Bo Yang.
“Yuan Chen’s life crystal shattered?” Ning Bo Yang’s expression turned colder upon hearing this, the temperature on the mountain top dropping sharply.
“Yes,” the middle-aged man replied in a heavy voice, not daring to lift his head.
“Hmph, that rascal’s life was destined to be short from the start. Since his crystal has shattered, that’s all there is to it,” Ning Bo Yan indifferently said.
“Ah?” The middle-aged man was stunned, not having expected someone to show such an indifferent attitude even after knowing that his son had died.
[Could it be… that the Young Palace Master wasn’t really his son?] The middle-aged man couldn’t help wondering.
“Since Yuan Cheng is dead, let Yuan Shu be the Young Palace Master, see to it yourselves and stop disturbing this old master,” ordered Ning Bo Yang.
The middle-aged man didn’t dare to be neglectful and hurriedly nodded, “Yes, I will obey Palace Master’s orders.”
“However… Yuan Cheng might have been a fool, but he was still my son, the Young Palace Master of the Flying Saint Palace! Someone daring to defecate on my Flying Saint Palace’s head is utterly unacceptable. Find out who is responsible and bring me his head!”
“Yes!” The middle-aged bowed respectfully.
“You may go,” Ning Bo Yang waved.
The middle-aged man immediately backed away without saying another word.
…
In Star Soul Palace, the true overlord of the Star Boundary’s Southern Territory, a similar scene was taking place.
In a secret room, a short old man was listening to the report from a beautiful woman in front of him, and after listening to it, he furrowed his brow and asked, “Did that little bastard’s life crystal really shatter?”
“Reporting to Honoured Master, Junior Brother Han’s life crystal has indeed broken,” the beautiful woman respectfully replied.
“That evil boy was as slippery as a loach, even evading this old master’s personal pursuit, so how did he die?” The old man let out a cold snort, “Waste!”
“Honoured Master, please restrain your anger, Junior Brother Han is already dead, and no matter who killed him, it can be regarded as cleaning house on behalf of Honored Master,” the beautiful woman comforted.
“Cleaning house?” The old man let out a cold snort and snapped, “This old master does not need anyone to intervene in his affairs!”
“Disciple has made a mistake, please forgive me, Honoured Master!” The beautiful woman’s face turned pale as she heard this shout.
“Go and investigate who did it, and… while this old master cares nothing for his other possessions, your Junior Brother Han had a token on him, make sure you retrieve it and bring it back to me!” The old man commanded.
“A token?” The beautiful woman was stunned, asking curiously, “May I ask Honoured Master what kind of token it is?”
The old man calmly glanced at her and said, “If you really see it, you will know what it is, explaining anymore is useless!”
“Yes, Disciple will deal with this as quickly as possible. Honoured Master need only wait for good news.” The beautiful woman hurriedly left the secret room, not daring to ask anymore.
After the beautiful woman left, an uncertain and pondering look appeared on the short old man’s face before he suddenly cursed, “Little bastard, you’re lucky that you didn’t die at this old master’s hand!”
…..
“So, after you exited the starlight passage, you fell into the Black Blood Swamp?” Yang Kai asked while making a beeline toward Maplewood City.
The Black Blood Swamp was not too far from Maplewood City, just a hundred thousand kilometres or so away, so Yang Kai had naturally heard of it before.
“En,” Liu Yan’s voice sounded in his head, “I also know that my existence can easily arouse others’ greed, so I’ve been hiding there and didn’t dare to show myself easily.”
“What happened next?” Yang Kai asked.
“Later, I fought with many Monster Beasts in the swamp. Some wanted to devour me, but I managed to escape each time, though at one point, when I was fighting with a certain Monster Beast, I was discovered by a passing master. That man had a Second-Order Dao Source Realm cultivation and not only easily killed the Monster Beast I was fighting, but also captured me. He then sealed me in that bowl.” Liu Yan still seemed to be a little shaken as she recalled her recent encounters, “Fortunately, that man’s Secret Art was Water Attributed, the opposite of my essence, so he brought me to an auction being held in Maplewood City instead of keeping me for himself.”
“It sounds like all sorts of chances and coincidences lead you here,” Yang Kai smiled.
Indeed many chances and coincidences played a part in helping him meet with Liu Yan again. If he didn’t come to Maplewood City after escaping from the Blue Feather Sect, he would have definitely missed Liu Yan.
And once someone like Liu Yan was captured, she would not necessarily survive for long. She would definitely be integrated into an artifact or swallowed and absorbed by a cultivator to enhance their own strength.
“In any case, it’s a blessing to be reunited with Master now. By the way, Master, what about Xiao Xiao?” Liu Yan suddenly asked. She and Xiao Xiao were both Yang Kai’s helpers, his left and right arms so to speak. She had spent many years together with Xiao Xiao, so she was quite attached to him and cared about his situation.
Yang Kai wore a sad look as he shook his head, “There’s still no news.”
“I hope he is safe and sound,” Liu Yan’s tone also fell.
In their native Star Field, they were nearly invincible existences, but after coming to the Star Realm, Liu Yan discovered that there were many powerful people here who she could not currently hope to match, and since even she had been captured by others, it was obvious Xiao Xiao may also be in danger.
When Yang Kai returned to Maplewood City, the sky was already dark.
He walked into the city with ease and went straight to his secluded home.
He opened the secluded home barrier and walked right in.
Before he could take two steps though, he heard a cheerful voice call out, “Sir, you’re back!”
Yang Kai couldn’t help but freeze in shock for a moment, but after turning to see who it was, he finally remembered that another person was living here now: The little girl from the Zhang Family, Zhang Ruo Xi!
Yang Kai had spent most of his life travelling alone, so now that someone was suddenly accompanying him, he was having a hard time adapting. Furthermore, he had been busy with Liu Yan these few days, so he had almost forgotten about Zhang Ruo Xi.
After regaining his wits, Yang Kai gently nodded to her.
“Sir has been working hard these days,” Zhang Ruo Xi lowered her head and said in a low voice.
Her voice was so small that, had the secluded home not been extremely quiet, Yang Kai might not have heard her.
Yang Kai took a careful look at her and discovered that she looked a little nervous, her two hands pinching her clothes as she fidgeted slightly.
“Master, who is this little girl? She seems to be afraid of you,” Liu Yan’s voice rang in Yang Kai’s head as she continued in a teasing tone, “Her strength doesn’t seem too high… Master wouldn’t happen to have kidnapped her, would you? But… en, this little girl is pretty good, she has quite a nice figure for her age, tsk tsk…”
Before Liu Yan could continue any further, Yang Kai directly threw her into the Sealed World Bead and cut off contact with her.
Inside the Small Sealed World, Liu Yan stood stunned for a moment before snorting, “A guilty conscience makes a man become a coward!”
After having said this, she searched for the location of the Sun’s True Essence before transforming into her Firebird form and flying over to it, preparing to absorb more of its Sun’s True Fire to strengthen herself.
Inside the secluded home, Yang Kai looked at Zhang Ruo Xi nervously fidgetting and asked, “Have you been waiting here?”
Had she not been waiting here, it would have been impossible for her to appear the moment he entered the secluded home.
“No! Ruo Xi just happened to be walking nearby,” Zhang Ruo Xi replied, lowering her head.
Obviously, Yang Kai didn’t believe her, but looking around and seeing that the secluded home had been cleaned up spotlessly, he couldn’t help smiling and saying, “Sit down, I have something to tell you.”
Zhang Ruo Xi hurriedly waved her hands and respectfully rejected, “No need Sir, Ruo Xi will continue standing.”
Yang Kai heaved a sigh, reached out, and pulled her stiff body over to a chair before pushing her into it, making her sit, and only then walking around the table to sit on the opposite side.
After sorting out his thoughts, Yang Kai spoke, “Ruo Xi… I can call you Ruo Xi, right?”
Zhang Ruo Xi slowly nodded her head without speaking a word.
Yang Kai smiled and tried to speak in as gentle a tone as possible, “If you don’t want to speak, that’s fine. It’s like this, I brought you out of the Zhang Family not to make you repay me, nor because I want you to serve me. The connection between the Zhang Family and myself was all because of the agreement I made with your great grandfather, Zhang Gao Xuan. So, now that that agreement has been fulfilled, neither the Zhang Family nor I owe each other anything.”
“Ruo Xi will always remember the great benevolence Sir has shown to the Zhang Family and will surely repay Sir in this life!” Zhang Ruo Xi stated in a soft voice, but firm, unyielding tone.
Yang Kai nodded and said, “If that is what you wish. En, now I want to tell you the reason I brought you out from the Zhang Family is that I might need your help with something in the future.”
Zhang Ruo Xi still had her head lowered as she stated, “Ruo Xi will surely work hard to fulfil Sir’s orders and expectations. Since Sir has brought me out of the Zhang Family, I am no longer a member of the Zhang Family, so whatever Sir needs of me, I will do it, as long as it makes Sir happy.”
Yang Kai rubbed his forehead, feeling like he was talking to a brick wall, making him extremely helpless. In the end, he could only say, “I don’t know how else to explain this to you. In any case, you don’t need to address me as Sir, nor do you need to think of yourself as a servant or maid. I’m not much older than you, so just call me Big Brother Yang from now on.”
“How could that be acceptable!” Zhan Ruo Xi raised her head and waved her hands frantically. When she found that Yang Kai was looking at her though, she quickly lowered her head and said, “That is absolutely impossible, Ruo Xi cannot be so rude to Sir!”
“You blockhead…” Yang Kai was exasperated.
Zhang Ruo Xi appeared to be in a state of nervous panic, thinking that Yang Kai was angry with her, so she quickly got up in order to kneel down.
Yang Kai saw her intent and swiftly reached out to make her sit back down.
“Forget it, I won’t pester you about these things; however, now that you will be staying by my side and I will be in need of your help in the future, I will not treat you badly. First, take this.” Saying so, Yang Kai took out a jade bottle from his Space Ring, opened it, and took out a single pill with Pill Veins.
“What’s this?” Zhang Ruo Xi curiously gazed at the pill.
“Poison! Do you dare to take it?” Yang Kai said in a serious manner. Once he spoke those words though, he realized he had suddenly reverted to some bad habits he’d picked up over the years and felt somewhat disgusted with himself.
Zhang Ruo Xi, on the other hand, just stated with a smile on her face, “Sir is lying to me.”
Yang Kai looked a little embarrassed but didn’t try to justify himself, instead just saying, “Take this thing and go find yourself a room to cultivate in. I’m going out for a few days, so just stay here obediently and don’t go running around.”
“Is Sir going out again?” Zhang Ruo raised her head, looking at Yang Kai as she pursed her lips and asked, “Should Rou Xi accompany you?”
“No need, just take care of yourself,” Yang Kai got up and smiled before heading straight to the room he usually cultivated in.
After Yang Kai left, Zhang Ruo Xi checked the pill again, but even after examining it for a while, she was still unable to find anything special about it. Bringing it close, she sniffed it lightly, only to have her nose filled with a rich fragrance that caused her beautiful eyes to brighten. Heaven knows what crossed her mind at that moment, but after her face turned slightly red, she popped the pill into her mouth and swallowed.
Just as the pill entered her stomach, it immediately melted into a stream of heat that rushed out towards every nook and corner of her body.
Zhang Ruo Xi’s expression changed when she felt this and, not daring to act careless, she hurriedly rushed toward the smallest bedroom in the secluded home, sat down cross-legged, and started circulating her Secret Art.
Naturally, the pill she had taken was the Marrow Washing Pill that Yang Kai had spent several hundred thousand Source Crystals to buy. With the help of this pill, Zhang Ruo Xi’s aptitude would fully blossom and the time she required to cultivate to the Origin King Realm would be greatly reduced.
She was quite young, but she still had some worldly knowledge, so she understood that a pill with Pill Veins was unimaginably valuable. Perhaps the Zhang Family couldn’t even buy such a pill if they sold out all of its assets.
Naturally, she was very grateful for Yang Kai’s generosity.
Inside Yang Kai’s room, after he confirmed that Zhang Ruo Xi had taken the Marrow Washing Pill and entered a meditative state, he activated all the barriers in his room to seal it off.
Next, he took out nearly ten Space Rings and began to sort out his harvest.
After half an hour, Yang Kai happily looked at the haul lying in front of him.
From these ten Space Rings, he had acquired over 8 million Source Crystals alone, almost 6 million of which had belonged to Han Leng.
After giving it a thought, Yang Kai didn’t find this surprising. At the auction, Han Leng had bid about 6 million when he was competing with Ning Yuan Cheng for Liu Yan, so him not having this many Source Crystals would have been more surprising.
Yang Kai was simply ecstatic after obtaining so many Source Crystals.
He had toiled so hard yet he could only gather a million Source Crystals over the past few months, and during the auction, he had spent a couple hundred thousand to buy that Washing Marrow Pill. Now though, he actually had over 8 million.
By the looks of it, Yang Kai wouldn’t need to worry about Source Crystals for a long time.
Naturally, there were many pills as well, but these pills were of no use to Yang Kai. As an Alchemist, he didn’t even put these low-grade pills in his eyes. At best, they could be sold for some Source Crystals.
There were many artifacts as well. Besides the flying ship that was lying in his Sealed World Bead, Yang Kai had harvested three other Dao Source Grade artifacts.
One of them was the long sword that Han Leng had used before, and even though it was just Dao Source Grade Low-Rank, it still satisfied Yang Kai greatly.
The other one was an Artifact Armour that Ning Yuan Cheng possessed, refined from some material Yang Kai couldn’t identify. This was similarly a Dao Source Grade Low-Rank artifact, but because it was a defensive artifact, its value was naturally much higher than the long sword.
The third and final artifact was, naturally, the Black Jade Furnace which had just been bought by Han Leng at the auction, a genuine Dao Source Grade Mid-Rank Alchemy Furnace. It had many interesting functions and Han Leng had spent a huge sum to win it, but it had now landed in Yang Kai’s hands basically for free.
Besides these three Dao Source Grade artifacts, there was also an assortment of Origin King Grade artifacts.
Finally, there were some materials such as herbs for Alchemy and ores for Artifact Refining that Yang Kai neatly sorted.
What caught Yang Kai’s attention the most out of everything though was a small token.
[If I remember it correctly, this should have come from Han Leng’s Space Ring.]
The token wasn’t very big, only about the size of a palm, and seemed to be made of some kind of golden metal. Engraved on the front side of this token was a distinct and lifelike True Dragon while on its back was the ancient character for ‘Dragon’, engraved in majestic and imposing calligraphy.
Yang Kai released his Divine Sense and also used his Qi power to carefully inspect this token, but soon realized he couldn’t distinguish what material it was refined from. Searching through the information he possessed, he also couldn’t recall anything about such a token.
However, since it was kept inside the Space Ring of a master like Han Leng, the origin of this token was probably quite extraordinary.
Yang Kai decisively threw it into the Sealed World Bead and decided to study it slowly in the future.
After storing away the pills and artifacts, Yang Kai released his Divine Sense to check up on Zhang Ruo Xi who was using the Marrow Washing Pill to improve her physique. After confirming that everything was proceeding smoothly, he slowly stood up.
After half a day, in the black market of Maplewood City, Yang Kai managed to clean out his inventory.
The black market of Maplewood City was never short of items of less than reputable origin, and buyers here never asked any questions, so although he needed to sell them cheaper than he would in official stores, Yang Kai also didn’t need to worry about security or secrecy.
Yang Kai also didn’t sell everything in just one store, but went around to several different locations to launder his goods.
During the entire process, he had disguised himself and used his Divine Sense to shield his appearance, so presumably, with the level of cultivators in Maplewood City, no one was able to see his true appearance.
After Yang Kai returned from the black market, the number of Source Crystals in his hand had already crossed the ten million mark, making him suddenly feel like a rich man.
Two days later, when Yang Kai was refining the Dao Source Grade artifacts that he just got his hands on in the secluded home, his expression suddenly changed. Taking out a communication artifact from his Space Ring, he poured his Divine Sense into it and immediately after, a smile appeared on his face and he hurriedly stood up.
Soon after, he left the secluded home and headed straight towards the city gates.
After half an hour, Yang Kai descended into a small forest about 30,000 kilometres away from Maplewood City.
Before he could look around, a familiar figure appeared in front of him and said with a grin while cupping his fist, “Brother Yang, you’ve come quite fast!”
“Sorry to keep you waiting, Brother Kang,” Yang Kai smiled back at the opposite party and cupped his fist in courtesy.
The person in front of him was naturally Kang Si Ran. After Yang Kai had received his message, he immediately understood that everything was prepared; however, the two didn’t set off from Maplewood City together and instead moved separately and converged here.
Kang Si Ran was also a cautious person, which suited Yang Kai’s taste.
“It’s alright, I also just arrived here. Brother Yang, you came before I could even catch my breath,” Kang Si Ran said with a smile. “Since Brother Yang is here, let’s set off immediately.”
Saying so, he opened his mouth and spat out a long shuttle-like artifact, one that rapidly grew to more than ten metres long.
Kang Si Ran formed a few seals before sending a stream of Source Qi into the shuttle, opening a hatch in its side.
When Yang Kai saw this, he immediately understood that this was a flight-type artifact. Stepping inside together with Kang Si Ran, the pair soon shot off into the distance.
“Sorry Brother Yang, my flight-type artifact is only of Origin King Grade Mid-Rank and not very fast; however, travelling this way can still save us some effort,” Kang Si Ran said while piloting his shuttle.
Yang Kai nodded and said, “It’s more than enough, but I wonder how long it will take to reach our destination?”
“About three days or so,” Kang Si Ran answered. “Which is just right for me to discuss the situation there with Brother Yang.”
Yang Kai nodded, “I was just about to ask about this.”
Over the next three days, the two remained inside the artifact, chatting, and after Kang Si Ran gave Yang Kai the run down of the situation, Yang Kai finally came to know the location of the Wondrous Pill Great Emperor’s Third Disciple, Gong Sun Mu’s hidden cave mansion: A place called Yuan Furnace Mountain.
From a distance, this mountain looked like a giant furnace, hence its name.
Yuan Furnace Mountain was situated inside Raging Fire Temple’s range of influence. In his early days, Kang Si Ran had quietly gone to explore this mountain by himself, but unfortunately, he wasn’t strong enough at the time to penetrate very far and could only break through the cave mansion’s outer barriers. In the end, he had to leave in low spirits, completely opposite to how happily he had arrived.
By his calculations, even if Gong Sun Mu’s cave mansion barriers had degraded over the years, it could not be broken by an ordinary Origin King. It would take at least a Dao Source Realm master to crack it.
Therefore, he had no choice but to invite Yang Kai with him, otherwise he would be powerless to do anything due to his current limited strength.
The reason why he invited Yang Kai was that Gong Sun Mu was proficient in the Alchemic Dao, and his hidden cave mansion would naturally be quite attractive to Yang Kai. He wasn’t worried that Yang Kai would reject this offer, and after having been in contact with Yang Kai for a few months, Kang Si Ran felt he was trustworthy.
Otherwise, how could Kang Si Ran rashly invite others to collaborate for such a big matter?
Even friends and relatives would stab each other in the back before such huge benefits.
“Brother Kang, since Yuan Furnace Mountain is inside Raging Fire Temple’s sphere of influence, we must be careful when we arrive there, lest we be discovered by Raging Fire Temple’s disciples,” Yang Kai couldn’t help but furrow his brow after listening to this point.
Although his stay in Maplewood City wasn’t long, he still knew a bit about Raging Fire Temple.
Originally, among the great forces in the vicinity of Maplewood City, only Raging Fire Temple could compete with the City Lord’s Mansion because the strongest master in Maplewood City, City Lord Duan Yuan Shan, and Temple Master Luo of Raging Fire Temple, both had Second-Order Dao Source Realm cultivations.
However, Temple Master Luo was burned to death by the Ancient Divine Spirit Luan Feng’s World Extinguishing Black Flame at Clear Jade Mountain.
As such, today’s Raging Fire Temple was greatly weakened.
“Brother Yang, you don’t need to worry about that,” Kang Si Ran smiled. “I asked a friend to inquire about it before coming here and Raging Fire Temple is currently mired in internal conflicts, so how could they care about us?”
“Why do you say that?” Yang Kai was stunned.
Kang Si Ran explained, “Brother Yang, you should have heard that the original Temple Master Luo of Raging Fire Temple fell at Clear Jade Mountain, right?”
Yang Kai nodded, thinking that he hadn’t just heard about it, but seen it with his own eyes. If at that time he had not hidden in the Sealed World Bead, he would have been buried along with Temple Master Luo as well.
“After Temple Master Luo’s fall, Raging Fire Temple became like a handful of loose sand. The two Vice Temple Masters are now busy fighting with each other for power.”
“Is this news reliable?” Yang Kai furrowed his brow.
“Of course it’s reliable,” Kang Si Ran slightly smiled. “Not to mention that they are fighting to seize power, Yuan Furnace Mountain is located at the outer edge of Raging Fire Temple’s territory. When I explored it in my early years, I didn’t even see a shadow of a Raging Fire Temple’s disciple, so Brother Yang does not need to worry too much about this. As long as we don’t act too overtly, we should not need to worry about being detected.”
“That’s good to hear.” Yang Kai nodded with satisfaction.
Afterwards, the two didn’t talk much about this and just casually chatted.
Both of them were Third-Order Origin Kings and were preparing to attack the bottleneck of the Dao Source Realm, so they had many common topics to discuss. Along the way, they exchanged their cultivation experiences and comprehensions of the Dao Source Realm and Principle Strength, causing time to pass by quickly.
During this period, the two of them alternately piloted the shuttle so that both could restore their strength while not losing time.
After three days, a furnace-shaped mountain caught the eyes of the duo.
“That’s Yuan Furnace Mountain?” Yang Kai asked, raising his head.
“En,” Kang Si Ran looked at it with a burning-hot gaze, as if he was deeply yearning for the mountain ahead.
He had failed to obtain the Dao Source Fruit in the Five Colored Treasure Pagoda and failed to win it at the auction due to insufficient wealth, so now, all his hopes of advancing to the Dao Source Realm laid on Gong Sun Mu’s cave mansion. Naturally, he very much hoped that a Dao Source Pill was stored somewhere in this secluded home.
Suddenly, Kang Si Ran frowned as he focused his gaze ahead.
At the same time, Yang Kai doubtfully asked, “Something’s not right, Shopkeeper Kang. Things here seem quite lively compared to what you had expected.”
With Yang Kai’s eyesight, he could easily spot the figures of many people moving around even if he was a few hundred kilometres away. From time to time, one or two streaks of light would fly off or land, making for a rather active scene.
Kang Si Ran’s face couldn’t help but turn ashen as he stood suddenly.
At that moment, a streak of light flew straight towards them from up ahead.
Kang Si Ran’s face changed as he hurriedly controlled his flight artifact to stop.
Soon after, the streak of light arrived in front of the shuttle and dissipated, revealing a man who seemed to be in his thirties and had a cultivation at the Second-Order Origin King Realm. On this man’s robes was a flame-shaped emblem over his chest which was quite eye-catching.
“A Raging Fire Temple disciple!” Kang Si Ran was shocked as he turned to Yang Kai.
Yang Kai slowly shook his head, indicating for him to remain calm and not make any rash moves.
At this moment, the Raging Fire Temple disciple in front shouted, “This place is the domain of my Raging Fire Temple. Friends inside this shuttle, please show yourselves.”
Kang Si Ran frowned, pondered for a moment, then signalled to Yang Kai before exiting the shuttle.
The opposite Raging Fire Temple’s disciple scanned the pair with his Divine Sense and found that both Kang Si Ran and Yang Kai’s cultivations were higher than his own by a Minor Realm, but despite this, he didn’t panic and simply cupped fists and said, “May I ask these two friends if you’ve come here to explore Yuan Furnace Mountain?”
Kang Si Ran’s heart clenched at that moment as he almost believed that his secret operation had been exposed, for a moment he didn’t know how to answer.
Fortunately, Yang Kai immediately took over the conversation and said, “Indeed.”
“Since you have come for the matter regarding Yuan Furnace Mountain, please follow me.” The Raging Fire Temple disciple didn’t look surprised after hearing this and, contrary to expectations, didn’t try to expel them and instead for them to follow him back to Yuan Furnace Mountain.
Kang Si Ran and Yang Kai looked at each other with clear confusion.
However, now that things had come to this, they could only take one step at a time.
Afterwards, Kang Si Ran put away his shuttle artifact and closely followed the Raging Fire Temple disciple with Yang Kai, flying towards Yuan Furnace Mountain.
A short distance of three hundred kilometres was covered in a short time.
Before the trio landed on the ground, a reverberating rumble was heard coming from Yuan Furnace Mountain as if a muffled clap of thunder was echoing inside the mountain.
Kang Si Ran and Yang Kai’s expressions both changed as they subconsciously protected themselves with the Qi.
The Raging Fire Temple disciple who was leading the way, however, didn’t seem the least bit disturbed, not stopping his pace as he simply looked up with interest.
Yang Kai followed this man’s gaze.
The muffled claps of thunder continued echoing from bottom to top, as if something was about to rush out of Yuan Furnace Mountain.
After a moment, a deafening explosion was accompanied by the thunderclap.
Immediately after, a five coloured glow erupted from the peak of the mountain! This glow spread outward into the surroundings in ripples before it slowly dissipated.
At the same time, Yang Kai couldn’t help but take a deep breath, as a look of surprise soon appeared on his face.
“Such a pleasant fragrance! What is it?” Kang Si Ran looked confused as he too took a deep breath. At this moment, the air was filled with a strange fragrance that made one feel calm and refreshed.
His words were naturally heard by the Raging Fire Temple disciple who was leading the way, causing him to look back at Kang Si Ran and ask, “Didn’t you two come here because you were attracted by this phenomena?”
Yang Kai shifted his eyes slightly but quickly replied, “That’s right, but we didn’t know what this was so we simply decided to come and take a closer look.”
“Heh heh, I also have no idea what exactly is causing this phenomena, I only heard from Temple Master Zong and Temple Master Lian that some kind of wondrous treasure is about to be born.”
“Temple Master Zong and Temple Master Lian?” Yang Kai couldn’t help feeling confused after hearing this.
“They used to be the two Vice Palace Masters of Raging Fire Temple, Zong Qing and Lian Yu Ming,” the nearby Kang Si Ran explained in a low voice.
Yang Kai nodded in understanding as he gazed over quickly towards two Dao Source Realm masters standing not too far away, thinking that these two should be Zong Qing and Lian Yu Ming.
The two Vice Temple Masters of Raging Fire Temple were First-Order Dao Source Realm cultivators and had similar strength. Both of them wore the same Raging Fire Temple robes as well, so Yang Kai was fairly certain of his guess.
Yang Kai suddenly recalled Zong Zi Jin, a youth he met at the Soaring Dragon Altar when he was exploring the Five Colored Treasure Pagoda. Zong Zi Jin had a Third-Order Origin King cultivator and was from Raging Fire Temple, so by the looks of it, Zhong Zi Jin was very likely related to Zong Qing, possibly even the latter’s son.
After a while, the strange phenomenon faded and along with it, the wonderful fragrance as well.
The Raging Fire Temple disciple leading Yang Kai and Kang Si Ran beckoned to the two to land nearby. Once on the ground, this disciple cupped his fist to the two Dao Source Realm masters and stated, “Reporting to the two Temple Masters, these two were also attracted by the Yuan Furnace Mountain’s phenomenon.”
Having heard his report, the taller one of the two Dao Source Realm masters nodded lightly before sweeping Yang Kai and Kang Si Ran with his Divine Sense and said in an indifferent tone, “Since they’ve come here, arrange a place for them to wait with the others.”
“Yes,” the Raging Fire Temple disciple acknowledged before guiding Yang Kai and Kang Si Ran to a certain spot to the side and saying. “You two, wait over there, when we need you, we’ll notify you.”
“Wait a moment,” Yang Kai hurriedly stopped him.
“What?” The Raging Fire Temple disciple seemed rather impatient.
Yang Kai smiled and leaned forward and quietly started stuffing a few Source Crystals into his sleeve while whispering, “Friend, I want to ask you about the current situation. If it’s convenient, can you explain a bit to me?”
The Raging Fire Temple disciple felt the number of Source Crystals being stuffed into his sleeve and smiled with satisfaction, “What else could this be? To be honest, even I have no idea what’s going inside Yuan Furnace Mountain, all I know is that the cave mansion of some fallen master has appeared. If it weren’t for this phenomenon, I’m afraid no one would have noticed it. After these strange eruptions began, our two Temple Masters rushed over along with many elite disciples from the temple to explore this cave mansion.”
“A fallen master’s cave mansion?” Yang Kai pretended to be extremely surprised, his eyes widening as he asked, “Since you’ve discovered such a cave mansion, why hasn’t your Raging Fire Temple tried to explore it alone? Why are they not only allowing outside cultivators to come, but are even welcoming us to stay?”
Upon hearing this, the Raging Fire Temple disciple looked left and right before whispering quietly, “If we could explore it alone, why would we allow others to interfere? The two Temple Masters have already tried, but they couldn’t break open the cave mansion’s protective barriers with just their own strength. The barrier of the cave mansion seems to have been arranged by an Emperor Realm Master and still remains very strong despite years of neglect. Even with all of our Raging Fire Temple’s elites working together, we cannot break that barrier, so we can only depend on external forces.”
After hearing this, Yang Kai showed a look of understanding and nodded, “So that’s how it is.”
To the side, Kang Si Ran furrowed his brow. Obviously, he was also surprised by this development; after all, he had come to quietly explore this cave mansion many years prior and, although he felt that the barrier was strong, it should have still been manageable for a Dao Source Realm master, but he also knew that now was not the time to ask questions.
“From what you say, it seems that your noble Temple intends to break open the barrier with the help of outsiders like us?” A pondering Yang Kai asked.
“Indeed. There is strength in numbers.”
Yang Kai grinned meaningfully, “Obtaining help from outsiders is one thing, but how will the treasures inside be distributed if we manage to break the barrier?”
The Raging Fire Temple disciple shook his head and said, “I have no idea about that, that’s something for the Temple Masters to worry about. That’s all I know. Friends, please remain here.”
Having said this, the disciple left without giving Yang Kai a chance to ask anything more.
After he left, Yang Kai finally glanced at Kang Si Ran and the two tacitly made their way to a more remote spot before both their expressions grew ugly.
“Who would have thought that things would turn out like this?” Kang Si Ran tightly frowned, “If I knew this would have happened, I would have proposed coming sooner to investigate. Haa… now that this phenomenon is so visible, I’m afraid that everyone in the vicinity will come rushing over.”
“It wouldn’t matter if we came earlier or later. Since even two Dao Source Realm masters couldn’t break in, I’m afraid that just the two of us would have been helpless. This situation might be disadvantageous, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have an edge.”
“Brother Yang, why do you say this?” Kang Si Ran looked at him curiously.
Yang Kai grinned and said, “Shopkeeper Kang has something that no one else has, this is our advantage.”
After hearing this, Kang Si Ran pondered for a moment before nodding and agreeing, “Good! What I have is still quite valuable.”
What they were referring to was naturally the map of the cave mansion. In the past, what the descendant of Gong Sun Mu’s servant gave Kang Si Ran was not just the specific location of the cave mansion but also a map of its interior.
With this thing in hand, no matter how many people went in, Yang Kai and Kang Si Ran weren’t afraid of losing the initiative.
Furthermore, according to the information Yang Kai got after inquiring, Raging Fire Temple only knew that there was a cave mansion inside Yuan Furnace Mountain, as for whose cave mansion it was or what was inside it, they had no idea.
In light of this, Kang Si Ran finally calmed down, exchanging a knowing glance with Yang Kai before both of them closed their eyes and sat down cross-legged, entering a calm, meditative state.
Over time, more and more cultivators were attracted to Yuan Furnace Mountain by the strange phenomenon; however, the strengths of these cultivators were mixed, with many of them being just Origin Returning Realm and a dozen or so Origin Kings mixed in.
With the addition of the cultivators that had gathered before, the number of people at the base of Yuan Furnace Mountain had already crossed seventy.
After two days, the two Dao Source Realm masters of Raging Fire Temple looked at each other before Zong Qing gently nodded and said, “I think that we have the right amount of people. Let’s start!”
Lian Yu Ming also nodded in agreement and said, “An undue delay might bring about trouble.”
Just as he said this, the two stood up at the same time.
As soon as the two of them made a move, the cultivators gathered here opened their eyes and looked towards them one after another.
Zong Qing looked at everyone before speaking, “Friends who have been attracted here by this strange incident, I thank you for remaining patient for so long. This one is Raging Fire Temple’s Vice Palace Master, Zong Qing. Many of you might recognize me.”
“We have indeed heard of Vice Temple Master Zong; however, Vice Temple Master Zong, may I ask why have you gathered us here and what exactly is inside Yuan Furnace Mountain that is causing all this commotion?” an impatient cultivator immediately inquired.
Hearing this, Zong Qing slightly smiled and said, “Friend has asked an excellent question. This Zong was just about to explain to everyone. As for what exactly is inside Yuan Furnace Mountain, truthfully, this Zong does not know. All that is known is that there is an abandoned cave mansion here. Furthermore, it seems to be a cave mansion of an Emperor Realm master!”
“An Emperor’s cave mansion?”
“There was actually something like that inside Yuan Furnace Mountain!?”
“This place is completely desolate, I’ve even passed by it many times in the past! Why didn’t I think of exploring it before? Haa… what a loss!”
In an instant, everyone broke into a clamour, with some showing extreme frustration while others were filled with excitement.
Zong Qing continued with a smile, “My Raging Fire Temple attempted to explore this cave mansion already and broke through the first two barriers protecting it, but we were unable to break the last barrier and were thus unable to enter. Because of this, we can only depend on all the friends gathered here now. As long as all of you are willing to cooperate with my Raging Fire Temple, the last barrier will surely be broken and everyone will be able to explore the cave mansion before us!”
“So, the first barrier has already been broken,” Kang Si Ran muttered under his breath. He had been sceptical as to why Raging Fire Temple hadn’t broken the barrier even with two Dao Source Realm masters at its disposal, but now it seemed that there was more than one barrier to be broken, and the last one was particularly strong.
Finally, everything made sense to him. Kang Si Ran’s previous information wasn’t wrong, but because his strength was lacking, he simply didn’t know about the additional barriers protecting the cave mansion.
If it weren’t for the appearance of this strange phenomenon, with just his and Yang Kai’s strength, they might have been able to break the first two barriers, but would have been stopped by the third.
In light of these facts, Kang Si Ran finally found a little comfort.
“Everyone must be wondering what is stored inside this Emperor Realm master’s cave mansion, and judging by this phenomenon, this Zong can guarantee that there is definitely an extraordinary treasure inside, most likely some kind of extremely precious herb that is about to mature!”
The phenomenon, a five coloured brilliance that was accompanied by an attractive, refreshing fragrance, was quite obviously not something an artifact would produce. Only when a rare and miraculous spirit grass or medicine was about to mature would such a phenomenon occur.
“Temple Master Zong, I would like to know: If the barrier does break, how will the things inside be distributed? This is your Raging Fire Temple’s territory, so if you wish to monopolize everything inside this cave mansion, we will not be able to fight back,” suddenly, a sharp voice rose from the crowd, drifting from place to place, making it hard to figure out just who had spoken.
Once this topic was brought to light, everyone immediately calmed down as well and turned their gazes towards Zong Qing. Obviously, everyone was very concerned about this.
Zong Qing, on the other hand, wasn’t the slightest bit angered by this question and just smiled as he announced, “This Zong can understand your worries, but this Zong can also guarantee that if friends cooperate here to break this barrier, any treasure inside will belong to the one who finds it. This Zong and Brother Lian would absolutely not attack you.”
Lian Yu Ming, who was standing beside him and had been silent all the while, nodded at this moment.
“Vice Temple Master Zong, words alone are no proof, how are we supposed to believe you? Even if Vice Temple Master Lian and you really attacked us, could we still resist?” the sharp voice rose again.
Zong Qing lightly smiled as he swept his gaze across the crowd, soon locking onto a thin man trying to look inconspicuous and declared, “If friend is unwilling to believe Brother Lian and this Zong, you can always leave. We are not forcing you to remain.”
In the crowd, the face of the thin man, who was being stared at by Zong Qing, turned ugly.
However, despite his whereabouts being exposed, he stood his ground and simply cupped his fists, “Vice Temple Master Zong, please forgive me, it was just a slip of the tongue. Since the two Temple Masters have given their word, naturally I will believe you.”
In this situation, there really was no other choice. Zong Qing had already explained everything and given his word, and there was no way for the rest of the crowd to force him to swear an oath, not that they would believe that either, even if he did. More importantly, if they wanted to enter the cave mansion, they only had one choice, so agreeing to Zong Qing’s terms was inevitable.
The thin man had promptly judged the situation and hurriedly compromised.
Upon hearing him say so, Zong Qing smiled with satisfaction and nodded, “If any friend here has any doubts about this arrangement, speak now. This Zong will address your concerns one by one.”
Everyone remained silent.
Zong Qing nodded with satisfaction, “Good, it seems that everyone is ready to proceed. In that case, we should not delay. Before we move out though, let me forewarn you, if anyone dares to hide their strength while trying to fish in troubled waters, when we break this barrier, don’t blame this Zong for being ruthless.”
Everyone didn’t even dare to breathe loudly.
At this time, Lian Yu Ming, who had been standing next to Zong Qing all the while, spoke, “Now this old master will explain to you the characteristics of the barrier, so we can properly cooperate; be sure to listen carefully. This cave mansion was definitely left behind by an Emperor Realm master. The barriers outside it are divided into three layers. The first and second barriers aren’t difficult to break and my Raging Fire Temple is already quite familiar with the process. The real difficulty is the third barrier which requires a great deal of strength to break. If the amount of strength used is insufficient, it will not break, and if it remains unbroken for long enough, it and the other two barriers will quickly repair themselves. My Raging Fire Temple has been stuck at this third barrier for some time now. In the following action, my Raging Fire Temple’s disciples will break the repaired first and second barriers, while our external friends, Brother Zong, and I will jointly break the third. Does anyone have any objections?”
“We naturally don’t have any objection; however, Vice Temple Master Lian, what method will we be using to break the barrier? Is it enough for everyone to just attack it?” Someone among the crowd asked, raising the issue everyone cared about.
Lian Yu Ming nodded his acknowledgement when he heard this and said, “The barrier has a reflective property, so attacking it will only result in backlash, as such, scattered attacks will not work. Instead, we will be using a special artifact in this old master’s possession.”
Saying so, he summoned a dagger roughly two fingers long into his palm. The dagger was jet-black and its edge had a strange gleam to it. Just from one glance, it was quite apparent that it was a high-quality artifact.
“A Dao Source Grade artifact?” Someone cried out in shock as looks of admiration appeared on the faces of the crowd.
All the cultivators here were basically in the Origin Returning Realm or Origin King Realm, and most had never even seen a Dao Source Grade artifact before, so when they saw this dagger, they were naturally surprised.
“Good, this old master’s dagger isn’t just an ordinary Dao Source Grade artifact, but a Mid-Rank one that possesses a special ability. The greater the amount of energy infused into it, the more damage it can do. Even when this old master pours his full strength into this dagger, he is unable to bring out its full strength. Later, after Brother Zong and I, and everyone else will pour their Qi into this dagger. Once this dagger is saturated, leave the rest to this old master,” Lian Yu Ming said with a complacent yet smug look on his face as if he was very satisfied with his artifact.
“Vice Temple Master Lian has such a peculiar artifact! With it, it won’t be a problem to break the barrier then,” a cultivator in the crowd cheered.
“If there is a problem, it will be because individuals in the crowd held back their strength,” Lian Yu Ming put away the dagger with a flip of his wrist before shouting loudly, “If there are no other questions, we will take a quarter-hour break before executing the plan!”
After saying this, he closed his eyes to adjust his breathing.
Seeing this, everyone hurriedly sat down cross-legged to restore themselves to their peak state.
Zong Qing, on the other hand, didn’t close his eyes and instead began issuing instructions to the Raging Fire Temple disciples, making no attempt to hide his voice.
Seeing Zong Qing tell the Raging Fire Temple disciples the timing to break the barrier, everyone also felt reassured.
“Brother Yang, you must be careful later, I feel that something is off. Raging Fire Temple is never this hospitable,” Kang Si Ran suddenly sent a voice transmission straight into Yang Kai’s ears.
Yang Kai nodded without showing any visible change in his expression.
None of the cultivators present were fools, so naturally many had concerns and doubts in this regard; however, at present, no one would risk offending Raging Fire Temple by bringing these issues up. All everyone could do was secretly put their guards up and act according to the situation.
After fifteen minutes, Lian Yu Ming and Zong Qing gathered again as the former suddenly shouted, “It’s time, follow this old master.”
Saying so, he flew up.
Others hurriedly followed after him seeing this.
Soon after, everyone arrived halfway up Yuan Furnace Mountain and hovered above a stone platform. This platform was in no way small and could easily accommodate several dozen people and on the cliffside on this plateau, there was a flat stone wall.
After arriving here, Lian Yu Ming and Zong Qing had everyone else stop while they flew over to the stone wall and began inspecting it carefully.
“Is that the entrance?” Yang Kai secretly asked Kang Si Ran.
Kang Si Ran nodded without making it obvious or speaking a word.
After a while, the two Vice Temple Masters of Raging Fire Temple flew over and stood before everyone again where Zong Qing spoke, “Everyone, Brother Lian and this Zong have just checked and confirmed that the barrier has already been repaired. Please act according to how we just discussed. If we can really break this barrier in one fell swoop, we will gain access to this Emperor Realm master’s cave mansion where his Emperor Grade Secret Arts, pills, artifacts, and more lie waiting! All our efforts will not be in vain!”
Many people appeared to be tempted by his words, their blood beginning to boil.
Zong Qing’s face suddenly turned serious as he shouted, “Raging Fire Temple disciples, move out!”
As he issued the order, the dozens of elite Raging Fire Temple disciples split into two groups and began to assume two formations centred around the strongest cultivators in each while forming a series of hand seals.
Yang Kai caught sight of Zong Zi Jin’s figure among these people as he was one of the centre figures.
With the circulation of Raging Fire Temple disciples’ Qi, a surprising scene appeared before everyone.
The energy of these people seemed to become linked together and it became increasingly difficult to distinguish one aura from another. As for the auras of the two Raging Fire Temple disciples at the centre of each group, they both shot up from the Third-Order Origin King Realm to the Dao Source Realm.
Obviously, this was a Secret Technique Raging Fire Temple possessed to link together a group of individuals to dramatically boost the strength of a single person temporarily.
After a while, the leader of one of the groups let out a shout before a sharp sword suddenly appeared in his hand and he started pouring his energy into it. Moments later, he directly thrust this sword forward.
The sword struck the first barrier, which started shining brightly, blocking the thrust.
However, as the man continued pressing forward, the barrier was quickly split apart.
Immediately after, the second Raging Fire Temple group with Zong Zi Jin at its centre followed up. After having received everyone’s Qi, a bright flash appeared in Zong Zi Jin’s hand and he used some unknown artifact to shoot out a brilliant ball of light.
That ball of light passed through the broken first barrier and soon struck the second.
Judging from the intensity of the light on impact, the second barrier was much denser than the first, but it still couldn’t stop the Raging Fire Temple’s cultivators.
Not long after, the second barrier was also broken.
At this moment, the awaiting Lian Yu Ming shouted, “Begin!”
Just as his voice fell, he summoned his dagger artifact and began weaving a complex series of seals at an astonishing speed.
Zong Qing, who was beside him, instantly started pouring his own energy into the dagger without a moment of hesitation.
The next moment, the several dozen foreign cultivators also used their own techniques to pour their Qi into the dagger.
The dagger started humming as more and more Qi was poured into it and surprisingly, it also began to change shape, going from only two fingers in length to nearly a metre, from pitch black to multi-coloured.
Lian Yu Ming’s arms started fiercely shaking as a strained look appeared on his face, like he was struggling to control this immense energy.
He only persisted for less than ten breaths, though, before he shouted with no other alternative, “Go!”
As he pointed his hand, the metre-long danger whistled through the air, passing through the first and second barriers before striking something solid.
*Hong…*
The dagger shook slightly and Lian Yu Ming’s figure trembled along with all the other cultivators who had poured their energy into it. All of them seemed to have felt a powerful recoil at this moment, causing many people’s expressions to slightly change.
In front of the dagger, an even thicker barrier than the first two flickered, holding the dagger back, making it unable to advance at all.
Lian Yu Ming’s face couldn’t help turning ugly at this sight as he constantly formed more seals, but in the end, he was still unable to break the third barrier.
It was a deadlock.
What made the situation even worse was when Zong Zi Jin suddenly shouted, “Father, the second barrier has begun to repair itself!”
As he spoke, the second barrier that he was responsible for breaking was flashing with white light as it began to fill in its various cracks at an extremely fast rate. Zong Ji Jin and the other Raging Fire Temple disciples were forced to push in even more energy just to maintain the status quo.
Zong Qing’s face immediately darkened at this sight and he promptly shouted, “Everyone, our success or failure depends on this moment! If we cannot break the third barrier now, we will never be able to enter this cave mansion! Are you still going to keep holding back even now? Do none of you want to see what wondrous treasures there are hiding here?”
As soon as Zong Qing said this, everyone’s face turned grim, but more than that, some people looked embarrassed. Obviously, as Zong Qing had said, not all cultivators were using their full strength when cooperating with the two Dao Source Realms; they were all hoping for others to make the effort while they sat back and enjoyed the fruit of others’ labour.
If the third barrier was broken in one fell swoop, it was safe to assume that no one would blame them. But now that the breaking of the third barrier had reached a stalemate, some people were left in an embarrassing situation.
Zong Qing said again, “This Zong has no idea what’s going on in your mind, but this Zong wants to see what kind of treasures are inside!”
Just as his voice fell, his body erupted with energy as he poured his energy even more fiercely into the dagger.
Someone in the crowd couldn’t help but shout, “Since even Vice Temple Master Zong is being so sincere, how can we hide anymore? If we don’t do it now, when will we!?”
While speaking, he no longer hid anymore and poured every bit of his Saint Qi into the dagger.
The rest of the people glanced at each other with a determined look in their eyes. They too started to rouse their energy.
In a short time, the already huge dagger had grown a lot bigger. Obviously, it had received a lot more energy.
After such an increase, Lian Yu Ming faintly felt that he couldn’t bear it anymore. His expression couldn’t help but change. He exclaimed aloud, “Great, with your help, this Old Master will risk everything to break this barrier!”
He opened his mouth and spewed a mouthful of Blood Essence that turned into mist and enveloped the dagger.
Very soon, the mist of blood was completely absorbed by the dagger as a glowing layer of crimson appeared along with its colourful sheen. At first, the dagger seemed uncontrollable, but it actually settled down again.
Lian Yu Ming let out a furious cry as the dagger and the third barrier clashed with each other with an earth-shattering sound, causing even the World Energy to become chaotic.
*CRACK…*
Finally, a soft sound which everyone was waiting for was heard. Everyone couldn’t help but smile happily.
Because an opening had finally appeared on that rock-hard third barrier.
Lian Yu Ming changed the seals again as he urged his Mid-Rank Dao Source Grade artifact to fiercely slash forward.
The third barrier instantly shattered to pieces with a clattering noise. It broke like a mirror. Much to everyone’s surprise, it broke just like that.
The instant the third barrier broke, the first and second barrier burst like a bubble and disappeared all of a sudden.
“We did it!” someone cried in joy.
But many more people were already in motion, ready to rush ahead.
But right then, Lian Yu Ming and Zong Qing suddenly withdrew 30 or so metres. At the same time, the Raging Fire Temple disciples followed suit, backing away together.
Upon seeing this, Yang Kai couldn’t help but chuckle. Without a warning, he grabbed Kang Si Ran, who was about to rush forward, and flew back several dozen feet.
The next moment, swishing sounds were heard as something suddenly shot out.
Suddenly, dazzling beams of light shot out from the wall of stone in the front, raining down on the crowd.
“What’s this!”
“Damn it, quickly hide!”
Screams and shouts quickly resounded on the mountain. When those unsuspecting cultivators noticed that something was wrong, they evaded left and right, again and again.
But the beams shooting out of the wall of stone were simply too fast. Before they could mount any kind of reaction, the beams were already upon them.
The next moment, miserable cries rang, one after another.
The cultivators in the sky fell down like dumplings, bleeding buckets. And the stronger ones even burst into mists of blood; not even their bones were left.
Most of the several dozen cultivators fell in an instant. And none of the Origin Returning Realm masters had survived. Even the surviving Origin King Realm masters were injured. Some of the seriously injured ones were missing their arms and legs. It was a ghastly sight.
Far away, Yang Kai’s face turned ashen. Kang Si Ran’s face was even paler; fear could be clearly seen on his face.
Had Yang Kai not noticed everything quickly and pulled him back, he might have been seriously injured if not dead already.
“As I thought. After the barrier broke, there were other traps!” Zong Qing’s words suddenly echoed from one side.
Lian Yu Ming gently nodded his agreement. “Fortunately, we were ready for it, otherwise…”
While speaking, he turned his head and looked around. All the surviving cultivators were filled with righteous indignation when they noticed his gaze. Their faces distorted with anger.
But no one dared to say anything.
They all knew it would be useless to say anything now. Even though the Raging Fire Temple was unkind to them, why would people not try to outwit the other? Why would they not scheme against each other? How could they blame others when they themselves hadn’t taken preventive measures? They could only blame themselves for not able to see it miles away.
What’s more, no one among the Raging Fire Temple had been injured. More importantly, they still had the two Dao Source Realm masters, who hadn’t taken the initiative to attack them. But if they point fingers at them now, they might really kill them.
No one would do such a stupid thing.
“Huh!?” Zong Qing suddenly let out a soft exclamation as he turned his head and glanced at Yang Kai and Kang Si Ran, who were standing several dozen feet away. He seemed surprised that the two were safe and sound.
However, he didn’t care about it too much. Instead, he said to the Raging Fire Temple disciples, “The barrier is broken, let’s go in.”
While speaking, he took the lead and rushed towards the entrance that had appeared on the stone wall.
The rest of the Raging Fire Temple disciples closely followed after him. After a short while, all the people of the Raging Fire Temple had left.
Only now did everyone let their tongues loose; all kinds of curses and swears rang everywhere. However, these cultivators could only satisfy themselves like this. Having suffered serious injuries, no one had any courage left to explore the cave mansion! Not to mention, no one could say whether there were even more horrifying barriers inside. And then there were also those shameless guys of the Raging Fire Temple, they weren’t that easy to provoke. If they entered in their current shape, there was a 90% likelihood that they would die.
As such, many people immediately flew away after cursing for a while, looking for a place to heal their injuries.
Yang Kai and Kang Si Ran looked at each other, their faces growing incomparably ugly.
Even though they already knew that the Raging Fire Temple people weren’t that easy to reason with, who would have thought that they would murder with a borrowed knife and directly cull away their potential rivals.
Among the foreign cultivators, only Yang Kai and Kang Si Ran were still in one piece. And if they went in and ran into the Raging Fire Temple team, they both had a pretty clear idea how things would end for them then.
Just when the two were hesitating, the opening on the stone wall started rumbling. The two were shocked when they heard the rumble. They looked up and saw that the opening was closing at a subtle speed.
“This opening won’t last for a long time!?” Yang Kai’s expression changed. He quickly asked, “Brother Kan, are we going in or not?”
Kang Si Ran’s face changed. He was still hesitating. But when he saw that the hole was about to be completely closed, he grit his teeth and said, “Brother Yang, you should go back, I will go in alone!”
Obviously, he didn’t want to drag Yang Kai with him.
Having said this, he flew straight towards the stone wall.
A moment later, his figure appeared inside the Yuan Furnace Mountain. When he looked back, the entrance was already closed.
Kang Si Ran turned his head as if he sensed something. The next moment, he saw a smiling Yang Kai looking at him.
He didn’t even realize that Yang Kai had come in with him. He couldn’t help but say in surprise, “Brother Yang, you…”
“There is plenty of time for whatever you want to say later, let’s solve the immediate problem first.” Yang Kai chuckled as he turned and stared at the front.
In front of them were two Third-Order Origin King Realm Raging Fire Temple disciples, coldly staring at them. They looked displeased and angry.
The figure on the left was tall and, maybe because he cultivated Fire Attribute Secret Art, his skin and even his hair were red. The figure on the right was short and chubby, with a big belly. He was staring at Yang Kai and Kang Si Ran with a smile on his face. His face was plump and when he narrowed his small eyes, his eyeballs couldn’t be seen.
Kang Si Ran couldn’t help but furrow his brow at the sight of this. Naturally, they knew that these two Raging Fire Temple disciples were left to guard the opening, preventing anyone from entering this place.
Having thought all this, he cupped his fists and asked, “Friends, what’s the meaning of this?”
The tall cultivator on the left didn’t answer but the fat cultivator smiled and said, “Aren’t you two clear what it means? Everyone is smart here, so I won’t speak nonsense anymore. Now that the entrance is closed, it seems that no one else will come in. What do you two think? Should my fellow brother and I compete with you or should we sit down and talk to kill time?”
Kang Si Ran’s expression changed. He rebuked in a low voice, “Your Excellency, you mean to say that you won’t let us pass?”
The obese cultivator cupped his fists and said, “It’s two Vice Temple Masters’ order. This one doesn’t dare to disobey it. Friends, please don’t make it difficult for us. Anyway, we just worked together to break the barrier just now, didn’t we?”
“When all hares are killed, the hounds are stewed and eaten. The Raging Fire Temple’s means are really praiseworthy,” Kang Si Ran’s face turned livid in anger as he quickly asked. “And what if this Kang insists on passing through?”
The obese cultivator’s face turned ashen. He narrowed his small eyes as they flickered with cold gleam. His tone also grew colder, “If that’s the case, then don’t blame my fellow brother and me for being merciless.”
“Wait a minute!” Right then, Yang Kai suddenly reached out and shouted.
The obese cultivator immediately turned his gaze at Yang Kai. Originally, he believed that Yang Kai wanted to say something but the next moment, he saw a beam shooting toward him like a bow fired from an arrow.
The obese cultivator’s expression changed. He took a deep breath as his already fat body suddenly grew fatter. His entire figure had doubled in size.
He then opened his mouth and threw a ball of fire, which in turn transformed into a Fire Dragon and greeted the oncoming beam.
While the two made their moves, Kang Si Ran and the tall man also reacted. Kang Si Ran didn’t say anything and suddenly summoned a club-shaped artifact. After he poured his Source Qi into it, the club-shaped artifact immediately shot straight toward the tall and robust man, leaving a purple trail.
The tall man was taken aback by this sight but he didn’t panic. A long sabre appeared in his hand with a flick of wrist before he shouted, “The Saber Rules the Jianghu!”
He swung the sabre diagonally. It started to radiate scorching hot energy before a peerless beam shot out from the blade, greeting the oncoming artifact.
BAM BOOM BAM…
The four Third-Order Origin Kings hurriedly acted in the narrow tunnel, the resulting force from their clash gave the impression that it would blow the entire mountain apart.
The sabre technique displayed by the red-haired Raging Fire Temple disciple clashed with Kang Si Ran’s artifact with a deafening clap, bursting forth with a dazzling flash. Immediately after, extremely terrifying fluctuations spread into the surrounding.
At the same time, Yang Kai and the obese cultivators clashed as well. Yang Kai might have launched a sneak attack but the obese cultivator wasn’t any run-of-the-mill cultivator. Since he could participate in this operation and was even left behind by Zong Qing and Lian Yu Ming to guard the entrance, he was naturally an elite of the Raging Fire Temple whose combat skills were definitely higher.
After the obese cultivator took a deep breath and his body become fatter, Yang Kai was almost left with no room to escape when he suddenly breathed the Fire Dragon.
After a dazzling fiery red flash, Yang Kai’s figure seemed to have been melted away as he slowly disappeared.
The obese cultivator couldn’t help furrowing his brow. He instinctively felt that Yang Kai shouldn’t have been killed that easily. But as he looked around, he couldn’t find Yang Kai at all. This gave him a bad feeling.
Right then, a peculiar power suddenly appeared behind him. As soon as that power appeared, it enveloped him like a cage. In an instant, he felt that the space around him had suddenly become extremely murky. He felt as if he had fallen into a swamp. Furthermore, not only was this power affecting his mobility but was also affecting the circulation of his energy.
“Domain! How is this possible!?” the obese cultivator cried in shock.
He too was a Third-Order Origin King level cultivator. His own Domain had reached the grand accomplishment stage. Naturally, when he was confronting Yang Kai, he had spread his around his entire body, guarding himself against surprises.
But when the enemy’s Domain was cast, he suddenly felt his own Domain completely suppressed!
[How can the enemy’s Domain be so strong when he is in the same Third-Order Origin King Realm? Compared with him, my Domain is just simply a joke.]
[Furthermore… in his domain, there seems to be an extremely weird power, a power that can affect space.]
He was greatly shocked. He promptly bit the tip of his tongue and spewed a mouthful of blood essence. At the same time, he let out a crazed cry as he mobilized all the Source Qi in his body, trying to get free of the shackles and suppression of the Domain.
Suddenly, a cracking sound resounded in the narrow space. It was the sound of the obese cultivators’ bones grinding against each other. These sounds were particularly harsh.
Behind him, Yang Kai’s eyes grew colder seeing this. A long sword suddenly appeared in his hand. As he then poured his Source Qi in it, it let out a clear hum. Yang Kai was surrounded by a sword aura which suddenly turned in a whirlwind as the tip of sword shone, cutting straight toward the obese cultivator’s neck.
Suddenly, before the glow from the sword could even reach him, an inexplicable force enveloped the obese cultivator.
The obese cultivator couldn’t help but tremble. His squinted small eyes suddenly bulged wide and round as if he had seen a ghost in broad daylight. There was a look of incredulity on his face.
With a flash of light, Yang Kai reappeared before the fat cultivator, holding the sword in one hand. As he gently flicked the sword, a drop of blood trickled down the blade.
The obese cultivator was rooted on the spot, staring at Yang Kai in a daze. His throat made a little noise as if he wanted to say something. However, in the end, he could only utter one word, “Principle…”
Just as he said this, the obese cultivator’s body quickly deflated like a punctured balloon. At the same time, a bloody-red line appeared on his neck as a fountain of blood spurted out like a fountain before his head flew into the air.
The headless corpse of the obese cultivator fell back with a thump.
“You… you dare to kill my Senior Brother!?” the red-haired cultivator couldn’t help but cry in shock at the sight of this.
Compared to the death of his Senior Brother, he couldn’t believe the fact that Yang Kai killed him in such a short time. He was pretty clear about how strong his Senior Brother was. He was the elite of the elites of Raging Fire Temple. How could he be beheaded by a guy who was similarly a Third-Order Origin King in one or three moves?
As he shouted, he couldn’t help but gasp in shock as a chill ran down his spine.
Yang Kai raised his head and coldly said, “So what if I killed him? It’s your turn next!”
“Ah!?” The red-haired cultivator was startled and retreat in horror, again and again.
Yang Kai fiercely shouted, “Brother Kang, don’t show any mercy.”
Just as he said this, Yang Kai’s figure was already shrouded in a sword aura as he cut toward the red-haired cultivator. At the sight of this, Kang Si Ran also grit his teeth and attacked the red-haired cultivator with that artifact at full strength.
The red-haired cultivator might not be any weaker than the obese Senior Brother, but Yang Kai and Kang Si Ran weren’t that easy to deal with. And under their joint attacks, the red-haired cultivator was at their mercy. He was powerless to fight back. And because of the terrain, the red-haired cultivator couldn’t even escape.
After half the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the red-haired cultivator too fell back on the ground, bleeding.
At this moment, Kang Si Ran saw Yang Kai in a new light. He sized him up and down with a gaze full of surprise.
Shopkeeper Kang might have been acquainted with Yang Kai for quite some time but it was the first he teamed up with Yang Kai in a real sense to fight against an enemy. Before today, Kang Si Ran had no idea that Yang Kai was so strong.
“Brother Yang, is the sword in your hand a Dao Source Grade artifact?” Kang Si Ran thoughtfully gazed at the weapon in Yang Kai’s hand.
Yang Kai pursed his lips into a smile and said, nodding, “That’s right.”
This long sword was exactly the one used by Han Leng before. After Han Leng’s death, it became Yang Kai’s trophy. Although Yang Kai himself hadn’t reached the Dao Source Realm, he had absorbed and refined many shattered Principle Fragments in the Fiver Colored Treasure Pagoda. So, he could make slight use of the power of some Principles. And coupled with this long sword and the Space Secret Technique, it was naturally a piece of cake to kill cultivators of the same realm.
“Brother Yang can actually use the Principles. It seems you are not far away from advancing to the next level. This Kang is envious,” Kang Si Ran sighed, again and again.
He was much older than Yang Kai. He had reached the Third-Order Origin King Realm far earlier than Yang Kai yet he had not touched the threshold of Principles. He had been stuck before the Dao Source Realm. So, when he compared himself with Yang Kai, he was in admiration, as well as frustration.
“Brother Kang, don’t be anxious. As long as you find the Dao Source Pill here, you won’t need to worry about it.” Yang Kai casually comforted.
Kang Si Ran’s eyes immediately lit up. He nodded and agreed, “You are right.”
Afterwards, the two picked up the Space Rings of the dead Raging Fire Temple cultivators, each of them taking one, before they continued venturing deeper.
What was Gong Sun Mu’s cave mansion like? Yang Kai and Kang Si Ran didn’t have time to investigate. After all, the obese cultivator and the red-haired cultivator had stopped them as soon as they came in.
At this moment, they finally got to check it out. There was a narrow corridor in front of them. The walls of the corridor were dotted with some strange rocks that were emitting light. So, the corridor wasn’t dim at all.
As the two were investigating carefully, they moved forward slowly. They didn’t encounter any danger nor did they run into anyone from the Raging Fire Temple.
They found tracks of Raging Fire Temple cultivators along the way, but they were nowhere to be found. Heaven knows where they had gone.
After about the time it takes an incense to burn, the two suddenly walked into a spacious stone room.
They immediately looked left and right just after stepping inside. But the next moment, Yang Kai couldn’t help but look shocked. Because they had run into a dead end. The situation inside the stone room was also quite clear at a glance. Apart from many stone furnaces carved from rocks, there was nothing else here.
There were a lot of stone furnaces, roughly about 30 at least.
What Yang Kai found weirder was that the Raging Fire Temple disciples weren’t here either.
“Brother Yang, what’s going on?” Kang Si Ran looked astonished.
Yang Kai shook his head as he carefully probed the stone room with his Divine Sense but didn’t find any signs of danger. He then said, “We didn’t find a fork in the road. The Raging Fire Temple disciples should be here. But they aren’t… is there a Transmission Array here!?”
Kang Si Ran found it reasonable as well. He then suggested, “Why don’t we look around?”
Yang Kai nodded in agreement and said, “Brother Kang, I will check this stone room, while you check the map to see if you can find a way out.”
“Okay,” Kang Si Ran replied. He then took out an old beast skin and started studying it, furrowing his brow.
Yang Kai then started carefully investigating every nook and cranny of the stone room.
The stone room wasn’t that big. After a while, he returned to the point where he started. He then scanned the stone furnaces, back and forth.
If there was anything suspicious in this stone room, that was these stone furnaces.
However, he had also used his Divine Sense to carefully check them out just now. There was nothing strange about these stone furnaces, and they weren’t made from some Artifact Refining material. It was just ordinary stone.
He then turned his head and glanced at Kang Si Ran. Seeing that he was still checking the beast skin parchment and still hadn’t found any clues, Yang Kai didn’t bother him. He just walked to a stone furnace and touched it.
The moment Yang Kai’s hand came in contact with the stone furnace, he heard a strange clicking sound before a hole suddenly appeared where Yang Kai was standing.
His body immediately started sinking. He was on the verge of falling down.
Yang Kai was slightly taken aback, but he didn’t panic. He immediately circulated his Source Qi, wanting to rise into the air.
But the next thing that happened gave Yang Kai a shock. Just when he was circulating his energy, a powerful suction came from underneath his feet. Before he could rise up, he was sucked into a black hole on the ground.
The next moment, Yang Kai’s expression changed for the worse. He only had the time to let out a cry before his entire figure fell straight down.
And the black hole that had just opened up closed itself right after, plunging him into the darkness.
“Brother Yang!” the nearby Kang Sir Ran was greatly shocked upon hearing the commotion. He hurriedly stood up and rushed toward Yang Kai. But he was too late. When he arrived at Yang Kai’s previous position, Yang Kai had long disappeared.
Staring at the place where Yang Kai disappeared, Kang Si Ran’s expression changed several times. Finally, he grit his teeth and reached out to touch the stone furnace Yang Kai had just touched.
But nothing happened! The ground didn’t crack open as he had expected. Kang Si Ran tried several times before he decided that continuing anymore would be fruitless.
As a last resort, he could only turn to one of the other stone furnaces. He started testing them one by one. Only when he touched the seventh furnace did the ground underneath his feet crack open, causing him to plummet like Yang Kai.
It was dark all around. Yang Kai felt his body free-falling constantly as if there was no end to this. When he looked up, he couldn’t find even a ray of light.
Yang Kai furrowed his brow slightly. He might have been a little taken aback by the situation he was in, but he wasn’t that alarmed.
What happened before in the stone room allowed him to understand one thing…
All those stone furnaces should be the triggers that activate on touch. That was why he couldn’t find any clues when he used his Divine Sense. Only when he touched the stone furnace was the trap in the stone room finally triggered.
In light of this, the Raging Fire Temple disciples should have fallen into this trap. That was the reason why the stone room above was empty.
[I wonder if Kang Si Ran would also follow me down. And would there be Raging Fire Temple cultivators below?]
He didn’t dare to be careless. He was silently circulating his Source Qi, ready to attack at a moment’s notice if he found something wrong.
Not long after, he saw a ray of light coming from below. Yang Kai hurriedly spread his Divine Sense to scan, and a strange look appeared on his face in the next moment.
Because there was another stone room below. However, it was a little different from his imagination. There weren’t any Raging Fire Temple cultivators in the stone room. It too was empty.
After a while, Yang Kai fell into this stone room and he promptly looked around. The stone room was completely empty; there was even a stone furnace this time.
Before Yang Kai could take a closer look, an unusual energy fluctuation suddenly appeared. Soon, a stone platform-like thing appeared out of nowhere in the centre of the room.
The stone platform slowly rose, causing lots of rumbles. While watching, Yang Kai kept his guard up all the while. The stone platform finally stabilized, but up till now, Yang Kai still didn’t notice any danger.
He furrowed his brow, slowly making his way toward the stone platform.
He came before the stone platform and went up the stairs, soon reaching the top of the stone platform.
“An Array!?” Yang Kai raised his brow. He looked at the mysterious pattern that had appeared on the flat surface of the stone platform, surprised. He could faintly sense a sliver of Space Force fluctuations originating from this pattern.
“A Transmission Array!?” Yang Kai was greatly taken by surprise. But in light of this, he was now sure that if this Array on the stone platform activated, it should teleport him to another place.
However, this Transmission Array was very different from what he had learned. So, Yang Kai didn’t dare to rush. He paid even closer attention to it, trying to see some clues from it.
As he looked carefully, Yang Kai found a line of small text under the Array, covered by the dust.
He cautiously reached out and brushed away the dust as the line of small text immediately emerged before his eyes.
“The Array can be activated by pouring Fire Attribute energy into the Array!” Yang Kai read, muttering to himself. He couldn’t help but frown.
[Clearly, this is a Transmission Array but why does it need Fire Attribute energy?] Yang Kai was a little confused. [And what’s the point of having such a special Array in this stone room!?]
Yang Kai couldn’t figure it out after thinking over it for a while. So, he stopped thinking about it.
He had a Fire Attribute type of energy. Whether it was the Conflagration Knowledge Sea or Fire Sword Qi, they were both categorised as Fire Attribute energy. However, he didn’t rush to activate the array and rather just stood there, waiting patiently.
He was waiting for Kang Si Ran, waiting for him to come down before moving together.
But to Yang Kai’s disappointment, even after waiting for half an hour, Kang Si Ran was nowhere to be seen.
[When I triggered the stone furnace’s trap, Kang Si Ran must have seen me fall. And judging by his personality, he would not ignore me for sure.] Yang Kai was sure that Kang Si Ran would certainly trigger the stone furnace mechanism.
However, Kang Si Ran was nowhere to be found. There was only one explanation to this: Kang Si Ran must have fallen into another stone room.
[There should be more than one stone room here. Otherwise, when I fell down, I should have seen at least one of the Raging Fire Temple disciples.]
[Maybe everyone who fell was separated so that they couldn’t work together.]
Of course, this was only Yang Kai’s conjecture based on the situation he was in. He couldn’t verify if it was true.
Since he couldn’t wait for Kang Si Ran, Yang Kai was left with no choice but to act alone. Considering all this, he no longer hesitated. He stretched his hand out toward the Array and mobilized the Fire Attribute energy in his body, infusing it into the Array.
A scorching hot aura immediately appeared in the stone room, causing the entire room to momentarily tremble. Suddenly, the Array lines on the stone platform lit up.
Seeing this, Yang Kai knew that there was no mistake. This Array indeed required Fire Attribute energy to start up. Then, he started pushing the Fire Attribute energy in his body even more madly.
*BAM BOOM BAM…* A series of rumbles resounded as the Array on the stone platform flickered with dazzling flashes, enveloping Yang Kai. And when the light dissipated, Yang Kai had disappeared.
“This…” Yang Kai turned his head and looked around. He found that where he was now was no different from the stone room he was before. Had he not felt that he had just teleported, Yang Kai would have thought that he had never moved.
“What the hell is this place!?” Yang Kai started frowning. He felt so confused.
In a normal cave mansion of a predecessor, there were many defensive and restriction-type Spirit Arrays. This was the norm, and there was no cultivator who didn’t arrange things like this in his or her cave mansion. However, the cave mansion before him was a little strange. Many stone rooms were exactly the same. The first stone room he just came through only required the infusion of the Array with Fire Attribute energy to safely pass. There wasn’t any difficulty or danger, whatsoever. [I wonder what’s special about this stone room.]
Just as he was puzzling over, familiar rumbles rang again. The next moment, Yang Kai noticed that another stone platform just like the previous one had appeared in the centre of the stone room.
He furrowed his brow. But all he could do was slowly ascend the stone platform with the mentality of taking things as they come.
Looking around, Yang Kai couldn’t help but let out a soft cry in surprise.
Because there wasn’t any Array on the stone platform this time around. Instead, many grooves had appeared.
There were different kinds of herbs in these grooves.
These herbs had been stored with a special technique, preserving them for thousands of years without decaying. More importantly, their medicinal properties were still intact; they appeared as if they had just been picked up.
Yang Kai took a look and found that most of these herbs were foreign. He could only recognize three out of ten; he couldn’t recognize the rest.
Afterwards, he shifted his attention to the bottom part of the stone platform. And as expected, there he saw another line of small text. After dusting off the dust, Yang Kai read aloud, staring at the line of small text, “Select fifteen poisonous herbs and the Spirit Array can be activated!”
“Select fifteen!?” Yang Kai was greatly shocked. He carefully counted all the herbs on the stone platform. He found that all the herbs added to be only twenty-five, that’s all. In other words, more than half of these herbs were poisonous.
[What does the owner of this cave mansion want? Why did he give such a difficult problem?] Yang Kai was left completely confused.
He shook his head. All he could do was immerse himself deep into his mind and intently look at the twenty-five herbs in front of him.
Although the text on the stone platform didn’t explain the consequences of choosing the wrong one, Yang Kai knew better not to test it out. Whether this cave mansion was left by Gong Sun Mu or not, it certainly belonged to an Emperor Realm master.
Yang Kai couldn’t speculate the means of an Emperor Realm master. Once he made the wrong choice, he might fall here.
He didn’t dare to play with his life. Thus, he became extremely serious.
“Hmm, this Heavenly Heart Orchid is poisonous. And so is this Filthy Shade Grass…” Yang Kai, after looking at them for a while, he first took the herbs he recognized from the groove and set them aside.
He was very cautious throughout the process, but since he didn’t trigger any restriction, it seemed that he had chosen the right one.
However, he didn’t recognize the rest of the herbs. On the one hand, it was because of his superficial knowledge of the Star Boundary’s products, and on the other, it was also related to how foreign these herbs were to him.
Even the native Alchemists of the Star Boundary would not dare to say that they knew all these herbs, if they were here.
However, as an Alchemist, Yang Kai had studied the nature of herbs. The Alchemical properties of every herb had their own rules and characteristics. So, even if he didn’t recognize most of the herbs, it didn’t prevent him from judging whether these herbs were toxic or not.
He leaned closer to the herbs and carefully sniffed them. Very soon, Yang Kai had selected several more poisonous herbs from them.
The toxicity of these herbs was very subtle. Most people couldn’t judge by their smell. Only an Alchemist, someone who dealt with herbs all the time, or people who had studied herbs, could judge them.
After tossing around a bit more, Yang Kai chose eight more. However, there were still more than half of the fifteen herbs left to choose from.
Unfortunately, the toxicity of the rest of the herbs couldn’t be judged by their smell.
Yang Kai thought for a while before he came to the conclusion that he could only taste them himself and judge them by the reaction from his tongue and body.
He hesitated no longer after having come to this conclusion. He reached out and tore a very small piece from the petal of a light blue flower. He then put it in his mouth and started chewing.
The next moment, Yang Kai’s expression changed as he suddenly turned pale. While chewing the small piece of petal, an extremely cold sensation suddenly numbed his mouth. It almost froze his tongue.
A panicked Yang Kai hurriedly circulated his Source Qi and immediately dispelled it.
“Although it’s very strong, this one is not poisonous!” After a while, Yang Kai looked at the light blue flower with a look of fear. He had no idea what kind of herb would contain this kind of terrifying coldness.
Since he had made the confirmation, he could only cast his gaze on another herb.
Following suit, he tore a small piece and stuffed it into his mouth. The next moment, Yang Kai sat cross-legged as his face turned black and blue alternatively. His facial features were extremely distorted as if he was suffering extremely cruel torture.
After the time it takes for an entire incense to burn, he opened his mouth and spurted a stream of black blood. His aura had also fallen a lot.
“What a fearsome poison!” Yang Kai’s face was filled with lingering fear. He had just chewed just a very tiny piece of it and yet he was poisoned. If he had taken the entire herb, he would have surely died at once.
Even though the herbs inside the grooves of the stone platform tasted horrendous and their toxicity was so terrifying that they even made Yang Kai’s tongue numb…
If he wanted to leave this forsaken place, he could only complete the requirements as described in the small text on the stone platform. Yang Kai could only grit his teeth and continue to taste test the unfamiliar herbs.
It took him almost half a day to taste test all the herbs he couldn’t recognize and be sure whether they were poisonous or not.
He went through all kinds of pain and torture, and had it not been for Yang Kai’s sturdy physique and strong recovery, he might have lost his life.
Even so, he failed to pick the fifteen herbs.
“How come there are only thirteen?” Yang Kai tightly frowned standing before the stone platform. He looked rather confused.
Since the owner of this cave mansion left such a test for intruders to solve, he would surely not deliberately play tricks. In other words, fifteen of these twenty-five herbs were indeed poisonous.
But Yang Kai had used all three methods, looked, smelled, and tasted, but he could only ascertain that thirteen herbs were poisonous. He couldn’t find the remaining two.
[What’s wrong here?] His eyes swept across the grooves of the stone platform, one by one, but he couldn’t find the remaining two from them.
Just as Yang Kai was at a loss before the stone platform, all the cultivators who had entered this cave mansion were facing the same dilemma.
From the get-go, all the Raging Fire Temple cultivators cultivated Fire Attribute Secret Art. So, the first stone room wasn’t that difficult for them at all. Just like Yang Kai, they infused their Fire Attribute Energy into the stone platform and were transmitted to the second stone room immediately after.
Even Kang Si Ran had easily passed the first stone room’s test.
But now, everyone was stumped by the second stone room’s test.
In a certain stone room, a Raging Fire Temple disciple looked at the twenty-five herbs and scratched his head.
He wasn’t an Alchemist. He didn’t even know what these herbs were, let alone how to distinguish between the toxic and non-toxic ones. He waited and watched for a long time before selecting a few certain toxic herbs from among them. However, he couldn’t distinguish anymore.
Seeing the time slipping by, the Raging Fire Temple disciple grit his teeth and took out a herb from the groove.
And the moment he took out this herb, the entire stone room suddenly hummed before the stone platform in front of him sank at an extremely fast speed. It disappeared in the blink of an eye.
The cultivator was struck with panic. He hurriedly flew back and circulated his Source Qi, preparing for the unexpected.
Suddenly, *WENG WENG WENG…* noises rang from the stone room. The next moment, specks of light flashed in the room. The specks of light were dense and were just about everywhere. By a rough count, there were hundreds of them. At first glance, they looked like the eyes of fearsome monsters, giving the onlookers the chills.
In the next moment, these flickering lights shook a little as they bombarded the cultivator together, giving off fearsome energy fluctuations all of a sudden.
Seeing this, a look of despair immediately took over the Raging Fire Temple cultivator’s face. All he could do was let out a scream before he was drowned by the countless beams of light.
After a moment, when the light finally dissipated, the Raging Fire Temple disciple was nowhere to be found. All that remained was a pool of red blood and some tattered pieces of clothes where he had stood as proof of his existence.
This was not the only Raging Fire Temple disciple to suffer this kind of misfortune. All the cultivators who chose the wrong herbs had triggered the restriction in the room and were killed on the spot within a breath. Not even their bones were left.
In another stone room, Kang Si Ran solemnly took out a herb from the groove in front of the stone platform. After waiting for a while, when he realized that he was still very much safe and sound, he couldn’t help but heave a sigh of relief.
He might not be an Alchemist, but as the shopkeeper of the Spirit Pill Plaza and a native cultivator of the Star Boundary, his knowledge and experience of herbs was much better than that of Yang Kai. After all, he too could be considered as someone who dealt with the herbs every day.
Therefore, although the test in the second stone room was a little difficult for him, it was not without hope.
In another stone room, the Raging Fire Temple’s Vice Temple Master, Lian Yu Ming looked at the twenty-five herbs on the stone platform before him. He quickly selected about ten herbs and started pondering. He then chose a few more, making the count thirteen. Furthermore, the herbs he had chosen were exactly the same as the herbs Yang Kai had chosen after so much painstaking effort.
Only the final two remained.
Lian Yu Ming’s gaze alternated between the remaining herbs with lightning-fast speed as he searched his memories for the knowledge of herbs he had. After the time it takes for an incense to burn, a smile suddenly appeared on his face as he took out two kinds of herbs from the remaining herbs in the grooves.
And when he took out the last two herbs, the place where he stood suddenly lit up as a Transmission Array slowly emerged, teleporting him to another place and the stone platform in the stone room slowly sank at the same time.
…
In the stone room, Yang Kai still had a worried look on his face. Once again, he carefully checked the remaining herbs but he was still unable to determine which two were poisonous.
Just as he was at a loss, he suddenly seemed to have been struck with a realization as his eyes shone with an intelligent gleam.
Immediately, he hurriedly tore a piece of the remaining herbs, one after another, and carefully ground and mixed them in pairs.
After a short while, when he was grinding two herbs with his hands and mixing their paste, a pungent and spicy smell suddenly permeated from his fingertips. This pungent smell immediately made him dizzy as a scorching-hot feeling spread from his fingertips.
Yang Kai immediately circulated the Profound Art and dispelled the discomforting feeling. His face immediately lit up with joy as he burst into laughter and spoke, “That’s it!”
In this world, some herbs were non-toxic in nature, but when they were mixed with some special herbs, they might become highly toxic. This common-sense wasn’t just applicable in the Alchemy World but also in the lives of ordinary people, who hadn’t even cultivated.
Yang Kai hadn’t thought of it at first, but now this situation had proved that his notion was correct.
He decisively took out two reactive herbs from the groove and set them aside.
A Transmission Array suddenly appeared underneath his feet and his eyes were blinded by a dazzling flash of light before the feeling of being teleported struck him again.
After he regained his footing, he turned his head and looked around. Suddenly, a weird look appeared on his face as he nodded and said, “As I had expected!”
He was still in a stone room, one that was no different from the stone rooms he had been in before. There was also a stone platform in the middle.
At this point, Yang Kai had faintly guessed the role of this place from the various clues he noticed.
Suppressing the joy in his heart, he stepped forward and came to the stone desk.
He focused his gaze and found that there were a total of three identical herbs placed on the stone desk. Judging by the aura they were emanating, their grade shouldn’t be that high. It should be about the level of Origin Grade.
He stretched his hand out and brushed away the dust on the stone desk. Yang Kai read the small text on the stone desk and immediately understood the purpose of this stone room.
It was to actually refine the medicinal liquid.
As long as the purity reached a certain level, the Transmission Array in the stone room could be activated.
Refining medicinal liquid was nothing to Yang Kai. He had refined medicinal liquid hundreds of thousands of times in Alchemy so far. Furthermore, he also had the unique Conflagration Knowledge Sea, which made his job of refining medicinal liquid and removing all kinds of impurities from it easier.
And extracting the medicinal liquid from an Origin Grade herb was a piece of cake for him.
At this point, he no longer hesitated and prompted his Conflagration Knowledge Sea, wrapping the herb inside.
After a while, the herb was reduced into a drop of green liquid as its impurities continued to burn away, making the green liquid clearer and more brilliant.
Because he had already guessed some things from the various tests here, Yang Kai spared no effort to extract the medicinal liquid and did a perfect job.
When he had refined all three herbs into the medicinal liquid, he placed them in the groove of the stone platform again. Immediately after, the familiar Transmission Array appeared again.
…
Over the course of the next few days, Yang Kai spent all his time in stone rooms. Each stone room gave a different test. Some required him to draw the Spirit Array used during refining pills, some required him to refine pills, some required a mastery of heat… the tests were numerous and strange.
But the purpose of all the tests couldn’t be separated from Alchemy.
At this point, Yang Kai was completely sure that his previous conjecture was right.
This was definitely Gong Sun Mu’s test to check the mastery of later generations’ Alchemy techniques. He was an Alchemy Grandmaster, so it wasn’t surprising that he would be testing in this aspect.
As an Alchemy Grandmaster of his generation, he naturally hoped that his relics could be obtained by someone who was also an Alchemist, instead of some insignificant people. All those tests could completely determine whether a person was a qualified Alchemist or not.
Perhaps, Gong Sun Mu also wanted to find a successor for himself.
…
In the stone room, Yang Kai put his newly refined pill into the groove of the stone platform. After a while, the familiar feeling of transmission struck him as he disappeared again after a flash of dazzling light.
When Yang Kai finally regained his senses, he couldn’t help but smile happily after looking at the surroundings around him.
Because the place where he was now wasn’t the unvarying stone room, but a tunnel.
The tunnel was abnormally dry. There was even a faint fiery radiance and a strange bubbling noise. The hot aura in the tunnel gave the feeling of falling into magma.
Yang Kai pushed his energy to defend himself as he walked towards the place where the fiery light was coming from.
After a while, he entered a stone cavern.
Heaven knows how deep under the ground this stone cavern was, but it didn’t appear to be man-made. It seemed to have been formed naturally.
There was a bright red fiery glow in the front. Yang Kai narrowed his eyes and found that the source of the fiery glow was actually a stream of magma! The magma had gathered into a pool. From time to time, one or two bubbles would emerge from below and burst, splashing the magma around.