Inside the Qin Family Residence, Qin Zhao Yang rushed nervously to the back courtyard and his face turned solemn upon seeing the scene inside.
He saw a crowd gathered. Some were Eight Paths Sect disciples who were living in the Qin Residence, while the rest were the guards and servants of the Qin Family.
Although the people from Eight Paths Sect weren’t many, all of them had Dao Source Realm cultivations. On the other hand, the Qin Family guards, who were surrounding them, were actually just Origin Kings or even Origin Returning Realm cultivators.
Despite their inferior number, the Eight Paths Sect still held the absolute advantage in terms of strength.
A sense of heaviness could be felt within the atmosphere, and the air was vaguely filled with a trace of blood.
Qin Zhao Yang’s heavy and rapid steps alarmed everyone. The crowd of guards turned around and got excited when they saw him, “Old Ancestor!”
On the contrary, the faces of the Eight Paths Sect disciples, who were being surrounded in the centre, turned ugly.
Qin Zhao Yang gently nodded and walked straight ahead.
The crowd instantly made way, allowing him to walk unimpeded.
When Qin Zhao Yang reached the center and saw what was on the ground, his eyes narrowed and anger welled up inside him.
A female corpse, one that had died in a horrible manner, lay on the ground covered in blood. With just a glance, Qin Zhao Yang could recognize that she was a maidservant of the Qin Family. He did not expect that this maidservant who had served him a cup of tea just a few days ago, would now lie dead in front of him today. Her lifeless eyes were staring at him horrendously, as if crying out for justice.
He observed the corpse and soon determined that her chest had been crushed by a great impact, causing it to cave in. There were even pieces of her internal organs vomited out of the corner of her mouth.
Qin Zhao Yang’s emotions became worked up as he stared at this miserable scene, and the Source Qi in his body began to faintly tremble.
The disciples of Eight Paths Sect kept looking awkwardly at each other, but there was one particular young man, who had fair skin and a handsome appearance, who was the target of the most gazes.
“Who did this?” Qin Zhao Yang took a deep breath and broke the long period of silence. His tone seemed to be calm, but his slightly trembling voice revealed his inner unrest.
While speaking, he lifted his head and swept across the people of Eight Paths Sect with his eyes.
They did not dare to meet eyes with him and all moved their gazes aside.
“Anyone who knows, step out and speak. Don’t be afraid!” Qin Zhao Yang bellowed, looking at the guards and maidservants of his family.
One of the maidservants stepped out, biting her lips, her face pale, eyes swollen, as if she had not gotten over from the shocking scene. Suppressing her tears at this moment, she knelt down in front of Qin Zhao Yang with a puff, “Old Ancestor, Xiao Huan cannot rest in peace like this, please avenge her!”
“Stand up, tell me what happened.” Qin Zhao bent over and gave the maidservant a hand.
After the maidservant got up, she lifted her head and glanced at one of the disciples of Eight Paths Sect. Seeing that this man was also staring at her fiercely, her face turned pale in fright and she couldn’t help letting out a scream.
Qin Zhao Yang noticed this of course and laid his hand on the maidservant’s shoulder, infusing a stream of pure Source Qi into her in order to calm her fears before speaking softly, “With this Old Ancestor here, no one can touch you. Just speak the truth.”
“Yes!” The maidservant gently nodded and started to speak, “By the order of Old Ancestor, Xiao Huan and this servant have been taking care of all the Sir’s daily needs here with all our heart and dared not to slack even in the slightest. Today, we came here to bring refreshments to a certain Sir, but when we put down the platter and were about to leave, then… then…”
When she reached that part, she seemed to have recalled an unwanted memory and her tender body began to tremble, making it impossible for her to continue.
Qin Zhao Yang waited patiently for her as he continued using his Source Qi to support her.
After a while, the maidservant gradually calmed down and continued, “Then that Sir started to express his wicked intention, trying to force Xiao Huan and this servant to stay to serve him. We refused to do so and politely asked him to excuse us in every possible way. Then, all of a sudden, Xiao Huan let out a scream and was thrown across the courtyard. When this servant rushed to check on her, she was already… already…”
Qin Zhao Yang exerted a slight force with his hand and the maidservant passed out instantly. He then ordered a guard beside him, “Help her out and give her some rest.”
“Yes!” The guard carried the maidservant and rushed out of the courtyard.
Qin Zhao Yang turned to look at one of the rooms in the courtyard and saw the door of the room was broken, which was obviously caused by an impact. In combination with the maidservant’s statement, he deduced that the broken door must be the result of the other maidservant, Xiao Huan, being knocked out of the room.
“Who lives here?” Qin Zhao Yang pointed his finger to that room and cast a deadly serious gaze towards the Eight Paths Sect group.
Most of them looked away, with their eyes blinking, as if they knew the reason and felt embarrassed about it.
But a particular man, who seemed to become angry out of shame, raised his head proudly and yelled, “It was this Young Master, so what?”
As soon as he spoke, all of the Qin Family guards turned their gaze towards this man, as did Qin Zhao Yang.
This man was the previously mentioned disciple with fair skin and handsome appearance, a disciple of Eight Paths Sect.
Even under the watchful eyes of the crowd, this man showed not the slightest remorse and instead sneered, “What do you want to do? Before you act, you’d best weigh your own capabilities first!”
Pushing his Source Qi, he released a Second-Order Dao Source Realm cultivation.
Qin Zhao Yang was forced to fall a few steps back and the guards were even worse off, all of them seemingly feeling like they were being crushed by a mountain, showing painful expressions on their faces as their bones cracked.
Although Qin Zhao Yang was suppressed by the opponent’s presence, he did not flinch at all. Instead, he circulated his own strength rapidly to forcefully regain his footing and questioned in a deep voice, “What are friend’s intentions here? Are you planning to destroy my Qin Family?”
“Of course that is not my meaning, don’t make baseless accusations!” The fair-skinned man shouted.
“Did you kill Xiao Huan?” Qin Zhao Yang asked with his teeth gritted.
The face of the white-skinned man suddenly became a bit awkward as he muttered, “It wasn’t intentional… she suddenly bit me and I… accidentally acted and wound up killing her. But look here, look at this wound! Just imagine how hard she must have bitten me!”
He rolled up his sleeves and there was indeed a fresh row of teeth marks on his skin.
“You killed her just because of this?” Qin Zhao Yang hastily took a few steps forward, his clothes flapping along with his movement.
Even though the fair-skinned man’s cultivation was higher than Qin Zhao Yang’s, seeing the old man charging at him like a mad bull, he actually felt slightly intimidated and kept retreating, continuing to give excuses, “I already said I didn’t mean it, what else do you want from me? You are a cultivator too, surely you should know that little accidents like this happen sometimes.”
“Indeed, this old master is a proud cultivator, but this old master has never used his strength to attack an ordinary mortal who possesses no cultivation at all, much less accidentally killed such a person!” Qin Zhao Yang was infuriated.
“Stubborn old dog…” The white-skinned man became angry as well as snapped, “Seems I can’t reason with you.”
“Hahaha…” A sound of laughter suddenly interfered with the scene as a middle-aged man stepped forward and cupped his fist towards Qin Zhao Yang, “Patriarch Qin, can we discuss this somewhere else?”
“If you have anything to say, say it here,” Qin Zhao Yang coldly rejected.
The middle-aged man showed a smile of embarrassment on his face as he stared at Qin Zhao Yang, but deep down inside he was secretly cursing him for not knowing how to appreciate kindness.
He knew that he had to be careful with Qin Zhao Yang now though, so after pondering for a while, he continued, “Patriarch Qin, it was indeed my Junior Brother Lin Yun’s fault for accidentally killing the maidservant of your noble family, and he is extremely regretful about what has happened, so Patriarch Qin, please have mercy on him and let these small matters be made small, shall we?”
“Extremely regretful?” Qin Zhao Yang squinted at the man named Lin Yun and sneered, “Has this old master gone blind perhaps? How come this old master cannot see the slightest regret from him at all?”
The middle-aged man instantly cast his eyes towards Lin Yun. Lin Yun muttered a few words in dissatisfaction, but still reluctantly lowered his head, looking demoralized.
“Patriarch Qin, the dead cannot be restored to life, so you cannot be thinking of asking my Junior Brother Lin Yun to pay for this with his life, right?” The middle-aged man smiled.
“I dare him!” Lin Yun suddenly lifted his head again and snapped.
“You shut up!” The middle-aged man glared at Lin Yun furiously, this time forcing Lin Yun to behave slightly.
The middle-aged man looked back at Qin Zhao Yang, and whispered, “Patriarch Qin, I will tell you the truth. My Junior Brother Lin is usually not an arrogant or domineering person, he is just a bit obsessed with women, which I am sad to say has led to this unfortunate accident. These days, while staying here, he has been behaving himself well, but all of a sudden he seems to have lost his self-control. I am truly speechless about this. The Vice Sect Master has been spoiling him in the Sect, but honestly, even we could not tolerate his temper sometimes. Patriarch Qin, please do not pay his indiscretion any mind.”
“Vice Sect Master?” Qin Zhao Yang narrowed his eyes.
“En, Vice Sect Master Lin Rui is his uncle,” the middle-aged man explained with a faint smile.
Qin Zhao Yang understood his intention.
Lin Yun had someone backing him. However, even if he did not, no one in the Qin Family could do anything to him with his Second-Order Dao Source Realm cultivation.
Now that it was apparent that this Lin Yun had such a strong backer, Qin Zhao Yang understood that it would be impossible to have the former pay for his crime with his life.
The Qin Family could not risk provoking Eight Paths Sect as even though they were not a big Sect, they were still a hundred times stronger than the Qin Family.
Thinking so, Qin Zhao Yang could not help feeling downhearted and lost.
A maidservant from his family was beaten to death in his own home, but even as the Old Ancestor, he was unable to do anything to punish the murderer. This feeling of helplessness troubled his heart.
“Why bother with so much nonsense?” Lin Yun seemed to become impatient and shouted, “Wasn’t it just a maidservant? Can’t we just settle this matter with some compensation? Is a hundred thousand Source Crystals good enough for you? No? Then how about two hundred thousand! For a small family like yours, two hundred thousand Source Crystals is a huge sum of money, enough to spend for several years! Accept my offer or face the consequences!”
There was not even a slight trace of regret on his contemptuous face, as if the maidservant on the ground wasn’t even killed by him.
Hearing this, the middle-aged man did not make any attempt to stop him. Obviously, he had the same thought. It would be best if they could settle the issue like this. If not, he would not mind shedding all the pretence of cordiality and using threats to ensure this matter did not spread out later.
On the opposite side, Qin Zhao Yang, who looked lost earlier, immediately became enraged.
The middle-aged man hurriedly cut in, “Don’t lose your temper, Patriarch Qin. Although my Junior Brother Lin Yun’s words are a bit crass, they are not unreasonable.”
It was clear that the middle-aged man from Eight Paths Sect was trying to resolve the problem peacefully with money. Although the Qin Family was no match for Eight Paths Sect in terms of strength, the latter were ultimately the party at fault here, so the middle-aged man did not want to further complicate the matter and avoid the spread of rumours which might mar their reputation.
Qin Zhao Yang was keeping quiet, and no one knew what was on his mind, but just by looking at him, everyone could see that his eyes were filled with unwillingness and anger. He stood there with his fists clenched so hard that the cracking sound of his bones could be heard.
Even seeing this, Lin Yun continued to mock him with a smug face, “Old Patriarch Qin, you better consider this carefully. One wrong decision will be enough to cost the small Qin Family… “
He sounded gruesome, and his words were full of threat.
At that moment, a voice suddenly came from outside, “A human life… costs just two hundred thousand Source Crystal? Ahem ahem… Just how cheaply do you value life?”
This person coughed softly while speaking, as if they had some serious illness.
“Who’s there!?” Lin Yun was maddened and hurriedly turned to yell in the direction of the voice.
Qin Yu was slowly walking over with the help of Hui’er from that side. She looked pale and fragile, like a small flower beaten by the storm, making everyone instinctually want to protect her.
Lin Yun was dazzled, his eyes lighting up as he gazed at Qin Yu with excitement.
Qin Yu was a beauty, and her current illness added a morbid sense of elegance to her continence, bewitching Lin Yun’s soul, causing him to lust after her.
Just as the middle-aged man said, Lin Yun was obsessed with women. It had been almost two months since he came to Maplewood City and he had been staying in the Qin Residence all this time, finally losing control of his impulses and trying to take advantage of the two maidservants today. If it were not for him, this mess would not have happened.
But when he saw Qin Yu, he instantly regretted his actions. He could not believe that he actually had the thoughts of laying his hands on plain women like those maids which would have only brought disgrace to his status.
[Even if I should have any thoughts, it should be about this woman in front of me!]
“Yu’er!” Qin Zhao Yang’s expression changed dramatically as he rushed over to Qin Yu. Supporting her by her side, he quickly reprimanded, “Why did you come out? Didn’t Old Ancestor ask you to rest well?”
Qin Yu forced a smile, “I felt like something bad was about to happen… I was worried, so I came to see.”
During the conversation, she took a glance at the maidservant’s corpse. Seeing her terrible condition, Qin Yu’s already pale face turned even paler.
“This Young Lady…” Lin Yun smiled brilliantly and began speaking in a voice laced with suave. When he was about to greet Qin Yu, however, the middle-aged man glared fiercely at him and snapped, “Stand back! Don’t you think you’ve caused enough trouble already?!”
Lin Yu was seemingly afraid of this middle-aged man, so after being reprimanded, he kept his mouth shut, looking embarrassed.
Several other disciples from Eight Paths Sect also could not tolerate his behaviour and glared at him with a reproachful look, blaming him for not being able to restrain himself.
“This must be Young Lady Qin Yu,” the middle-aged man cupped his fist and greeted Qin Yu with a faint smile.
“Does Senior know me?” Qin Yu coughed lightly and looked at him with her watery eyes.
The middle-aged man smiled lightly, “When I was inquiring about the news in the city, I heard many stories about the amazing Young Lady of the Qin Family. Seeing you today, it’s clear your reputation is not undeserved.”
It was not common for a lady, who merely had an Origin Returning Realm cultivation and whose vitality was pitifully low due to some unknown severe illness, to actually face and talk freely to a person with the cultivation at the Second-Order Dao Source Realm like him.
The middle-aged man could not see the slightest panic or fear in Qin Yu’s eyes.
More importantly, the middle-aged man sensed that Qin Yu’s lifespan would be up soon, but she still looked calm and composed, as if completely unafraid. One had to know that even old masters who had lived for hundreds of years and had seen great storms in their life may not be able to carry themselves with such poise when their end was approaching.
The middle-aged man could not help but gaze at her again in amazement.
“What Young Lady Yu meant just now… was that our offer was too low?” Even though the middle-aged man thought that Qin Yu was extraordinary, he still did not take her seriously; after all, she was just an Origin Returning Realm Cultivator, and also just a Young Lady from a small family. She could catch his eyes for a bit, but to him, she did not deserve to be treated specially, so after some pleasantries, he went straight back into the topic and continued with his smile, “If so, Young Lady Yu, please offer us your price. We, Eight Paths Sect, are not some great Sect, but we still can afford some Source Crystals.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Qin Yu responded coldly, “Do you think this is a business deal to be bartered and bargained over?”
The middle-aged man looked embarrassed and forced a smile, “Young Lady Yu, what you mean is… “
“Life is priceless!” Qin Yu shouted.
The middle-aged man narrowed his eyes and in a much colder tone than before, he asked “Please speak clearly, Young Lady Yu. I’m afraid I don’t understand your meaning here.”
He had gradually lost his patience. Even though the issue was indeed caused by Lin Yun, he was still a Second-Order Dao Source Realm Master and had already lowered his status and showed much respect to them, hoping that they would accept his courtesy and give everyone a way out.
However, not only was the Old Ancestors of this Qin Family acting stubborn, even this Junior was reluctant to let this matter drop, which of course annoyed him greatly.
Despite the massive gap between their strengths, the middle-aged man still gave them massive face by negotiating with them politely, but their persistent decline of his offer had made him feel humiliated instead.
“A life for a life, that is the principle of Heaven and Earth!” Qin Yu declared.
“What?” The middle-aged man’s face changed. He really did not expect Qin Yu to make such a ridiculous request.
Lin Yun jumped up in shock and snapped, “Woman, are you crazy? How dare you ask for the life of this Young Master? How can you even compare the life of a single piece of trash with this Young Master’s life? Do you have some kind of death wish?”
“Watch your mouth, you bastard!” Qin Zhao Yang burst out with anger and cursed him when he heard that this good for nothing actually dared to insult Qin Yu.
Lin Yu laughed with overwhelming anger as he kept nodding his head, “Good, good, good, everyone in this small family has guts! Today, this Young Master shall teach you some proper manners!”
He released his Source Qi while speaking, getting ready to attack.
“Fool!” The middle-aged man suddenly burst out at Lin Yun as he ground his teeth and shouted, “What do you think you’re doing?”
Lin Yun was dumbfounded and pointed at Qin Zhao Yang and Qin Yu, “You heard them, right? Isn’t it obvious what I’m going to do?!”
The middle-aged man’s face darkened as he sent his voice directly into Lin Yun’s ear, “Killing them is easy, and even if bad rumours spread out, our Sect will just lose some reputation at most. It’s impossible for anyone to stand up for this small family and disturb our Eight Paths Sect.”
“Then what are you worried about?” Lin Yun was confused. He did not understand why the middle-aged man stopped him.
“Are you trying to alarm ‘that’ person? Do you know what would happen to you if you alarmed him for something like this?” The middle-aged man looked at him coldly.
Lin Yun’s expression changed after hearing this. ‘That’ person the middle-aged man mentioned seemed to be a terrifying existence to Lin Yun and his face quickly turned pale just hearing about him, causing his Source Qi to completely deflate.
This scene was imprinted into the eyes of Qin Yu and Qin Zhao Yang. They did not know what kind of secret conversation was held between the two of Eight Paths Sect disciples, but they were surprised that it actually caused the flames of Lin Yun’s anger to be doused.
The middle-aged man turned back to Qin Yu, cupped his fists, and said, “Young Lady Yu, regarding your last proposal, I’ll pretend I did not hear that. Please ask something else!”
Qin Yu coughed a few times lightly, “I understand that with the strength of our Qin Family, we cannot make you pay with your life… “
“Young Lady Yu understands well,” The middle-aged man praised Qin Yu’s wit with a faint smile.
Qin Yu instantly continued, “Although we are incapable of avenging Xiao Huan, she was still a servant of our Qin Family, and we can’t just let her die unreasonably. As a matter of course, we can’t continue to entertain her enemies in the Qin Residence anymore. All of you… leave!”
Everyone from Eight Paths Sect was stunned at her words, staring at Qin Yu with bulging eyes and funny faces.
The middle-aged man let out a dry cough after a long silence, “What Young Lady Yu just said… do you mean?”
Qin Yu answered, “Am I still not clear enough for you? We, the Qin Family, no longer welcome you here. What’s more, we will not forget this grudge and will one day avenge Xiao Huan’s death.”
She looked straight into his eyes while speaking, with no intention to set her gaze aside.
The face of the middle-aged man was getting colder and colder, while the other disciples of Eight Paths Sect did not look much better.
A breeze swept through the courtyard, and the bloody stench in the air became even stronger.
The middle-aged man stared at Qin Yu with his sharp eyes. After remaining silent for a long time, he responded, “Young Lady Yu… Are you serious?”
The corner of his mouth twitched as he spoke, seemingly not having expected things to develop to this point.
If they were really being kicked out from the Qin Residence by Qin Yu, where would the dignity of Eight Paths Sect be? More importantly, if they were driven away like this, this matter would definitely alarm ‘the’ person that he feared the most. When that person demanded an explanation, what was he supposed to say?
He certainly could not disclose this matter to that person, about how Lin Yun accidentally killed a maidservant of another family but they could not take revenge so they wanted to expel Eight Paths Sect from their residence…
If he really said so, he was sure that neither he nor Lin Yun would have good ends.
That person… was not easy to deal with.
“Do I look like I’m joking to you?” Qin Yu gently bit her red lips, refusing to budge.
The middle-aged man unexpectedly closed his eyes and spoke slowly, “Young Lady Yu, can you make an exception for this? We can’t leave the Qin Residence yet for reasons I cannot share!”
Without waiting for Qin Yu’s response, he immediately raised his finger in the sky and shouted, “One million of Source Crystals! Okay?”
After the shout, Lin Yun and the others changed their faces drastically, their voices cracked, “Senior Brother, are you serious?”
One million of Source Crystals was not a small number. Even though this number was within their capability, Eight Paths Sect was not a big Sect and it would still be a burden to them, so if it were not a last resort, they would be unwilling to pay for so much.
Thinking of this, Lin Yun exclaimed, “What’s done is already done, don’t keep harping on and on about a mere slave. Like it or not, we will give you one million Source Crystals but we will not leave the Qin Residence. If you have the strength to refuse, you’re free to come take revenge on me anytime!”
“Scoundrels! All of you!” Qin Yu stomped her feet in anger. Since the Qin Family was incomparable to Eight Paths Sect in strength, it was impossible to cast them out with force. If the Eight Paths Sect insisted on staying, the Qin Family really could do nothing about it.
It was just that Qin Yu never expected that when everything had reached this point, they could still be so shameless to stay. The level of their shamelessness was unparalleled.
“Hahaha!” Lin Yun cackled, “Yes, this Young Master is a scoundrel, so what? Does Young Lady Qin want to teach me a lesson? I’ll give you a chance now, come with me!”
Just as he finished speaking, he rushed over in front of Qin Yu with a flicker and right before everyone’s eyes, he stretched out his hand to grab her shoulder.
The middle-aged man saw this happen and wanted to react, but hesitated, then closed his eyes and pretended he did not see anything.
He was mad that the Qin Family couldn’t appreciate kindness and since they preferred to settle things through force, he simply turned a blind eye to Lin Yu’s actions. Making this small family bear the consequences of standing up against them would allow them to understand who was really in charge here.
“Scram!” Qin Zhao Yang, who was beside Qin Yu, immediately burst out at Lin Yu. Seeing Lin Yu charging towards her, Qing Zhao Yang could not just sit back and watch, pushing his Source Qi madly he sent out a palm that could crush mountains. Clearly, he was not holding back in the slightest.
Lin Yun sneered, “Old man, it seems you don’t understand the immensity of Heaven and Earth. You really think that you can stop this Young Master with just this?”
He did not intend to evade and instead turned his claw into a palm and sent it out to meet Qin Zhao Yang’s.
A sinister force pulsed out as Lin Yun seemed to have transformed into an extremely poisonous snake, flicking its forked tongue as it sniffed its prey.
Qin Zhao Yang’s face changed as he understood that if this palm strike was to hit him, he would certainly not have a good end; after all, he was now old and weak. Although he was a Dao Source Realm cultivator, his remaining strength could not be compared to his prime while on the opposite side, Lin Yun, who was still young, energetic, and possessed a Second-Order Dao Source Realm cultivation, was simply not someone that he could contend with.
But this was a matter of Qin Yu’s safety, so even though he knew he would suffer, Qin Zhao Yang did not fall back, instead pushing his Source Qi even more madly as he met Lin Yu’s aggression head-on.
“Overconfidence!” Lin Yun clicked his tongue and teased with his head shaking slowly.
*Peng…*
The palms touched and their intense Source Qi collided, releasing a powerful shockwave that kicked up a violent wind as well as sand and rock from the courtyard.
Then…
A shocking scene happened.
The moment when the two skills clashed, surprisingly, Lin Yun’s body trembled before his face changed drastically. After he let out a scream, he was thrown out while coughing up a mouthful of blood mid-air before slamming heavily into a building behind him, opening a big pit hole in its walls.
*Hong long long…”
There was a continuous sound of crashing in the room, as if Lin Yun could not control his momentum and was smashed through more and more walls.
“What?” The middle-aged man and the rest of the Eight Paths Sect disciples were dumbstruck as they watched this unbelievable scene with their eyes bulging.
Meanwhile, the guards of the Qin Family, who were initially consumed with fear despite their hatred for the enemy, were equally shocked; but soon, all of them beamed with delight and cheered triumphantly.
“Old Ancestor, you…” Qin Yu looked over in confusion. Although she could not detect Lin Yun’s true cultivation, she sensed he was much stronger than the Old Ancestor.
How did the Old Ancestor knock him back in just one move then?
That was impossible!
Qin Zhao Yang was dumbfounded too. He actually had mentally prepared himself to be critically injured as he laid his life on the line in order to keep Qin Yu safe.
In any case, he would not just sit back and watch Qin Yu being captured and humiliated by Lin Yun.
However, the end result surprised him greatly.
But after a short moment, he seemingly realized something and turned around.
There, he saw a man with a smiling face standing behind him, supporting his back with his hand while infusing him with a stream of pure and vigorous Source Qi.
It was this man who assisted him in knocking back Lin Yun!
Qin Zhao Yang’s eyes lit up as he joyfully shouted, “Yang Kai!”
He found that the one who quietly helped him from behind was the person that he had been waiting for to return to Maplewood City, Yang Kai.
“Ah?” Qin Yu was startled when he heard Qin Zhao Yang’s shout and turned her gaze to look in his direction. When she saw Yang Kai, she could not help covering her mouth and let out a trembling voice, “Sir Yang!”
“Who?!” The middle-aged man from Eight Paths Sect regained his wits and bellowed, furiously glaring at Yang Kai as he shouted, “Who are you? How dare you injure our Eight Paths Sect’s disciple with such a treacherous trick!”
“Eight Paths Sect?” Yang Kai raised his brow after hearing this and instantly swept across the middle-aged man and the disciples of the Eight Paths Sect with his eyes. However, he did not find the person that he was looking for and could not help feeling disappointed, “Are all of you disciples of Eight Paths Sects?”
“Indeed!” Seeing Yang Kai seemingly aware of their reputation, the middle-aged man became emboldened, “Who are you?”
The middle-aged man couldn’t hide his bewilderment while speaking. For some reason, he found Yang Kai’s face to be a little familiar, as if he had seen him somewhere before, but he could not remember where.
Still, he did not back down and rebuked, “You have injured our Eight Paths Sect’s disciple. I don’t care who you are, if you cannot give us an acceptable explanation, don’t even think about leaving alive!”
He spoke with full confidence because when he scanned Yang Kai with his Divine Sense, he found that this boy only had a First-Order Dao Source Realm cultivation. With this kind of strength, he didn’t need to put Yang Kai in his eyes.
It was just that he did not know what kind of Secret Technique Yang Kai had used to toy with Lin Yun together with Qin Zhao Yang. However, after some thought, the middle-aged man assumed that whatever Secret Technique Yang Kai used simply combined the force of two individuals, catching Lin Yun off guard.
“Heh…” Yang Kai looked at the middle-aged man in astonishment, “I really didn’t know that Eight Paths Sect’s disciples were so impressive! Someone who wasn’t aware would believe you came from Star Soul Palace.”
The middle-aged man’s face mixed with anger after being stung by Yang Kai’s mockery, gritting his teeth and shouting, “Enough of your nonsense. Surrender yourself if you want this to end peacefully, refuse and you cannot blame us for being impolite.”
Yang Kai looked at him with an odd expression and replied, “Do I know you? Why would I expect a stranger like you to treat me well? You’re quite funny!”
He next turned to Qin Yu after that and whispered, “Does this man have a problem with his head?”
Qin Yu could not hold her laughter after seeing his hilarious face.
However, Qin Zhao Yang frowned. He knew that Yang Kai was no ordinary person, otherwise, he would not have given him the entry quota to the Four Seasons Realm, but he was not sure if Yang Kai could handle the situation here given that there were so many Masters on the opposite side, making him feel a bit anxious.
“Little brat, it seems like you can’t wait to die!” The middle-aged man exclaimed in anger.
“Stop shouting already,” Yang Kai gave him a disdainful look. “You’re embarrassing both of us.”
Yang Kai ignored the middle-aged man after that and turned to Qin Zhao Yang, “What’s going on here? I only vaguely heard something about a million Source Crystals after I arrived… Explain it to me please.”
He was telling the truth. After receiving the Tribulation Fruit from Azure Sun Temple, Yang Kai rushed to Maplewood City without rest, but as soon as he entered the city, he sensed that there was something wrong as there were too many powerful Masters present compared to when he left.
Upon reaching the Qin Residence, Yang Kai happened to see the scene where Qin Yu was trying to drive away some strangers, but since he was unaware of the circumstances, he decided to observe the situation first. Only after he saw Lin Yu lash out did Yang Kai reveal himself in order to help Qin Zhao Yang.
After being asked by Yang Kai, Qin Zhao Yang glared at the middle-aged man resentfully and succinctly explained what had happened just now.
Yang Kai kept silent as he listened and only after he understood did he lift his head and address the middle-aged man, “So basically, the story is like this: The Qin Family treated all of you well, but one of you killed their servant, and not only did you not feel sorry or even admit your mistake, you instead used your Sect’s strength to try to seize their residence and even tried to abduct the Qin Family’s Young Lady…”
The middle-aged man could not help falling quiet as he was powerless to refute Yang Kai’s assertions.
“Tsk tsk… such tyrannical actions are simply… outrageous!” Yang Kai said in contempt.
The middle-aged man took a deep breath and said, “This one had already offered a million Source Crystals to settle this matter, but they did not appreciate my kindness!”
“Good!” Yang Kai raised his brow, “According to friend then, a million Source Crystals is enough to buy a life and anyone who refuses such an offer would be rejecting kindness, right?”
During his speech, he immediately waved his hand.
In an instant, a hill of Source Crystals piled up in the courtyard. There were countless Source Crystals in this pile, numbering at least ten million.
The disciples of Eight Paths Sect, despite not having poor backgrounds, were still dazzled by this hill of Source Crystals. All of them were staring at it and gulped as they wished they could run up and snatch them.
Qin Zhao Yang and the rest were even more dumbfounded, as they did not understand what Yang Kai was up to.
“Come, come, come,” Yang Kai enthusiastically beckoned to the disciples of Eight Paths Sect with a bright smile on his face, “Be my guest, everyone take a million Source Crystals, not one more or less…”
All of a sudden, the atmosphere of the conversation changed as the smile on Yang Kai’s face turned into a gloomy sneer as he continued, “Once you take them, I’ll kill all of you!”
*Deng deng deng…*
All of the Eight Paths Sect disciples took a few steps back, looking at Yang Kai in shock, and one of them even shouted, “Are you making a joke?”
Although a million Source Crystals was no small sum, one still needed to be alive to enjoy them. What was the point of taking Source Crystals when they didn’t have their life?
The face of the middle-aged man grew even more sombre as, at this point, he fully understood Yang Kai’s intentions.
Yang Kai clearly wanted to treat him the way he had been treating the Qin Family. After he understood this, he could not help sneering, “I see that you are not from the Qin Family, so why wade into this muddy water? We can still be friends if you step away now.”
“Who wants to be friends with you?” Yang Kai sneered, “Just accept my offer, or don’t you understand how to appreciate kindness?”
The middle-aged man raged at this taunt, “It looks like we have nothing left to say!”
“Piercing Light, Nine Frozen Heavens!” The middle-aged man was a decisive person, so seeing that there was no room for negotiation, he decided to strike first. Swiftly summoning a snow-white sword into his hand, he held it up and condensed a frigid light around it, one that seemed capable of penetrating deep into one’s Soul and freezing the world around it.
The complexions of the disciples of Eight Paths Sect changed slightly as they hastily retreated. Obviously, they understood how powerful this move was.
Qin Zhao Yang hurriedly grabbed Qin Yu and retreated with her while the Qin Family guards and servants also cleared out in an instant, not wanting to get involved in this fight.
Sword Qi swirled and with a flick of his wrist, the middle-aged man surrounded himself in sword light and charged straight towards Yang Kai, freezing the air he passed through into ice.
“Hahahaha!” Yang Kai stood on the spot, grinning mockingly as he stared down his approaching opponent with utter contempt, not even attempting to dodge.
Seeing Yang Kai acting so confident and arrogant, the middle-aged man could not help feeling stunned as a faint unease filled his heart.
“How dare a small fly like you act so presumptuous in front of this Young Master!” Yang Kai’s grin turned into a sneer and with a flicker, he disappeared. The next instant, he reappeared right in front of the middle-aged man and stretched out a finger towards him.
On the tip of his finger was a flash of golden light, one condensed from extremely dense and pure Source Qi.
*Dang…*
With a soft ring, the middle-aged man’s face changed wildly as he froze mid-air, his eyes bulging as he stared in horror as his full-powered strike was blocked by his opponent’s finger.
Even more horrifying was that Yang Kai’s finger, made of flesh and blood, was completely unharmed despite it clashing with a sword artifact. In fact, looking closely, it was the middle-aged man’s sword that appeared to be dented from this clash.
As the middle-aged man stood flabbergasted, his sword gave a final tremble before the ice-cold aura surrounding it finally dissipated.
“How can that be?” The middle-aged man exclaimed, his eyes threatening to pop out of their sockets.
He released his Divine Sense once again to investigate Yang Kai’s cultivation, but he could only sense he was a First-Order Dao Source Realm Junior, a Minor Realm lower than himself. However, this power shown by Yang Kai was definitely not what a First-Order Dao Source Realm cultivator should have.
Yang Kai’s mind-boggling abilities completely left him at a loss as he felt he was now in deep trouble.
“Luo Yuan was one thing, but you’re not my opponent!” When Yang Kai snorted coldly, the intensity of the Source Qi on his fingertip suddenly increased drastically, releasing a golden flash of light as it shot forward.
“You know Junior Brother Luo?” The middle-aged man trembled as he stared at Yang Kai in amazement. All of a sudden a realisation dawned on him as he exclaimed, “You’re Yang Kai! Yang Kai from the Four Seasons Realm!”
He seemed to finally recall something and yelled in surprise.
As soon as this shout rang out, the golden light swallowed him, and the middle-aged man screamed in agony as he was shot out and smashed into the ground, opening up a giant pit inside of which he writhed in pain.
“Yang Kai?”
“The same Yang Kai from the Four Seasons Realm?”
“Yes! It’s him! It’s definitely him! No wonder he looked so familiar!”
Nearby, the disciples of Eight Paths Sect all yelled in panic.
It was only at this moment that they finally recognized Yang Kai, who outsmarted and overpowered all the Southern Territory’s geniuses with his Extraordinary Treasure Pills in the Four Seasons Realm. During the incident in Four Seasons Realm, while Yang Kai was carrying out his exchange, some of them had been watching from a distance.
They did not dare to get too close because Luo Yuan was already present at that time, and therefore, it took them until now to recognize his face.
It was not until the middle-aged man’s realization that everyone else realized Yang Kai’s identity.
At once, all of them paled and began leaking cold sweat.
Although they had never fought against Yang Kai, they knew what happened in the Four Seasons Realm.
Even rising stars like Wu Chang, Luo Yuan, and several others were unable to touch a single hair on Yang Kai’s, so it need not be mentioned what their chances were.
The most recent opening of the Four Seasons Realm had been the debut of two new rising stars. One of them was Luo Yuan from their Eight Paths Sect, who was an equal match against Wu Chang of Heavenly Martial Holy Land, a genius whose strength could not be underestimated.
The other was Yang Kai.
Possessing only a First-Order Dao Source Realm cultivation, he was also a Dao Source Grade Alchemist who had refined the Extraordinary Treasure Pills and toyed with all the masters in the Four Seasons Realm like they were children.
It was safe to say that even if the reputations of these two rising stars weren’t on par with those of Xia Sheng, Wu Chang, and Xiao Chen, they were not far behind.
This was also the reason that while other small families in Maplewood City were hosting disciples from two or three Sects, the Qin Family only hosted Eight Paths Sect.
Because of Luo Yuan, the cultivators from other Sects dared not to provoke them. Luo Yuan wasn’t even afraid of Wu Chang. In this world, besides Emperor Realm Master, who else would he fear?
“Hai hai…” The middle-aged man from Eight Paths Sect was knocked over by Yang Kai but did not suffer any mortal injuries, so he stood up quickly as he coughed and looked over at Yang Kai in fear, gritting his teeth as he cupped his fists “This one had failed to recognize Grandmaster Yang! Please do not take offence!”
His cultivation was higher than Yang Kai’s, and he was also older than Yang Kai, so addressing Yang Kai as Senior or Sir would be too humiliating to himself; however, concerned that Yang Kai would be displeased if addressed him as brother, the middle-aged man settled on calling him ‘Grandmaster’. In any case, the other party was a Dao Source Grade Alchemist, so it wasn’t an inappropriate title.
“What?” Qin Zhao Yang was shocked as he stared at the middle-aged man, amazed at how this man could be so arrogant before but changed his attitude so quickly and was addressing Yang Kai so respectfully in a blink of an eye, even calling him ‘Grandmaster’…
There was a strange light glimmering in Qin Yu’s beautiful eyes as it seemed she was thinking of something.
“What’s so strange…” Yang Kai grinned.
“Grandmaster Yang, please be forgiving…” The middle-aged man smiled.
Yang Kai changed his tone, and said coldly, “Is there a need to be forgiving with a dead man?”
The smile on the middle-aged man’s face froze as a chill crept up his spine. Hurriedly, he said, “Grandmaster Yang, what happened today is indeed my Junior Brother Lin’s fault…”
“Of course he is in the wrong!” Yang Kai snorted coldly.
“But please, Grandmaster Yang, please consider that Junior Brother Lin has learned his lesson and give him a chance to repent!” He pleaded earnestly.
“A life for a life. I only knocked him out just now, and you call that a lesson?” Yang Kai sneered sarcastically, “Are the lives of others only worth this much to you?”
Sweat beaded on his forehead as he saw Yang Kai’s unrelenting posture. Gritting his teeth, the middle-aged man painfully and anxiously said, “Just so Grandmaster Yang knows, Junior Brother Lin Yun… is the nephew of Vice Sect Master, Lin Rui!”
He brought up Lin Rui, in hopes that Yang Kai would be aware of the dangers of pushing the situation further and would thus spare Lin Yun’s life. However, Yang Kai just snorted, “Lin Rui? What thing is he? Why should I care what he thinks!”
The middle-aged man turned pale, realizing that matters would not end well today.
“In any case, I will have to kill someone today, it can either be you, or that guy over there who fainted,” Yang Kai flicked his wrist and summoned the Myriads Sword into his hand. Instantly, the air filled with Emperor Pressure as the Emperor Aura sword rippled with intimidating energy.
Lifting the large Myriads Sword towards the middle-aged man, Yang Kai shouted, “You choose!”
As he spoke, he raised the corner of his mouth slightly and sneered, “Would you like to die in place of that guy? Since he’s the nephew of your Vice Sect Master, if you die for him, perhaps your precious Vice Sect Master will take good care of your family after you’re gone!”
“This, this… I, I, I…” The middle-aged man backed away as he babbled incoherently, trembling at the mere sight of the Myriads Sword in Yang Kai’s hand. Although he had never seen an Emperor Artifact before, he knew that this great sword was an extraordinary weapon. He also knew that Yang Kai was not joking. The murderous intent in Yang Kai’s eyes was clear and unmistakable.
However… Although Lin Yun held great status in Eight Paths Sect, how could he be willing to die in his place?
“If you refuse to choose, I’ll decide myself,” Yang Kai snorted lightly before he turned to Qin Zhao Yang, “Patriarch Qin, they killed one of your clan, I will consider it as revenge for the clan by using the Qin Family’s artifact for the execution, is that alright?”
“Absolutely!” Qin Zhao Yang shouted heavily, “Please go ahead, Brother Yang!”
Yang Kai nodded lightly and he lifted up the Myriads Sword, just as he was about to perform a strike though, his expression changed and he turned his eyes towards the sky and curled his lips, “Since you’ve come, you should just show yourself, why bother hiding?”
“There’s someone else?” Qin Zhao Yang’s complexion changed as he quickly looked in that direction, but saw nothing, becoming somewhat suspicious.
A moment later, a wave of ripples appeared in the void and two figures suddenly appeared.
It was a man and a woman, the man was a youth with a cold, aloof face, as if everything and everyone was beneath him. The woman was petite and cute, with a round face. She stood quietly behind the young man, her beautiful eyes were always on his back, as if there was nothing else in the world apart from him in her world.
“It’s him!” Qin Zhao Yang’s expression turned gloomy.
He immediately recognized this man and woman as the lead disciples of Eight Paths Sect and the one who brought this middle-aged man and the other disciples of Eight Paths Sect to the Qin Family.
Since the day they arrived, this young man had entered closed-door cultivation and it was rumoured in the Qin Family Residence that he was cultivating frantically without even taking any time to rest.
Qin Zhao Yang also knew that this person was named Luo Yuan, one of the rising stars, just like Yang Kai, who appeared in the Four Seasons Realm.
The round-faced woman, on the other hand, seemed to be the daughter of Eight Paths Sect’s Sect Master and she was hopelessly enamoured with Luo Yuan. Since they arrived, she had been guarding his courtyard, never taking a step away. It was a pity that this was just unrequited love, however, as it was quite clear from Luo Yuan’s attitude he did not return her affection.
“Junior Brother Luo, Young Lady!” The middle-aged man was overjoyed when he saw these two people appearing, but soon he seemed to have thought of something and became horrified.
Luo Yuan glanced at him lightly and frowned, “You’re quite noisy!”
His words silenced all the members of Eight Paths Sect, their faces paling, as if they were extremely afraid of Luo Yuan.
It was the truth though. In Eight Paths Sect, everyone, including the Sect Master and Vice Sect Master, was afraid of Luo Yuan. The Sect Master had once said that Luo Yuan was a one-in-a-billion genius and that one day he would gain fame and reputation across the Star Field, rising above all others, so everyone in the Sect had never said no to any of his requests, big or small. The hope of bringing glory to the Sect was all pinned on Luo Yuan.
Luo Yuan’s words were equivalent to the words of the Sect Master. He occupied the best cave mansion in the Sect and was given nearly half of the cultivating resources available. When he was cultivating, no one dared to interfere, unless they wanted to die.
This was also the biggest reason why the disciples of Eight Paths Sect did not want to magnify the issue before – they did not want to disturb Luo Yuan!
Who knew that he was still alarmed in the end.
The disciples of Eight Paths Sect were both terrified and delighted – terrified that Luo Yuan might punish them for putting him in a bad mood, while on the other hand, delighted that a strong backup had come to rescue them out of trouble.
“Ah… It’s you!” At that moment, the round-faced woman who had been standing behind Luo Yuan came back to her senses and broke her obsessive gaze away from Luo Yuan. She looked around with a frown and cried out when her eyes met Yang Kai, “You are that… that…”
She could not remember Yang Kai’s name.
Yang Kai smiled slightly, “Yang Kai!”
“Yes, yes, you are the one who exchanged an Extraordinary Treasure Pill with me in the Four Seasons Realm. Why are you here?” The round-faced woman recalled her last encounter with Yang Kai.
“Why can’t I be here?” Yang Kai was amused.
The round-faced woman tilted her head and thought, silently agreeing that the question she asked was a bit nonsensical. She then smiled at him and did not speak again.
Luo Yuan’s gaze was locked on Yang Kai, a boundless fighting intent suddenly flashing across his eyes that were originally as quiet and still as water.
Yang Kai grinned, “How long have you been here?”
Luo Yuan said lightly, “Not too long!” After a pause, he added, “I was alerted when you summoned that artifact in your hand, then I came and saw that you wanted to kill a disciple from my Sect.”
He carried an indifferent tone as he spoke, but the annoyance and coldness were clear in his words.
No matter what, he was still a disciple of Eight Paths Sect so he could not just sit back and watch a fellow disciple get killed.
The middle-aged man was overjoyed and shouted hurriedly, “Junior Brother Luo, this person who thinks he’s unbeatable is disrespecting our Sect. Not only did he attack Junior Brother Lin Yun, but he also wounded me. Junior Brother Luo, please seek justice for us!”
He changed his previous yes-man attitude towards Yang Kai and became extremely arrogant, feeling secure and confident now that he had a backer here.
“Really?” Luo Yuan frowned and looked at Yang Kai coldly.
Yang Kai smiled, “En, I knocked out the one lying there, and I hurt the one who spoke earlier.”
“How bold of you!” Luo Yuan raised the corners of his mouth, “This is what men should be like, I admire you!”
“Is Brother Luo going to stand up for them?” Yang Kai looked at him with a smile.
“There’s a Secret Technique that I have been cultivating recently, but I seem to have reached a bottleneck, and closed-door meditation has been fruitless to break through it…” Luo Yuan suddenly talked about an irrelevant topic, but the scorching intent in his eyes intensified as he spoke. The Source Qi in his body trembled as he shouted in a low voice, “I was still worried that I could not find a worthy opponent here in this pathetic countryside, but it’s perfect now that Brother Yang is here!”
“Do you want to use me to break through the bottleneck of your Secret Technique?” Yang Kai looked at him oddly.
“Indeed!”
“Why should I help you?” Yang Kai quipped, “I won’t do anything that doesn’t get me anything!”
“You have no choice,” Luo Yuan snorted coldly as he stepped forward and approached Yang Kai, his aura strengthening with each stride.
From the posture he assumed, regardless of whether Yang Kai agreed or not, he was going to make a move.
Yang Kai frowned.
Luo Yuan was no ordinary cultivator, not to mention that he was already a Third-Order Dao Source Realm. His extraordinary combat power alone should not be underestimated.
If it was not necessary, Yang Kai would rather not get into a fight with him. They were still in the Qin Residence and fighting a battle here would definitely flatten at least a third of this place while also likely wounding the already weak Qin Yu and the others.
Yang Kai was not as unscrupulous as Luo Yuan and would not act without giving any consideration to others.
“Stop!” At this moment, Qin Yu suddenly yelled.
Luo Yuan paused, a look of displeasure flashed across his face as he shouted in a low voice, “Who are you?”
There was a murderous intent on his face as he looked extremely unhappy being interrupted by Qin Yu. If he was not actively suppressing himself, he likely would have killed her already.
Qin Yu said, “Qin Family Qin Yu!”
Luo Yuan retracted his murderous intent upon hearing this and muttered “So you are the owner of this place, huh?”
A frown appeared on his face as he fell silent for a time before asking, “What is it you want to say?”
His murderous look before had subsided and it was replaced with a cold but still polite posture, surprising Yang Kai greatly.
“I would never presume to tell you what to do. You are strong after all and the Qin Family is weak,” Qin Yu said sarcastically. “It’s just that a disciple of your Eight Paths Sect killed a servant from our family, so shouldn’t Your Excellency give us an explanation first?”
“Killed a servant from your family?” Luo Yuan’s face became cold, “Such a thing happened?”
“The body is still here, can you not see it?” Qin Yu ground her teeth.
Luo Yuan turned his gaze to the female corpse in the courtyard and frowned before he gazed towards the middle-aged man and asked, “What happened?”
The middle-aged man was flustered and did not know how to answer. He stammered and was unable to say anything.
“I will count to three. If you have not answered by then, you know the consequences!” Luo Yuan’s expression became colder, “One… “
The middle-aged man suddenly shuddered and began rapidly explaining what had happened without leaving out any details or adding any inflammatory remarks.
After hearing what had happened, Luo Yuan thoughtfully said, “So, Brother Yang made a move because of this?”
“Ye… yes…” The middle-aged man glanced at Yang Kai and nodded in agreement, not daring to falsely accuse Yang Kai.
“I understand now!” Luo Yuan nodded before his figure flickered and he shot into a nearby ruined room. When he emerged once more, he was carrying the fainted Lin Yun in his hand.
Yang Kai looked at him with interest, uncertain how Luo Yuan would deal with Lin Yun and what kind of explanation he would give the Qin Family.
“You’re the Young Lady of the Qin Family, right?” Luo Yuan looked at Qin Yu and said lightly, “Since he was the murderer, watch carefully!”
Luo Yuan then madly poured his Source Qi in the hand holding Lin Yun’s neck.
In an instant, Lin Yun swelled up and his skin turned blood red.
Yang Kai’s eyes narrowed, secretly amazed.
The faces of the disciples from the Eight Paths Sect filled with shock as the middle-aged man cried out, “Junior Brother Luo, don’t!”
Lin Yun woke up from his unconsciousness in severe pain at that moment, but he was still a little dazed and had no clue what was happening. The sight which greeted him, however, was Luo Yuan’s face so Lin Yun couldn’t help calling out in shock, “Luo… Senior Brother Luo!”
“En,” Luo Yuan nodded casually before increasing the strength of his grip as he poured more Source Qi into him.
“Ah…” Lin Yun screamed, realizing that something was wrong, “Don’t… don’t… “
*Peng… *
With a loud explosion, Lin Yun popped in Luo Yuan’s hands and turned into a blood mist that scattered across the sky. However, even though Luo Yuan stood right next to him, he remained completely spotless.
Silence filled the courtyard.
The entire Qin Family stood frozen in place while the disciples from Eight Paths Sect looked at each other in shock, none of them daring to take a breath.
No one expected that Luo Yuan would kill Lin Yun just like that!
Weren’t they fellow brothers from the same Sect? Wasn’t Lin Yun the nephew of Eight Paths Sect’s Vice Sect Master?
Everyone was flabbergasted by the cruel and cold-blooded brutality of Luo Yuan.
“Are you satisfied with this explanation, Young Lady Qin?” Luo Yuan looked at Qin Yu.
Qin Yu gritted her teeth “Satisfied!”
The murderer had died in front of her eyes, what else could she say? A life for a life, Luo Yuan actually fulfilled this condition, so there was nothing left for her to complain about.
“Good!” Luo Yuan nodded lightly, disregarding what other people thought as he turned back to Yang Kai, “Brother Yang, let’s begin!”
Yang Kai was flummoxed, “Begin? Begin what? Can you not control yourself a bit more? Do you just want to fight and kill all day?”
Qin Zhao Yang thought that Yang Kai was afraid of Luo Yuan, so he hurriedly stepped up, “Little Brother Luo, since we have settled the matter and the murderer had paid the price, let’s sit down and have a good chat, this Old Master will offer his best hospitality.”
Luo Yuan ignored him and continued to focus his attention on Yang Kai, “Brother Yang, you are disappointing… What happened to your domineering madness in the Four Seasons Realm? How can you reach the peak of the Martial Dao if you shy away from challenges?”
“The peak of the Martial Dao?” Yang Kai curled his lips fiercely, “I am only a First-Order Dao Source Realm now, isn’t it too early to start thinking about such things?”
“A successful person is always farsighted!” Luo Yuan said, “Brother Yang, you shouldn’t be so short-sighted.”
Yang Kai said seriously, “Wrong, wrong, it’s all wrong!”
Luo Yuan asked unexpectedly, “What’s wrong?”
Yang Kai replied, “I think it’s only right to be realistic, to take one step forward at a time instead of reaching out for something that is beyond one’s grasp.”
Luo Yuan frowned, “If one has no ambitious goals, how can they move forward?”
He looked like he was preparing to debate with Yang Kai to get his way, so Yang Kai responded impatiently, “Let’s just agree to disagree and mind our own business.”
“I want to fight Brother Yang now!”
“You’re still not giving up…” Yang Kai stood forward immediately and snapped, “What’s the point of fighting against me? With the abilities I possess, you can’t even touch a single hair on my head!”
“Uh…” Luo Yuan was taken aback and suddenly recalled that Yang Kai was proficient in the Dao of Space. Back in the Four Seasons Realm, Yang Kai had been able to utterly ignore all of the powerful Masters targeting him precisely because no one below the Emperor Realm could stop him from coming or going as he pleased.
Luo Yuan really may not be able to even touch a hair on Yang Kai…
“Don’t run…” Luo Yuan thought for a while and proposed, “Let’s have a passionate, bloody fight like real men.”
Everyone looked anxious.
Yang Kai looked at him disrespectfully and sneered, “Have you gone stupid from cultivating too hard? Why shouldn’t I use all of my abilities in a fight?”
“Silence!” The round-faced woman who kept standing behind Luo Yan suddenly frowned and yelled at Yang Kai, “Don’t speak ill of Senior Brother Luo.”
“Brother Yang…” Luo Yang bellowed at Yang Kai, “Let’s fight!”
Yang Kai facepalmed, feeling speechless about this man.
At this moment, the surrounding atmosphere changed again.
With the sound of whistling in the air, the figures of many Masters appeared from all directions and all of them cast their eyes on Yang Kai’s Myriad Sword as soon as they arrived. After their attentive observation, their eyes glowed in greed.
They were certainly alerted by the Emperor Pressure of this Emperor Artifact, so they all came from their places to examine it and after seeing the Myriads Sword, they naturally coveted it.
The people who came here were basically Third-Order Dao Source Realm Masters while there were no Emperors present. Even if a cultivator of their level had seen an Emperor Artifact occasionally, it was still just a glimpse and none ever had a chance to possess one.
But now, to their surprise, an Emperor Artifact appeared in a small Maplewood City, and it was a sword-type artifact that specialized in killing!
They scanned with their Divine Senses and could not help feeling delighted when they found Yang Kai was just a First-Order Dao Source Realm cultivator.
Luo Yang frowned involuntarily, displeased at the sight of newcomers. Pushing his Source Qi, he created a visible ripple in the air with him as its centre that served as a warning blast to the surroundings.
“All of you, scram!” He let out a burst of anger at these people who were interfering with his battle with Yang Kai.
*Deng deng deng…*
Those people who came, regardless of cultivation or age, were deterred by this display of power and presence and quickly retreated a certain distance away in fear.
Not to mention that everyone recognized Luo Yuan due to his recent rise in fame, even if they did not, and after seeing the power he just released, they knew that he was not an ordinary Third-Order Dao Source Realm cultivator, so why would they play with fire?
However, two among them remained where they stood, unintimidated by Luo Yuan.
The two were both elderly men, one of them looked as if he was meditating with his eyes closed, completely ignoring the presence of Luo Yuan, turning a deaf ear to him, while the other just sneered as a light flashed across his eyes, as if mocking Luo Yuan for his overconfidence.
These two were Flying Saint Palace’s Left and Right Protectors, Gao Shan and Liu Shui.
The two Protectors had been staying in the City Lord’s Mansion earlier, guarding Young Palace Master Ning Yuan Shu, but as soon as they sensed the Emperor Pressure released by an Emperor Artifact, they asked Ning Yuan Shu for permission and hurried over. They just happened to arrive just as Luo Yuan was unleashing his anger.
“Young man, you should not become angered so easily…” Protector Liu Shui grinned at Luo Yang with a proud and aloof attitude fitting for a Senior, “You’ll be hurt if you act so recklessly.”
“Hmph!” Protector Gao Shan opened his eyes and snorted coldly, “Youngsters nowadays really don’t know the immensity of Heaven and Earth. They don’t put the heroes of the world in their eyes just because they have a little capability. One day, that arrogance will get you in trouble.”
“Two Seniors are wise!” Yang Kai looked at them with a humble face and nodded repeatedly, cupping his fist as he greeted them, “This Junior couldn’t agree more with the words two Seniors spoke. I believe these two Seniors must not be ordinary men to be able to speak like this.”
“It’s nothing, it’s nothing,” Liu Shui smiled at Yang Kai, finding this little brat quite pleasing to his eyes.
“Those who are willing to be taught will be successful!” Gao Shan did not hesitate to praise too.
“May this Junior ask for these two Seniors’ honoured names?” Yang Kai asked with a respectful look.
“Old Master Gao Shan!”
“Old Master Liu Shui!”
The two of them answered one after another, then spoke in unison, “We are the Left and Right Protectors of Flying Saint Palace!”
Their introduction seemed to have gone through many drills, and they spoke their lines proficiently, without any pauses.
“Flying Saint Palace…” Yang Kai’s face changed as he responded in amazement, “I can’t believe these two Seniors are the famous Protectors Gao Shan and Liu Shui who are famous throughout the whole Southern Territory!”
Looking at the face of Yang Kai, Gao Shan and Liu Shui were pleased with his flattery, with Gao Shan smiling faintly and asking, “So you have heard about our names?”
“Of course, two Seniors’ names resound like thunder across the land!” Yang Kai started spewing nonsense while looking completely earnest.
“HAHAHAHA!” Gao Shan and Liu Shui looked at each other and laughed out loud.
Everyone else who was listening couldn’t help glaring at Yang Kai with utter contempt for his flagrant bootlicking.
At the same time, they also secretly despised the two old fools, Gao Shan and Liu Shui. These two had lived for so many years yet only possessed Third-Order Dao Source Realm cultivations and could be so easily won over with a little sweet talk from a mere brat. How could these two old fools possibly be the two Protectors of Flying Saint Palace?
It seemed that everyone was meeting Gao Shan and Liu Shui for the first time though, so they kept looking at each other with exasperated faces.
“But…” Yang Kai’s face suddenly turned solemn, about to say something but stopping just short.
“But what?” Gao Shan frowned, curiously looking at Yang Kai.
Yang Kai forced a smile and replied, “But it seems that some here do not respect two Seniors. Before two Seniors came here, this Junior happened to hear some unflattering remarks about you!”
“What? Who dares disrespect us Old Masters?” Gao Shan was infuriated and swept his cold eyes across the crowd.
When those cultivators met eyes with Gao Shan and Li Shui, they flinched and looked away. Although these two old men were indeed a bit foolish, there was no doubt about them being strong, otherwise, it would be impossible for them to seize the City Lord’s Mansion.
Therefore, the other Sects could only seek out other families to stay at as they were afraid of the strength of these two old men and dared not to compete with them for the City Lord’s Mansion.
“Was it you?” Gao Shan suddenly stared furiously at a shifty-eyed middle-aged man and yelled.
“No no no!” That middle-aged man quickly waved his hands and explained with cold sweat on his forehead, “This one arrived after you two, how could it have been me?”
“En,” Gao Shan did not suspect him, then he turned to another person, “Then what about you?”
“There is no such thing, this humble one has long admired two Seniors, why would I utter any words of disrespect?” The man singled out answered seriously.
“Who was it then!? Speak now so this Old Master can teach them some proper manners!” Liu Shui was mad too and asked Yang Kai with a glare.
Yang Kai stuttered slightly as he hesitated, “This Junior doesn’t dare to say… This Junior is weak and afraid of being killed after speaking!”
“Say it, don’t be afraid. Who has the courage to touch you when you have these two Old Masters here to protect you? Whoever dares to hurt you, these Old Masters will slaughter his entire family!” Gao Shan ensured Yang Kai’s safety and puffed up with pride.
“With the words of Senior, I can feel relieved,” Yang Kai acted thrilled and swiftly pointed with his finger and shouted, “It was him! It was this boy! Before two Seniors came, he boasted that Gao Shan and Liu Shui, who were supposed to be the strongest in Maplewood City right now, were just some ants in his eyes and he could easily crush them with just his finger. He also said Flying Saint Palace was nothing but a gathering of trash that shelters evildoers, and that all the cultivators in it were not born from their fathers and mothers, but from… “
“From what?” Gao Shan was completely incensed and his clothes began flapping despite there being no wind.
“It’s better for this Junior to not say it, it’s too humiliating!” Yang Kai said in a depressed tone.
“Why you!” Gao Shan was boiling mad and burst out in anger,
“Good, good, good!” Liu Shui also glared at the person pointed out by Yang Kai and sneered, “Young man, you seem to have a foul mouth. Why don’t you show me how you plan on crushing these two Old Masters with just one finger!”
Luo Yuan frowned and looked at Yang Kai, “You’re pointing at me?”
Yang Kai yelled, “Luo Yuan, be a man! Do you want to deny your own words? Masters Gao Shan and Liu Shui are present now! I dare you to say what you just said again! Let’s just see if these two Old Masters beat you to death!”
“En, I understand,” Luo Yuan lightly nodded, surprisingly, he made no attempt to explain himself.
Seeing him not deny the charge, Gao Shan and Liu Shui started to believe Yang Kai more and more.
Gao Shan reprimanded, “Boy, you’ve only earned a bit of fame yet you already think you’re invincible? You need to be taught that there is always someone better than you and have your attitude corrected, for your own sake.”
“Why bother speaking any nonsense with him? He must suffer death for insulting both of us!” Liu Shui snorted coldly as he looked scornfully at Luo Yan, “Little Brat, will you surrender yourself to be executed, or do you prefer we Old Masters come take your head? Let me say this first, if it’s the former, you will suffer less, but if it’s the latter, heh heh… you’ll beg for death before we’re done!”
Listening to Liu Shui’s words, Yang Kai was feeling on top of the world for successfully roping Luo Yuan into this mess.
As he expected, a person as arrogant as Luo Yuan would not sit there doing anything after being threatened. Forget about the fact that he hadn’t said anything insulting about these two old men, even if he did, he would still not have compromised at this moment. Raising his eyes, Luo Yuan revealed a wild and intractable face as he pushed his Source Qi and grinned, “Two old dogs want to take my life? Do you have the ability?”
“You’re only one step away from your grave, yet you’re still speaking boastfully. Take this, boy!” Gao Shan finally lost his temper completely and palmed towards Luo Yuan.
In an instant, the clouds up in the sky began to swirl as the flow of the surrounding Principles began to change and condense into a gigantic palm print that smashed down from above and enveloped Luo Yuan.
The faces of all the cultivators present turned pale.
Given that Gao Shan was a Protector of Flying Saint Palace and had a solid cultivation at the Third-Order Dao Source Realm, his strike was exceptional. Everyone was thinking of a way of defending or evading the attack that could possibly come in their way.
Their faces turned ugly as they kept thinking about it as they realized that they could only dodge this attack while counterattacking would only result in their defeat …
However, Luo Yuan remained standing where he was without any thoughts of evading, as if he were paralyzed in place.
The round-faced woman who was standing behind him, too, stood frozen, her beautiful eyes fixed on Luo Yuan’s heroic back, not even the noises of the crowd entering her ears.
*Hong long long… *
The gigantic palm print which was formed from a combination of Source Qi and Principles slammed down, causing space around Luo Yuan to shake and wicked winds to be kicked up. Even the threads of Divine Senses which were monitoring the situation were being swallowed up in this massive current, making it impossible for others to see what was happening inside.
Several houses in the Qin Residence were also flattened by this explosion and turned into ruins.
“Hmph! This is the result of trash acting arrogant in front of this Old Master!” After Gao Shan’s move hit its mark, he snorted loudly as he folded his arm behind his back, assuming a victory pose.
“It was just a young man who had only cultivated for a few years and thought he could stand against these Old Masters. Such wanton overconfidence!” Liu Shui sneered.
“Is that it?” The voice of Luo Yuan suddenly came out from the centre of the chaotic swirl of energy, followed by a burst of radiance that scattered the halo of light in the next instant.
Luo Yuan reappeared in front of everyone, a layer of Source Qi covering his body that was so dazzling it almost blinded Gao Shan and Liu Shui.
Not only was Luo Yuan unharmed, but even the round-faced woman who had been standing behind him was not affected at all. However, after being attacked like this, the round-faced woman seemed quite annoyed and she frowned deeply towards Gao Shan and Liu Shui.
“This, this, this…” Gao Shan could not help taking a few steps back, looking at Luo Yuan like he had seen a ghost, unable to believe what he saw.
“How can this be?” Liu Shui exclaimed in shock. He was clear just how powerful Gao Shan’s move was, so even if Luo Yuan was a Third-Order Dao Source Realm cultivator as well, it should have been impossible to take it directly unscathed. But the truth was shown in front of his eyes and he was stupefied by it.
“I was still worrying that I couldn’t find a good opponent!” Luo Yuan grinned fiercely, his expression causing all who saw it to shudder, “Since you old dogs have come to me, I have no need to hold back…”
He licked his lips while speaking, as if he suddenly saw a delicious dish after starving for a long time.
His look nearly frightened Gao Shan and Liu Shui to death.
As soon as he finished speaking, Luo Yuan gradually raised his hand and a vigorous Source Qi started pulsing from his body, making a strange noise like waves crashing against rock.
“Stop!” A gentle voice interfered at the crucial moment.
Luo Yuan frowned and turned to the direction of the sound. Realizing it was from Qin Yu, he asked with a cold face, “What is it now?”
Previously he was interrupted by Qin Yu when he was about to act against Yang Kai, and now when he was about to fight Gao Shan and Liu Shui, Qin Yu interrupted him again. If it weren’t for the fact that she was the host here where he was staying, Luo Yuan would not have paid any attention to her.
“What do you want to do?” Qin Yu looked coldly at Luo Yuan and questioned with her teeth gritted.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Luo Yuan answered, “Can’t you tell what I was about to do?”
“I can!” Qin Yu did not fear Luo Yuan despite the differences in their strength and she continued to glare at him with her beautiful eyes, “It is exactly because I can tell that I have no choice but to stop you.”
“What do you mean? Speak clearly!” Luo Yuan scowled.
“Do you intend to destroy my Qin Residence?” Qin Yu asked.
“No, I don’t.” Luo Yuan replied seriously.
“Then do it somewhere else!” Qin Yu snorted, “If all of you don’t want to sleep on the street tonight, find another place to fight!”
“Ah…” Luo Yuan pondered for a moment before nodding, “Makes sense!”
The disciples of Eight Paths Sect were staying in the Qin Residence, so if the Qin Residence was really levelled, everyone from Eight Paths Sect would have nowhere to stay and their reputation would plummet for numerous reasons.
Looking up at Gao Shan and Liu Shui, Luo Yuan shouted, “Two old dogs, follow me!”
After that, his figure flickered and he rushed out of the city. When he left, he flew right over Gao Shan and Liu Shui’s heads, a naked provocation.
Gao Shan and Liu Shui could never tolerate a Junior acting so haughty before them, so they immediately turned to give chase.
In the blink of an eye, three Third-Order Dao Source Realm Masters disappeared from everyone’s vision.
“Ai…” The round-faced woman who had stood behind Luo Yuan all this time unexpectedly sighed and looked sorrowful.
From beginning to end, Luo Yuan had never turned his eyes to her or paid any attention to her at all, making her feel quite sad. Gritting her teeth, she turned to glare at Yang Kai and blamed him, “It’s all your fault!”
“Why are you blaming me?” Yang Kai grinned.
“If not for your deceitful lies, Senior Brother Luo would not have left!” The round-faced woman pouted, revealing a cute and playful face.
“Nonsense! In fact, you should be thanking me,” Yang Kai smiled.
“Why should I?” The round-faced woman stared at Yang Kai from the corner of her eyes and mocked, “I don’t see a reason for me to thank you.”
Yang Kai answered with full confidence, “Of course there is. If I did not create troubles, you wouldn’t have been able to see your Senior Brother Luo’s care for you.”
“Senior Brother Luo’s care for me?” The round-faced woman raised her brow and her pretty face blushed before she stomped her foot angrily, “Don’t be ridiculous, Senior Brother Luo only cares… he only cares about pursuing the Martial Dao. He would never care about me…” After a pause, she asked again with hope, “Can you tell me? How did Senior Brother Luo show he cared about… me?”
Before Yang Kai could answer, Qin Yu interjected with a faint smile, “Young Lady, I’m afraid you were blinded by the situation because you were too close to it. When Protector Gao Shan struck just now, were you injured in the slightest?”
“No!” The round-faced woman shook her head.
“Then who was it who protected you?” Qin Yu questioned again.
Realization dawned on the round-faced woman and her beautiful eyes lit up as her originally sorrowful expression turned energetic, as if she had been gifted some precious treasure, causing her to smile brightly.
Qin Yu continued, “If your Senior Brother Luo didn’t care about you, you would be seriously wounded now.”
“He… He just… just did it out of convenience, he did not care about me,” The round-faced woman lowered her head, blushing and anxious. Even though she denied it with her words, her demure face had betrayed her thoughts as she looked like she was drunk on honey.
“However… aren’t you worried about your Senior Brother Luo? Although Gao Shan and Liu Shui have some problems… up here, they are still not easy to handle,” Yang Kai smiled while tapping on his own head.
The round-faced woman replied, “There’s nothing to be worried about. Those two men would definitely be crying for their mothers soon enough!”
She had absolute confidence in Luo Yuan.
At this point, she turned her gaze at Yang Kai and asked with a smile, “You still have time to talk about all these things? Better worry about yourself first.”
“What should I be worried about?” Yang Kai sneered and looked around, “It’s just a gathering of trash!”
“What did you say!?”
“Little brat, you’re too full of yourself, I have to teach you a harsh life lesson.”
“Whose family did this boy come from? What a foul mouth he has! Haven’t your parents taught you any manners?”
His surrounding cultivators started to yell at him.
The three strongest cultivators had left them, so the remaining people naturally had no more concerns, all of them staring covetously at the Myriads Sword in Yang Kai’s hand as they plotted and schemed to acquire it.
“Heh heh heh…” An elderly man suddenly laughed as he looked down at Yang Kai kindly, “Little brother, where did you get your sword from?”
“You mean this?” Yang Kai swung the Myriads Sword across his chest and pointed it, releasing a sword light from its blade as he smiled and said, “I picked it up on the road.”
“Then it must be the one that this Old Master lost a few days ago, no wonder it looked so familiar. Little brother, please return it to me!” The elderly man continued hurriedly.
The group of cultivators around looked at the elderly man dumbfounded, thinking to themselves, [This is too shameless. Even if you wanted to rob treasures, you should find a better excuse. The excuse that you just gave was so… ridiculous! Even fools won’t fall for it!]
“I was the one who picked it up so it’s mine now, why should I give it to you?” Yang Kai’s face darkened as he stored the Myriads Sword directly back into his body.
Seeing this scene, the elderly man gulped and asked eagerly, “Little brother, as long as you are willing to give this Old Master his sword back, this Old Master will guarantee you prosperity and wealth for the rest of your life. You may not know, but this Old Master is the Evil Moon Valley’s Vice Valley Master, Qu Huai Ren, and he is always faithful to his word.”
Yang Kai stared at him and said, “I don’t believe you.”
“If you don’t believe me, you can ask them. They can testify for this Old Master,” The elderly man pointed at his surrounding cultivators anxiously.
All the cultivators around sneered when they heard it, and put on a face of ‘this is none of my business’.
“See, they don’t believe you either,” Yang Kai derided, “You must be trying to cheat me out of my treasure!”
Qu Huai Ren’s eyes flashed a fierce light as he snorted coldly, “Fine, you’ve forced this Old Master to get rough with you. Don’t blame this Old Master for acting ruthless now.”
Saying so, he moved in a flash with a ruthless look, like a great peng swooping down from above as he charged towards Yang Kai with his one hand stretching into a claw.
“What… What do you want to do!?” Yang Kai looked flustered and kept stepping back.
“Heh heh heh… little brat, if you want to blame someone, blame yourself for having such bad luck! You were just digging your own grave showing off your treasure with just a trivial First-Order Dao Source Realm cultivation! In your next life, if you’re lucky enough to be reborn as a human, remember this, an ordinary man is innocent but his treasures make him guilty!” Qu Huai Ren spoke earnestly but he did not slow his movements, pressing towards Yang Kai while releasing undisguised killing intent.
“I… I’ll fight you!” Yang Kai shouted fiercely, releasing a roar that reverberated like thunder, causing the ears of those present to ring. Initially, when the cultivators around saw the elderly man making a move, their expression changed and some of them even pushed their own Source Qi, seemingly planning to join the fray.
However, everyone could not help but be stunned at Yang Kai’s roar.
A brilliance flashed across the ground where Yang Kai stood on, and the Myriads Sword Emperor Artifact was summoned out by him again. At that moment, he waved his sword around frantically, as if frightened silly by Qu Huai Ren’s attack and unable to release his strength properly.
“Give it to me!” Qu Huai Ren was overjoyed when he saw the Myriads Sword and stretched out his arm to snatch it, excitement covering his face as if he had already seen himself ruling the world with the treasure he just obtained.
*Chi… *
*Pu… *
Five severed fingers flew out in the next instant as blood splattered everywhere.
“Uh…” Qu Huai Ren was standing not far in front of Yang Kai, frozen on the spot. Staring at Yang Kai dumbstruck, as if he had not fully recovered from his shock, he could only feel a coolness on his hand and chest, as well as a sharp, rising pain.
The next moment, he saw the corner of Yang Kai’s mouth curve upwards, showing a mocking grin. This grin made him shiver involuntarily as he vaguely felt something was not right.
*Dida, dida…*
The clear sound of blood dripping reached the ears of the crowd and the stench of it quickly filled the air.
Nobody seemed to understand what was going on, but they soon awoke from their daze and were shocked by the scene when they raised their eyes to Qu Huai Ren.
Qu Huai Ren’s body was frozen in place, motionless, while it was still in a pouncing posture, his hand stretched out. However, all five fingers of that hand had been cut off smoothly and cleanly, blood spurting from the wounds.
What was more shocking though was a sword had impaled Qu Huai Ren, half of the blade pierced through his back, and blood dripped down the sword tip continuously, splashing all over the ground, completely dyeing it red.
Gulping, everyone had the same thought run through their minds, [What is going on?]
They only saw Qu Huai Ren rushing toward Yang Kai aggressively, while Yang Kai waved his artifact around frantically. They all assumed that Qu Huai Ren would quickly overpower Yang Kai and snatch away the artifact, but the reality was completely different.
From the looks of it, it seemed that Qu Huai Ren had accidentally impaled himself on Yang Kai’s sword.
The blade seemed to have cut through the main arteries of the heart, leaving no possibility of survival.
Some of the cultivators’ eyes flickered in realization and the contempt and disdain they had before disappeared in a flash, replaced with solemnity as they gazed at Yang Kai.
Others still looked blank.
“You…” Qu Huai Ren said, and before he had a chance to finish the sentence, blood gushed out of his mouth uncontrollably like a fountain.
“You just sought death yourself, you can’t blame me!” Yang Kai snorted before slamming his palm against Qu Huai Ren’s chest, sending him flying.
Qu Huai Ren’s vitality quickly dissipated mid-air, and the life left his eyes. He had stopped breathing even before landing onto the ground, dying quite miserably.
How could Qu Huai Ren have known that he, the Vice Valley Master of Evil Moon Valley, would die in a small place like Maplewood City. Qu Huai Ren would never have thought that he would end like this before he came here.
“You killed Vice Valley Master Qu!” A middle-aged man suddenly declared, coldly. He seemed to be quite fond of Qu Huai Ren, so seeing him die in front of him infuriated him and was not about to let it slide. Flicking his wrist, this middle-aged man summoned a golden globe of light into his palm and shouted, “Boy! Surrender now and follow me to Evil Moon Valley to confess your crimes, and maybe you can survive, otherwise without a doubt, you will die!”
As the words fell, the golden light in his hand exploded, transforming into a big golden net directly above Yang Kai, trapping him.
He figured that one of the reasons why Qu Huai Ren died tragically at the hands of Yang Kai was his carelessness, while the other was the formidable artifact in Yang Kai’s hands. If that wasn’t the case, how could a Third-Order Dao Source Realm cultivator be defeated in such a short time by Yang Kai’s mere First-Order Dao Source Realm cultivation?
People fumble, horses stumble. Qu Huai Ren must have been too careless.
He was afraid of the razor-sharp Myriads Sword, and did not plan to fight Yang Kai head-on, instead choosing to use his artifact to restrain Yang Kai first.
Dao Source Grade energy fluctuations pulsed from the golden net. As soon it appeared, it seemed to separate everyone inside it from the outside world with an invisible force, forming a unique blockade.
“Profound Gold Heaven Capturing Net!” Someone in the crowd instantly recognized the artifact’s name, his face changing dramatically.
The middle-aged man coldly snorted then clenched his fists, focusing his attention on controlling the power of his artifact.
Yang Kai retreated a few steps, but no matter how much he tried to flee, he could not escape this Profound Gold Heaven Capturing Net. Suppressed by the invisible force, which surprised him too, Yang Kai secretly felt that this was a mysterious and intriguing artifact.
“Little brat, you can’t escape. My Profound Gold Heaven Capturing Net hasn’t failed me ever since I refined it. Give up!” The middle-aged man sneered and flipped his hand, shrinking the big golden net around Yang Kai and then condensing it into a sphere of golden light, completely sealing him inside.
“Hahahaha!” The middle-aged man laughed gleefully at this success, but soon, his smile froze and his eyes widened, “How is that possible?!”
Yang Kai, who was supposed to be bound by the Profound Gold Heaven Capturing Net, slowly faded and vanished completely.
It was just an afterimage.
“Oh oh, that was dangerous!” Yang Kai’s voice suddenly came from the side. The middle-aged man fixed his eyes on the direction of the voice and saw Yang Kai wiping the cold sweat on his forehead, still in a state of shock.
“Brat, you…” The middle-aged man’s face changed slightly as he gawked at Yang Kai, wondering how he escaped the capturing power of his artifact without him noticing.
“Not bad, not bad at all, this is a good artifact. I want it!” Yang Kai said, reaching out and grabbing at the golden light.
“Ah!” The middle-aged man was startled as he saw Yang Kai grab towards his artifact. Pushing his Source Qi madly, the man formed a series of seals with his hands.
The golden sphere buzzed and vibrated as it tried to escape Yang Kai’s grasp, violently shaking and causing his hand to ache.
This was an artifact that was painstakingly refined and shared a Soul connection with the middle-aged man, so it was only normal it would show resistance when a stranger tried to seize it.
Perceiving the resistance of this artifact, Yang Kai’s eyes flashed sharply, raised his head, and shouted to the middle-aged man, “Look here!”
“What?” The middle-aged man was trying to wrest his artifact out of Yang Kai’s control and was taken aback when he heard this shout and unconsciously looked up.
The next moment, a chill filled his heart, causing him to shudder.
A stream of pure Spiritual Energy rushed towards him at that moment, its power swift and sharp, like a sword that was thoroughly refined over and over again. Instantly, the middle-aged man’s Soul defences were cut through and a slash impacted his Knowledge Sea, raising violent wind and waves.
“Ahhhhhh…” His face turned pale immediately and he clutched his head, screaming in agony.
Everyone moved away from the middle-aged man in shock.
His Soul, spiralling out of control upon receiving the assault from Yang Kai, made the middle-aged man lose control of his Profound Gold Heaven Capturing Net.
Yang Kai pushed his Source Qi hard at that moment and directly suppressed the resisting artifact. Then, he violently poured his Spiritual Energy into the artifact, wiping away the middle-aged man’s Soul Imprint. Finished, Yang Kai tossed the golden net into his Space Ring.
This artifact was successfully stolen away by Yang Kai!
Everyone was dumbstruck and finally realized that something was not right.
Seizing another’s artifact was not something an ordinary person could do. Unless there was a massive difference in their Soul cultivations, the Soul Imprint of the original owner could not be erased in such a short period of time.
But Yang Kai accomplished just that.
In other words, given that he could erase the Soul Imprint of the middle-aged man in an instant, it meant his Soul was far stronger than that of the middle-aged man.
Everyone drew a sharp, cold breath.
“You were pretending to be weak!” Someone bellowed, finally recognising Yang Kai’s act, a look of fear covering his face.
Even if Qu Huai Ren’s death was a result of carelessness, accidentally impaling himself on Yang Kai’s sword, what happened to the middle-aged man could not be excused as an accident.
This was definitely a crushing defeat based on strength, which could not be explained by luck.
The middle-aged man rolled around the ground, clutching his head, seeming to be gravely injured. It was uncertain if he could ever recover, but even if he could, a wound on one’s Soul would take a huge amount of time and energy to repair, assuming he didn’t go insane first.
“Who else has a decent artifact? Let me have a look,” Yang Kai looked around, smiling coldly.
Everyone took a few steps back, with dark expressions on their faces.
These people originally thought of stealing Yang Kai’s artifact, but they never expected just the opposite would occur. It seemed like now that the boy had tasted the sweetness, he was wanting more…
“No, no, my artifact is only of Origin King Grade, little brother will definitely not be interested,” Someone explained sternly.
“Origin King Grade is already quite good, my artifact is only an Origin Returning Grade…” another person immediately continued.
Everyone looked at him with contempt.
The man retorted, “What’s wrong? Can’t I be poor? Is it that embarrassing for a Dao Source Realm Cultivator to use an Origin Returning Grade artifact? Why are you looking at me like that!?”
As he spoke, he turned to Yang Kai, smiled, and cupped his fists, “Little brother should have no interest in an Origin Returning Grade artifact, yes? Ah, that’s right! This little one just remembered that he has an important affair to attend to, farewell!”
With these words, without waiting for Yang Kai’s response, he fled.
The others secretly cursed him for being quick-footed and seizing this opportunity. Many others hurriedly bid goodbye to Yang Kai with cupped fists and left hastily.
“Wait!” Yang Kai suddenly snorted coldly.
Everyone turned around in shock and looked at Yang Kai vigilantly, lest he do something unfavourable to them.
“You can’t just come and go as you please! Life is not that easy!” Yang Kai snorted coldly.
Everyone gulped, their faces ugly, knowing something bad was about to happen. They were really afraid of what this little brat was going to do.
Yang Kai pointed to the ground, “Take away this corpse and the guy who sounds like a slaughtered pig!”
“Ah…”
“Yes, Yes, Yes!”
“Hurry up and help!”
The crowd yelled and dragged away Qu Huai Ren’s body and the middle-aged man who was still screaming, all of them swiftly disappearing.
And with that, the thirty or so Dao Source Realm cultivators who came after being alarmed by Yang Kai’s Emperor Artifact left the Qin Residence in a flurry.
Except for one, who was still hovering mid-air.
Yang Kai looked at that person with his eyes squinted and found that it was a well-dressed young woman with a graceful figure and fair complexion. Her hair was flowing down her back like a waterfall and she was wearing a turquoise dress. Her beautiful eyes shone brightly and although she kept a distance from Yang Kai, fear could not be seen in her eyes.
The cultivation of this young woman was not high, but not low either, Second-Order Dao Source Realm. It seemed she was from some second-class Sect or big family.
“Why didn’t you leave?” Yang Kai turned solemn when he noticed that she was not leaving.
The young woman replied after hearing it, “Little Brother, may I ask if you are Grandmaster Yang?”
Yang Kai frowned and started to secretly raise his guard, asking instead of answering, “Who are you?”
The young woman hurriedly introduced herself, “This Mistress is Thousand Leaves Sect, Ye Jing Han.”
“Thousand Leaves Sect?” Yang Kai narrowed his eyes. He vaguely had some impression about this Sect, but nothing deep; however, he was certain that it was not some big Sect, probably similar to Blue Feather Sect, which did not have an Emperor Realm Master commanding it.
Across the entire Southern Territory, there were numerous Sects like this, each claiming some territories in order to live and multiply. Perhaps, some of their ancestors had achieved some glorious accomplishments, but afterwards, they suffered from a decline over the generations.
Blue Feather Sect was one such Sect. The ancestors of Blue Feather Sect’s Sect Master Wu Meng Shan was a peak level figure in the Star Boundary in the past, Heaven Devouring Great Emperor. This was a man able to cover the Heavens with only one hand, so powerful that the wind and the clouds were under his command. But in this generation, Wu Meng Shan was just a Sect Master of a small Sect and possessed only a Third-Order Dao Source Realm cultivation.
In this world, no Sect endured forever, no family that would not decline and die out. Only Star Soul Palace and some of the greatest Sects could maintain their prominence for ten thousand years or more.
“Are you really Grandmaster Yang?” Ye Jing Han asked eagerly.
“You’ve got the wrong person,” Yang Kai replied without hesitation.
A few people from the Qin Family and the Eight Paths Sect disciples could not help staring at him weirdly when he made this response.
“You’re right, he is Grandmaster Yang Kai!” The round-faced woman who was infatuated with Luo Yuan suddenly shouted happily. After she spoke, she turned a grin to Yang Kai.
Yang Kai immediately gave her a fierce glance.
“So, you really are Grandmaster Yang!” Ye Jing Han could not help feeling a little thrilled after confirming Yang Kai’s identity.
“I already said you’ve got the wrong person. There are many people with the same name in this world, so please hurry up and leave, otherwise, I may be rude to you,” Yang Kai swung his hands impatiently, like he was trying to drive away a fly.
Ye Jing Han bit her lip lightly as she looked at Yang Kai pitifully, “Grandmaster Yang, can you please just listen to a few words from this Mistress? This Mistress will leave after speaking.”
“No thanks!”
“You…” The round-faced woman seemed to be unable to stand it anymore and rebuked, “She is already begging you like this, so why can’t you just listen to her speak? Don’t you know anything about being caring and considerate towards women?!”
Yang Kai glared at her, “No, I don’t! Also, everyone came here just to steal my treasure, so why should I bother indulging her? If this happened to your Luo Yuan, what would you do?”
“What do you mean my Luo Yuan…” The round-faced woman’s face blushed and started to be restless again. But after a while, she returned to her cold face and snorted coldly, “If anyone dared to touch Senior Brother Luo, I’d kill them!”
She put on a murderous face that shocked Yang Kai greatly as he didn’t imagine she had such a vicious side to her.
“Patriarch Qin, send this guest off,” Yang Kai spoke to Qin Zhao Yang, then waved to Qin Yu, “Sister Qin, follow me!”
“En,” Qin Yu hurriedly moved towards Yang Kai.
To the side, Qin Zhao Yang pondered for a moment before he flew up into the air and started talking to Ye Jing Han. It seemed that he was trying to convince Ye Jing Han to leave but she kept refusing and begging.
“Oh right!” Yang Kai turned around when he was about to leave and sneered at the disciples of Eight Paths Sect, “Behave yourselves, if any of you dare to cross the line again, I’ll make sure you answer to me!”
The few disciples of Eight Paths Sect had cold sweat beading on their foreheads when they heard this and none dared to ignore Yang Kai’s order, nodding one after another.
After they clearly saw how Yang Kai slew Qu Huai Ren and robbed the middle-aged man’s artifact just now, they understood that they were no match for him, and if they did provoke him, they would not end well.
The round-faced woman smiled, “Relax, I will look after them to make sure they don’t cause a fuss.”
“That would be best, otherwise, don’t blame me for not giving Luo Yuan any face!” Yang Kai snorted lightly, turned, and left.
Yang Kai led Qin Yu all the way to a secret room where he had her take a seat. Qin Zhao Yang rushed in hurriedly a moment later, seemingly having settled the matter with Ye Jiang Han. He gazed at Yang Kai hopefully, and asked restlessly, “Little Brother Yang… About the trip to the Four Seasons Realm… Did you get it?”
Ever since Yang Kai returned, he did not have the time to ask about the matter of the Tribulation Fruit. Now that he was finally free, it was natural that Qin Zhao Yang couldn’t wait to know the result.
Qin Yu’s tender body also could not help trembling as her breathing became a bit hurried, seemingly unable to control her emotions.
After all, this was a matter of life or death to her. How could a young girl, who was still not eighteen, who had not fully seen the beauty of the world or experienced its various wonders, meekly accept death?
Yang Kai glanced at both of them and smiled faintly, “Fortunately, I have not failed my mission!”
While speaking, he took out a jade box from his Space Ring and opened it with a flick, showing an ice-carved jade-like spirit fruit that immediately attracted their eyes.
Qin Zhao Yang observed it attentively with his eyes wide-open while Qin Yu could not help but stretch her fair neck and look at it dumbfounded.
“This is… It is, it is! It’s the Tribulation Fruit!” Qin Zhao Yang burst into laughter after observing it for a while, tears of joy flowing down from his eyes, “That Senior once showed me a projected image of this spirit fruit and it matches perfectly.”
Qin Yu immediately covered her lips with her hands after hearing this, a weight finally lifting from her shoulders, her whole body going limp with relief.
“There were a lot of twists and turns in obtaining this spirit fruit, that’s why I couldn’t come back immediately. I’m sorry to have made you wait so long,” Yang Kai explained briefly.
Qin Zhao Yang said through his tears, “Don’t worry, don’t worry. This time, thanks to Little Brother Yang, Yu’er has hope to survive!”
“By the way, Patriarch Qin, did that Master back then say anything about how this should be consumed by Sister Qin? Does it need to be refined into a pill? If so, I can help with that,” Yang Kai asked solemnly.
“There is no need to refine it!” Qin Zhao Yang shook his head, “That Senior said we only need to find the Tribulation Fruit and let Yu’er eat it directly. Her World Tribulation Body is rejected by the Heavens and Earth, causing her vitality to be cut off, so the Tribulation Fruit will act as a medicine that could act as a formless bridge in order to reconnect her broken vitality and ultimately keep Yu’er from suffering from her physique in the future!”
“Then, let’s not delay this matter, let Sister Qin eat it immediately,” Yang Kai hurriedly passed the jade box to Qin Yu.
Qin Yu received the Tribulation Fruit from Yang Kai, gazed at it, then lifted her head again to look at Yang Kai and Qin Zhao Yang. Seeing their encouraging faces, she did not hesitate anymore. Stretching out her beautiful and delicate fingers, she took out the Tribulation Fruit from the jade box, put it into her mouth and chewed it slowly.
The spirit fruit was ingested into her stomach just like that.
Qin Zhao Yang looked at Qin Yu anxiously, and asked worriedly, “Yu’er, do you feel any discomfort?”
Qin Yu shook her head, “No, I just feel a bit cold… “
Just after she spoke, her face abruptly changed. Her pretty face was almost twisted as she seemed to be suffering from tremendous pain, but at the same time, an extremely extraordinary power began to emerge from her body, forming a layer of bright and transparent white light, enveloping her entirely.
Yang Kai’s expression changed slightly. He used his Divine Sense and saw that the original condensed black Qi around Qin Yu’s body was slowly dissipating into the bright light. Qin Yu’s expression gradually eased as the black Qi slowly disappeared, and a trace of vitality was born from her tender body, diffusing over her limbs.
Witnessing this scene, Yang Kai nodded lightly as he knew that this should be the right solution and Qin Yu would definitely be cured with this.
“Little Brother Yang, this, this, this…” Qin Zhao Yang was in a state of utter stupefaction.
Yang Kai smiled faintly, “Patriarch Qin, let’s go out first. Sister Qin should be fine here, she will just need some time.”
“Are you sure, Little Brother Yang?” Qin Zhao Yang was worried, but he realized he should not question him so he hurriedly explained, “It’s not that this Qin doesn’t believe in you, it’s just… “
“I understand,” Yang Kai smiled. “Patriarch Qin, excessive worrying would cause panic. Just scan Qin Yu’s body with your Divine Sense.”
Qin Zhao Yang immediately acted as he said, and after a while, he sighed in relief.
“So now, can we leave without worry?” Yang Kai slightly smiled.
Qin Zhao Yang was a little embarrassed by his teasing and replied awkwardly, “Yu’er has had a difficult life since her childhood. Her parents passed away in her early years, leaving her the only remaining bloodline of our Qin Family, and she stuck with this Old Master through the difficulties for more than ten years. If she also… “
“I understand,” Yang Kai nodded solemnly.
Both of them left the secret room while talking.
With a flick of his wrist, Yang Kai drew out the Myriads Sword and handed it to Qin Zhao Yang with both hands, “Patriarch Qin, I am returning this sword to the Qin Family. Please accept it.”
Qin Zhao Yang gazed calmly at the Myriads Sword, after a long time reaching out to gently brush its blade as he said, “The Myriad Sword is the legacy of my Qin Family’s ancestors, and also the treasure of my Qin Family. For thousands of years, our ancestors had taken regaining the family’s prestige as their responsibility, with their first goal being gaining enough strength to wield the Myriads Sword once more. However, there were only a few of them who had managed to achieve this, and by the time it was this Old Master’s generation…”
He sighed heavily and continued, “The sword has been covered in dust for centuries now, not seeing the sun nor the sky. If my ancestors in Heaven knew of this, I’m sure they would put all the blame on me.”
Yang Kai responded, “Sister Qin has an extraordinary talent as she has already reached the Origin Returning Realm at only eighteen. After being set free from her suffering this time, she will definitely stand out as a rising star in time.”
Qin Zhao Yang smiled faintly, “This Old Master has pinned all his hopes on Yu’er, so this Old Master would like to ask Little Brother Yang to keep this sword first!”
“En?” Yang Kai raised his brow.
Qin Zhao Yang continued, “The power of this sword can only be unleashed in your hands. Little Brother Yang, you can make use of it first until one day, when Yu’er enters the Emperor Realm, then you shall return it to her, is it acceptable?”
Qin Zhao Yang was acting like an old man who would die soon and was arranging his own funeral affairs.
A shimmer of light flashed in Yang Kai’s eyes as he realized that Qin Zhao Yang was taking precautionary measures.
Although Qin Zhao Yang was not young anymore, he was still a Dao Source Realm cultivator, so there was no worries about him living a few more decades without any accidents.
However, his cultivation was not remarkably high, and the path of cultivation was always filled with thorns, so no one could guarantee they would have a peaceful death or predict what kind of disasters or crises would befall them.
If such a day came, no one would be left to protect the Qin Family anymore.
Qin Zhao Yang wanted Yang Kai to keep the Myriads Sword for a few reasons. First, an ordinary man is innocent but his treasures made him guilty, so he was worried that the Myriads Sword would draw trouble to the Qin Family. Second, he probably wanted to use this as a bridge, in order to bring Yang Kai closer to the Qin Family.
As long as the Myriads Sword was still in Yang Kai’s hands, he would definitely not sit back and watch if the Qin Family ever suffered any tribulations and, if worse came to worst, there would still be someone to take care of Qin Yu.
Yang Kai already guessed the intentions of Qin Zhao Yang with just a quick thought, but after pondering for a while, he decided not to refuse and replied, “Since Patriarch Qin trusts this Yang so much, I shall make use of this sword for some time in a way that will not damage the prestige of the Qin Family’s ancestors!”
He was familiar with the use of the Myriads Sword now and had already comprehended the few Sword Dao Secret Techniques that could only be used properly with this treasure, so Yang Kai had no objections to keeping it since it could still come in handy.
“Very good, very good!” Qin Zhao Yang was overjoyed.
*Hong long long… *
At that moment, a muffled sound of thunder was heard, like the stampede of thousands of dragon horses, shaking the Heavens and Earth for a moment. At the same time, the surrounding World Energy shook violently.
“What happened?” Qin Zhao Yang turned his face and asked in shock.
Yang Kai’s eyes also flashed brightly and he instantly released his majestic Divine Sense to scan the surroundings. Soon, he looked in a particular direction outside of the city and muttered, “The source seems to be over there. It’s as if something extremely powerful has awakened.”
“Let’s investigate!” Qin Zhao Yang shouted after listening to his words.
Yang Kai was thinking the same and quickly executed his Movement Skill to fly off.
Just after flying out of the Qin Residence, they ran into a beautiful figure who was standing quietly mid-air. It was Ye Jing Han from Thousand Leaves Sect.
The young woman seemed to have not left and kept waiting outside the Qin Residence.
After she saw Yang Kai’s figure, her beautiful eyes lit up and she called out to him, “Grandmaster Yang! Grandmaster Yang!”
“Go away, go away. Don’t block the way!” Yang Kai waved his hand impatiently and flew past her so fast that he was just a black dot in the sky in the blink of an eye.
Ye Jing Han looked at his shadow with gritted teeth, stomping her foot before hurriedly chasing after him.
“Patriarch Qin…” Yang Kai, who was flying in front, glanced back at Ye Jing Han and whispered, “Did this woman tell you why she was looking for me?”
Qin Zhao Yang grinned and answered, “Little Brother Yang is famous, handsome, and in possession of a good cultivation, the very definition of an outstanding man, so isn’t it normal that young girls would be attracted to you?”
After listening to Qin Zhao Yang’s flattery, Yang Kai brushed his hair back, straightened his chest, and slightly lifted his head.
A moment later, his face sank as he spat, “Can we be serious here?”
Qin Zhao Yang shook his head, “She didn’t tell this Old Master clearly, she just said that she needed to talk to you. I saw that this woman was quite pretty, and even though she is a little older than you, she has a tender body and mesmerizing eyes. Little Brother Yang, why don’t you consider listening to her request?”
Yang Kai bulged his eyes and scanned Qin Zhao Yang up and down, as if he needed to examine this person again. After a long examination, he replied, “Patriarch Qin, please behave yourself. It’s inappropriate for an old man to say something like this!”
“HAHAHAHA!” Qin Zhao Yang laughed out loud, patted Yang Kai on the shoulder and spoke in earnest, “You are wasting your youth if you are not indulging. Young man, seize the opportunity!
“Anyway, I don’t think it’s anything good. Don’t pay attention to her!” Yang Kai curled his lips.
During their conversation, numerous other flowing lights had appeared around them. Apparently, they were the Dao Source Realm Masters who were living in Maplewood City and similar to Yang Kai and Qin Zhao Yang, they were also on their way to check the situation.
“Ah! Yang Kai! You bastard!” An angry voice suddenly came from the side.
Yang Kai turned his head and saw a familiar face staring at him furiously.
This person was the former Maplewood City Vice City Lord, Zhuang Pan!
There was another person beside Zhuang Pan, a good-looking young man with red lips and white teeth. His cultivation was not high, just First-Order Dao Source Realm.
Inexplicably, Yang Kai suddenly felt that this person was a bit familiar, but he was certain that he had never seen him before.
“Yang Kai!” After hearing Zhuang Pan, the eyes of the young man beside him brightened, looking towards Yang Kai with a scorching gaze and asking Zhuang Pan, “So, he is the brat surnamed Yang you mentioned?”
“It’s him, that little rat!” Zhuang Pan gritted his teeth.
“Who are you calling a rat?” Yang Kai looked at Zhuang Pan in contempt and smiled sarcastically.
Zhuang Pan’s face turned red, but he was not stupid enough to step into Yang Kai’s trap, instead just glaring at him with hatred.
“Patriarch Qin, who is this young man?” Yang Kai whispered to Qin Zhao Yang. He saw that although this young man was handsome, he looked sinister. If one were to consider that he was shoulder to shoulder with a villain like Zhuang Pan, Yang Kai knew for sure that he was not anything decent.
“Flying Saint Palace’s Young Palace Master, Ning Yuan Shu!”
“Young Palace Master?” Yang Kai was shocked, but he quickly figured it out. It seemed that after the death of the former Flying Saint Palace Young Palace Master, someone new had been promoted to take up the position. Since Ning Yuan Shu and Ning Yuan Cheng were biological brothers, it was natural that they looked similar to each other so it was no wonder Yang Kai found him to be familiar just now.
When they were speaking, Ning Yuan Shu ordered Zhuang Pan, “Since it’s him, then there’s no need to be polite. Zhuang Pan, seize him, this Young Master wants to interrogate him.”
After receiving the command, Zhuang Pan turned his head pitifully and said with a frightened stutter, “Young Palace Master, that… well… that is…”
“What? Do it quickly! Do you dare disobey my commands?” Ning Yuan Shu got frustrated looking at him and slapped his face, causing Zhuang Pan’s neck to shrink in fear.
“This subordinate… can’t beat him,” Zhuang Pan answered with a look of grief. After saying it, he was like a deflated ball.
Ning Yuan Shu stared at him with his eyes widened, “He is a First-Order Dao Source Realm Cultivator, the same as you. What’s more, Lord Father had trained you personally for three days, why can’t you beat him?”
“Last time I was miserably beaten by him until the spirituality of my artifact had been lost…” Zhuang Pan muttered.
“Waste! What use are you then?!” Ning Yuan Shu was infuriated and kicked Zhuang Pan on his waist. Zhuang Pan screamed in pain, and staggered to the side.
Ning Yuan Shu ignored Zhuang Pan and glared at Yang Kai as he bellowed in a deep voice, “Boy, come over here now!”
He looked egotistic, as if he was the owner of the world and no one would dare to disobey his command.
When the surrounding cultivators heard him, they were startled and immediately put some distance between them and Ning Yuan Shu.
These cultivators were mostly just coming back from the Qin Residence where they had witnessed the earlier scene caused by Yang Kai. All of them knew Yang Kai was not a person who they should mess with, so when they saw Ning Yuan Shu plucking at the whiskers of this tiger, who would dare to stay near him?
Even for those cultivators who had no idea about this, they were quickly being informed by their friends and were made aware of the current situation.
In a heartbeat, all the cultivators in a hundred-metre radius of Ning Yuan Shu vanished.
Ning Yuan Shu was bewildered, but thinking everyone was deterred by his imposing presence, his ego only swelled further, making him truly feel like the first Master beneath the Heavens.
“Patriarch Qin…” Yang Kai made a weird expression and asked, “Why do I hear a dog barking in this wilderness?”
Qin Zhao Yang burst into laughter, “Probably just some wild dogs wandering about, Little Brother Yang doesn’t need to care about it!”
If before, as the Patriarch of a small family, he would not dare to offend Flying Saint Palace. Even though Flying Saint Palace was not a big Sect, there was still an Emperor Realm Master helming it with countless Dao Source Realm cultivators at his command.
The Qin Family’s good days would come to an end if they offended such a great force, as everyone in the Qin Family could be easily slaughtered by a single Second-Order Dao Source Realm Master sent by Flying Saint Palace.
But right now, he was full of gratitude and respect towards Yang Kai, so he was more than willing to offend Flying Saint Palace. Even if it was Star Soul Palace, he would probably still side with Yang Kai.
Both of them spoke loudly, not trying to conceal their voices, so Ning Yuan Shu naturally heard them and flew into a rage.
“How dare you spout such drivel, boy! Do you know who this Young Master is?!” Nin Yuan Shu smiled in anger and shouted at Yang Kai with a sinister face.
Yang Kai then looked at him from the corner of his eyes, “Who the hell are you?”
Ning Yuan Shu looked extremely annoyed and fulminated against him, “Listen carefully, this Young Master is Flying Saint Palace’s Young Palace Master, Ning Yuan Shu!”
“Flying Saint Palace Young Palace Master?” Yang Kai could not help bulging his eyes in fear, “You are the Flying Saint Palace’s Young Palace Master?”
“Indeed!” Ning Yuan Shu felt instantly satisfied after seeing his frightened appearance and put on a wicked smile like that of a poisonous snake.
The next moment, Yang Kai’s expression turned solemn and responded in a serious tone, “Sorry, never heard of such a place.”
“You…” Ning Yuan Shu was maddened again after realizing that Yang Kai was toying with him and shouted loudly, “Die!”
As he shouted, he pushed his Source Qi, creating a vortex-like power around his figure as it flickered, leaving behind a number of afterimages as he flew in front of Yang Kai and sent out a palm strike.
“This is your fate for offending me!” He did not forget to sneer as he moved in to attack.
However, his palm strike was destined to accomplish nothing as Yang Kai simply stretched out his hand, intercepted this palm by seizing Ning Yuan Shu’s wrist, and diverted it aside.
Ning Yuan Shu was caught completely off guard and lost his balance, almost crashing into Yang Kai in the process.
When he looked up, his face was only a palm length away from Yang Kai’s, the perfect distance to witness the taunting grin filled with mockery on his opponent’s face.
Aware of the bad intentions of the other party, Ning Yuan Shu was shocked and the light under his feet flashed as his figure receded rapidly.
But where could he go?
Before Ning Yuan Shu could move, Yang Kai had already stretched out his hand, grabbed his collar, and sent slap after slap across his handsome, sinister face.
*Pa… pa…*
After the crisp sound, Ning Yuan Shu was completely beaten up.
When Yang Kai ceased his action, both of Ning Yuan Shu’s cheeks were already swollen, giving him the look of a pig’s head that had been soaked in boiling water for several days.
The surrounding cultivators all went silent, avoiding eye contact with each other as they wore horrified expressions.
Previously, Yang Kai had acted out at the Qin Family and killed the Vice Valley Master of Evil Moon Valley and injured another unnamed middle-aged man. Neither Qu Huai Ren nor the middle-aged man were born into big Sects though, and none had an Emperor Realm Master standing behind them, so as long as Yang Kai was strong enough, there was no need for him to worry about being retaliated against.
However, Ning Yuan Shu was different. He was the Young Palace Master of Flying Saint Palace.
Flying Saint Palace was ranked quite highly amongst the second-class Sects and Ning Yuan Shu’s father, Ning Bo Yang, was a First-Order Emperor Realm Master. There were also many masters in Flying Saint Palace, including Protectors Gao Shan and Liu Shui.
How could Flying Saint Palace let it slide when their Young Palace Master was beaten to a pulp?
Everyone looked at Yang Kai with not only a strong sense of fear, but also taking pleasure in his misfortune, thinking that a man as bold and boundless as him was destined to get into trouble.
“You… you dare hit me?” Ning Yuan Shu, who was still held by Yang Kai, his cheek so swollen the pain was numbing, ogled at Yang Kai and muttered in disbelief.
Yang Kai sneered, “Dare? I’ve already hit you.”
“This Young Master is… “
“I know. The Young Palace Master of Flying Saint Palace!” Yang Kai cut him off and continued slapping him. He smiled at Qin Zhao Yang, “This boy is quite interesting. He doesn’t forget about his home even after being beaten silly. It’s as if he doesn’t have any identity without his background.”
While speaking, he lifted Ning Yuan Shu high and shouted “Come one, come all, everyone have a look, this is the famous Flying Saint Palace Young Palace Master Ning Yuan Shu. Remember his face well.”
The cultivators around thought, [Everyone saw you beating him to a pulp, how could we not remember?]
Ning Yuan Shu roared as his blood seemed to flow backwards from his rage, resulting in him coughing up large mouthfuls of it.
He had an extraordinary background and was spoiled and doted on since he was a child, never suffering the slightest insult. But today, he had been slapped across the face repeatedly by Yang Kai in front of a massive crowd.
Although he spat blood, he did not faint, which at least proved his will wasn’t weak.
Qin Zhao Yang smiled bitterly and did not know what to say to Yang Kai, but secretly sighing, he felt that young people today were indeed high spirited and uninhibited. It almost reminded him of his own youth.
*Xiu… *
Two beams of lights suddenly flew over from up ahead. These two newcomers were giving off slightly unsteady auras, as if they were escaping from a battle.
“Ah… Young Palace Master!” The lights stopped a short distance away from Yang Kai and the others, revealing Protectors Gao Shan and Liu Shui.
The two Elders of Flying Saint Palace looked quite embarrassed at the moment, their white hair and beards frazzled, their clothes torn. Gao Shan held a Guqin-like artifact in his arms, but the light coming from it was quite dim. It seemed the spirituality of his artifact had taken damage. The same was true for Liu Shui’s flute on his waist.
The two of them could not fathom what happened as they came from the opposite direction and were shocked to see the state of Ning Yuan Shu.
“Left and Right Protectors…” When Ning Yuan Shu saw Gao Shan and Liu Shui, his eyes flashed with madness as he ground his teeth and shouted, “Quickly avenge this Young Master! Kill this bastard!”
“You did this?” Gao Shan stared at Yang Kai coldly.
Liu Shui’s face was gloomy as lifted up his flute and without saying a word poured his Source Qi into it.
Yang Kai turned a deaf ear to these two old men and instead looked at their backs with his squinted eyes, a moment later his expression turning into a solemn frown.
“Release the Young Master!” Seeing Yang Kai ignoring them, Gao Shan shouted in furious anger. At the same time, Liu Shui flickered and appeared suddenly beside Yang Kai, his flute artifact in hand.
“Brother Yang, be careful!” Qin Zhao Yang was shocked.
With his cultivation and eyesight, he could not see exactly how Liu Shui approached Yang Kai, and it was far too late to warn him about it.
Yang Kai laughed and ignored Liu Shui’s attack, however, simply moving Ning Yuan Shu in his hand in the direction of the incoming strike, completely using the Young Palace Master as a shield.
Liu Shui furrowed his brow and withdrew his attack before swiftly returning to Gao Shan’s side.
Gao Shan wore a gloomy look as he slowly strummed the Guqin in his arms with one hand. A clear and uplifting melody instantly spread out, forcing the nearby cultivators to circulate their Source Qi to protect themselves from the sound waves.
“Boy! What has Flying Saint Palace done to you to provoke such a vicious assault against the Young Palace Master?” Gao Shan asked while strumming his Guqin.
“That’s what I’d like to know,” Yang Kai held Ning Yuan Shu in front of him, only poking half his head out from behind him as he snickered. “You’ll have to ask your Young Palace Master about this. He just suddenly attacked me, so I just fought back.”
Ning Yuan Shu’s eyes were filled with hatred as he wanted to resist, but found himself completely suppressed, unable to even circulate his Source Qi. Gritting his teeth, he shouted, “Left and Right Protectors, this person is that brat surnamed Yang who might have killed my Eldest Brother. We must capture him and bring him back to the Sect for interrogation!”
“Huh? He’s the boy surnamed Yang?” Gao Shan and Liu Shui were shocked when they heard this, suddenly recalling they had not asked his name when they saw Yang Kai in the Qin Family earlier.
“I killed your Elder Brother?” Yang Kai asked, his mind turning quickly and quickly realizing Ning Yuan Shu why attacked him, “Believe it or not, the death of your brother has nothing to do with me!”
Although he destroyed Ning Yuan Cheng’s body, the true culprit behind his death was the Wood Spirit. The Wood Spirit Seed had exploded in Ning Yuan Cheng’s body, causing him to completely lose his vitality. What Yang Kai killed was nothing more than a shell for the Wood Spirit Soul Clone.
So, Ning Yuan Cheng’s death really had nothing to do with him.
“This is not something you can settle with a single statement! If you are smart enough, you will follow us back to the Sect and obediently submit to Sir Palace Master’s judgement!” Gao Shan shouted.
Yang Kai sneered, “And I should follow you just because you said so? How disgraceful would that be? And… is it really okay for you two to stand here leisurely? The one pursuing you is about to arrive!”
Many people were confused by his words.
Gao Shan and Liu Shui’s faces, however, changed drastically as they turned to look back quickly.
*Weng… *
There was a sudden tremor in space as a powerful coercion arrived from the horizon, sweeping across the crowd, anchoring all the cultivators present in place, as if a giant mountain had been dropped on their shoulders.
The rubble and soil on the ground slowly rose up amongst the inexplicable pressure, the scene simply unimaginable.
“What is this…”
“Could it be that an Emperor has come?”
“Ah, this is bad, we’re going to die…”
Ning Yuan Shu was wounded, and he was bleeding terribly, his white clothes now dyed red by his own blood, making for a shocking scene.
“This is…” the round-faced woman, together with the other disciples from Eight Paths Sect who had followed after Yang Kai and Qin Zhao Yang, stared off into the distance, their faces warping in fear.
At the edge of the sky, a figure appeared.
He was wrapped in an indescribable energy and a powerful, violent aura rumbled around him, causing all present to shudder.
The world collapsed and turned upside down wherever this person passed.
This newcomer’s aura was so intense that it was in no way inferior to an Emperor Realm Master’s. Amidst the chaotic energy, only a pair of bright eyes shone through with cold excitement, making those who were gazed upon feel as if they had been thrown into a winter blizzard.
This person, surprisingly, was Luo Yuan from Eight Paths Sect!
It was unknown what had happened between Gao Shan, Liu Shui, and Luo Yuan when the three of them flew out of the city to fight, but now Luo Yuan was chasing after Gao Shan and Liu Shui like they were stray dogs.
“Tsk tsk, this aura!” Yang Kai made a sound with a look of admiration, “It is rare to not lose one’s consciousness after releasing such power. Whatever Secret Technique he was cultivating is impressive. I wonder if he succeeded in mastering it now.”
Previously, Luo Yuan said that he was trying to comprehend some kind of Secret Technique, but had run into a bottleneck. As such, he wanted to fight with Yang Kai, but Yang Kai had instead pushed this trouble onto Gao Shan and Liu Shui. At this stage, Luo Yuan should not be far from successfully comprehending this new Secret Technique. Even Yang Kai had never seen a profound technique that could allow one’s aura to rise to the level of an Emperor despite still being a Dao Source Realm cultivator.
Luo Yuan was still far away, but in the blink of an eye, he arrived. No one was able to see how he moved.
“Not good!” Gao Shan and Liu Shui must have suffered a big loss at Luo Yuan’s hands, otherwise, they would not have fled in embarrassment. At this moment, they were so afraid that they would, obviously, not wait quietly for this madman to show up in front of them.
The two exchanged a knowing glance before one raised his flute to his lips and the other plucked his Guqin, sending out shocking music from their instruments.
The Souls of many cultivators present were sent into a daze.
Gao Shan and Liu Shui flanked Yang Kai on the left and right in an instant.
Liu Shui raised his flute horizontally and directed it to Yang Kai’s head before blowing into it. Gao Shan strummed his Guqin sharply at the same time with all five of his fingers, unleashing an invisible slash towards Yang Kai.
“Hahaha!” Yang Kai laughed sarcastically, “Since you want this back so badly, I’ll return it to you!”
As he spoke, his hand shook slightly and he threw Ning Yuan Shu, who was still in his grasp, towards the Guqin’s slash.
“How is that possible?!”
“Not good!”
Gao Shan and Liu Shui exclaimed in shock, their faces palling abruptly.
Gao Shan and Liu Shui were the Left and Right Protectors of Flying Saint Palace. Their cultivation and abilities were just below those of Palace Master Ning Bo Yang. If the two of them teamed up, they could even fight a few rounds with an ordinary Emperor Realm Master.
But right now, the confidence of these two old men had been crushed.
First, Luo Yuan from Eight Paths Sect had beaten them senseless and sent them scurrying like stray dogs despite it being two on one. Then, it was Yang Kai, who completely ignored their combined attack.
[What is happening with young people nowadays? It’s ridiculous that each and every one of them is acting so rampantly and have the skills to back up their arrogance.] Secretly, they could not help feeling old all of a sudden.
Seeing Ning Yuan Shu thrown out by Yang Kai towards the sound wave slash, the faces of Gao Shan and Liu Shui changed drastically. If Ning Yuan Shu died under their attack, there was no way they could explain themselves to Ning Bo Yang.
Following a shout, Liu Shui stored away his flute then used a profound Movement Skill to appear directly in front of Ning Yuan Shu. Using his bare back, Li Shui blocked the sound wave slash while simultaneously grabbing hold of Ning Yuan Shu.
*Pu… *
The slash hit Liu Shui’s body, causing him to stagger forward. It was obvious that he was injured as fresh blood began leaking from the corner of his mouth.
“You! You court death!” Liu Shui was enraged after he had suffered such a big loss and glared sharply at Yang Kai.
“Hahaha…” Yang Kai said nothing and just laughed wickedly.
“Not good, we need to bring the Young Palace Master out of here!” Gao Shan quickly bellowed.
Liu Shui was also aware that they should not remain here any longer as Luo Yuan would soon catch up. In the distance, Luo Yuan could be seen with his arms stretched up towards the Heavens, as if he was trying to lift them above his head, the surrounding clouds swirling about him as an unimaginable pressure radiated from his body.
The faces of all the cultivators present turned pale at this sight.
On the other side, Gao Shan and Liu Shui’s bodies flickered as they swiftly fled into the distance. When they left, they did not forget to leave some ruthless words behind though, “Little brat, I advise you to come to the palace to offer a humble apology and accept punishment, because you would not be able to escape from us even if you ran to the ends of the Earth!”
“If you have any guts, don’t run!” Yang Kai shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth.
Of course, Gao Shan and Liu Shui ignored him and disappeared.
The next moment, Luo Yuan’s figure suddenly appeared in front of everyone.
Looking closely at Luo Yuan, his current state gave everyone a chill. A rich and substantive energy formed a vortex swirling around his body, one that seemed to be disrupting the local World Principles. Everywhere he passed, space collapsed and numerous Void Cracks flitted about. Of course, this damage was being repaired as quickly as it was caused as more World Principles flooded in towards the area.
Many cultivators who came here immediately moved back and did not dare to get within a thousand-metre range of Luo Yuan.
Yang Kai’s expression turned solemn too as he stared at Luo Yuan indifferently.
Luo Yuan’s aura was at its peak right now, but he was also covered in blood from head to toe. It could be seen that during the previous battle with the two old men, Gao Shan and Liu Shui, Luo Yuan did not really have the upper hand. However, although his appearance was quite miserable right now, the fire in his eyes was still burning brightly.
“Senior Brother Luo…” The round-faced woman stuttered, feeling pained about Luo Yuan’s condition.
Luo Yuan did not turn his eyes to her but instead glanced at Yang Kai.
From that gaze, Yang Kai could see a strong fighting intent.
He hurriedly said, “Brother Luo, you shouldn’t do things half-heartedly and should always finish what you started. Those two ran just now, so shouldn’t you chase after them to settle this once and for all?”
While speaking, he pointed towards a certain direction for Luo Yuan.
Luo Yuan looked at him for a long while, then nodded slightly, “It won’t be too late to wait until your cultivation has improved a little before we battle.”
After that, Luo Yuan flew off to pursue Gao Shan and Liu Shui.
After he left, a number of gasps sounded as everyone breathed a sigh of relief, like a big rock had been lifted from their chests, all of them looking around, feeling lucky for having survived this calamity.
Among the crowd, there was one man, however, who was quietly trying to sneak away.
But before he could take a second step, he suddenly felt a chill down his back and his face drastically changed as he looked behind himself.
“Hu…” In front of his eyes was a short and sloppy fat man, with a rosy nose and a flushed face, breathing out a warm breath.
Zhuang Pan was caught off guard and inhaled most of that hot breath. His face could not help turning red as he took a few steps back with his mouth covered with his hands. There was an irritating sound coming from his throat and it seemed that he was about to retch, but luckily, his cultivation was still good enough for him to suppress that nausea.
The short fat man looked at him with a grin, then lifted his huge green bottle gourd and took a swig of it, finally ending with a loud burp.
“Drunkard…” Zhuang Pan’s face turned ugly while looking at him.
When he saw a man come out from behind Drunkard’s back, his face turned even uglier and the corner of his mouth twitched, “Sir City Lord!”
Duan Yuan Shan snorted coldly, “I’m surprised that you still remember this Duan is the City Lord here. How thoughtful of you, Deacon Zhuang.”
At this moment, Duan Yuan Shan felt unspeakable joy as if he could finally vent out all the resentment in him.
Zhuang Pan forced a smile and replied, “Sir City Lord, you must be joking. This Zhuang worked under Sir City Lord for several dozen years, how could he have forgotten this?”
“Really?” Duan Yuan Shan looked at him from the corner of his eyes and sneered, “But I saw that Deacon Zhuang had forgotten about this for the past few days.”
“There is no such thing.” Zhuang Pan denied and explained, “the things that happened a few days ago… I have my reasons…”
Just as he was still speaking, Qin Zhao Yang suddenly appeared beside Zhuang Pan with a flicker of his body, forming a triangle with Duan Yuan Shan and Drunkard, surrounding Zhuang Pan.
Zhuang Pan was just a First-Order Dao Source Realm cultivator, so when he saw these three glaring at him unkindly, not knowing what they were going to do with him, he was so terrified his legs trembled and he yelled, “What do you want to do? Don’t forget that this Zhuang is not the Vice City Lord of Maplewood City anymore, but a Deacon of Flying Saint Palace!”
As soon as he said this, the three men frowned and showed a look of hesitation.
Zhuang Pan was nothing to them, and if they teamed up, he would definitely die here. Even if they were to each act alone, they would not be at a disadvantage here.
However, the current status of Zhuang Pan was the source of their fear.
A Deacon in Flying Saint Palace was nothing impressive, but it was also not a low position either; after all, it was still a post that represented Flying Saint Palace’s face. As such, if the three of them really killed Zhuang Pan in front of this crowd, word would soon spread to Flying Saint Palace.
Qin Zhao Yang had to protect the Qin Family, while Duan Yuan Shan and Drunkard still had to look after Maplewood City. If they really offended Flying Saint Palace due to this matter, their good days would come to an end.
Seeing the change of their expression, the cowardliness of Zhuang Pa was swept away and he laughed loudly with a grin, “City Lord Duan, I’m quite nervous having you three stare at me so menacingly. Could you please not be so fierce with your faces?”
His words were full of teasing and mocking, and it embarrassed the three of them.
While talking, Zhuang Pan took two steps forward, patted Drunkard’s big belly and made fun of him, “Drunk old man, you should cut back on the wine a bit. You used to be a handsome Young Lord in Maplewood City, but what have you become after all these years? If those women who admired you before saw you now, they would be so heartbroken.”
Drunkard remained silent, simply continuing to lift up his bottle as he took another mouthful of wine.
Zhuang Pan then cast his sight on Qin Zhao Yang, “Old Ghost Qin, isn’t it difficult to support the Qin Family on your own? Have you ever wondered what would happen if you were gone one day, what kind of fate would befall your Qin Family? What would happen to Qin Yu?”
As soon as he said this, Qin Zhao Yang’s face changed abruptly. Qin Yu was always Qin Zhao Yang’s biggest weakness and also his reverse scale, so Zhuang Pan’s words had clearly lit up the fire in him.
Zhuang Pan chuckled, “Those who know how to act according to the circumstances are the wisest. Why not consider joining Flying Saint Palace now? This Deacon may be able to recommend you.”
“Hmph!” Qin Zhao Yang heavily snorted.
“Can’t appreciate kindness!” The smiling face of Zhuang Pan darkened when he saw Qin Zhao Yang giving him that face, turning to Duan Yuan Shan next, “City Lord Duan, the purpose of this Zhuang accompanying Young Palace Master here to Maplewood City this time was to invite City Lord Duan to join Flying Saint Palace in order to complete a certain important matter. I wonder what City Lord Duan’s things of this?”
Maplewood City was a small city that was not rich in products or resources, so before now, none of the great forces had the intention to control this place; however, recently, the city had become a prize worth fighting over with the discovery of a Source Crystal lode and a number of Earth Veins nearby.
Duan Yuan Shan happened to be the City Lord of Maplewood City, so if he was willing to join Flying Saint Palace, Maplewood City would become a protectorate of Flying Saint Palace, allowing it to rightfully claim the Source Crystal lode and Earth Veins. For those other forces that wanted to harvest these resources, they would then have to weigh their own strength and confidence before contesting them.
After listening to Zhuang Pan’s question, Duan Yuan Shan kept quiet with a cold face.
Zhuang Pan sneered, “City Lord Duan, this opportunity is right in front of you, don’t let it slip through your fingertips… This Zhuang knows that City Lord Duan has spent his whole life cultivating, but has reached his limit at the Second-Order Dao Source Realm. Do you not want to go further? If you can obtain some guidance from Sir Palace Master, perhaps you would still have a chance to break through to the Third-Order.”
Hearing this, Duan Yuan Shan shivered and his eyes gleamed, but soon, he regained his calm expression and snorted coldly, “It is impossible for this Duan to join Flying Saint Palace.
Zhuang Pan jumped up in anger and reprimanded, “Duan Yuan Shan, don’t force me to get tough with you!”
“Go away and don’t show your face in Maplewood City ever again, otherwise don’t blame this Duan for being impolite with you.”
This was the limit to his patience. Duan Yuan Shan could not hold back his murderous intent and let Zhuang Pan leave in peace for much longer. Given Zhuang Pan’s previous desertion in the middle of the battle, Duan Yuan Shan killing him ten times over here and now would not be enough. Furthermore, this time, after Zhuang Pan returned to Maplewood City with Ning Yuan Shu, he had been taking advantage of the influence of others to constantly pressure and ridicule him and Drunkard.
If Zhuang Pan had not taken refuge in Flying Saint Palace, forcing Duan Yuan Shan to fear reprisals from the latter, how could he easily let such a villain posture like this in front of him?
“Impolite?” Zhuang Pan sneered, “And just how will you treat me impolitely? This Deacon is really curious to know how City Lord Duan will follow through on his threat.”
“Beat me then, beat me if you dare!” Zhuang Pan put his face in front of Duan Yuan Shan and the others and blatantly provoked them.
The cultivators all around shook their heads with disdain.
These foreign cultivators were basically meeting Zhuang Pan for the first time and knew nothing about him before today, but the attitude and behaviour of a man could be easily seen when he spoke like this.
Zhuang Pan was undoubtedly a type of villain that would kick an opponent when they were down, the type of person everyone despises.
The Patriarchs from the few big families in Maplewood City who rushed here revealed their sad expressions as they were sympathetic to Duan Yuan Shan’s plight.
Over the years, the big families had been under the management of the City Lord’s Mansion, and although there were some frictions and conflicts between them, there were no big fights or wars. In fact, the City Lord’s Mansion had mostly served as a buffer between the big families, earning it the respect of these families.
Seeing the City Lord, Vice City Lord, and the Patriarch from the Qin Family being bullied and disdained by Zhuang Pan at this moment, it was natural that those Patriarch would feel uncomfortable.
*Pa… *
A crisp sound suddenly resounded.
Everyone was dumbfounded as cold sweat formed on their foreheads, wondering to themselves if Sir City Lord had really lost his temper and acted rashly.
With doubt, they turned and looked.
The scene they saw stunned them.
They saw a figure standing in front of Zhuang Pan, cracking his neck and palming his fist, as if he was getting ready to fight.
“Who!? Who dares to strike me!?” Zhuang Pan was stunned by the slap just now. He felt half of his cheek swell up and go numb. His head had been struck sideways, so he couldn’t see who had slapped him immediately, so he immediately shouted hysterically as he turned his face back, “Who dare… uh…”
Mid-shout, his eyes met with Yang Kai’s grinning face and suddenly felt like he was being stared at by a vicious beast. This brought a chill to Zhuang Pan’s back as he forcefully choked down the ruthless words he was about to say.
“Interesting…” While speaking, Yang Kai gave another slap again.
*Pa… *
With another crisp sound, Zhuang Pan’s other cheek swelled up as several bloody teeth flew from his mouth.
Yang Kai grabbed Zhuang Pan’s collar with one hand, fixing him in place, then proceeded to slap Zhuang Pan’s face continuously with his free hand, each time adding a little force to his blow, the Source Qi on his palm growing more and more vigorous.
*Pa pa pa… *
Rhythmic and crisp music played out above the empty wilderness.
“This is the first time…” Yang Kai kept on slapping his face while sneering at him, “I’ve heard someone… wish to be beaten so badly… I simply had no choice but to oblige!”
All the cultivators felt pain from looking at the scene, and could not help touching their own cheeks.
Zhuang Pan was completely dumbfounded and it took a long time for him to recover. When he did, he struggled violently to free himself from Yang Kai’s grip.
But a man with just a First-Order Dao Source Realm cultivation like him could not possibly achieve this, so he remained completely suppressed by Yang Kai’s Source Qi.
In despair, Zhuang Pan cried loudly and begged for mercy, “Senior Yang, stop, stop, don’t beat me anymore.”
“Senior Yang, I know my mistake, I really know! Please let go of me, I apologize to you!”
“I’m a Deacon of Flying Saint Palace, quickly release me!”
“Bastard! You can kill me, but you can’t humiliate me. I will go all out on you if you keep doing this…”
“Wuwuwuwu… Senior Yang, please spare my life, I don’t want to die!”
The cultivators around watched this scene and heard every single word from Zhuang Pan, all of them openly despising him now for his lack of spine, honestly thinking his death would not be worth pitying.
After several dozen slaps, Zhuang Pan’s face no longer resembled that of a human.
Previously during the fight, Yang Kai did not try to kill Ning Yuan Shu due to his unique identity and because he had a father who was an Emperor Realm Master. Yang Kai did not want to cause unnecessary trouble for himself.
But it was different with Zhuang Pan. Every slap from Yang Kai sent bursts of Source Qi into Zhuang Pan’s meridians, snapping and breaking them along the way.
In other words, even if Zhuang Pan survived this time, he would become a cripple without any cultivation and unable to cultivate anymore.
“Little Brother Yang…” Duan Yuan Shan could not bear the miserable look of Zhuang Pan “Forget it, being a coward is in his nature. In the end, he did not cause us any losses, so just give him a quick mercy.”
Drunkard made a burp, his eyes gleaming with cold light as he said, “Beat the snake to death to avoid it climbing up your stick. Allowing a tiger back to the mountains would only breed calamity for the future!”
While speaking, he suddenly reached out his hand and grabbed the top of Zhuang Pan’s head.
Yang Kai squinted, stretched his hand and pushed Drunkard’s hand away and smiled, “Sir Vice City Lord shouldn’t be bothered with such a trivial matter.”
It was inappropriate for Drunkard to do the dirty job, but not Yang Kai. He had beaten Ning Yuan Shu up before, so how could killing Zhuang Pan be worse than that? In any case, he already had a silent feud with Flying Saint Palace, so this act would not change anything.
When his words fell, Yang Kai clenched his hand tightly and poured his Source Qi into Zhuang Pan before tossing him out.
“Ahhhhh….” Zhuang Pan yelled miserably, but his scream ceased abruptly when his body exploded, turning into a rain of blood, showering down on the ground.
The surrounding cultivators kept silent like a cicada in the winter.
However, when they recalled the moment when Yang Kai killed the Vice Valley Master of Evil Moon Valley, they secretly felt that this scene in front of them was not a big deal.
Duan Yuan Shan and Drunkard simultaneously cast their grateful eyes at Yang Kai, thanking him for cleaning up Maplewood City’s mess.
At that moment, the ambient World Energy trembled again and an indescribable feeling suddenly surged forth from the horizon, followed by a muffled sound of thunder and a rumbling from the earth.
Everyone was shocked and looked around.
“Does anyone else feel like… the World Energy in the air has suddenly become richer?” A Second-Order Dao Source Realm cultivator among the crowd asked.
Someone immediately answered, “I felt it before, but I thought it was my imagination. Since Brother Liu has sensed it too though, it seems to be real!”
“Since there’s a change in the World Energy, it’s very likely something has happened to the Source Crystal lodes or the Earth Veins!”
As soon as this statement was made, everyone’s eyes lit up and after exchanging a few knowing glances, all of them executed their Movement Skills and rushed towards the place where the Source Crystal Lode and Earth Veins were located.
Duan Yuan Shan and Drunkard were the Lord and Vice Lord of Maplewood City, so obviously they could not just sit back and watch, immediately following after the others after saying goodbye to Yang Kai.
“Brother Yang…” Qin Zhao Yang looked at Yang Kai, “It seems that the tremor we sensed before was not triggered by the battle between Luo Yuan and Gao Shan and Lui Shui, but rather because something happened to the Earth Veins and Source Crystal lode.”
“It should be!” Yang Kai nodded. He also thought the tremor happened because of the battle between Luo Yuan and the two Protectors, but right now it seemed that there were other reasons.
“Would you like to check it out?” Qin Zhao Yang asked Yang Kai for his opinion.
“Of course I have to take a look at such an interesting matter,” Yang Kai grinned. Just as he was about to leave, however, he caught a glimpse of Ye Jing Han from the Thousand Leaves Sect standing not far away, looking at him quietly.
Yang Kai’s face darkened.
This woman was like a sticky plaster he could not get rid of, which really annoyed him.
Acknowledging Yang Kai’s annoyed face, Ye Jing Han stepped back some distance, her face filled with sorrow which made it hard to ignore.
“Let’s go!” Shouting so, Yang Kai rushed towards the source of the tremor.
When the pair arrived, there saw a great glow on the horizon as well as a gathering of bright clouds high above. The barren wilderness seemed to have been transformed into some kind of paradise at this moment.
“What’s happening?” Qin Zhao Yang was puzzled.
When Demon Qi flooded the city, he and Yang Kai had come to this region to assist Qin Yu in reinforcing the ancient seal. Although their plan failed, they did not notice anything unusual about the seal except for a boundless amount of Demon Qi.
However, a few months later, many Earth Veins and a Source Crystal lode had surprisingly been found here.
*Hong… *
A loud sound burst out at that moment as a massive pit appeared before Yang Kai’s eyes. From this pit, an intense beam of light suddenly shot out into the sky.
“This is…”
“Heavens.”
“Can there be such a thing in this world?”
All the cultivators who came here yelled as they looked up at the beam of light. Using their Divine Senses, they all immediately discovered the true nature of this phenomenon.
This beam of light was actually formed by a convergence of the purest World Energy, one so rich it actually began to form into a kind of condensation.
Everyone was so astonished that they could not believe their eyes, their faces filling with extreme excitement.
The purity and concentration of World Energy in this place were astonishing. The cultivators who came here were at best from second-class Sects and families which all had their own cultivation paradises, places where the World Energy aura was richer and could allow their disciples to cultivate faster.
But when everyone compared the World Energy in their own cultivation zones to this place, the difference was simply incomparable.
Perhaps, only the cultivation paradises occupied by peak level Sects could be like this.
All of sudden, the beam of light that soared into the sky burst apart and an unimaginably rich World Energy began to fall down on the surrounding area in tiny droplets.
*Xi xi li li… *
In an instant, it began to rain.
World Energy Rain.
The richness of the World Energy in this once barren wilderness rose at an incredible speed…
In no time, everyone was standing in what appeared to be a massive Spirit Qi Sea.
In less time than it would take to brew a half cup of tea, the surrounding region for several thousand kilometres was covered by this extremely rich Spirit Qi Sea, engulfing many cultivators in it, blocking their vision. Even Maplewood City, which was two thousand kilometres away, benefited greatly. Countless cultivators rushed to the city walls and looked up full of excitement, opening their arms to welcome the raining World Energy.
*Hong Hong Hong… *
The sound of the invisible shackles being opened came from every corner of Maplewood City, transmitted from the bodies of many cultivators, causing them to tremble and have weird expressions.
“I… I made a breakthrough to the Second-Order Origin King Realm!”
“Wo… I can die in peace now that I have broken the shackles of the Origin Returning Realm!”
“Hahahaha, this Young Master is truly talented, an undefeatable genius, instantly breaking through three Minor Realms straight to the Immortal Ascension Realm! This Young Master is truly invincible!”
The joyful cries of the cultivators filled the air as more and more of them broke through, reaching higher in the Martial Dao with the assistance of the dense Spirit Qi Sea.
Nothing much occurred when breaking through a Minor Realm within a Great Realm, but breaking through to a new Great Realm would always usher in a World Energy Baptism.
As a result, the sky covering Maplewood City soon grew dark, engulfing the entire city in black clouds as if the end was near. Soon after, winds began to gather and bolts of World Energy began pouring down from above, striking the bodies of those who had just advanced to the next Great Realm, washing their bodies and Souls.
Maplewood City instantly boiled up.
However, Yang Kai and the others, who were standing just above the ancient seal outside of the city, benefited even more.
Each and every Dao Source Realm Master stood frozen with their eyes closed, feeling the richness of World Energy around them, opening all their pores in order to absorb this energy even without consciously circulating their Secret Art. The ubiquitous World Energy continuously poured into their limbs even when they just stood still, making them feel completely relaxed and at ease.
A creaking sound came from inside Yang Kai’s body, which made his expression strange and immediately excited.
“Brother Yang…” Qin Zhao Yang suddenly shouted with difficulty.
“What’s wrong?” Yang Kai turned his head and looked at Qin Zhao Yang.
“This Old Master can’t withstand it anymore…” Qin Zhao Yang looked like he was in pain as if he had constipation and suddenly glanced at Yang Kai, “I need to look for a place… to quietly break through!”
Yang Kai raised his brows immediately and said with great joy, “Congratulations, Patriarch Qin.”
Qin Zhao Yang had shown no signs of breaking through for hundreds of years due to his advanced age, but when he was suddenly enveloped by this dense World Energy, it seemed his opportunity had come.
Without this opportunity, given Qin Zhao Yang’s innate aptitude and age, he would never be able to reach the threshold of the Second-Order Dao Source Realm until the day he died. If he was able to break through at this time though, it would be a great blessing to the Qin Family, and even to Maplewood City.
Qin Zhao Yang smiled bitterly, “The timing couldn’t be worse though. The situation here is turbulent at the moment, so this Old Master will have to ask Brother Yang to stand guard for him for a time!”
“No problem!” Yang Kai agreed readily before he began looking around. There were many cultivators present, all of whom showed excited looks as the Source Qi in their bodies became turbulent. Many seemed to similarly be on the verge of breaking through.
“Let’s head to the source!” Yang Kai grabbed Qin Zhao Yang and rushed forward.
There were too many people around at this moment, all of whom were Dao Source Realm, and the impact that occurred during a breakthrough would be very chaotic, so it was not suitable to remain here. Since Qin Zhao Yang showed signs of a breakthrough, it could not be wasted.
Therefore, Yang Kai decided to go deep into the tiger’s den.
“The source!” Qin Zhao Yang narrowed his eyes but quickly understood what Yang Kai was referring to.
Soon, the pair dove into a massive hole in the ground and rushed downwards against the constant upsurge of World Energy.
Yang Kai’s approach was indeed correct. The deeper they dove, the more terrifying the purity and richness of the World Energy. The World Energy that appeared above ground was amazing enough, but the World Energy below the surface was on a completely different scale.
With the help of such a vast sea of World Energy, Qin Zhao Yang felt that it was simply impossible for him to fail to break through this time. He could not help but feel excited as his face glowed, making him appear several dozen years younger.
The two of them fell all the way down for more than a thousand metres before reaching solid ground.
The underground situation was the same as above, a literal lake.
However, the water here was not ordinary water, but rather Liquid Spirit Qi.
Yang Kai did not intend to linger here and simply looked for a direction before he continued to rush forward.
After a long time, he suddenly stopped, looked left and right, and said, “Patriarch Qin, you can break through here. No one should come here in a short time.”
At this moment, everyone was busy absorbing World Energy to prepare for their own breakthrough, so how could they have the mind to explore this underground cave system? So, what Yang Kai said made sense.
Qin Zhao Yang was afraid that he could not suppress himself anymore so he simply nodded and sat down cross-legged without another word. Circulating his Secret Art, he instantly entered a meditative state.
Yang Kai waved his hand and summoned three beautiful figures before himself.
“Sir… what is this place?” Zhang Ruo Xi asked, noticing the strangeness around her instantly and couldn’t help covering her lips in shock.
Hua Qing Si’s beautiful eyes also widened as she trembled, “Yang… Yang Kai, don’t tell me you broke into some great Sect’s cultivation paradise without authorization?”
Liu Yan’s dazzling eyes looked around while the corners of her mouth rose slightly to reveal a smile, but she did not comment out loud.
Yang Kai smiled and said, “Of course not.”
“The World Energy here…” Hua Qing Si was shocked.
“How is it compared to the cultivation paradises of Star Soul Palace?” Yang Kai asked with interest.
“Not far off!” Hua Qing Si pondered for a while before groaning, “The cultivation paradise of Soul Palace is divided into three levels, Heaven, Earth, and Mortal. Those with my cultivation are only permitted to enter the Earth Grade cultivation paradises, and in order to do so, we need to offer a massive number of contribution points to the Sect. The World Energy here is even denser than in those Earth Grade cultivation rooms!”
“What about Heaven Grade?” Yang Kai frowned.
“I don’t know!” Hua Qing Si shook her head, and said bitterly, “Only Emperor Realm Masters are allowed to cultivate under such conditions, I am not qualified to enter.”
Yang Kai gently nodded.
“Where is this place? Why is there such rich World Energy here?” Hua Qing Si asked again.
“It’s the land around the ancient seal we visited last time. I don’t know what this place’s name is, or what lies below, but apparently, a number of Earth Veins and a Source Crystal lode suddenly appeared here…”
Hua Qing Si was stunned when she heard this.
She had lost her freedom here in this place after Yang Kai captured her and threw her into his Sealed World Bead, eventually forcing her to surrender her Soul Brand.
However, because of that, she obtained an Extraordinary Treasure Pill, which greatly increased her chances of breaking through to the Emperor Realm.
It was hard to say if she had gained or lost from this event. In any case, Hua Qing Si was not upset with her current situation and she had grown a much friendlier opinion of Yang Kai.
“Enough nonsense, it would be a shame to let this opportunity slip by. Quickly meditate and cultivate, absorb as much World Energy as you can.”
Hua Qing Si and Zhang Ruo Xi nodded one after another at his words and quickly found a place to sit cross-legged and circulate their Secret Arts.
Hua Qing Si was a disciple of Star Soul Palace and had a powerful Third-Order Dao Source Realm cultivation, so although she failed miserably in her previous mission and wound up captured by Yang Kai, she was not someone to be underestimated. In a short time, her tender body became a bottomless pit that gathered a steady stream of World Energy towards it.
Yang Kai looked at her in amazement, secretly admiring the Secret Arts of Star Soul Palace.
Immediately afterwards, something that startled him even more happened.
A whistling noise emerged from Zhang Ruo Xi’s body, one that was created by a strong stream of wind. Instantly, Zhang Ruo Xi’s petite form also became a bottomless pit that rapidly absorbed the surrounding World Energy.
Zhang Ruo Xi’s cultivation aura soared upwards at a speed visible to the naked eye.
*Ka… *
An abnormal noise soon sounded and with Zhang Ruo Xi’s tender body as the centre, an invisible wave of pressure pulsed outwards.
“This…” Yang Kai ogled.
Ever since her bloodline power began to awaken, Zhang Ruo Xi’s cultivation speed had increased expeditiously, and the richer the World Energy was, the more obvious the effects of her cultivation were. She had no bottlenecks at all; as long as the accumulation of energy was sufficient, she could automatically break through. Even her Shi had easily reached the Grand Accomplishment Stage without any stagnation at all.
The scene before him was Zhang Ruo Xi easily breaking through to the Third-Order Origin Returning Realm!
Yang Kai was unsure of the condition of this young girl and her mysterious bloodline, but it was undeniable that this underground location was the most suitable place for Zhang Ruo Xi’s cultivation.
Thoughts floated through Yang Kai’s mind helplessly. [What would it be like if Zhang Ruo Xi were to cultivate in the Heaven Grade cultivation paradise of Star Soul Palace for several years?]
[Could she directly reach the Emperor Realm?]
“Master, you seem to be about to break through too!” Liu Yan looked at Yang Kai brightly with her beautiful eyes.
Her cultivation was much stronger now and was able to naturally detect the vibrations coming from Yang Kai’s body.
Yang Kai nodded and responded, “You will need to stand guard at this place.”
Saying so, Yang Kai reached out his hand and summoned the Sealed World Bead. After he performed a series of hand seals, the Sealed World Bead began emitting a huge suction force that drew in the surrounding World Energy. The Liquid Spirit Qi nearby surged as streams of water seemed to flow towards the small bead.
Tossing the Sealed World Bead to Liu Yan, Yang Kai said, “Find a place to hide, there are quite a lot of people here.”
Liu Yan nodded, holding the Sealed World Bead as her tender body disappeared in a flash, hiding somewhere.
However, before she left, Yang Kai saw a hint of envy in her eyes.
This couldn’t be helped though; everyone was benefiting from such a wondrous opportunity, but Liu Yan could not, naturally making her feel a bit distraught.
Liu Yan did not have a physical body, so apart from swallowing and refining certain exotic flames, she was unable to directly absorb World Energy to increase her cultivation.
This was the reason why Yang Kai asked her to stand guard.
After Liu Yan hid, Yang Kai stretched out his hand again and released his two Blood Beasts, the Monster Insect Queen and Blue Flame Thunder Wolf, which had not been used for a while now.
With the improvement of his cultivation, the role these two Blood Beasts could play was getting lower and lower, especially the Blue Flame Thunder Wolf which was only as strong as a Second-Order Dao Source Realm cultivator. It was useless against strong enemies, but also unnecessary to use against weak enemies. However, it could be of use here and now.
With a pulse of his Divine Sense, Yang Kai ordered the two Blood Beasts to conceal themselves nearby before he also sat down with his legs crossed.
The fluctuations of his Source Qi were getting stronger and more prominent, which was a prelude to a breakthrough. Yang Kai focused his mind and ignored all the external influences as he began circulating his Secret Art.
Being here, in this underground, was like sitting on a Spirit Spring, so even without consciously circulating his Secret Art, the ambient World Energy would unendingly converge towards his body, flooding into his pores and making its way along his meridians to his Dantian.
As time passed, Yang Kai continued accumulating Qi inside himself.
At a certain moment, the Source Qi in his body reached a critical point and a kind of invisible wall that was baring his path shattered, allowing Yang Kai to take one more step forward.
Remaining unflustered, Yang Kai quietly gathered all of his strength and used it to bombard the shackles still holding him back.
*Hong… *
With a bang, Yang Kai’s body trembled slightly and his face paled, showing a hint of pain on his face.
Beyond his expectations, this impact failed to have any effect.
This was something that he has rarely encountered since he began cultivating. Yang Kai had only experienced this when he was still very weak, so this failure actually gave him a feeling of nostalgia. Not panicking, Yang Kai simply grinned lightly.
This breakthrough was not induced by internal accumulation but instead was triggered by external stimulation, so it was only natural for there to be some difficulties. However, these difficulties could not stop Yang Kai and only further ignited his fighting spirit.
Remaining calm and composed, Yang Kai gathered his strength once more.
A moment later, he made another attempt.
*Hong Hong Hong… *
Again and again, Yang Kai pushed his Source Qi, each time enduring a sharp pain in his body and Soul that would render an ordinary man unconscious. If he were to give up now though, his Martial Heart would be damaged, and making further progress in the future would become impossible.
Countless cultivators started to doubt themselves because they were unable to bear this pain and became demoralized.
The only way for the cultivators to reach the peak was to persist.
The unceasing pain did not diminish Yang Kai’s confidence, nor did it cause him to panic, all it did was reinforce his will.
“Dao begets one, one begets two, two begets three, three forms the basis for everything… Fate is made by oneself, the state is born from the heart, everything is transformed from form, and everything lives among the world. Illusions are born from the heart, and extinguished by the heart…”
A trace of comprehension leisurely appeared in Yang Kai’s mind as he reached a kind of enlightened state.
A layer of formless force lingered around his body, transforming into a kind of ethereal power that ground away at the shackles holding him down while at the same time smashing the ceiling above him, allowing Yang Kai to step out into a wider world.
*Honglong…*
A visible wave of Source Qi, with Yang Kai’s body as its centre, suddenly spread out in all directions, and the aura of a Second-Order Dao Source Realm Master instantly filled the air.
Yang Kai did not move at all as a strange feeling was born in his heart. His Soul Avatar seemed to emerge from his figure at that moment and slowly float up above his body, capturing everything underneath with its eyes.
Yang Kai clearly saw Liu Yan hiding nearby, holding the Sealed World Bead as Liquid Spirit Qi flowed into it, bolstering its World Energy.
Perhaps, due to some inexplicable connection between Yang Kai and Liu Yan, her beautiful eyes looked up in the direction of Yang Kai in bewilderment as she formed a slight frown on her face.
Yang Kai saw Hua Qing Si inhaling World Energy madly, laying a solid foundation for her breakthrough to the Emperor Realm.
Turning his attention towards Zhang Ruo Xi, Yang Kai saw that her cultivation was steadily increasing. Within just this short period of time, she had already reached the Origin King Realm and was now experiencing a World Energy Baptism.
Just like the last time when Zhang Ruo Xi broke through to the Origin Returning Realm in the Four Seasons Realm, the huge female phantom appeared behind her as she reached a new Great Realm.
This phantom was giant, white, and hazy, but looking at its silhouette, it was clearly a beautiful woman. This woman had a graceful figure and was holding a giant sword in front of her in both hands. She had a pair of beautiful eyes as mesmerizing as stars, sending Yang Kai’s Divine Sense into a trance with just one glance.
The giant phantom opened her mouth and breathed in suddenly, absorbing all the World Energy which had gathered in the sky for a baptism, then withdrew into Zhang Ruo Xi’s body.
The young girl broke through to the Origin King Realm just like that, without any obstacles or danger.
Yang Kai also witnessed many Dao Source Realm Masters breaking through their own bottlenecks. Some of them laughed crazily while others were focused on trying to break free from their shackles to reach the next Minor Realm.
Yang Kai’s Soul Avatar continued to float up and rose several thousand metres in an instant. Lifting his eyes, Yang Kai was able to see Maplewood City two thousand kilometres away. At this moment, the city was buzzing in excitement, looking extremely lively and magnificent.
In the sky, many clusters of gathering World Energy had turned into visible clouds and were baptizing the ones who were attempting to break through to new Great Realms.
From time to time, someone would break through successfully and roar victoriously.
Yang Kai gazed farther away as his Soul Avatar continued to rise.
Soon, Maplewood City had become a small black dot, and when Yang Kai looked upward, the night sky was full of twinkling stars, forming various constellations.
In the darkness, the World Principles of the Star Boundary seemed to be within reach.
Yang Kai’s face changed as he reached out his hand to the surrounding world and tried to grab hold of these mysterious Principles.
It seemed like he had caught nothing, but at the same time also like he was able to touch something.
Yang Kai was confused, but at that moment, a formless World Force abruptly plunged down from the sky and landed on top of Yang Kai’s head, bringing with it unimaginable force and terrifying destructive energy.
“Not good!” Yang Kai exclaimed, pushing his Soul hard as he hastily descended back to his physical body.
*Hong… *
The World Force followed him closely and crashed onto him.
As if he was struck by lightning, Yang Kai’s face changed drastically and his Source Qi shook uncontrollably.
*Pu… *
He spat out a puff of Golden Blood from his mouth and his aura was instantly weakened; however, his eyes remained as bright as the stars.
“What was that?” Yang Kai lifted his head and grinned towards the Heavens, “Is this some kind of warning that one cannot peek at World Principles before they obtain enough strength?”
He was confident that if it was not for the World Principles’ suppression, he would have been able to catch a glimpse of the truth behind Principle Strength.
If that was the case, he would have been able to utilize Principle Strength directly, which was ordinarily a privilege only Emperor Realm Masters possessed.
Unfortunately, he was hindered by the World Principles at the last moment and fell short. It seemed the world itself was forbidding him from achieving success ahead of time.
However, that didn’t mean Yang Kai gained nothing from this experience.
After a round of swearing, Yang Kai bowed his head again and opened his hands. As he moved his fingers about, Space Principles began to gather around his hand and numerous tiny Void Cracks flowed across his fingertips like little living creatures swimming around his palm.
Yang Kai found that his ability to motivate the surrounding Space Principles was much higher now than before.
Just as he flicked his fingers, those numerous tiny Void Cracks flew out like darts, plunged into the surrounding stone walls, carving cracks into many of them.
Yang Kai grinned and there was a trace of satisfaction on his face.
Back then, he could not manipulate Space Principles to such a subtle degree, but now he could do so easily.
This kind of attack was still weaker compared to his Moon Blade in terms of power, but it was harder for the enemies to evade. As such, it would be more effective than Moon Blade in some situations.
Next, Yang Kai immediately examined his own cultivation and realized he had already made a breakthrough to the Second-Order Dao Source Realm. He finally put down the last worries in his heart and began taking some pills.
Although the impact of the World Force just now did not hurt him too much, he still could not ignore it. Who knows if this kind of injury would have any side effects? So it was better to get it treated as soon as possible.
While Yang Kai was healing himself, Qin Zhao Yang had already gathered his own power to its peak and soon his body shook as a wave of Source Qi spread out from him. At the same time, his aura rose up and his robes flapped loudly.
In the next moment, the wrinkles on Qin Zhao Yang’s face faded away slowly as he relaxed. In an instant, he seemed to become a dozen years younger and his complexion gradually became rosy. Even his head full of white hair began to show some black streaks in it now.
Second-Order Dao Source Realm!
Qin Zhao Yang made a breakthrough too!
He did not rush to open his eyes and instead continued to sit in place, absorbing the surrounding World Energy to consolidate his cultivation.
Time passed slowly.
At a certain moment, a cultivator who was at a critical point in his breakthrough suddenly frowned suspiciously.
A moment later, the aura coming from his body abruptly deflated like a punctured balloon.
After such a change, he instantly opened his eyes and yelled in anger, “What’s wrong? I was on the verge of breaking through just now! Why did the surrounding World Energy suddenly decrease?”
He only began to break through here due to the richness of the surrounding World Energy, so when that same World Energy density lowered, he was unable to reach a critical point, causing his breakthrough to fail.
“Brother Liu, is it the same for you?” A man nearby spoke, “I thought it was just me.”
“Something’s not right, the surrounding World Energy was overflowing crazily just now so how could it drop so low all of a sudden? Even if a few Emperor Realm Masters appeared, they could not possibly have absorbed such a massive volume of World Energy in such a short time.”
“Is there some bastard down below blocking the Spirit Spring?” Another voice spoke out.
“Speaking of it, I thought I saw someone jump down there, maybe that’s why.”
“Who is this wicked bastard!? This is too much!”
“Let’s go and check. If I find that person, I’ll make him suffer for this! How dare he stop me from breaking through!”
A thousand metres underground, Yang Kai stood up.
While this was a rare opportunity to cultivate, and it would be difficult to encounter such rich World Energy in the future, Yang Kai did not intend to waste time simply cultivating here and instead was determined to investigate what the root cause of this phenomenon was.
What’s more, he had just made a breakthrough and would not be able to break through again in a short period.
Sending Liu Yan a Divine Sense Message, Yang Kai asked her to continue protecting the others in their group before he began his own investigation.
Soon, something caught Yang Kai’s eye and he was about to take a closer look, when suddenly he frowned and turned to look in the direction of the entrance.
A vast crowd had gathered, and it seemed like many cultivators had found their way here, underground.
“There’s someone over there! There really was someone who came down ahead of us.”
“Bastard, he must be the one who interfered with my breakthrough!”
“Let’s go and find out who has such courage!”
The sound of loud chattering reached Yang Kai and he quickly released his Divine Sense to investigate the surrounding situation.
Soon, he discovered the problem. The surrounding World Energy had become a little bit thinner than before. Although the difference wasn’t obvious, it was noticeable.
Perceiving this, Yang Kai could not help turning his head to look at Liu Yan’s hiding place, unsure if it was because the Sealed World Bead was devouring World Energy.
This slight difference was not to be underestimated. It was very likely that this little change had prevented these cultivators from reaching a critical point in their breakthrough and had thus drawn so many of them down here to search for the cause.
Yang Kai hurriedly stretched out his hand to retrieve Liu Yan and the Sealed World Bead to avoid anyone catching them absorbing the World Energy.
Then, he stood there waiting quietly.
“Boy, no matter which Sect you are from, you’re dead this time.”
“Come over and apologize if you’re smart, maybe I will spare you your life!”
“This old lady will fight you for taking away my precious opportunity to break through!”
A group of people protested, putting the blame all on Yang Kai, approaching him quickly.
After a while, a group of people stopped in front of Yang Kai.
“Ah… it’s you… “
“This, this, this… “
All the cultivators who were yelling fell silent when they saw Yang Kai and stood in place with cold sweat on their foreheads, showing anxious looks on their faces.
The memory of Yang Kai killing Qu Huai Ren and murdering Zhuang Pan was still vivid in their minds, and all were fearful of provoking Yang Kai. All of them felt horrified about protesting without understanding the situation and were unsure if they had angered this monster.
“Need something?” Yang Kai looked at a group of people indifferently, his words cold.
“No, no, no…”
“It’s nothing, we just came down to have a look, hahaha, the scenery below is good…”
“That’s right, that’s right, we were just curious to have a look!”
“Really?” Yang Kai raised the corners of his mouth and said lightly, “Since the scenery is good, you shouldn’t miss it. You should all take a walk and look around.”
“Yes, yes, yes! We’ll go now!”
Not a single person dared to stop at the sight of his cold expression; they proceeded quickly and headed deeper. Just before leaving, many stared in the direction where Hua Qing Si sat.
With the strength of everyone present, it was natural for them to sense Hua Qing Si’s cultivation realm. It was not shocking that they sensed her Third-Order Dao Source Realm aura though, as there were several others with equivalent cultivations, what was noticeable, however, was the inexplicable aura lingering about her.
Emperor Intent!
Amazingly, they could sense Emperor Intent coming from Hua Qing Si, a sign she was on the verge of reaching the Emperor Realm.
In other words, this woman was very likely to break through to the Emperor Realm in the future.
Undoubtedly it would cause everyone to be shocked and envious. They did not know if Hua Qing Si had Emperor Intent before now, or if she only achieved it by cultivating here in this rich World Energy environment.
With the presence of such a Master here, being protected by this madman Yang Kai, no one dared to remain.
It didn’t take long for everyone to scatter.
After they left, Yang Kai released Liu Yan again and had her remain here to stand guard.
Immediately afterwards, Yang Kai moved deeper as well.
The more he ventured inside, the richer the World Energy became, as if in some unknowable place down below, World Energy was gushing forth from some kind of source.
Yang Kai could not help being curious, wondering what could create such a surge of World Energy like this.
Those cultivators who left before him were not far ahead.
Suddenly, someone called out in shock up ahead, followed by many similar gasps.
They seemed to have discovered something extraordinary.
Yang Kai’s expression changed, and pushing the surrounding Space Principles, he disappeared in a flash and reappeared beside everyone.
In the blink of an eye, he appeared at the head of the crowd.
Following the gazes of the others, Yang Kai could not help but squint at what he saw.
Not far in front of him was a round pit covering a five metre radius, and from this pit Liquid Spirit Qi was gushing up into the air.
“Spirit Spring! Heavens, it’s a Spirit Spring Eye!”
“I can’t believe there’s a Spirit Spring Eye here… “
“No wonder the World Energy is so rich here, it’s all thanks to this Spirit Spring.”
“It should be a Mid-Rank Spirit Spring. If a Sect was established here, it would rise to prominence within a hundred years!”
Everyone present was from a second-class family or Sect, so none of their forces owned a treasure like a Spirit Spring. Only the first-class Sects were qualified to occupy such a treasure land.
Everyone was excited, their eyes brightening as they thought about what kind of earth-shaking changes would occur if they could migrate their Sect here to occupy this Spirit Spring.
It was possible that in less than a hundred years they would be able to rise to compete with first-class Sects.
“Now… I’m afraid there will be trouble,” someone said sadly with a heavy sigh.
“What does this friend mean? There is a Spirit Spring right in front of us, so why are you saying trouble will come?” Someone asked, unable to comprehend.
“That’s right, why are you acting so sullen with such a Heaven-sent opportunity before you?” Some sneered.
The speaker did not argue back and simply sighed, “Have you ever thought about why until now, despite a High-Rank Earth Vein and a Source Crystal lode appearing near Maplewood City no top tier Sect came to investigate?”
“Why? Because even though it is a High-Rank Earth Vein and a Source Crystal lode, it’s not worth those big Sects fighting over. Only small Sects like ours will regard them as treasures.”
“Exactly!” The man looked around, “But what if news of this Spirit Spring spreads out?”
With that, everyone was dumbfounded and their expressions changed slightly, finally understanding the situation.
If the news of a Spirit Spring spread out, none of them would be able to claim this place as the top forces would definitely send Masters to occupy this land, possibly even opening up branches of their Sects here.
The second-class families and Sects would simply be unable to fight against these behemoths and would be forced to watch this delicious meal be snatched away from them…
Considering all this, everyone was suddenly depressed, their earlier excitement and joy dissipating entirely.
“We… we could all swear an oath, on pain of a heart demon, to never spread this news out?” Someone suggested quietly.
Everyone glanced at the speaker, as if they were looking at an idiot, their eyes full of mockery.
There were no impervious walls in this world, and no matter how well they concealed the matter of the Spirit Spring, it was impossible to hide it forever. One day, it would become known to those top Sects.
Besides, many cultivators were allies with or even subjects of big Sects here, so they would send word to their backers after discovering this treasure.
How could this discovery be hidden for long?
“It was just a suggestion…” The man who proposed quickly realized that it would not work and smiled helplessly.
*Hong… *
At this moment, there was an explosion and a gush of Liquid Spirit Qi shot up from the sky, transforming into World Energy Rain that poured down on the surroundings.
“What?”
“What happened?”
“Heavens, are you kidding me?”
“It’s… another Spirit Spring!”
Everyone was stunned for a moment, gawking at a spot some fifty metres away from where another Spirit Spring had just appeared, Liquid Spirit Qi bursting out of it like a fountain.
The World Energy aura underground became richer in an instant.
Yang Kai too, stood dumbfounded.
Spirit Springs were naturally formed and could only be encountered by chance. It would already be a great stroke of fortune for a big Sect to occupy a single Spirit Spring and create a cultivation paradise.
However, two Spirit Springs appeared at once only two thousand kilometres away from Maplewood City. Looking at the scale, both these Spirit Springs were Mid-Rank as well.
*Hong Hong Hong… *
As if the incident was not shocking enough though, the air was filled with the rumbling sounds as the earth shook and the surrounding World Energy aura rapidly increased in density.
There were a few cultivators unable to reach the critical point in their breakthrough earlier because the World Energy had become too thin, but now, the Source Qi in their bodies fluctuated wildly all of a sudden, and they once again showed signs of breaking through.
However, everyone ignored their own conditions and stood in a daze as they stared around in awe.
It was dim underground, with the flood of World Energy, the surroundings became barely visible, but everyone present was a Dao Source Realm Master so they were able to grasp their situation with a sweep of their Divine Sense.
Everyone was shocked as one Spirit Spring after another appeared, and within a short time, the entire underground cavern before them was covered in densely packed Spirit Springs.
After about a dozen breaths of time, eighteen Spirit Springs fully emerged in the vast underground cavern.
These Spirit Springs were no lower than Mid-Ranked, and three of them were even High-Ranked.
These eighteen Spirit Springs seemed to be arranged in a special pattern, scattered across the cavern with the three High-Rank springs arranged at the centre and the fifteen Mid-Rank ones surrounding them.
There seemed to be a great mystery behind this arrangement.
These eighteen Spirit Springs erupted together, and everyone was dumbstruck by this spectacular scene.
After experiencing the initial excitement and shock, everyone soon figured that there must be something more to this than mere coincidence.
The appearance of a Mid-Rank Spirit Spring would already attract the first-class great forces to come and seize it, but now eighteen Spirit Springs had emerged at once, with three of them being High-Rank, so this was no longer something that those first-class great forces could occupy alone. Perhaps even the peak level Sects like Azure Sun Temple, Heavenly Martial Holy Land and Orthodoxy Temple would be alarmed. Even Star Soul Palace might send someone here to investigate.
This was definitely a major event that would shake the entire Southern Territory, possibly even the whole Star Boundary.
Maplewood City would soon become famous across the world.
“It’s over, it’s over!” Someone muttered with the corner of his mouth twitching.
Although he didn’t speak clearly, everyone knew what he meant. With the emergence of these Spirit Springs, this place would now certainly have nothing to do with his own Sect.
“The arrangement of these Spirit Springs… could it be… the Eighteen Stars Grand Array?” A person among the crowd who was scanning the surroundings with his eyes uttered in amazement.
“Eighteen Stars Grand Array?” A man looked at that person in doubt and questioned, “Are you proficient in Spirit Arrays?”
“I know a little something…” That person nodded.
Everyone turned to that person in curiosity and asked, “Since you know about Spirit Arrays, would you enlighten us about this Eighteen Stars Grand Array?”
The face of that person turned pale and bitter, but after pondering for a moment, he quickly answered, “I’m not sure if this is the Eighteen Stars Grand Array; after all, that Spirit Array is an ancient one lost to history and I only chanced upon a brief description of it in an ancient text.”
“An Ancient Spirit Array!” An exclamation sounded abruptly.
Ancient Times and Primordial Times were two very special periods, and it was said that in those times the World Principles were far stronger and richer than they were today, as if over time Principle Strength was gradually thinning, making it more and more difficult for cultivators reach the peak of the Martial Dao.
But anything involving Ancient Times and Primordial Times would bring excitement to the people.
So, when they heard that Eighteen Stars Grand Array was an Ancient Array, everyone was interested and wanted to inquire about it.
Yang Kai’s expression also changed slightly as he looked at that person and questioned, “Is your surname Gong?”
“One of the Heavenly River Valley Gong Family?” Someone yelled immediately.
If someone could recognize Ancient Arrays at just a glance, his attainment of Spirit Arrays must not be underestimated. In the entire Southern Territory, the Heavenly River Valley Gong Family was renowned for its comprehension and proficiency in the Dao of Spirit Arrays, so anyone from the Gong Family was known as an Array Master.
Yang Kai had dealt with Gong Wen Shan from the Gong Family in the Four Seasons Realm and had witnessed the prowess of the Gong Family in Spirit Arrays, which was why he asked this question.
“I… It’s you…” The cultivator who stood beside Yang Kai did not seem to notice his presence until now, but he immediately opened some distance with him once he did come to his senses.
Others followed suit, and in an instant, there was no one left beside Yang Kai.
Yang Kai pointed to himself, “I was just taking a walk here, no need to be so tense.”
He also did not expect that others would be so afraid of him.
Seeing him acting so casually, not showing any murderous intent, the others present felt a little relieved.
“Brother Gong…”Yang Kai spoke to that person again.
The person gave a wry smile, “My surname is not Gong… but I’m still considered a half-member of the Gong Family.”
What he said confused everyone.
The person explained, “My wife belongs to the Gong Family, so this one also studied a bit about Spirit Arrays from the Gong Family.
“So that’s how it is!” Everyone nodded in understanding, secretly guessing this man had married into the Gong Family just to get him an opportunity to study Spirit Arrays.
“Please tell us about the Eighteen Stars Grand Array,” Yang Kai requested, “I’m also curious about what this Spirit Array does.”
“The Eighteen Stars Grand Array is a powerful Ancient Array that has extremely harsh requirements to arrange. As you can see, you need to gather eighteen objects that can continuously generate World Energy on their own as the base of this array, making Spirit Springs the best building blocks!” The Gong Family son-in-law spoke rapidly about the Spirit Array with a solemn face. Obviously, he possessed a strong foundation, so what he said was convincing, “And the use of this Ancient Array is… “
He paused for a while and continued, “To suppress and seal something!”
“Suppress and seal?”
“Seal what?”
The crowd was puzzled.
“I don’t know,” the man shook his head and turned to Duan Yuan Shan, “City Lord Duan, was something unusual buried here once?”
The corner of Duan Yuan Shan’s mouth twitched as he glanced over at Yang Kai and answered, “Since all of you have come to Maplewood City for a while now, you must know that Maplewood City was flooded by Ancient Demon Qi a few months ago.”
“Could it be that the thing that was sealed was actually…”
“Ancient Demon Qi?”
Everyone’s face changed drastically as their legs began shaking in fear.
Yang Kai was also in a daze as he secretly admired the powerful methods of ancient times.
Among the people present, he knew best what was sealed here. It was not the Ancient Demon Qi, but rather the Black Eye of a Giant Ancient Demon.
The Black Eye was capable of casting darkness across the world.
And all the Ancient Demon Qi which had gathered in this place had been born from that Black Eye.
It was indeed a good way to seal Demon Qi with World Energy, but it was a pity that even those ancient powerhouses had underestimated the power of the Black Eye. After countless years, the Black Eye had not disappeared and although it had lost its spirituality and will, it continued to exist and finally broke free, only to be acquired by Yang Kai in the end.
“You don’t have to worry. After that Demon Qi flooded the city, three Emperor Realm Masters arrived and dealt with it, so there should be no danger anymore. We also didn’t notice any existence of Demon Qi for these past few months anyway,” Duan Yuan Shan comforted the people.
He always believed that the retreat of the Demon Qi that day was due to the efforts of Gao Xue Ting and the others.
“It seems that Demon Qi was being sealed here by this Eighteen Stars Grand Array!” The Gong Family son-in-law’s face paled, feeling afraid.
The rest also shivered slightly.
After a moment of silence, a person voiced, “Let’s not worry about the Ancient Demon Qi. Given that these eighteen Spirit Springs have appeared, this is undoubtedly an opportunity for all of us.”
“Yes, yes! Since we cannot occupy them forever, why not take this opportunity to absorb as much as we can? What are we still waiting for?!” Another person shouted before charging towards a Spirit Spring.
This person was decisive and immediately rushed towards one of the High-Rank Spirit Springs in an attempt to occupy it and absorb World Energy as it erupted from it.
There were only three High-Rank Spirit Springs while the number of forces present was between twenty and thirty, so it was natural that people wanted to seize the initiative.
As soon as the person moved, everyone could not help using their Movement Skills and rushing towards the Spirit Springs too.
Yang Kai also made a move and immediately teleported on top of one of the High-Rank Spirit Springs, hovering mid-air as he gazed around coldly.
He could see several cultivators were dashing over crazily, seemingly belonging to the same Sect, their cultivations all decent, the lowest of which was Second-Order Dao Source Realm while their leader was a Third-Order. They seemed intent on seizing this High-Rank Spirit Spring.
However, Yang Kai arrived before them in just the blink of an eye.
This group stopped their steps as all their faces turned ugly.
The leader of the cultivators was a calm, handsome looking middle-aged man. After pondering for a moment, he cupped his fists and spoke, “Brother Yang, can we have a discussion?”
“No!” Yang Kai replied decisively.
The middle-aged man’s face darkened, forcing a smile, “I haven’t said anything yet.”
“My answer is no!”
“Don’t be like this. Everyone here wants the best, can you not give us a chance? Besides, this Spirit Spring is too big for you alone, how about we take half while Brother Yang occupies the other half? That way everyone will be satisfied.”
“I like monopolizing treasures and never share with others,” Yang Kai lifted his nose high to the sky, acting like he was invincible.
“Little brat, don’t get cocky! Don’t you think that we’re afraid of you, we’re just giving you a bit of face,” A cultivator behind the middle-aged man suddenly clamoured.
The middle-aged man furrowed his brow, but he did not speak to stop him. Obviously, he was displeased too.
Yang Kai glanced at the person from the corner of his eyes, “If you’re not afraid, don’t just flap your lips, come up and snatch it from me!”
The man was enraged and stepped forward, seemingly wanting to do just as Yang Kai proposed.
The middle-aged leader was frightened when he saw this and hurriedly raised his hand to block his companion, turning to Yang Kai and asking once more, “Brother Yang, can we really not share?”
Yang Kai answered coldly, “I’ve already given you face when we first spoke, yet you still continue to challenge me. If you dare to fight with me, don’t blame me for slapping you.”
“Slapping…” The middle-aged man’s face changed drastically, horrified as he recalled the moment when Ning Yuan Shu and Zhuang Pan were slapped by Yang Kai…
Yang Kai glanced away at that point and continued, “If you go to grab another Spirit Spring now, you might still have a chance, but if you continue to idle here, I’m afraid that you wouldn’t even be able to drink some soup from this meal.”
The middle-aged man anxiously turned his head to look before waving and shouting, “Let’s go!”
As Yang Kai’s said, more than half the eighteen Spirit Springs were already occupied, and battles had begun to break out for the ones that remained. The scene was quite shocking as World Energy swirled about and stones from the cavern broke apart.
The scene was especially frigid around the other two High-Rank Spirit Springs as the strongest groups were all competing for these prizes.
Duan Yuan Shan and the rest of Maplewood City’s Old Ancestors, who were familiar with one another, knew they did not have the strength to compete for a High-Rank Spirit Spring, so they instead chose to cooperate to occupy one of the Mid-Rank ones.
Among the eighteen Spirit Springs, only the one occupied by Yang Kai remained calm and peaceful.
Everyone had seen how brutal Yang Kai could be and avoided competing with him for anything, not daring to provoke him.
Yang Kai was naturally pleased to see this.
He did not pay attention to the fights occurring above the other Spirit Springs and instead sent a message to Liu Yan with his Divine Sense, asking her to escort Hua Qing Si and the others to him.
He then rushed towards the Spirit Spring Eye and landed above its centre axis.
In the next instant, Yang Kai was surrounded by rich, liquid World Energy. The feeling of the World Energy pouring into his body made him feel extremely comfortable and his Second-Order Dao Source Realm cultivation was rapidly being consolidated.
Yang Kai was overjoyed and immediately circulated his Secret Art to absorb more World Energy.
At the same time, he took out the Sealed World Bead and opened a gap in it to allow the surrounding World Energy to pour into it.
Yang Kai soon frowned though and looked down intently, his eyes gleaming, as if trying to see across space.
He seemed to have vaguely sensed something down below that was rising up along with the gushing World Energy from the Spirit Spring Eye. A moment later, a whooshing sound appeared beneath where he sat.
“Not good!” Yang Kai’s heart sank. He did not know what was shooting up from inside the Spirit Spring Eye, but he felt an extremely dangerous aura coming from it, so he quickly urged his Source Qi to protect himself while also hurriedly trying to retreat from where he stood.
But he acted one step too late.
*Xiu xiu xiu… *
*Hong Hong Hong… *
One by one, inexplicable objects rushed out at an incredible speed and struck Yang Kai, each one carrying an extremely potent force behind them like a falling meteor.
Yang Kai felt pain all over his body but still managed to use these impacts to help himself leave the range of the Spirit Spring.
Right behind him, streaks of white light, like shooting stars, shot up into the cavern.
“What the hell!” Yang Kai looked shocked and quickly dodged aside, finally able to analyse what was happening.
Soon, his irritated expression was replaced by one of excitement.
The objects which had emerged from under the Spirit Spring and struck him turned out to be fist-sized Source Crystals!
Judging from the colour and purity of these Source Crystals, they were all at least Mid-Rank, with a large number of them being High-Rank.
Yang Kai gawked at the scene, his eyes hot with enthusiasm.
Across the Star Boundary, the currency for trading between cultivators was Low-Rank Source Crystals. For example, he had spent ten million Low-Rank Source Crystals to purchase the Faceless Profound Grass from Gao Xue Ting in Azure Sun Temple. If those were to be converted directly, they would total a hundred thousand Mid-Rank Source Crystals, or a thousand High-Rank Source Crystals.
The Source Crystals that Yang Kai had obtained so far were basically all Low-Rank, with a few Mid-Rank and even fewer High-Rank mixed in.
High-Rank Source Crystals were not easy to obtain and could only be mined from the Top-Grade Source Crystal lodes.
Top-Grade Source Crystals lodes were always controlled by great forces, and once any High-Rank Source Crystals were mined, they would directly enter the Sect’s coffers for internal use, rarely being circulated to the outside world.
The higher the rank of Source Crystals, the more useful they were. Many of the massive Spirit Arrays Sects arranged required High-Rank Source Crystals to run, and when it came to making breakthroughs, High-Rank Source Crystals were the preferred choice for high-level cultivators.
As such, how could Yang Kai not be shocked when so many Mid-Rank and High-Rank Source Crystals suddenly appeared in this place?
While he was still lost in his thoughts, the seventeen other Spirit Springs erupted together.
A large number of Source Crystals shot up from below the Spirit Springs together with the eruption of World Energy. Whooshing sounds rang out all over at the cavern which was illuminated by the countless white streaks of light.
The cultivators who did not notice the incoming Source Crystals in time were struck by them and could not help but grunting loudly, traces of blood often trickling from the corners of their mouths.
Just a moment later though, the entire underground was filled with excited cultivators.
“Source Crystals, High-Rank Source Crystals!”
“This Spirit Spring actually has High-Rank Source Crystals coming from it! Hahahaha, I’m rich!”
“Scram! This Spring Eye is ours! Be wise and leave, otherwise don’t blame my fellow brothers for not considering the relationship between our Sects.”
“What a joke, treasures belong to those who can occupy them! You think the few of you can hoard all of these for yourselves? If you have a death wish, I’ll grant it!”
“Since you refuse my kind gesture, then you will suffer the consequences!”
The appearance of the eighteen Spring Eyes had caused chaos, but the emergence of countless Source Crystal put all the cultivators present into a maddened frenzy.
After all, Spring Springs could not be taken away, and everyone present knew they had a limited amount of time to cultivate here before word spread and true powerhouses came to claim this place; however, Source Crystals were different. Source Crystals could be stuffed into one’s Space Ring and taken away, and they were a common currency used across the entire Star Boundary. One piece of High-Rank Source Crystal was equivalent to ten thousand pieces of Low-Rank Source Crystal. From the number of Source Crystals that emerged from this eruption, just occupying a single Spirit Spring for a few days would be enough to double or even triple a small Sect’s financial resources.
Due to this phenomenon, Sects that were already on bad terms became more hostile with each other, and tension even formed between Sects which were previously allies.
Men die for wealth, birds die for food. This was an immutable truth.
“Yang Kai!” While Yang Kai was still glancing around in shock, Hua Qing Si had rushed over with Zhang Ruo Xi, Liu Yan, and Qin Zhao Yang to his side. Seeing the wonders of this place for the first time, Hua Qing Si’s eyes were filled with awe and her delicate hand covered her red lips, “What’s going on here?!”
“Spirit Spring Eyes appeared, then Source Crystals began erupting out of them, that’s what happened,” Yang Kai grinned.
Zhang Ruo Xi was young and had little experience, but she still paled at the sight of such a shocking scene.
Qin Zhao Yang’s eyeballs almost dropped out of their sockets as he stared at the Spirit Springs and Source Crystals before him for a long time, his limbs shaking, speechless.
“Ruo Xi, don’t worry about anything else, just find a safe place to cultivate, Liu Yan will stand guard for you,” Yang Kai gave Liu Yan a meaningful look. Liu Yan nodded and guided Zhang Ruo Xi to sit next to the High-Rank Spirit Spring in understanding.
While she stood there, Liu Yan reached out and snatched any Source Crystals that flew her way.
Yang Kai saw this and tossed a Space Ring to Liu Yan before saying to Hua Qing Si, “Follow me and collect these Source Crystals, we’ll leave cultivating for later!”
“Good!” Hua Qing Si nodded. With a sway of her tender body, she and Yang Kai floated up to a spot above the Spirit Spring.
Source Crystals were constantly erupting from the Spirit Spring, so Yang Kai stretched out his hands and released a hundred Golden Blood Threads, weaving them together into a giant golden net.
*Chi chi chi…*
The Source Crystals that spewed out all entered the golden net while Hua Qing Si immediately formed a series of seals with her hands, creating a kind of suction force that drew the captured Source Crystals over to her, swiftly storing them into her Space Ring.
The two worked together seamlessly to capture every Source Crystal exiting the spring, leaving none behind.
“It seems that you don’t need my help here…” Qin Zhao Yang watched them for a moment as his mouth twitched slightly, “Brother Yang, you continue to deal with your business here, I’ll seek my own opportunities!”
This was a great opportunity to accumulate a fortune and greatly enhance the foundation of the Qin Family. The Spirit Spring occupied by Yang Kai no longer required Qing Zhao Yang’s assistance, so he decided to move elsewhere.
His eyes swept around before he grinned meaningfully and with a flicker, Qing Zhao Yang appeared above the Mid-Rank Spirit Spring where Duan Yuan Shan and the others from Maplewood City were gathered, “Greetings City Lord Duan, fellow brothers.”
“Is this old thing trying to seek some undue advantage?” The Du Family Patriarch, Du Li Shen glared at him.
The Zhou Family Patriarch, Zhou Yi snorted, “Old Dog Qin is pretty good at faking sincerity, where did he learn such skill from?”
“How am I being fake?” Qin Zhao Yang was immediately unhappy as he pulled his beard in anger, “You two disrespectful fools! Do you want this Old Master to beat you up so badly your mothers can’t recognize you?”
Zhou Yi and Du Li Shen looked at each other and laughed, “Would your mother recognise you if she was still alive?”
Qin Zhao Yang’s face darkened immediately.
“Good, let’s stop the nonsense, help out since you’re here. Every Source Crystal we miss winds up in someone else’s pocket,” Duan Yuan Shan waved his hand and shouted in a low voice.
“I will obey City Lord Duan’s orders!” Qin Zhao Yang grinned meaningfully and joined the team.
The Patriarchs were all from Maplewood City and had known each other for quite some time, so although there were some grievances between them, they were much more accepting of each other than the foreign enemies they were facing. Despite their banter earlier, their relationship would not be affected.
“Hey, Zhou Yi, you old fart, you actually managed to break through to the Second-Order Dao Source Realm. The Heavens must really be blind…” Qin Zhao Yang commented as he collected Source Crystals after noticing the Patriarch of the Zhou Family had also broken through as he had.
“What are you talking about!” Zhou Yi snapped, “If an old fart like you can break through, why can’t this Old Master?”
“It seems that everyone has made a breakthrough,” Du Li Shen grinned meaningfully.
Qin Zhao Yang only then thought of investigating the cultivations of the others and realized that everyone had indeed made a breakthrough. All the old Patriarchs had now reached the Second-Order Dao Source Realm, together with Drunkard! Meanwhile, Duan Yuan Shan had reached the Third-Order Dao Source Realm!
“Oh, congratulations everyone!” Qin Zhao Yang laughed.
“Let’s rejoice together!” Duan Yuan Shan grinned meaningfully, “Today, Maplewood City can no longer be regarded as weak! As the saying goes, internal disunity dissolves at the threat of external invasion. This Duan hopes that we all can work together in the future.”
If these Patriarchs all joined forces, together with the strength of Duan Yuan Shan and Drunkard, they would be quite formidable. At least, they would be able to go up against some second-class Sects and families. The only thing they were missing now was the protection of an Emperor Realm Master.
However, there were not many Emperors out there, and most second-class forces did not have such a Master assuming command.
Everyone nodded solemnly after listening to Duan Yuan Shan’s statement.
There were three High-Rank Spirit Spring Eyes – Yang Kai and the Eight Paths Sect each occupied one, while the last one was occupied by two other Sects who had joined forces specifically to do so.
The other fifteen Mid-Rank Spirit Springs were also crowded with people.
The Eight Paths Sect disciples were actually not strong enough to occupy a High-Rank Spirit Spring all to themselves, but everyone had scruples about the brutal Luo Yuan, so none dared to provoke Eight Paths Sect as they did not know when Luo Yuan would return. Seeing how he had chased Protectors Gao Shan and Liu Shui away, no one would have the guts to oppose him.
As he worked with Hua Qing Si to collect the Source Crystals erupting from the High-Rank Spirit Spring, Yang Kai’s expression abruptly changed as he sent her a message, “I’m going down to investigate.”
It was impossible for Source Crystals to simply erupt from below without a reason, so Yang Kai guessed that there must be some mystery beneath the Spirit Springs and wanted to investigate. Now, with his Golden Blood Thread net above the Spirit Spring, blocking the Source Crystals from flying away, he did not need to remain as Hua Qing Si could collect the Source Crystals for him.
What was more, Liu Yan was here too. If anyone was blind enough to come and try to seize this Spirit Spring, the two of them would be enough to chase them off.
“Be careful!” Hua Qing Si did not try to stop him, simply warning him seriously as she saw him off.
Yang Kai nodded and leapt downward for a second time.
Just like before, he plunged into the Spirit Spring and faced a strong resistance that tried to push him upwards. There were also countless Source Crystals whizzing up and striking him as he tried to descend.
Yang Kai felt pain all over his body and was forced to endure it with his Source Qi. He also manipulated the surrounding Space Principles to shield himself, easing his descent.
The more he sank down, the greater the resistance and the denser the surrounding World Energy became.
Yang Kai took out his Sealed World Bead once more and began allowing it to swallow up the surging World Energy mixed with Source Crystals.
He had no idea how deep he had sunken, only that the surroundings were now all but opaque, making it difficult to see anything around himself. Yang Kai released his Divine Sense to compensate, but was only able to scan a ten-metre distance in front of himself, any further was hindered by the boundless World Energy.
At a certain point, Yang Kai suddenly stopped and landed on solid ground.
This should be the bottom of the Spirit Spring. He stood still on the ground and felt the surroundings for a moment. He could clearly sense that the space here was not as small as he imagined; in fact, it was extremely broad.
He stood there thinking with an odd expression for a while before releasing his Divine Sense once more to explore his surroundings vigilantly.
*Xiu xiu xiu…*
Numerous pieces of Source Crystals mixed in with the surrounding World Energy kept shooting upwards in surging torrents.
Yang Kai focused his eye to perceive the surrounding space and soon pinpointed the direction from which the Source Crystals were originating and walked towards it.
Along the way, his harvest was unimaginable as his Sealed World Bead continued to devour the World Energy and Source Crystals.
Not long after, Yang Kai suddenly stopped and stared ahead intently.
In the misty white world filled with Liquid Spirit Qi, there seemed to be something gigantic lying in front of him. Although there was still a distance between them, Yang Kai was able to see its fuzzy silhouette.
He did not know what was before him, only that it was gigantic and did not have the slightest life aura. All he could tell was that all the Source Crystals were shooting out from its direction.
Yang Kai pondered for a while before moving forward again.
He came to the front of this object and upon closer inspection, finally saw exactly what it was.
Yang Kai was stunned and unable to speak for a moment.
After quite a while, he only broke the silence with a burst of joyful laughter.
He realized now that the ‘giant’ lying in front of him was actually a Source Crystal lode. Fist-sized Source Crystals were separated from this lode and entered the flow of World Energy, splitting into eighteen branches as they shot upwards.
The Source Crystals collected by the cultivators above were obviously separated from this gigantic lode.
The lode shone brightly and was extremely pure, containing not the slightest impurities. There would not be another Source Crystal lode as huge and pure as this in the entire Star Boundary, only in Ancient Times would such a treasure be found.
Yang Kai was quietly feeling the eighteen branches of the World Energy torrent on top of the mine and pondering.
[The Eighteen Spirit Springs… are actually connected to each other? So, if this lode was claimed, the people above… ]
He frowned and thought for a while before he gradually stopped restraining his excitement. A tremendous Divine Sense like a Flood Dragon swam out, transforming into a formless power that began enveloping the mine.
In the next instant, Yang Kai’s expression changed as his cheeks turned pale and big drops of sweat condensed on his forehead, rolling down his trembling body.
He underestimated the size of this lode, and with the current strength of his Divine Sense, he could only barely envelop it. As a result, he could not pack it into his Sealed World Bead.
The Sealed World Bead was an Isolated World, and although it could collect anything, including living people, Yang Kai needed to use his Divine Sense to do so. The larger the object he tried to store away or take out, the greater the energy it possessed, and the more Spiritual Energy he needed to expend.
Just like the first time Yang Kai collected the Embodiment into his Sealed World Bead, even though the Embodiment did not resist Yang Kai and was cooperative, Yang Kai still almost collapsed due to its massive volume.
This lode was similar. Although it was no doubt a lot smaller than his Embodiment, which was newly formed at that time, this Source Crystal Lode contained an astonishing amount of energy. Yang Kai reckoned that if he forcefully collected such existence alone, his Knowledge Sea would be damaged.
At this point, he sent a message to the Embodiment in the Sealed World Bead.
The next moment, the Void Crack appeared before the Sealed World Bead and widened leisurely in front of Yang Kai.
Blue veins emerged on Yang Kai’s forehead as his body shook violently and his Source Qi fluctuated violently.
“Now!” He suddenly bellowed.
Two giant hands shot out from the Void Crack. These hands were remarkably hard and had sharp edges to them. They were the hands of the Embodiment.
The Embodiment crossed the boundary between the Sealed World Bead and the outside with its arms, stretching them to the left and right in a hugging posture. Holding the gigantic lode in its palms, it lifted it up with a robust force only possible for a Stone Puppet.
At the same time, Yang Kai sent out waves of Divine Sense, working together with the movements of the Embodiment to draw in the lode.
*Hong long long… *
There was a loud noise.
The lode slowly rose and moved little by little.
Yang Kai’s pale face turned even paler and his clothes were soaked in sweat. He felt pain in his head like ten million needles were piercing his skull.
His Divine Sense had been damaged by his actions.
The Soul Warming Lotus released its seven coloured glow, repairing the damage to his Soul with its soothing power, which made Yang Kai feel much better.
Creaking sounds could be heard from the Embodiment’s arms as rubble actually fell from it. It too seemed incapable of bearing such weight and the scene caused Yang Kai to be extremely nervous and anxious.
It was just a moment, but seemed like ten million years had passed.
Just when Yang Kai could not stand it anymore, the Embodiment in the Sealed World Bead forcefully retracted its arms, together with the Source Crystal lode, dragging it into the Void Crack and disappearing.
Simultaneously, the radiance of the Sealed World Bead flashed crazily as the Void Crack closed.
Yang Kai staggered as he felt like his eyes, ears, mouth and nose were filled with a fishy and salty smell. Stars were floating in front of his eyes, and the world seemed to spin around him. He lost his balance and fell to his butt on the ground.
Only then did he suddenly feel a sense of fear.
Although the Soul Warming Lotus protected his Soul from fatal damage, what he just did was undoubtedly extremely dangerous and reckless. If he used too much of his Spiritual Energy just now and caused crippling damage to his Soul, he might have never been able to recover.
A line of cold sweat rolled down Yang Kai’s forehead as his whole body shivered.
“Who?!” Yang Kai hastily turned around and gazed in a certain direction as wariness flashed across his eyes, “Who’s there?!”
At that moment, he actually heard the sound of footsteps.
He was completely exhausted and could hardly move, so if someone who wanted to harm him appeared at this moment, he wouldn’t even be able to escape. As such, Yang Kai immediately became vigilant and hurriedly wiped away the blood and cold sweat on his face, sitting with his legs crossed to put on a calm appearance.
After Yang Kai called out, the footsteps paused for a moment, but soon they sounded again, this time even faster than before.
Yang Kai’s face turned ugly as he moved his gaze slightly downwards and stared intently at the incoming person.
After a short while, a beautiful figure appeared in front of Yang Kai. This person stood still about ten metres away from him and asked in hesitation, “Grandmaster Yang?”
Hearing this person’s voice, Yang Kai furrowed his brow and revealed an odd face, “It’s you?”
The one who had come was none other than Ye Jing Han, the woman who had tried to latch onto him and just wouldn’t let go no matter how he refused her.
Unexpectedly, she had come down here too.
Yang Kai stayed alert and asked coldly, “Instead of collecting Source Crystals up top, why did you come down here?”
Although Yang Kai did not know what this woman wanted with him, they had no relationship and he had clearly rejected her previously. However, she still kept following him, which annoyed him greatly.
Ye Jing Han replied, “This Mistress is the only person present from Thousand Leaves Sect and she knows she is unable to compete with others up top.”
Her words were full of bitterness and loneliness.
“Seeing that Grandmaster Yang went down, this Mistress thought about coming down as well to take a look…” While speaking, she suddenly coughed twice.
“Are you hurt?” Yang Kai raised his eyebrows.
“A minor injury…” Ye Jing Han answered, “I was hit by someone when I came down.”
Hearing this, Yang Kai roughly understood what happened.
Everyone was busy occupying their own Spirit Spring at this moment, so if Ye Jing Han wanted to come down here, she would need to force her way through one of the Spirit Springs. Someone must have thought she was trying to snatch their Source Crystals and attacked her. Since she only had a Second-Order Dao Source Realm cultivation, it was natural that she could not force her way through completely uninjured.
“Do your parents know that you act so recklessly?” Yang Kai sat cross-legged in the same place, looking at Ye Jing Han coldly.
Ye Jing Han replied bitterly, “This Mistress has been an orphan since she was a child.”
Yang Kai was struck speechless and remained silent for a while before asking in a deep voice, “What did you see just now?”
“What?” Ye Jing Han asked with a blank face.
“Nothing,” Yang Kai exhaled softly. Ye Jing Han’s tone and expression seemed genuine, so she should have seen nothing just now.
“Grandmaster Yang…” Ye Jing Han stammered, “Can you give this Mistress a chance to say a few words?”
“Aren’t you already talking?” Yang Kai was now completely weakened at the moment, and although Ye Jing Han probably would not act disadvantageous to him, it was wise to always be on guard. He concealed his fatigue and quietly recuperated, restoring his strength while casually answering.
“Many thanks, Grandmaster Yang!” Ye Jing Han was overjoyed when she heard these words, feeling emotional that her sincerity and efforts had finally paid off. After considering her words carefully, she spoke seriously, “This Mistress is actually looking for Grandmaster Yang to ask a favour.”
Yang Kai closed his eyes and focused, ignoring her.
Ye Jing Han continued, “This Mistress hopes that Grandmaster Yang… eh? Grandmaster, be careful behind you!”
“What!?” Yang Kai was startled because at that moment he felt a sudden chill coming from behind, like a sharp blade that was cutting into his skin.
His face changed drastically! He was so focused on restoring his strength that he failed to notice danger approaching from behind him. If it had not been for Ye Jing Han’s warning, he probably would not have even noticed it.
Deep down, he felt extremely shocked and perplexed at who could have come this close to him without him noticing.
In haste, Yang Kai pushed his Source Qi madly and leapt into the air, turning around as he crossed his arms in front of his chest.
*Hong… *
A huge force struck him head-on at that moment.
*Gezhizhi…*
The sound of bones fracturing rang out.
Yang Kai was extremely shocked this time.
His physique was incredibly intrepid, to the point that even a simple blow from an Emperor Realm Master would not be able to crack his bones, but this inexplicable attack did just that.
“Dragon Transformation!” Yang Kai snarled abruptly and accompanied by a high-pitched dragon roar, Dragon Scales covered his arms, blocking the impact of the violent power.
“This power…” Yang Kai’s expression turned solemn as he suddenly noticed something odd about the force which attacked him. It did not seem to be Source Qi that he was familiar with, but another kind of unknown power.
He looked up immediately, releasing his Divine Sense, trying to search for the culprit who had the courage to attack him.
Yang Kai gasped when he finally saw it.
Not far from Yang Kai stood a dark silhouette, one without the slightest vitality, filled with so much violent energy that it was constantly fluctuating unstably.
In the darkness, two scarlet predatory eyes which could make anyone shudder stared at him.
Yang Kai’s face darkened and he asked in a low voice, “Who is Your Excellency!?”
There was no answer. The figure just tilted its head and looked at Yang Kai blankly before lifting its fist and swinging it towards him fiercely.
Although it was just a simple fist, the wind generated from this attack was like a storm of a thousand sharp blades, cutting through the air fiercely.
Having suffered a loss just now, Yang Kai was extremely vigilant, and with a flick of his ten fingers, he summoned a series of tiny Void Cracks that flew out like a rain of needles towards the incoming assault.
His opponent seemed to understand this attack was dangerous and withdrew from the battle, tilting its head as it stared at Yang Kai from a distance.
The black shadow did not have quick reflexes, and even seemed a bit stiff and jerky in its movements, almost like it had not moved about for a long time, but Yang Kai instinctively knew that this was a formidable enemy!
*Om…* a strange sound reverberated from the black shadow, and Yang Kai suddenly felt a hot sensation coming from his lower abdomen.
“What?” Yang Kai was perplexed and backed away with a tap of his foot.
He would not be flustered even if his opponent was a genuine Emperor Realm Master, but at this moment, he couldn’t help wanting to get as far away as possible from this dark shadow.
The reason was that the Ancient Demon Qi sealed in his lower abdomen was somehow aroused. Thankfully, the mysterious power of the gold and silver seal suppressed this Ancient Demon Qi firmly, otherwise, Yang Kai would definitely transform into a Demon again.
[This shadow… is it related to that Ancient Demon?] An unimaginable thought surfaced in Yang Kai’s mind and he suddenly paled.
Although the surging Demon Spirit in his lower abdomen was suppressed, it was clearly noticed by the black shadow. In a short time, the murderous thoughts of the black shadow spread out like a tide, unspeakable hostility permeating towards him, and even the dark energy becoming visible to the naked eye.
“Demon Qi!” Yang Kai exclaimed.
At this moment, he was absolutely sure that the black shadow before him was related to the Ancient Demon, because the energy fluctuations of the two were almost the same.
“Kill!” A single word came out of the black shadow’s throat before it shot towards Yang Kai, sending out a punch that seemed capable of collapsing the world.
Yang Kai’s eyes widened, flicking his wrist without hesitation, and summoned the Emperor Artifact Myriads Sword into his hands. With a great bellow, he flourished his sword, “Myriad Sword Arts, One Man As A Mountain!”
*Zheng…*
The wave of Sword Qi surged out and filled the air.
A thick and solid barrier formed from sharp Sword Qi appeared before Yang Kai, blocking the first strike, but the black shadow quickly sent another punch, causing Yang Kai’s body to tremble and almost shattered his sword barrier.
“Grandmaster Yang, this Mistress will assist you!” Ye Jing Han’s voice trembled slightly, revealing her inner panic and fear, but she still braced herself and flew over. Summoning a bracelet onto her delicate wrist as she channelled her Source Qi into it. Next, the bracelet enlarged into the size of a washbasin and whirled towards the black shadow.
“Don’t!” Yang Kai let out a loud shout.
Although Ye Jing Han’s cultivation was similar to his, she would have no chance to fight against this black shadow, and a single mistake here would result in her death.
He was too late though, because the bracelet artifact activated in the blink of an eye and struck towards the dark shadow’s head. The dark shadow did nothing to prevent it though, and simply let the attack hit.
*Dang…*
As if hitting a solid object with a loud clunk, the light on the bracelet flickered wildly and a trace of Demon Qi began to contaminate it, corrupting its spirituality.
*Pu…*
Ye Jing Han spurted a mouthful of blood, her aura instantly weakening.
The bracelet artifact was her Natal Artifact, cultivated together with her own life essence from when she was young. If this artifact was damaged, her physical body would also be affected. She immediately retrieved the bracelet with a wave of her hand as a deep fear gripped her.
Looking down at the bracelet, a black Qi intertwined around it, gradually spreading to its surroundings, corroding everything it touched.
Ye Jing Han was mortified as only now did she fathom the gap in strength between herself and the dark shadow.
“Kill!” The hoarse screeching voice which sounded like metal rubbing against metal sounded, making the two people present extremely uncomfortable.
Yang Kai composed himself as he lifted the Myriads Sword once again towards the black shadow. Staring at his opponent solemnly, he shouted in a low voice, “Who exactly is Your Excellency? What is your relationship to that One-Eyed Great Demon?”
“Kill!” The black shadow repeated the same word, ignoring his question.
“Are you underestimating me?” Yang Kai was furious and a golden gleam suddenly appeared in his left eye, activating his Demon Eye of Annihilation to spy on the black shadow.
He wanted to see exactly who this black shadow was.
The sight which greeted him, however, turned Yang Kai’s expression strange as he muttered in shock, “This… this is…”
Yang Kai could see through all illusions using his Demon Eye of Annihilation, so he was able to observe the true form of the black shadow.
He discovered that this black shadow, just like Liu Yan, was not a living thing at all, but a kind of existence similar to an Artifact Spirit assuming human form.
However, this dark shadow’s original form seemed to be a giant hammer.
The hammer was hidden and enclosed in the black shadow’s body and contained a boundless amount of Demon Qi. Exquisite runes flowed across the surface of this hammer like living creatures.
Yang Kai felt a sharp sting in his left eye, followed by a moist and hot sensation trickling down from its corner.
He forced himself to examine the shape of the hammer carefully, feeling a sense of familiarity the more he looked at it.
Then, he remembered.
He had indeed seen this hammer before, not in his life, but rather from when he scanned the memories of Young Lord Jiang Chu He of the Jiang Family.
When the Demon Qi flooded Maplewood City previously, Jiang Chu He had been transformed into a Demon when he was corroded by the Ancient Demon Qi. Yang Kai and Qin Yu had worked together to display a Secret Technique that allowed them to scan his memories at the time.
Among those memories was one of this hammer.
During a great ancient battle, the weapon used by the Ancient Demon was this War Hammer. Its power was all-conquering and countless ancient mighty warriors had died tragically under it.
“Demonic War Hammer!” Yang Kai yelled as he quickly dismissed his Demon Eye of Annihilation, not daring to look at it again.
If it really was the Ancient Demon’s War Hammer, it made sense for the Demon Spirit sealed in Yang Kai to resonate with the black shadow. There was an inseparable relationship between the two, and it was only natural for them to react to each other.
If that was the case, the mighty men in ancient times did not only seal the Black Eye of the Ancient Demon here, but also the Demonic War Hammer!
It was just that the Demonic War Hammer had been suppressed by the Eighteen Stars Grand Array and was only just now released!
Perhaps it was related to the Source Crystal lode that Yang Kai collected. The Source Crystal lode could have been the key to suppressing the Demonic War Hammer!
Although that was his deduction, Yang Kai did not feel any regret in collecting the Source Crystal lode.
Also, not like you have any regrets taking treasure away from the start. When has that been the case?
*rolls eyes*
The Eighteen Stars Grand Array reappeared in the world today so this place was destined to be visited and explored by countless Masters. Even if Yang Kai had not collected the Source Crystal lode, it would have eventually been taken away by someone else.
In other words, it was only a matter of time before the Demonic War Hammer was released.
However, Yang Kai had not expected the Demonic War Hammer to be able to retain its sentience during the countless years it had been sealed, much less assume a human form.
With a quick thought, Yang Kai changed his defensive stance to an offensive one.
“Myriad Sword Arts, Radiant Moon Swallows the Wolf!”
*Chi chi chi… *
Countless sword lights bombarded the human form Artifact Spirit like a drenching rain, beating it back and forth continuously. The Demon Qi on its surface flickered unstably, but it did not receive the slightest injury.
It was an Ancient Demonic War Hammer in human form, at least equivalent to a peak-level Emperor Artifact in terms of resilience. Yang Kai had no means to damage this opponent unless he used his Spiritual Energy to attack its consciousness.
Unfortunately, Yang Kai had just overused his Soul in collecting the Source Crystal lode, so it was difficult to utilize his Divine Sense at the moment to execute a Soul Secret Technique.
For now, he could only defend.
As soon as the sword lights came out, Yang Kai immediately retreated in a flash to Ye Jing Han’s side, grabbing her hand and shouting, “Run!”
Just as he shouted, the two flew upwards rapidly, following the direction of the surging World Energy.
Above the eighteen Spirit Spring Eyes, the cultivators looked at each other donning ugly expressions.
“Where did the Source Crystals go? Why aren’t they coming anymore?”
“Damn it, why did the eruption of Source Crystals have to cease? What happened?”
“I don’t know what happened, the Spirit Spring Eyes just seemed to stop erupting Source Crystals.”
Many cultivators were looking around and yelling, unable to fully express their feelings with their words.
After all, this was a one in a million chance to receive free Source Crystals, not to mention they were High-Rank and Mid-Rank Source Crystals. Everyone present was experiencing a joyful harvest, but the Source Crystals giveaway just ended like this.
From the Spirit Springs now, there was nothing else but pure World Energy.
How could this not sadden everyone?
“Did something happen below?” Someone guessed.
“Should we check it out? Maybe there is some Heaven-defying opportunity waiting down there for us,” another person suggested.
There was a change in everyone’s expressions with his words.
Previously, everyone had been busy collecting Source Crystals and did not pay attention to other matters. Now that there were no more Source Crystals, they naturally wanted to go down and examine the situation. Eighteen Spirit Springs and numerous Source Crystals had suddenly appeared, so even a fool would not believe that there would be nothing good down below.
Therefore, their hearts were moved.
However, they knew that the one who took the lead usually bore the brunt of the danger, so everyone was glancing around at each other, waiting for someone else to make the first move.
“Ahem… Brother Si Hai, your cultivation is worthy of respect. Why don’t you lead us down there?” An elderly man suddenly turned to another old man and asked.
The old man named Qi Shi Hai snorted coldly, “Brother Wu Hu must be joking. Why didn’t you ask this Old Master to take the lead while collecting Source Crystals just now and only thought of him when this dangerous matter came up? Are you insulting this Old Master’s intelligence or your own?”
Zhou Wu Hu gave a dry cough, “Just forget it, if Brother Si Hai is unhappy about it, you don’t have to bad-mouth me like this. Do you not rinse your mouth after eating?”
Qi Shi Hai replied coldly, “This Old Master is not stupid enough to be manipulated by others!”
Zhou Wu Hu spat disdainfully, cupped his fist and turned to the Eight Paths Sect disciples, “Little Brother Luo, this Old Master has seen your excellency’s amazing cultivation and your astonishing strength. You must be a man who is showered with great opportunities and luck. Does Little Brother Luo want to lead the exploration?”
No one had a clue of when Luo Yuan came back. Although his whole body was messy after battling with the two old men, Gao Shan and Liu Shui, he still looked energetic, as if the battle had yielded him plenty of benefits.
The few people from Flying Saint Palace had also completely disappeared at some point, perhaps scared off or forced out by Luo Yuan.
“Old man, you’re really insidious. Go down by yourself if you want, don’t instigate my Senior Brother Luo!” The round-faced woman from the Eight Paths Sect glared at Zhou Wu Hu.
Zhou Wu Hu’s face was darkened and he snorted, “Haven’t you learnt how to respect the Elders, little girl? Can’t you see this Old Master is already so old? Look at my beard and hair, they’re all white.”
The round-faced woman snorted too, “Since you’re already so old, why not just lie down somewhere and wait till your time’s up? If you keep running here and there, won’t you just die faster?”
“Little girl… you really infuriate this Old Master!” Zhou Wu Hu trembled in anger.
Qi Shi Hai was taking pleasure in his misfortune to the side, smiling happily.
“Something’s wrong!” Luo Yuan broke his silence with a single sentence, looking downwards intently into one of the High-Rank Spirit Spring Eyes, frowning, as if an enemy was approaching.
“What?” The round-faced woman turned to him after hearing him.
Luo Yuan’s face only became more solemn as time passed though, suddenly shouting, “Retreat!”
Pushing his Source Qi madly, he enveloped several disciples of Eight Paths Sect and shot backwards a thousand meters in a flash.
*Gu lu lu…*
Bubbles appeared at the centre of the High-Rank Spirit Spring, like it was boiling over.
“What happened?” Everyone looked at the Spirit Spring with a blank face.
Soon after though, a figure suddenly broke out of it, sending up a giant splash of Liquid World Energy.
“Someone already went down there?”
“When did he go down?”
“It… It’s him, that monster!”
Everyone exclaimed one after another as their faces turned ugly after seeing Yang Kai clearly. They had no idea if the sudden stop of the eruption of Source Crystals had something to do with him, and none dared to ask.
“Why did he come out from our Spirit Spring?” The round-faced woman looked at Yang Kai in confusion and frowned.
“So, that’s how it is!” Luo Yuan seemed to figure something and said, “Looks like these eighteen Spirit Springs are actually connected to each other.”
“Is that so? Senior Brother Luo is so brilliant,” the round-faced woman responded with a smile, gazing at Luo Yuan with her beautiful eyes with no intention of hiding her admiration.
The rest of the Eight Paths Sect disciples’ faces blushed with shame, knowing that their Sect’s Young Lady was completely blinded by love.
Yang Kai looked left and right as soon as he emerged, then swiftly dashed over to where Hua Qing Si and the others were.
“Master…” Liu Yan observed the bottom of the Spirit Spring Eye intently, and whispered, “I don’t know why, I suddenly have a strange feeling, that underneath, there’s…”
“En, there’s an existence similar to you,” Yang Kai quickly replied.
“It can assume human form?” Liu Yan’s tender body trembled, looking a little excited.
There were not many Artifact Spirits that could assume human form and possessed sentience. All these existences were of a similar kind, so when Liu Yan heard that there was another like herself, she naturally became enthusiastic, wondering how it assumed human form and how much sentience it had.
“It’s dangerous, don’t provoke it!” Yang Kai put Ye Jing Han down while warning, taking out a bunch of Spirit Pills from his Space Ring and stuffing them into his mouth.
*Wa la…*
Another sound was heard as the Demonic Artifact Spirit followed Yang Kai out of the Spirit Spring, a violent and gloomy aura pulsing from its erratic dark figure. Only a pair of blood-red eyes remained constant.
“Haa… Who is it this time?”
“He looks quite vicious.”
“Hahaha, looking at that monster running away, this guy seems to be quite powerful. It would be good if he could quickly finish that guy off!”
“En en, hopefully, this would involve that Eight Paths Sect brat surnamed Luo as well, then we can just sit on the mountain top and watch the tigers fight, heh heh heh…”
After the appearance of the Demonic Artifact Spirit, it still focused its attention on Yang Kai, as if he was the only one in this world it was interested in, and the others were unimportant.
It raised its hand and hastily punched towards Yang Kai.
*Chi… *
A wave of darkness that seemingly devoured all light shot forward towards Yang Kai’s head.
Yang Kai narrowed his eyes and slightly raised his hand, summoning all the Golden Blood Thread he had been using to cover the Spirit Spring before.
*Hong… *
The dark wave hit on the golden net, causing the surrounding World Energy to tremble. The Golden Blood Threads failed to stop this attack though and collapsed in an instant.
Yang Kai’s face turned ugly as he retrieved his Golden Blood Threads and swept out with his Myriads Sword towards the remainder of the dark wave.
*Hong Hong Hong… *
The two energies collided and exploded, kicking up a gust of wind that forced everyone present back a few steps.
“He’s amazing!”
Everyone paled after seeing the skill of this Demonic Artifact Spirit. Even Luo Yuan, who was far away, narrowed his eyes slightly.
Yang Kai took out another bunch of Spirit Pills and threw them into his mouth like jelly beans. While chewing and swallowing, he called out lightly, “Brother Luo, I found you a decent opponent, do you want to give it a try?”
Luo Yuan snorted coldly, “Not interested. I successfully cultivated my Secret Technique.”
“Really!?” Yang Kai exclaimed happily, “Then you should try out your Secret Technique’s might against a strong opponent.”
“You shameless man!” The round-faced woman waved her small fist at Yang Kai from far away with gritted teeth, “Don’t try to drag Senior Brother Luo into your mess, shame on you!”
“Little girl, it’s fine to be humiliated, life is more important!” Yang Kai put on a shameless face, looking proud of himself, frustrating everyone around him.
“Never mind, never mind!” Yang Kai spat disdainfully, and continued, “Since you guys don’t want an Emperor Artifact, I’ll just subdue it myself!”
“What?”
“An Emperor Artifact?”
“Where is the Emperor Artifact?”
“Quickly give it to me, I want it! Big Brother Yang! Master Yang…”
Yang Kai grinned and pointed at the Demonic Artifact Spirit, “All of you are experienced cultivators, can’t you tell this guy isn’t a living creature?”
“What does Little Brother Yang mean?” Qi Shi Hai immediately narrowed his eyes and asked in a deep voice.
Yang Kai smiled, “That’s not a human, it’s an Emperor Artifact Spirit assuming human form!”
“What? An Emperor Artifact Spirit in human form?”
Yang Kai’s words shocked everyone. All the cultivators stared at the Demonic Artifact Spirit in amazement as a covetous glow flickered in their eyes.
Honestly, just the two words of ‘Emperor Artifact’ were enough to make them drool, but an Emperor Artifact with an Artifact Spirit that could assume human form was something none of them had heard of, much less seen before. In other words, this treasure’s value was inestimable.
*Gudong… *
The sound of gulping filled the air as everyone stared at the Artifact Spirit in enthusiasm and greed, their Divine Senses scanning around, examining whether the condition of the Artifact Spirit was like what Yang Kai said.
After a short while, Qi Shi Hai bellowed, “It really is an Emperor Artifact!”
He could see the outline of the Demonic War Hammer inside the Artifact Spirit’s body, and could clearly feel something similar to Emperor Intent and Emperor Aura hidden within it, not something a Dao Source Realm cultivator could comprehend.
“It’s really an Emperor Artifact…” Although Zhou Wu Hu was still enthusiastic, there was fear and vigilance in his eyes too, “But since it has already assumed human form, I’m afraid that it will be difficult to deal with. Everyone, be careful not to act rashly lest you suffer unintended consequences.”
Hearing what he said, everyone seemed to be splashed with ice water and their excitement gradually cooled down.
Yang Kai glanced at him and laughed, “If you want to achieve great things, you naturally need to take the risks. Since this Sir is so cautious, why don’t you just leave? Why are you still staying here?”
Zhou Wu Hu gave two dry coughs, and replied in embarrassment, “I just want to have a look…”
Yang Kai continued, “Even though this Artifact Spirit has achieved human form, it has been suppressed for countless aeons below the Eighteen Stars Grand Array. It’s now far from its peak, so it’s impossible that it can display the full power of an Emperor Artifact. If anyone is interested in this treasure, follow this Yang in battle. As for whoever this treasure eventually belongs to… that is up to destiny!”
After his speech, he braced himself and swung his Myriads Sword, sending out a rain of Sword Qi blades towards the Artifact Spirit.
Seeing him taking the initiative, the rest of the gathered cultivators could not help joining in.
Everyone knew that there was a certain risk in dealing with an Emperor Artifact that had assumed human form, but not many people could remain unmoved before such a huge temptation.
On the spur of that moment, all the cultivators pushed their Source Qi and executed their Secret Techniques and Martial Skills one after another, flooding the underground cavern with colourful bursts of light.
The disciples from Eight Paths Sect were also eager to make a move, but when they saw Luo Yuan standing to the side, choosing not to intervene, they stayed their hands and remained anxious on the spot, observing the situation quietly.
*Hong Hong Hong… *
Brilliance flashed as several dozen Dao Source Realm cultivators bombarded the place where the Artifact Spirit stood, causing the internal situation to be unclear to them, even using their Divine Senses.
“Did it die?”
“There’s no movement at all, is it really dead?”
Everyone craned their necks and looked towards where the Artifact Spirit stood with expectation and excitement, waiting for the results.
The lights gradually dissipated and the turbulent flow of power slowly calmed down, but everyone’s heart sank when they saw the scene before them.
The Demonic Artifact Spirit was standing silently in the same place, its radiance slightly dimmer than before, but showing no signs of significant damage. Instead, being besieged by everyone seemed to arouse its anger and it began viciously sweeping its crimson eyes full of cruelty and ferocity over the surroundings, seemingly trying to remember all its enemies’ faces. When they were being glared at, everyone felt an inexplicably chill, as if they heard the call of death.
“After taking so many attacks, it’s unharmed? Is this Artifact Spirit indestructible?”
“How can we fight this?”
“Young Master Yang, the situation seems a little different from what you said… “
The corner of Yang Kai’s mouth twitched, “Did you guys use your full strength? The consciousness of this Artifact Spirit doesn’t seem high, what’s more, it has been suppressed for tens of thousands of years. It shouldn’t still be very powerful!”
“Ahem ahem…” Everyone showed an embarrassed look on their face after this comment.
No one had actually given it their all just now as everyone wanted to save some strength in order to snatch the Emperor Artifact when the Artifact Spirit was exterminated. However, none expected that all their blows would wind up in vain, leading to the current situation, one they felt a bit uncomfortable about after Yang Kai exposed them.
“Oh no… quickly act! It’s preparing to attack!” Yang Kai suddenly changed his expression and shouted.
The Demonic Artifact Spirit stretched out its hand and clenched the void, summoning a black War Hammer into its grip. This War Hammer looked exactly the same as the one that Yang Kai saw in its body previously and was obviously the Artifact Spirit’s original form. Various mysterious runes swam across its surface, emitting a profound and mysterious aura.
An extremely dangerous aura emerged from the War Hammer.
Inexplicably, everyone felt like they had been plunged into a blizzard at this moment, chills running up their spines.
From afar, Luo Yuan’s pupils contracted abruptly as he realized the situation was becoming dangerous, shouting out to his fellow Eight Paths Sect disciples, “Retreat! All of you!”
As soon as he finished, he instantly moved atop the Artifact Spirit’s head using a profound Movement Skill and performed a series of hand seals, pushing his Source Qi madly as he shouted, “Blazing Sun Golden Wheel!”
A small red flaming wheel abruptly formed between his hands, causing the temperature of the underground cavern to rise rapidly, sending a wave of hot air across everyone’s skin.
All present could sense a massive killing power contained in this Secret Technique and they couldn’t help gazing towards Luo Yuan with faintly pale faces.
The small sun in Luo Yuan’s hand immediately began to fall towards the Artifact Spirit, but before it could land, the Artifact Spirit roared, sensing danger as it pushed its black Qi vigorously.
“What the hell are you all doing?! Attack now!” Yang Kai bellowed as he rushed in front of the Artifact Spirit and swung his Myriads Sword at it directly.
Only then did the other cultivators regain their consciousness and once again execute their Secret Techniques and Martial Skills one after another, sending blow after blow towards the Artifact Spirit.
This time, they did not dare to hold back anymore and instead went all out, causing the scene to be several times brighter and grander than before.
Even if it was a true Emperor Realm Master here, it would still be impossible for them to take so many attacks head-on. They could only withdraw in the face of such an onslaught.
However, the Artifact Spirit remained unstirred. It was uncertain if its consciousness was too low or if it had extremely high confidence in itself, but as it was being bombarded, it simply raised its War Hammer high, causing the flowing runes on its surface to flash wildly.
Principle Strength burst forth, forming an invisible force that covered the entire underground cavern.
In the next instant, the Artifact Spirit fiercely smashed its hammer down.
The hammer impacted space itself, shattering it and creating a giant black hole.
The shocking force seemed to have crossed the barrier of space, striking the hearts of every attacking cultivator.
*Pu pu pu… *
With one blow, all the incoming attacks were annihilated and most of the cultivators present were made to cough up blood. Being knocked back and sent flying, everyone wore distressed looks as their vitality tumbled.
Luo Yuan also grunted as his Blazing Sun Golden Wheel collapsed by itself and failed to injure the Artifact Spirit.
It was the same for Yang Kai. An invisible barrier suddenly formed in front of the Myriads Sword, preventing him from delivering his blow to the Artifact Spirit. The next moment, a huge force from that barrier struck him.
*Pu… *
Yang Kai vomited Golden Blood and flew back like a rag sack, damaging his already weakened body.
*Hong Hong Hong… *
The sound of explosions rang out all around as the ground and cavern walls cracked. Gravel of all sizes fell from above and all eighteen Spirit Springs were affected by the aftershock, boiling and erupting all at once. The underground space became even more unstable due to the impact and there were now signs of it collapsing at any time.
“Oh no, this place is coming down.”
“Run!”
“Little brat surnamed Yang, this is all your fault! If I die, I will not let you off even as a ghost!” Someone yelled while escaping.
Yang Kai wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and shouted back, “Men die for wealth, birds die for food. You made your choice so you should bear the consequences yourself. I instigated you? If I asked you to eat shit, would you do it?”
“Bastard!” That person bellowed angrily but dared not to stay any longer, running away desperately.
At this point, the underground was bustling with everyone busy running for their lives.
Yang Kai intended to put Hua Qing Si and the others back into the Sealed World bead, but when he saw the Artifact Spirit glaring at him like prey, he could only order with his teeth gritted, “Leave by yourselves!”
As his words fell, Yang Kai immediately rushed in a certain direction.
The Artifact Spirit chased closely after him without hesitation.
A short while later, followed by a huge crumbling sound, the Earth caved in and a huge pit suddenly appeared in this wilderness two thousand kilometres away from Maplewood City. Liquid World Energy began to fill this pit, forming a kind of small Spirit Lake.
*Xiu xiu xiu… *
Rays of light burst out from the ground as cultivators who were down below fled out with lingering fears, their faces paled.
In a certain direction, the Artifact Spirit was chasing after Yang Kai, moving like lightning.
“Hahahaha! There was a path to Heaven but you refused it and chose Hell instead. Left and Right Protectors, listen to my orders, bring that brat to me! This Young Master is going to teach him some proper manners!” A burst of arrogant laughter came out from the front.
Yang Kai looked ahead and found that three figures were standing there, Ning Yuan Shu, Gao Shan, and Liu Shui, the trio from Flying Saint Palace.
Apparently, they did not leave but stayed here. Though, it was most likely that they were afraid of Luo Yuan, so they did not go deeper into the underground where the Spirit Springs were located, they continued to wander around outside.
Seeing the sight of Yang Kai at this time, Ning Yuan Shu was overjoyed. When he gave the order, he showed a ferocious grin on his face, his eyes filled with hatred and grudge.
Earlier, Yang Kai had slapped his face in front of everyone, giving him the greatest humiliation of his life, so he secretly swore vengeance on Yang Kai and just when he was worried about Yang Kai’s location, he appeared by himself.
Although the two Protectors, Gao Shan and Liu Shui, suffered a small loss at Luo Yuan’s hands, that did not mean that they could not take down Yang Kai.
Ning Yuan Shu was very confident in the strength of these two Protectors.
“Little brat, you heard what the Young Palace Master said! Crawl over here obediently if you are smart. This Old Master doesn’t want to lay his hand on you, lest he gets a bad name for bullying the weak!” Gao Shan stared coldly at Yang Kai.
Liu Shui continued, “It’s time you surrender yourself. The strength of these two Old Masters is beyond your capability to resist, do so and your efforts will only end in vain!”
“Stop speaking nonsense with him! Hurry up and capture him! This Young Master wants him to taste the greatest tortures of the world! I want to rip his corpse into ten thousand pieces to relieve my hatred!” Ning Yuan Shu shouted with a nasty expression.
Gao Shan and Liu Shui had a solemn expression upon hearing this and they began to push their Source Qi.
“Hold on, two old sirs, Junior will be right there!” Yang Kai smiled joyfully and flew towards them quickly while waving happily to Gao Shan and Liu Shui.
Gao Shan and Liu Shui were stunned on the spot, as was Ning Yuan Shu, all of them wondering what Yang Kai was up to.
Under normal circumstances, shouldn’t Yang Kai be running away? But he actually took the initiative to show up at their doorstep happily, as if he finally saw his loved ones after many difficulties, which was very puzzling.
“Protectors, be careful, he might be trying to swindle us!” Ning Yuan Shu reminded them in a low voice.
Gao Shan and Liu Shui nodded in reply, “Don’t worry, Young Palace Master. This little brat is not as strong as Luo Yuan, he won’t be able to pull any tricks.”
“I hope so!”
After a short while, Yang Kai appeared directly in front of the trio and grinned at them.
Ning Yuan Shu seemed to be afraid of being slapped by Yang Kai, so his pupils shrank and he unconsciously took a few steps back, putting some distance between him and Yang Kai.
“Junior greets two Seniors.” Yang Kai smiled and cupped his fists, gesturing to Gao Shan and Liu Shui before immediately looking over at Ning Yuan Shu again, “Young Palace Master, there was a small little misunderstanding between us before, but why don’t we let bygones be bygones? We can still be good friends now!”
“Good friends?” Ning Yuan Shu glared at Yang Kai nastily, thrusting both of his extremely swollen cheeks in front of Yang Kai, “Look at me! Do you think this Young Master can be good friends with you?”
Yang Kai leaned back slightly, turning his face aside with a disgusted look, “Young Palace Master doesn’t need to come so close to say something… this Yang is timid, please don’t frighten me!”
Ning Yuan Shu was furious and roared, “You did this to me!”
“Alright, alright,” Yang Kai interrupted his clamour with a wave then looked at Gao Shan and Liu Shui with a smile. “Two Seniors, this Junior will now surrender to you without a fight!”
“Uh…” Gao Shan groaned and nodded, “At least you know some manners.”
Liu Shui continued, “A wise man will submit to the circumstances. Boy, your future should be bright!”
“Hehehe…” Yang Kai grinned, “Then, two Seniors are now responsible for protecting this Junior’s safety since I am one of your captives, right?”
“Protect your safety?” Gao Shan frowned.
“What do you mean?” Liu Shui also looked blank.
But soon they knew what he meant.
In the void, a figure soared over. The Artifact Spirit caught up with Yang Kai and stopped at a distance of a few dozen meters away, holding a Demonic War Hammer in its hands, viciously staring at Yang Kai.
“This… This aura!” Gao Shan was taken aback as he stared at the Artifact Spirit pensively.
Liu Shui’s expression also turned awe-inspiring as he shouted in a low voice. “Demon Qi!”
Yang Kai nodded, “Two Seniors are truly sharp! Yes, the aura around it is indeed Demon Qi, and the purest Ancient Demon Qi at that!”
“How can that be?” Gao Shan and Liu Shui looked at Yang Kai with their eyes screaming ‘are you kidding me’.
Yang Kai replied sternly, “Junior is not in the mood to joke with the two Seniors.”
Gao Shan asked, “No wonder it felt a little different from the usual Demon Qi… But how can there be Ancient Demon Qi here?”
Liu Shui was also puzzled.
“Can’t two Senior’s tell this is not a living creature? It is an Artifact Spirit assuming human form! Look at the hammer in its hand, that’s an Ancient Emperor Artifact!”
“What?” The two old men trembled violently as their eyes fixed on the Demonic War Hammer in horror. Gradually though, their horrified expressions were replaced by a look of fanatical greed.
Yang Kai took advantage of the opportunity, “Two Seniors have astounding cultivation and extraordinary strength, but have been trapped at the peak of the Dao Source Realm for countless years no doubt. The Heavens must be jealous and have no eyes for allowing this. If two Seniors can obtain this Emperor Artifact though and use it to comprehend some mysteries of the Emperor Realm, it may not be impossible to break through once more and become famous Emperors, overlords of the Star Boundary in the future!”
“You certainly have a way with words…” Gao Shan turned to Yang Kai coldly, “This old master is really moved!”
Yang Kai smiled, “Only those who are predestined can possess treasures, there’s no way any of those trash down there would be able to capture this Artifact Spirit. Only two Seniors have the strength to subdue it! As long as its consciousness can be erased, this Emperor Artifact will belong to you. Come now, please act swiftly, this Junior has the utmost confidence in you!”
After speaking, he actually retreated several dozen metres away, closed his fists and punched the air, cheering for Gao Shan and Liu Shui.
Gao Shan and Liu Shui both gulped. Although they both knew that this Artifact Spirit was definitely not to be trifled with, how could they not be moved by the treasure right in front of them?
Glancing at each other, the two shouted in unison, “Let’s go!”
When the words fell, Gao Shan’s hand flashed and his Guqin artifact appeared. He sat down cross-legged in the air and placed the Guqin horizontally across his lap before he began plucking it with his fingers.
Liu Shui also took out his flute at once, placing it against his lips, and blew into it lightly.
The two completely different tunes resonated in an instant, perfectly matching each other and forming an impact visible to the naked eye, enveloping the Artifact Spirit.
Yang Kai was close by and was not targetted, but after hearing the sounds, he suddenly felt that his consciousness was blurring slightly. This sound seemed like a living thing, burrowing into his ears, using a peculiar power to affect his mind.
He was secretly surprised and hurriedly circulated his Secret Art to resist this sound attack.
The impact on the Artifact Spirit was even more significant as it was forced to bear the brunt of this attack. Although it was only assuming human form, it did not have much sentience. It was actually the perfect tactic to restrain this Artifact Spirit with a sound attack that targeted its Soul.
As soon as the music played, the Demonic War Hammer was greatly affected. The red glow of its eyes flickered and its thick Demon Qi constantly trembled. However, it still managed to hold onto its War Hammer.
Seeing this scene, Gao Shan and Liu Shui were ecstatic and pushed their attack more and more vigorously, eager to take down the Artifact Spirit.
Ning Yuan Shu watched excitedly, praying that Gao Shan and Liu Shui would succeed as soon as possible.
If the two Protectors succeeded, he would be able to bring this War Hammer back to Flying Saint Palace. An Ancient Emperor Artifact would definitely contain many great secrets, and if it was refined by his Lord Father, it would definitely be able to improve his strength greatly, which would increase the status of Flying Saint Palace and indirectly raise Ning Yuan Shu’s status.
How could he not be excited?
On the other side, Yang Kai sat down cross-legged, taking advantage of this time to restore himself.
At this moment Gao Shan and Liu Shui were holding the Artifact Spirit in check, so Yang Kai naturally had to seize this good opportunity.
Although this Artifact Spirit was ferocious, it was not undefeatable. Yang Kai had the will, but not the power to fight against the Artifact Spirit due to him over-exerting himself when collecting the Source Crystal lode earlier. As long as he was given a little time to recover, he would be able to give this Artifact Spirit a good beating.
Above the wilderness, the sound of the Guqin and flute pierced through the air in fluctuating reverberations, playing an enchanting melody. The sound waves gathered constantly, following the ups and downs of the rhythm, hitting the Artifact Spirit directly, causing its glow to flash wildly.
The cultivators who escaped from the underground were attracted by the movement here and gradually approached, watching from a distance.
Gao Shan’s and Liu Shui’s faces sank, for fear that they would end up gifting this treasure to others, especially when they saw the little brat Luo Yuan among the crowd…
They grew quite anxious.
To put it nicely, they ended in a tie in the previous battle with Luo Yuan; to put it bluntly, they were completely defeated by him.
After all, the two old men teamed up to fight while Luo Yuan was alone. It was an obvious victory when a rising star could suppress the two experienced old masters and cause them to escape in embarrassment.
With scruples in their hearts, the two old men made eye contact and as if they knew what each other was thinking, the next moment the beautiful melody changed sharply into hostility. The rhythm became intense and the sound that resonated changed from melodic to threatening, like the charge of an army of horses and soldiers rushing towards the Artifact Spirit.
Sound waves raged as the world lost colour.
“Hou!” At that moment, the Artifact Spirit, which was suppressed by sound waves, suddenly roared. The flickering red eyes suddenly stabilized and an unimaginable aura burst forth from it.
The War Hammer, which it had been holding up high, suddenly descended.
The wind and clouds changed suddenly as a massive wave of energy surged forth, swirling around the War Hammer like a great vortex.
*Hong… *
When the War Hammer hit the void, space shattered like a mirror and a halo of light spread out like a sharp blade, cutting through the sound waves that were approaching it.
The sound waves disappeared one after another like fading dandelions.
Followed by the sound of Gao Shan’s Guqin strings snapping, and the creaking sound of Liu Shui’s flute cracking.
“Not good!” The two old men’s expressions changed wildly as they quickly pushed their Source Qi to protect themselves.
Under the impact, the strength of the two old men was no better than a small canoe thrown into the stormy sea, overturned at once.
*Pu Pu… *
The two of them spat blood in unison, and their auras instantly dimmed.
“Protectors!” Ning Yuan Shu yelled in horror, his pupils shrinking.
“Wastes!” Yang Kai cursed in anger.
He was expecting Gao Shan and Liu Shui to buy him a little bit of time so that he could have a chance to recover, but he did not expect these two old fools to go all out suddenly, and as a result wound up being beaten by the Artifact Spirit in just thirty breaths.
Not only that, but both of their artifacts were damaged. The two old men had suffered huge losses in this battle and it would probably take them ten or twenty years to fully recover.
The actions of the two Protectors obviously enraged the Artifact Spirit, so after breaking free from the shackles of the sound waves, it raised its War Hammer again, causing the runes on its surface to flash even more brilliantly than before while a black hole appeared before its face, one that seemed capable of swallowing the world itself.
Everyone was filled with dread as they felt something horrendous was about to happen.
The black hole was extremely small at first, but in the blink of an eye, it expanded rapidly as if it was trying to devour the world, giving the people an illusion of a coming apocalypse.
Darkness descended on them as the entire world became pitch black.
In the boundless darkness, something was vaguely growing rapidly.
Gao Shan and Liu Shui were the first to bear the brunt as various dark emotions in them suddenly started to materialize and surged up, causing their eyes to tremble and exude an extremely evil light. The darkness seemed to be able to swallow someone’s mind and make them fall into the path of evil.
“Not good!” Gao Shan bellowed, biting the tip of his tongue and spitting a mouthful of Blood Essence, barely managing to suppress his dark impulses.
It was the same for Liu Shui. Both of them looked pained and it seemed that they would not be able to hold on for long under this strange ability before they would succumb to their impulses and become Demons themselves.
At the moment of crisis, a deep and solemn voice suddenly resounded across the world.
The sound was infinite, seemingly near yet also far, ethereal and unpredictable. When this voice sounded, a ray of light abruptly burst out of the darkness.
A figure enveloped in light quietly floated mid-air, performing a series of profound hand seals, mumbling some unknown incantation.
All the cultivators who heard the sound of this incantation seemingly felt an invisible hand brushing their minds, washing away the surging darkness, and bringing clarity back to their Souls.
“It’s her!” Yang Kai stood not far away with an odd expression on his face, staring at the shimmering figure in the sky, unexpectedly discovering that this person turned out to be Ye Jing Han.
He had no idea what kind of Divine Ability she was performing, or how it could have such a powerful purifying effect on one’s spirit, immediately pulling all the cultivators here back from the abyss of misery.
After everyone regained their senses, they dared not linger and immediately escaped from the darkness with their Movement Skills. The two Protectors, Gao Shan and Liu Shui, saw there was a slim chance of survival and quickly fled too. Of course, they did not forget to drag Ning Yuan Shu along upon leaving.
Ye Jing Han’s cultivation was only Second-Order Dao Source Realm, so even if she possessed a profound Divine Ability that could restrain the darkness, she certainly wouldn’t be able to maintain it for long. After just ten breaths, her pretty face turned pale and the light emitting from her body diminished drastically.
She seemed to have exhausted all her strength and had none left for her to escape, her head drooping as she fell from the sky, like a beautiful flower petal that had wilted and was now falling to its death.
At this crucial moment, Hua Qing Si threw out a red ribbon, wrapped it around Ye Jing Han, and pulled her out of the darkness, taking her and Zhang Ruo Xi together with Liu Yan and running away without looking back.
Seeing this situation, Yang Kai dared not to hesitate, turned around and teleported away with the help of the local Space Principles.
He could not count on any of the cultivators here and could only rely on himself. However, the priority now was to restore his strength as soon as possible.
Shortly after Yang Kai left, the Artifact Spirit lowered its War Hammer and the darkness dissipated. It turned its head and looked around, only seeing an empty surrounding with not even a shadow of a living being. However, it quickly fixed its gaze on the direction where Yang Kai escaped towards and chased after him while hefting its War Hammer.
Clear Jade Mountain, about ten thousand kilometres away from Maplewood City.
The Divine Spirit Luan Feng once appeared here and burned away a large swath of the mountain forest with its World Extinguishing Black Flames. Even though nearly two years had passed since then, the black flames showed no sign of fading and continued to burn vigorously.
This region had become a barren scorched earth, with not a blade of grass growing within a hundred-kilometre radius, only patches of black flames covering the ground.
Although this place was deserted and ruined, it had become a paradise for those who cultivated Fire Attribute Secret Arts and Secret Techniques.
Many cultivators who cultivated the Fire Attribute came here despite the danger to seek comprehension from the profound World Extinguishing Black Flames. After all, these were the flames of an Ancient Divine Spirit and seemed to contain unlimited power. If they could refine just a tiny bit of these flames, it would be enough to benefit them for a lifetime.
Yang Kai had long heard that there were many Fire Attribute cultivators gathered around Clear Jade Mountain and had also thought of bringing Liu Yang here to absorb its power. Since Liu Yan was able to refine even the feather of the Luan Feng, there was no reason she would be helpless against these World Extinguishing Black Flames.
However, he had been too busy recently to do so.
With his continuous teleportations, Yang Kai reached Clear Jade Mountain within a short time, arriving at the land which was incinerated by the Luan Feng that day.
Sweeping his eyes across this place, Yang Kai discovered many cultivators cultivating here. Everyone’s aura was burning hot, so obviously they were cultivating Fire Attribute Secret Arts or Secret Techniques.
Perceiving the arrival of Yang Kai, many of them opened their eyes and glanced at him, but ignored him afterwards.
Yang Kai scanned them with his Divine Sense, his face turning solemn.
This was because he found that there was no one here with decent cultivation. Most were just Origin Kings or Origin Returning Realm cultivators; even the few Dao Source Realm cultivators were just First-Order which would be of no help to him now
He was hoping to rely on these cultivators to distract the Artifact Spirit, but now, it seemed his plan was doomed from the start.
But soon, Yang Kai’s eyes lit up as he stared towards the centre of the black flames.
There was a safe zone at the very epicentre of the devastation about ten meters in radius, a place where the black flames did not even reach.
After thinking for a while, he shouted, “Everyone, it will soon become dangerous here. If you don’t want to die, leave now.”
The cultivators were woken from their meditation by his words, opened their eyes, and glared at him.
Someone even chuckled and threatened him, “Little brat, what did you just say? Say it again if you dare!”
That person saw that Yang Kai was young, and thought that his cultivation must not be high, so he did not take him seriously.
Yang Kai glanced at the person and faintly smiled, “I spoke very clearly, and I’m urging all of you to leave for your own good.”
“Little brat, I bet you just want to monopolize this divine fire!” An old man looked coldly at Yang Kai, “Young man, you need to know that bringing convenience to others means bringing convenience to yourself. This divine fire covers a huge radius and there is plenty of space here, so just find a place to sit and comprehend its mysteries quietly. There is no need to find trouble with others right? Even if you are strong, you should know that two fists can’t block four strikes. This Old Master advises you to behave yourself and not speak nonsense here.”
Yang Kai simply shrugged, “I’m not planning to comprehend the mysteries of this divine fire. It’s just that a dangerous entity is approaching this place and if you don’t leave now, it will be too late.”
“What dangerous entity?!” A tall and robust man, who had a First-Order Dao Source Realm cultivation, snorted coldly. Yang Kai had never met this guy before and he did not know if he was a local or a foreign cultivator.
However, he was not surprised since there were a lot of foreign cultivators appearing in Maplewood City recently. This burly man continued bellowing, “Boy, don’t be such an alarmist, otherwise, don’t blame Father here for being impolite to you!”
Yang Kai’s face changed abruptly, frowning slightly as he forced a smile, “Alright, it will be difficult for you to leave now.”
“What?”
“You little brat! You still dare to threaten us? Do you think I won’t peel your skin off!”
“This is outrageous! This brat doesn’t put us in his eyes at all! Let’s teach him a lesson!”
Just as everyone was ranting in a rage, a sound abruptly broke through the sky, and the Artifact Spirit’s figure was revealed on the horizon, startling everyone. As they all looked towards the Artifact Spirit with doubtful faces, they quickly sensed its malevolent and powerful aura and went pale, realizing that Yang Kai was telling the truth.
“Run! Why are you still sitting here like idiots? Are you hoping to die!?” Yang Kai yelled.
Everyone’s expressions changed drastically. This Artifact Spirit did not look like a being they could provoke, and the intensity of the aura it gave off was comparable to an Emperor Realm Master, so no one dared to hesitate and immediately got up and ran away using their Movement Skills.
The Artifact Spirit seemed to have no interest in anyone else but Yang Kai, so it ignored these people and simply fixed its scarlet eyes on him.
A short while later, all the cultivators who had been cultivating the mysteries of the black flames here had evacuated.
Yang Kai grinned at the Artifact Spirit, “I’m really curious how much sentience you have.” While speaking, he raised one finger and asked, “How many is this?”
The Artifact Spirit was indifferent.
Yang Kai laughed out loud and answered, “This is two! You fool!”
Just as he finished speaking, the Artifact Spirit raised its War Hammer. Yang Kai’s expression slightly changed when he saw this and hastily dived into the safe zone surrounded by the black flame, laughing arrogantly, “Come and beat me! Come and beat me if you dare!”
As if provoked by Yang Kai’s words, the Artifact Spirit rushed towards him.
However, as soon as the Artifact Spirit stepped into the land of burning black flames, it acted as if it was shocked by something and rapidly retreated.
The Artifact Spirit’s dark body was caught by several clusters of tiny black flames, and even though these clusters were small, they burned brilliantly.
There was nothing in this world that could not be burnt by the Luan Feng’s World Extinguishing Black Flames, not even an Emperor Artifact.
It was just that the black flames here had been burning for a long time without the support of the Luan Feng, so they had naturally become much weaker than before.
Even so, such flames were still not easy to put out.
The Artifact Spirit seemed to sense the danger of these flames and kept pushing its power to extinguish them, but to no avail, so it started to become irritated.
It lifted its Demonic War Hammer and directly hit itself.
That blow made a buzzing sound and released a powerful shockwave.
Yang Kai squinted in fright, “So hot-headed!”
Although the Artifact Spirit was born from the Demonic War Hammer, such an impact on its own body would still cause some unpredictable consequences. It was obvious that the sentience of the Artifact Spirit was not high, and therefore, it simply acted recklessly.
Still, the blow was actually quite effective.
The flames that were beaten by the Demonic War Hammer seemed to have dimmed a lot.
Seeing this, the Artifact Spirit tilted its head curiously; then, as if it had found an excellent solution, it lifted its War Hammer again and began constantly beating the flames on its body.
Yang Kai, who was looking coldly from the side, was thinking that this might keep it occupied for a while, so he immediately felt relieved and snorted coldly, “Take your time, this Young Master will teach you some proper manners later!”
After leaving these words, Yang Kai closed his eyes and focused, making the best out of his time to restore his own strength.
Previously, when he swallowed a bunch of Spirit Pills, the medicinal effects were condensed inside his physique and meridians, but they had yet to be dissolved, causing a hindrance to his Source Qi circulation. What he needed to do right now was to refine all the medicinal effects completely and channel them into every part of his physique.
The Artifact Spirit was still outside the scope of the black flames, busy hammering itself with its War Hammer.
Time passed slowly, and after an hour, the Artifact Spirit had finally extinguished the clusters of flames on his body.
However, after experiencing them first-hand, the Artifact Spirit seemed to realize that these black flames were not something to be trifled with, so it simply stood outside roaring impatiently in an attempt to provoke Yang Kai, not daring to rush in.
Yang Kai ignored it and continued adjusting his breathing while meditating.
After another hour, Yang Kai suddenly opened his eyes, his face glowing a bit brighter, no longer looking weak and exhausted like before.
He straightened his body up and grinned at the Artifact Spirit, “You’re dead!”
“Hou!” The Artifact Spirit roared ferociously.
Yang Kai instantly teleported out of the black flames and pounced towards the Artifact Spirit, his eyes flashing as they stared directly into his opponent’s scarlet gaze.
“Look at me!” Yang Kai bellowed.
It wasn’t clear if the Artifact Spirit had understood him or not, but it instinctively lifted its head and looked at Yang Kai.
Their eyes met, and golden light flashed from Yang Kai’s left eye as he activated his Demon Eye of Annihilation, suppressing the Artifact Spirit.
The Artifact Spirit was paralyzed.
The illusionary shape of a sabre appeared abruptly in Yang Kai’s eye in the next moment, and soon this phantom blade was floating above the Knowledge Sea of the Artifact Spirit. The sabre was precisely crafted – with dragons and phoenixes carved onto its body, exuding a shockingly powerful aura.
It was the Soul Splitting Sabre!
This was the first time Yang Kai had used this Emperor Artifact after refining it.
The Artifact Spirit was an Emperor Artifact assuming human form, after all, so Yang Kai did not dare to underestimate it and quickly used his strongest Soul attack.
The Soul Splitting Sabre hummed as it released a brilliant halo from its blade and countless mysterious runes whirled around its body.
Yang Kai shouted, “Heaven Severing Slash!”
Just after his shout, the Soul Splitting Sabre slashed down fiercely.
“Hou!” The Artifact Spirit roared in pain, as if it had suffered a great deal of damage and its whole body flickered wildly, showing signs that it may collapse at any moment.
The Heaven Severing Slash was a Soul Secret Technique that Yang Kai learned from Tian Yan after all. During this time, he had been slowly nourishing the Soul Splitting Sabre according to the methods described in this Secret Technique, so the first blow he struck was extremely powerful.
However, due to the short time he had been nourishing the blade, and his own low cultivation, not to mention the fact that the Soul Splitting Sabre had yet to be fully refined by him, the power of this strike still had a lot of room for improvement.
But it was enough for now.
The Artifact Spirit stumbled and retreated with just one blow, without any strength to resist. The light that formed its body dimmed noticeably and began to crack apart.
However, it did not have the slightest fear and instead grew wilder, raising its War Hammer up high and charging towards Yang Kai.
Yang Kai narrowed his eyes and secretly felt that the situation was turning bad. In desperation, a lotus bud as white as snow emerged from his left eye.
“Blossoming Lotus!” The lotus bud flew out and appeared in the Artifact Spirit’s Knowledge Sea, slowly absorbing its Spiritual Energy in order to make itself bloom.
Yang Kai seemed to have played his last remaining card with the combination of the two Soul Secret Techniques and the Soul-type Emperor Artifact, finally halting the Artifact Spirit in place.
A line of golden blood slowly trickled down from Yang Kai’s left eye.
As the lotus flower gently bloomed, the light of the Artifact Spirit’s body grew dimmer and dimmer and its body became transparent in a blink of an eye.
Soon, only the phantom of the blooming lotus was left in the place where the Artifact Spirit originally stood. When the lotus fully blossomed, it exploded with a bang, leaving behind a familiar War Hammer in front of Yang Kai.
Yang Kai gasped with his pale face, but before he could move, the War Hammer shook slightly and attempted to escape.
“Still not dead?” Yang Kai exclaimed. This Artifact Spirit had taken his two Soul Secret Techniques without dying on the spot; its tenacity was beyond his expectations.
But it was clearly nearing its end. Seeing the War Hammer trying to escape through the air, Yang Kai quickly took out his Sealed World Bead and performed a hand seal. Space Principles swirled from the Sealed World Bead and a Void Crack soon appeared on its surface.
“Stop it!” Yang Kai shouted.
The giant arm of the Embodiment reached out from the Void Crack with its fingers spread widely as it fell towards the War Hammer like a huge mountain, suppressing it.
Then, it immediately grabbed the War Hammer in its hand and retreated back into the Small Sealed World.
After that, the Void Crack gradually disappeared.
Yang Kai fell to the ground as he felt ill once more. The little power that he had barely managed to recover was depleted again, and he felt like he could see stars circling around his head at this moment. He tried to stand up again but found he was unable to rise to his feet.
A fragrant wind flew over at that moment and held him. Yang Kai turned his head with difficulty and saw the face of Liu Yan.
“Master, are you okay?” Liu Yan asked nervously.
Yang Kai shook his head arduously, then turned to look around, soon finding that Hua Qing Si was also here. He immediately understood that the two of them should have arrived long ago and hidden nearby in preparation to assist him after sensing the situation here. However, they did not expect that the battle would be over so quickly.
In fact, if Yang Kai had not spent too much of his Spiritual Energy in collecting the Source Crystal lode earlier, he would not have been bothered by the Artifact Spirit for so long.
Although the Artifact Spirit was an Emperor Artifact assuming human form, it could be restrained by Soul attacks, and the Soul Secret Techniques mastered by Yang Kai were extremely powerful, so as long as he restored enough Spiritual Energy, it was not difficult for him to deal with the Artifact Spirit.
“I’m fine!” Yang Kai shook his head and asked weakly, “Where is Ruo Xi?”
Liu Yan answered, “It’s too dangerous here, so I had her follow that woman named Ye Jing Han.”
Yang Kai nodded, “Good! Let me restore my strength first. Liu Yan, you should try to absorb the black flames of the Luan Feng here. They will be helpful to your growth if you can.”
“I was thinking that as well!” Liu Yan’s eyes flashed with a fiery light, staring at the World Extinguishing Black Flames which were flickering around them, as if she was looking at some Heavenly delicacy, licking her lips with her dainty scarlet tongue.
Yang Kai then looked at Hua Qing Si, “Big Sister Hua, take care of this Sealed World Bead!”
“You actually… called me Big Sister Hua…” It was Hua Qing Si’s first time hearing Yang Kai addressing her this way, and she could not help but be stunned for a moment. When she regained her composure, Yang Kai had already moved into the Small Sealed World and tossed the Sealed World Bead over towards her.
“Smelly brat, pretending to be young!” Hua Qing Si spat disdainfully, very dissatisfied with what Yang Kai called her, but she was soon distracted by the Sealed World Bead, examining it closely in curiosity.
Although she had been staying in the Small Sealed World all this time, it was her first time seeing its true appearance up close. She could not help being curious about it, wondering what mighty expert had such profound ability to refine such a world into a bead.
Soon, she set her dissatisfaction aside and started to study it with enthusiasm.
After all, this was an Emperor Artifact. If she could comprehend anything from it, it would be of great help to her growth.
She secretly guessed that the reason why Yang Kai was so proficient in the Dao of Space was that he had comprehended the mysteries of this Sealed World Bead.
In fact, she was wrong. Yang Kai had actually cultivated the Dao of Space before he obtained the Sealed World Bead, and it was exactly because of this that Yang Yan had passed him the Sealed World Bead. If that wasn’t the case, Yang Kai may not even have had the chance to possess this Sealed World Bead.
However, Yang Kai did comprehend a lot of mysteries about Space Principles inside the Sealed World Bead.
…
Inside the Small Sealed World, Yang Kai appeared leisurely. He was startled for a moment then exclaimed, “Why is the World Energy so rich here!?”
He did not realize until this moment that the World Energy inside the Small Sealed World was five to six times richer than before.
After that, he heard a muffled laugh, “Then, where do you think the World Energy that was previously absorbed in that Spirit Spring go?”
Yang Kai glanced at the Embodiment and responded with a speechless face, “It’s just that… I didn’t expect that so much World Energy had been absorbed. I’m afraid the cultivation environment here is now about the same as those first-class Sect cultivation paradises.”
The Embodiment nodded, “It’s really not bad, but… after all, the World Energy here is a river without a source, a tree without roots. If a way to replenish it is not found, it will be consumed one day.”
Yang Kai sighed, “The World Principles in this Small Sealed World are still imperfect. Even though it is an independent world, it was unable to produce its own World Energy, so I still need to find a way to make its World Principles evolve once more!”
While speaking, Yang Kai lifted his head and glanced at the Embodiment with his eyes squinted, “Why are you leaning on the Source Crystal lode?”
The Embodiment looked solemn, with his one hand performing a hand seal while the other gripped the Demonic War Hammer tightly. Sitting down close to the Source Crystal lode, he replied, “I’m cultivating the Heaven Devouring Battle Law!”
The corner of Yang Kai’s mouth twitched, “This Source Crystal lode produces Mid-Rank and High-Rank Source Crystals, don’t eat them all.”
The Heaven Devouring Battle Law could devour everything beneath the Heavens, including the essence of a cultivator’s physique; therefore, the Source Crystal lode here was no exception.
Under the operation of the Heaven Devouring Battle Law, pure World Energy was streaming steadily from the Source Crystal lode into the body of the Embodiment, like a river returning to the sea.
The Embodiment continued, “Relax, I divided this Source Crystal lode into two and left you the other half.”
Yang Kai nodded, “That is for the best. If you have time, break the other half into pieces, I might need to use those Source Crystals someday… I need to recover first though, I’ll talk to you about the details later.”
After saying so, Yang Kai went to the nearby medicine garden in a flash and sat down cross-legged.
There was the Immortal Tree in the medicine garden, providing unlimited vitality, so although Yang Kai had not suffered too great a physical injury from the battle before, he had still consumed a lot of his strength and he could use the rich vitality here to recover faster.
With a single thought, the World Energy in the Small Sealed World gathered towards the place where Yang Kai was sitting, and in the blink of an eye, it began to liquefy around him.
Yang Kai opened up his mind and body, circulating his Secret Art while absorbing the World Energy as quickly as possible, his dispirited aura rapidly recovering as he did so.