Martial Peak

Tu Feng and Tang Yu Xian both hurried forward and examined him, quickly discovering that Yang Kai had already broken through and reached the True Element Boundary Seventh Stage.

The two Blood Warriors nodded secretly to themselves, somewhat impressed that he had so quickly achieved a breakthrough after the battle.  It seemed the Little Lord’s aptitude was quite high.

The only thing they found strange was that for more than ten years while he was in the Yang Family, why had be always been no better than an ordinary person?  Over the past few years what exactly had happened to him that allowed him to achieve such a level of cultivation in so short a time?

Both Tu Feng and Tang Yu Xian stared silently at Yang Kai, their expressions indifferent, seemingly waiting for something.

“What has happened inside the Yang Family?  Why are we being recalled so early this time?”  Yang Kai’s brow furrowed as he asked the pair.

Tu Feng’s face suddenly became a bit gloomy as he replied, “It seems the Patriarch was injured.  In the battle with the Ash-Grey Cloud Evil Land masters, the Patriarch led the charge and was injured by the Profound Yin Ghost King and the Annihilating Poison King.  Although he received prompt treatment and there is no immediate threat to his life, but the Family Elders said that the situation is not optimistic, so a candidate for the next Patriarch must be determined as soon as possible.”

“The Patriarch was injured?”  Yang Kai looked at him in surprise.

According to his memory, the Yang Family’s current Patriarch should be Yang Kai’s Grand Uncle Yang Ying Hao and his strength was not low.  It seems that even characters of his stature had actually been injured in the decisive battle and the injury was also not light, otherwise there would not have been such a rush to recall the scattered Yang Family descendants to launch the Inheritance War.

“En, understood!”  Yang Kai nodded lightly.

When it came to the inner workings of the family, Yang Kai didn’t actually know much about it.  There were even several of his uncles he had never greeted. Apart from his parents, Yang Kai did not have much affection for the others members of the Yang Family.

In fact, such an attitude was quite prevalent within the Yang Family.

Each of the previous generations direct descendants had been sent out of the family for ten years of experience in the outside world, after which they returned and worked together with those they had recruited to win the Inheritance War, so between lack of contact and vicious competition, the bonds between Yang Family members was particularly weak, at least nowhere near as deep as other great families.

Seeing him respond so flatly, Tu Feng and Tang Yu Xian didn’t seem surprised.  The two of them had grown up inside the Yang Family for so long that they naturally knew the temperament of the Yang Family’s members.

“Little Lord,” Tu Feng calmly inquired, “If there is nothing else, let us return to the Yang Family first.”

Pausing for a moment, Yang Kai’s brow wrinkled as he asked, “Is there any provision for the latest we must return by?”

“There is not,” Tu Feng shook his head slowly, “I would also guess you are the first Young Lord to be found.  It was only two days ago that the Golden Feather Eagles were released. Yuxian and I were deployed soon after and were lucky enough to bump into you so quickly, as for the others, I’m afraid they’re still following the other Golden Feather Eagles in search of the other Young Lords.”

“Excellent.” Yang Kai smiled faintly.

“Is there something else, Little Lord?”

“En, I wish to return to my Sect first!” Yang Kai replied as he nodded firmly.

Tu Feng and Tang Yu Xian couldn’t help glance at each other in surprise.

The cuckoo bird Yang Family was quite famous for planting it’s descendants as disciples into foreign Sects after hiding their identities.  Usually, after the ten year period expired, these Young Lords would sneak out of their Sects to avoid their Sect’s Elders and their Brother and Sister disciples from knowing.

After all, after living there for so many years, even the cold-hearted Yang Family descendants would develop some feelings towards their companions, so the act of deceiving their Sect mates would leave them feeling uncomfortable.

However, now one of these Young Lords not only didn’t intend to sneak away but actually wanted to return to his Sect.  This was an interesting development.

The only question was, how was he going to explain to his Sect’s Elders and his fellow disciples when he got there?

Tang Yu Xian suddenly became curious, “What is the name of Little Lord’s Sect?”

Yang Kai chuckled as he glanced towards her, noting a faint smile upon her lips, as if she were looking forward to prying as much information out of him as possible before agreeing.

“It’s better if I not say it!”

Tang Yu Xian was stunned for a moment, not quite understanding what he meant.

However, as a Blood Warrior, she knew well enough not to inquire any further, but still, she became faintly aware that the Little Lord had his own problems.

“Let’s go!”  Turning away from her, Yang Kai shifted his gaze towards the three Cloud Treading Colts and declared to the two Blood Warriors.

The two exchanged a glance before nodding as they flew towards the Cloud Treading Colts.

Although they were Immortal Ascension masters that could soar through the sky at incredible speeds, since they had ‘acquired’ these Cloud Treading Colts, they were naturally happy to conserve their True Qi.

The three Cloud Treading Colts broke out into a sprint as high above them the Silver Blood Golden Feather Eagle followed along, from time to time letting out a crisp eagle’s cry.

From here to High Heaven Pavilion was at least ten thousand kilometres, so even if they rode the Cloud Treading Colts at full speed, it would still take two or three days to arrive.

However, Yang Kai didn’t ride at full speed but instead maintained a rather casual pace.

About the Yang Family’s unwritten rules, since Tu Feng and Tang Yu Xian knew them, Yang Kai obviously did too.

Along the way home, his performance would affect the future decisions of these two Blood Warriors!

The Inheritance War was not just a battle between the several Yang Family Young Lords, in fact, their personal strength could even be said to be the least important factor.

What was most valuable during the Inheritance War was the strength and number of outside forces the Young Lords could rally to their cause!

The more support they managed to gather, the more forces which kneeled before them, the more it demonstrated the Young Lord’s connections and methods, which was of paramount importance to the next Patriarch of the Yang Family!

The Yang Family was the head of the Eight Great Families, what its Patriarch needed most was the ability to influence and lead others!

Yang Kai right now could only be considered poor and alone.  He naturally cared a great deal about the opinions these two Blood Warriors who had come to escort him home had of him.

If he could prove his worth to them during this journey, it would be tantamount to having two powerful Immortal Ascension Boundary helpers once he reached home.

So for this trip, he couldn’t go too fast.  If he went too fast, even if Yang Kai wanted to demonstrate his abilities there wouldn’t be enough time to do so, but he also couldn’t go too slow, or he ran the risk of appearing unmotivated or flat out lazy.

Yang Kai led the way forward, and Tu Feng and Tang Yu Xian followed along without complaint.

Each day they travelled two thousand kilometres or so, a fairly leisurely pace.

So after three days, they had only crossed half the distance.

That night, when the three of them stopped to rest, Tu Feng went hunting for some food while Tang Yu Xian looked for kindling nearby to raise a fire.

Soon after the campfire’s flames began crackling, Tu Feng returned with a full harvest.  The two worked swiftly together to clean the game in a nearby stream before returning to the camp to grill the meat.

While the two were busy, Yang Kai kept whistling towards the Silver Blood Golden Feather Eagle resting atop a treetop several tens of meters away.

For the past few days, while they were travelling, Yang Kai would often call out to and tempt the Golden Feather Eagle.

But after three days, he hadn’t made any significant progress.  The Golden Feather Eagle seemed to be very wary of him. That day, Yang Kai had plucked two of its golden feathers in order to frame Nan Sheng and Xiang Chu, so even now, the young eagle regarded Yang Kai as its lifelong enemy!  Each time Yang Kai moved any closer than he current was, it would let out a flurry of cries and flap its wings aggressively.

Even though it recognized Yang Kai as a direct descendant of the Yang Family it still didn’t seem to make a difference to the eagle.

Tang Yu Xian glanced over as she was roasting some skewered meat above the flames.  Seeing Yang Kai still unable to make any headway with the eagle she couldn’t help grinning happily.

“Hmph, serves him right!”  Tang Yu Xian muttered softly, “The Silver Blood Golden Feather Eagle is only a Fifth-Order Monster Beast, but its intelligence is quite high.  Since he’s plucked two of its feathers before, he shouldn’t even dream of getting close to it in this lifetime.”

Tu Feng also couldn’t help nodding, obviously agreeing with Tang Yu Xian’s thinking.

“The Little Lord should also know this, so why does he insist on pursuing such a thankless task?” Tang Yu Xian wrinkled her brow in confusion.

Tu Feng grinned meaningfully, “There is obviously an ulterior motive!”

“What do you mean?” Tang Yu Xian shifted her gaze and asked.

Tu Feng chuckled as he replied, “The Little Lord is trying to impress us by taming the eagle.  Haven’t you noticed that our speed these past few days hasn’t been that fast? He’s clearly dragging out our time together.”

Tang Yu Xian was slightly surprised at first, but after thinking about it, she immediately felt that Tu Feng was right, her eyes flashing a brilliant light, “How come your thoughts are so meticulous, yet your beard isn’t long and white at all.”

Tu Feng chuckled loudly, “It’s not that I’m any more thoughtful, it’s just that you’re too young.  The Little Lord’s intentions are so obvious that even a fool could understand them if they… ahem… I mean…”

“You mean, what?” Tang Yu Xian looked at him while showing a smile that wasn’t quite a smile, causing Tu Feng to suddenly groan.

Not pursuing his slip of the tongue, Tang Yu Xian turned her attention back towards Yang Kai and smiled lightly, “If that’s his plan, it seems he’s bound to be disappointed.”

“En, well, regardless of his intentions, our duty is only to protect his safety.”  Tu Feng grinned before calling out to the other side, “Little Lord, the food is ready.”

Yang Kai responded with a sigh before returning with a bland look.

While eating, Tang Yu Xian smiled and looked at Yang Kai as she asked, “Little Lord, how are your efforts progressing?”

After listening to her question, Tu Feng quickly signalled with his eyes to her not to go into Yang Kai’s matters, after all, if she intentionally asked about an issue she knew he hadn’t made progress on, wouldn’t that inadvertently cause the Young Lord to lose face?

Actually, Tang Yu Xian’s intentions were good, she had simply wanted to remind Yang Kai not to pursue futile endeavours.  The greater one’s expectations were, the greater the disappointment would be when they failed.

It was a lesson she thought should be learned by the younger generation.

But to her surprise, after listening to her question, Yang Kai simply made a faint grin before swallowing and casually replying, “I’m nearly there, I should be able to sooth its hostility towards me by tomorrow…”

Tang Yu Xian and Tu Feng immediately froze up before staring towards Yang Kai’s innocently smiling face.  At that moment, they didn’t know what to say.

Nearly there?  Wasn’t it obvious he hadn’t made any progress at all?

On top of that, how could he be so sure that he could eliminate the Golden Feather Eagle’s hostility by tomorrow?  This Monster Beast clearly held a deep hatred towards him for plucking two of its feathers, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say it would never forgive him for that.

“Em?  What’s wrong?”  Yang Kai noticed them silently staring at him and couldn’t help but raise his head and ask.

“Ahem, no, it’s nothing.” Tu Feng quickly shook his head and smiled, “If so, I wish Little Lord the best of luck.”

This is a rather perfunctorily spoken statement, but Yang Kai seems to be unaware of that and simply nodded lightly, “En.”

Tang Yu Xian grinned as she suddenly felt a headache coming on.

In front of the Little Lord’s confident expression, she couldn’t exactly advise him against his current course of action, but if tomorrow the Golden Feather Eagle still ignored him, wasn’t he also going to lose a great deal of face?

If the Little Lord was simply ashamed it was one thing, but if he instead became unreasonably angry…

At that moment, Tang Yu Xian even shot a sharp glance towards the Golden Feather Eagle.  As long as the Golden Feather Eagle encountered an ‘accident’ tonight, then the Little Lord wouldn’t need to feel embarrassed.

Looking at him together with Tu Feng, both of them lowered their heads and stifled their thoughts; they no longer wished to say anything more.

Yang Kai secretly observed the two Blood Warrior’s reactions while eating his barbecue, his innocent smile slowly transforming into an imperceptibly sly grin.