Martial Peak

The hall was huge and spacious, the floor covered with thick elegant carpeting, many beautiful landscape paintings adorned the walls and an incense burner in the middle of the hall filled the air with a pure calming fragrance.  The roof was made from the finest stone with many inlaid gems which seemed to sparkle like stars.

A few gray-haired old men dressed in simple robes either sat or stood about, studying various scriptures or practicing different Secret Arts, thoroughly engaging in their study of the Martial Dao.

Each of these old men seemed ordinary, their Spiritual Essence completely restrained, almost indistinguishable for common old men one might find out on the streets, but in fact, each of them was a powerful and well known master.

At the head of the hall, Yang Zhen sat upon his chair.  Although he was old and his hair was thinning, his eyes still held a youthful and animated light.

As one of the leaders of the Elder Hall, plus as an older man, it wasn’t convenient for him to go out much.  Unlike the younger generations he couldn’t run around outside making contributions to the Yang Family so Yang Zhen sat in the Elder Hall all the year round along with a number of other Elders in order to handle various internal affairs.

At this time, Yang Zhen’s eyelids were drooping slightly, looking quite indifferent, his hands tucked into his sleeves folded across his chest as he listened to a young man in front of him talking about various things.

After a while, the young man finished and then looked up at Yang Zhen with nervous eyes, waiting for him to give a reply.

Slowly opening his eyes, the seemingly uninterested eyes of Yang Zhen flashed with light as he stared at the young man coldly, his expression darkening.

“Waste!”  Yang Zhen roared, “You spent all these years outside but can only bring back this trash to my Yang Family?  You want to trade these pieces of garbage for the services of a Blood Warrior? You must think I’ve become senile with old age!”

The young man who was harshly reprimanded by Yang Zhen blushed red with embarrassment.

“Go back, I’ll take down what you’ve brought back with you, but know that it is not enough to have any one of the Blood Warriors follow you,” Yang Zhen waved, impatiently adding, “When you have enough merits you may return to speak with us again, but with the Inheritance War about to begin, I’m afraid you won’t have time prepare any.  For this Inheritance War, you should give up as soon as possible to avoid embarrassing yourself.”

The young man looked blank, letting out an exasperated sigh, his eyes filled with reluctance, opening his mouth to plead, “Elder, if I could use all of this to exchange for at least one…”

But before he could finish his words, he was mercilessly cut off by Yang Zhen, “If I say it’s not enough then it is not enough!  Roll out! Don’t waste any more of our time.”

After the angry shout, an invisible force struck the young man and directly shot him out of the Elder Hall.

The entire building creaked under the residual pressure but none of the white haired Elders moved, like they were made of stone, completely oblivious to what had just taken place, instead only focusing on their own pursuits.

Outside the hall, the young man picked himself up, his face filled with shame, his cheeks a deep shade of red, clenching his fists tightly before angrily leaving.

Yang Kai, who had just arrived at the entrance of the hall, witness the entire scene and couldn’t help feeling slightly bitter.

The young man who was ejected from the hall was Yang Tie, Yang Kai’s Third Brother.

After the family announced that Blood Warriors would be allowed to participate in the Inheritance War, the various Young Lords had started moving quickly, exchanging the valuables they had acquired outside for the services of the Blood Warriors.

It seemed like Yang Tie hadn’t gotten anything too valuable over these past few years so he had been berated by the Elders.

“Seems Third Brother didn’t have enough.” Someone suddenly spoke out from beside Yang Kai, a tinge of regret in their voice.

Yang Kai looked over towards where the voice came from and saw Yang Zhao standing there with a sad look on his face, looking Yang Tie’s disappearing back, shaking his head.

“Second Brother!” Yang Kai walked over and greeted him.

“Brother Kai,” Yang Zhao smiled confidently.

Yang Kai then turned his gaze to another person who stood beside Yang Zhao. This young man stood there as straight as a sword, giving off an aura that made it seem like if the Heaven’s collapsed and the Earth split apart he would remain calm and indifferent from beginning to end, forever unchanging.  It was only when Yang Zhao shouted out to Yang Kai that this youth turned his eyes shifted.

“Eldest Brother!”  Yang Kai knew who he was in an instant.

The Yang Family younger generation’s only Immortal Ascension Boundary cultivator, his Eldest Brother Yang Wei!

“Brother Kai?”  Yang Wei’s eyes showed a flash of shock.  When Yang Kai greeted him, inexplicably, he felt his own True Qi fluctuate uncontrollably.  Only when he felt pressure from an opponent would such a phenomenon appear.

Using his recently cultivated Divine Sense, Yang Wei swept over Yang Kai and found that he had only reached the True Element Eighth Stage.  But still, he couldn’t help but frown, a suspicion welling up inside his heart, not quite able to understand why Yang Kai would give him such pressure, even if it only lasted a moment.

“I haven’t seen you for a few years, and yet you’ve grown up to this point.”  Yang Wei nodded lightly, showing a touch of approval in his eyes.

As soon as he finished these words though, a feeling of shock surged through him.

Just five or six years ago, the little brother that stood in front of him couldn’t even cultivate, he was no better than an ordinary mortal with no strength to speak of, but now, after so short a time, he had reached the True Element Boundary Eighth Stage!

Although this realm was still lower than his own, the time his youngest brother had cultivated for was eight or more years shorter as well!  Never had he expected that after a short separation Yang Kai would undergo such a massive change.

Yang Wei finally realized why his youngest brother would give him a sense of pressure.  With such shocking cultivation speed, if he gave him some time, he would certainly surpass him one day!

“Has little brother also come to exchange some merits?”  Yang Zhao looked at Yang Kai and chuckled, the latter nodding slightly and smiling bitterly, “There’s no choice, the family said to come, so I have to come.”

“Ha ha!” Yang Zhao laughed and patted Yang Kai’s shoulder intimately, “Why else do you think the family has so much in storage?  It’s all things we’ve stolen from outside.”

“Everything belongs to the family, one day you’ll be able to use it for yourself.” Yang Wei seemed to be born with a cold face.  In Yang Kai’s memory, he never laughed, nor said many words, he was always stoic, but his actions were always vigorous and resolute.

Listening to him, Yang Zhao and Yang Kai also stopped bantering about this subject.

“Are you going to exchange for the Two Blood Warriors that brought you back?  I saw that they treated you quite well,” Yang Zhao asked seemingly offhandedly.

However, Yang Kai slowly shook his head, “I have other candidates in mind.”

Yang Zhao couldn’t help feeling surprised, wondering why Yang Kai wouldn’t choose to have Tu Feng and Tang Yu Xian serve him.

But obviously Yang Kai wasn’t about to explain, instead quickly changing the subject, “Fifth Brother?  Why isn’t Fifth Brother with you?”

Yang Zhao and Yang Kang were blood related brothers, they had always been inseparable and generally where one appeared the other would too.

To the side thought, Yang Wei scoffed loudly, “With me here, do you think he dares to appear?”

Yang Zhao and Yang Kai’s necks both shrank as they quickly exchanged a knowing glance.  It wasn’t just Yang Kang who feared this cold faced big brother of theirs, all the members of the Yang Family younger generation had a sense of trepidation around him.

This wasn’t simply related to Yang Wei being the oldest.

“I’m going ahead,” Yang Wei casually gestured, striding forward confidently into the Elder Hall.

After a short while, he walked out again and without saying a word, strode away.

Yang Zhao shook his head and said with a wry smile, “Eldest Brother still doesn’t like talking much, even though the rest of us brothers want to be closer to him.”

“It’s just his character,” Yang Kai slowly shook his head, in fact, he actually appreciated Yang Wei’s personality, no nonsense, no tricks or schemes, what he said was what he meant, what he did was what he wanted to do, living such a life must be liberating.

“Well, Second Brother will be going next, wait here for a bit.”

“En, go ahead.”

A long time later, Yang Zhao walked out with a big smile on his face, apparently very satisfied with his results.  After he stepped out of the Elder Hall, Yang Kai stepped forward.

Seeing Yang Kai come in, Yang Zhen stared at him with sharp eyes.  After Yang Kai walked up to him and bowed respectfully, Yang Zhen suddenly laughed and said, “Little brat, I remember you, last time you were here you exchanged a Mysterious Grade Martial Skill for ownership of a Golden Feather Eagle.”

“Yes,” Yang Kai nodded lightly, the last time he had visited the Elder Hall was indeed to obtain his Golden Feather Eagle.  It was also Yang Zhen who he spoke with at the time and whom he obtained the jade slip which allowed him to redeem the Golden Feather Eagle from Du Cheng Bai, Yang Zhen naturally remembered such a recent event.

Grinning happily, Yang Zhen asked, “Do you regret it?  Hahahaha! This old master knows you must regret it! Using a Mysterious Grade Martial Skill to trade for an only slightly useful Monster Beast, you really lost money on that!  That skill could have been used to have a Blood Warrior serve you!”

It seemed like being able to see Yang Kai squirm made this old guy very happy.

Unfortunately for him, Yang Kai simply shook his head and smiled incomprehensibly, “I don’t regret it, and even if I did it wouldn’t change anything, it would only add to Elder’s troubles.”

Yang Zhen coldly snorted, muttering under his breath, “Dead duck’s mouth is hard!”

He obviously thought that Yang Kai was pretending to be generous while in reality his guts were turning green with regret.

“Good, then let’s see what you’ve brought to offer, I hope you can surprise me this time as well!”  Yang Zhen’s hands still remained tucked into his sleeves, his expression carefree, “Speak, how many Blood Warriors are you here to obtain?”

“Two, since we can only receive two then of course I must obtain two!”

The smile on Yang Zhen’s face slowly converged as he stared at Yang Kai coldly, his eyes becoming serious.  Even the other white-haired old men in the room perked up their ears and stopped the movement of their hands, turning their heads to observe.

In an instant, all the eyes in the hall were staring at Yang Kai, all of these old men wearing curious expressions, like they were looking forward to watching a good show.

The Yang Family’s Young Lords had all been sent out to various first-class forces for their life experience.  The heritage of a first-class force wasn’t too deep, and what these Young Lord’s could obtain in such a short time was obviously not everything there was.

In order to exchange for the services of a Blood Warrior, the minimum offering would need to be a Mysterious Grade or three sets of Heaven Grade Top-Rank Martial Skills or Secret Arts.

The last time Yang Kai was here he had offered the family a Mysterious Grade Martial Skills, yet now he confidently said he wanted to obtain two Blood Warriors.

Didn’t that mean he had another two Mysterious Grade Martial Skills?

That was simply impossible!  Martial Skills and Secret Arts of the Mysterious Grade wouldn’t be so valuable if they could be obtained so easily.

Everyone in the hall didn’t think that Yang Kai was able to offer up so much, so naturally they thought he didn’t understand the rules or overestimated his own chips.

One by one, all of them prepared to watch an entertaining farce.

After a long silence, Yang Zhen grinned and said casually, “Then let’s talk about your chips, this old master will evaluate whether or not what you’ve brought to us can be exchanged for two Blood Warriors.”

Yang Kai nodded confidently before taking out two white jade slips from his sleeve and placing them table in front of Yang Zhen.

Yang Zhen’s brow furrowed, an impatient look appearing on his face as he coldly snorted, pulling his hand out of his sleeve picking up one of the jade slips, reading its content with his Divine Sense.