Martial Peak

Translator: Silavin & PewPewLaserGun

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain

The stern-faced man wanting to dominate the centre five-metre radius of the pool was extremely overbearing.

But no one felt that there was anything wrong with this; even Qu Chang Feng, after seeing the other party’s strength, couldn’t help feeling startled.

Yang Kai trembled slightly, not because he was frightened, but because he was inexplicable excitement.

He had met many of Shadowed Star’s young geniuses, but no matter who it was, none of them could draw out fighting intent from him like this stern-faced man, because Yang Kai didn’t know if he could win against this person. It was this kind of uncertainty that made him want to verify it personally.

However, now was not the time to pick a fight with this person, refining the Soul Cleansing Divine Water was the priority right now.

Yang Kai would be active on Shadowed Star in the future, and sooner or later would have the opportunity to compete with this person, so after a moment, Yang Kai restored his usual calm demeanour. At the same time, he was secretly thankful that he had not acted rashly when he first entered this place.

The moment he entered this stone cavern, Yang Kai had thought of driving everyone away and enjoying the power of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water all by himself. If he had acted at that time though, he might not have even been able to defeat this stern-faced man, and in the process he would definitely expose his true strength while allowing Qu Chang Feng and the others to take advantage of his mistakes.

The world was truly big, and there were indeed many geniuses! This stern-faced man was the strongest Saint King Yang Kai had met so far, even Xue Yue of Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce would probably not be his opponent. This made Yang Kai secretly realize he could no longer casually despise cultivators in the same realm as him.

Inside the stone cavern, besides the few people from Heaven Battling Union who were standing around, everyone else had found a spot in the pool and sat down cross-legged to absorb the effects of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water. Everyone’s face showed a joyful expression, some of them even let out gasps of pleasure, seemingly extremely comfortable.

“Enter!” Qu Chang Feng no longer wasted any time, waving his hand somberly.

The Heaven Battling Union disciples, who had been waiting for his word, heard this and all rushed into the pool, occupying free spots, and sitting down cross-legged.

Qu Chang Feng’s face was incredibly dark, and he could barely contain his anger, but even if he had twice as much courage, he didn’t dare look for trouble with the stern-faced man. Forget about whether he was this person’s opponent, just the behemoth that stood behind him was something even Heaven Battling Union had to fear.

With a heart full of rage but nowhere to vent, Qu Chang Feng was incredibly unhappy and in a fit of anger he actually rushed over to Yang Kai and coldly shouted, “Scram, I want this spot!”

Yang Kai’s spot wasn’t too good, nor too bad, just barely okay in fact.

He had entered along with the rest of the crowd just now and wasn’t too particular about what spot he chose, just occupying any place he could find, so how could he have anticipated Qu Chang Feng would come eyeing it?

Yang Kai understood that Qu Chang Feng was simply venting his anger and that he didn’t really want to occupy this position because there were still some better spots open elsewhere.

Qu Chang Feng was deliberately looking for trouble.

Because Yang Kai had the lowest strength, and he was all alone, Qu Chang Feng had decided to pick on him. The only reason he had not directly attacked was obviously because he was worried about disturbing the stern-faced man.

Yang Kai’s eyes flashed a cold light, but after thinking about it for a moment, he didn’t put up a fight. Instead, he just stood up and moved to another free spot.

Qu Chang Feng coldly snorted and was seemingly very satisfied with Yang Kai’s performance. Having found a little face for himself, Qu Chang Feng’s expression gradually eased up. After sitting down cross-legged and starting to absorb the effects of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water, he immediately showed a happy look, all of his previous dissatisfaction being swept away.

“Little brother, your luck is really good.” The beautiful woman who had tried to persuade Yang Kai to not to waste time a moment ago was actually sitting nearby, and upon seeing him get driven off by Qu Chang Feng, she smiled and comforted, “It seems that you were right to stick around, you really were able to fish some advantages. Compared with this opportunity in front of you, you don’t need to care about other things. Elder Sister has only sat here for a while but already feels like the bottleneck in her Soul cultivation has loosened. You should quickly focus on refining this pool’s effect, perhaps you’ll be able to comprehend something in the process.”

“En,” Yang Kai didn’t want to say anything more to her, simply nodding once before starting to absorb the effects of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water.

The reason why the Soul Cleansing Divine Water had such amazing effects was that it was condensed from the Soul of an Origin King Realm master. After an Origin King Realm master died here, their Spiritual Energy perfectly blended with the spirit liquid in this place and after undergoing countless years of transformation gave birth to this pool of Soul Cleansing Divine Water.

Although Yang Kai didn’t know why the Soul Cleansing Divine Water here was golden, after a brief attempt at absorbing it just now, he determined that it was indeed Soul Cleansing Divine Water.

Naturally he didn’t want to waste any time.

The beautiful woman was right, by cultivating here, not only could one enhance their Soul cultivation, purifying and condensing their Spiritual Energy, if one was lucky enough, they may be able to realize that some of the dead Origin King Realm master’s insights into the Soul.

How could the methods of an Origin King Realm master’s be bad? As long as one was able to understand any bit of their Divine Abilities, it would be enough to enjoy for a lifetime.

So far, the only Origin King Yang Kai had met was Gui Zu! Remembering his Heaven shaking methods made Yang Kai deeply envious, and presumably, other Origin Kings would not be worse than him.

Opening all his body’s pores, Yang Kai’s physique trembled as a trace of the golden energy poured into his five viscera and six organs before flowing straight to the top of his head and entering his Knowledge Sea.

Yang Kai felt this rush carefully, he split half of his conscious to maintain his vigilance of the outside world. Maintaining his guard up to prevent any attacks. Meanwhile, he focused the other half of his conscious to plunge into his Knowledge Sea to observe the magical effects of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water.

Yang Kai could clearly see strands of golden silk blend with the burning flames throughout his Knowledge Sea, and although these threads of golden silk weren’t numerous, their radiance was very clear. The sea of crimson flames seemed particularly eye-catching at this moment, as if golden fish were freely swimming among them.

Half of the golden silk threads soon fused with the seawater on its own, enhancing the strength of Yang Kai’s Knowledge Sea while also tempering his Spiritual Energy; although this improvement was somewhat negligible, seeing such instantaneous results was already quite amazing.

In essence, cultivation revolved around four key aspects.

Strengthening physique, accumulating Saint Qi, increasing Spiritual Energy, and improving insight into the Heavenly Way and Martial Dao.

The simplest of these principles was the accumulation of Saint Qi, because this accumulation could be accomplished with the aid of many foreign resources such as pills and Saint Crystals. When a cultivator cultivated, they use these types of auxiliary resources whenever possible.

On the other hand, the most difficult aspect was enhancing one’s comprehension of the Heavenly Way and Martial Dao!

Many cultivators would reach a point in the other three aspects of cultivation which would satisfy the requirements to break through to the next realm but would find themselves unable to because of bottlenecks in their understanding of the Heavenly Way and Martial Dao. Essentially all Third Order Origin Returning Realm masters on Shadowed Star couldn’t raise their comprehension of this key aspect to the require height to allow them to break through and had thus become unable to take that last step forward.

The strengthening of one’s physical body was relatively easy in the early stages and could be aided by external forces, but as one’s cultivation improved, it became more and more difficult to continue enhancing their physique and was almost impossible to bring to a true peak. Yang Kai’s powerful physical body was the result of countless opportunities but was still far from reaching the apex, thus he could still be wounded by powerful attacks.

However, it was also true that Yang Kai’s physique was countless times stronger than average cultivators in his own realm and even Origin Returning Realm masters. On top of that, the huge vitality contained in his Golden Blood granted Yang Kai terrifying restorative abilities, allowing any injury he received to heal just like new in short order.

The cultivation of one’s Soul, their Spiritual Energy, was infinitely more difficult than the accumulation of Saint Qi though, and was even more difficult than strengthening one’s body, only less difficult than comprehending the Heavenly Way and Martial Dao.

Many cultivators would enter a period of retreat after breaking through to a new realm specifically to strengthen their Soul and Spiritual Energy. Taking pills wasn’t a very effective method of enhancing one’s Spiritual Energy and Secret Arts that improved the rate of Spiritual Energy growth were extremely rare and precious.

This was true in Tong Xuan Realm, and was the same in the Star Field.

The method eighty percent of cultivators used to strengthen their Souls was to cultivate Soul Skills. By continuously using Soul Skills, draining their Spiritual Energy, and then restore themselves, a cultivator would create a cycle that would slowly increase their Spiritual Energy.

This was a stupid and ineffective method, but it was also the easiest and most practical.

Yang Kai didn’t need to use such a method to enhance his Spiritual Energy because he had his Soul Warming Lotus. This treasure negated the need for him to devote time in retreat to cultivate Spiritual Energy while still allowing his Soul to be far stronger than average cultivators in his realm. Yang Kai’s current Soul and Divine Sense was comparable to those of an Origin Returning Realm master.

The reason for this was almost entirely due to the Soul Warming Lotus!

This most precious Soul nourishing treasure had been acquired by Yang Kai when he was still very weak and had co-existed with him for more than two decades. His own Soul and the Soul Warming Lotus were now complementary, so while his Soul grew, the Soul Warming Lotus would also grow.

But now, with only a small amount of Soul Cleansing Divine Water, Yang Kai had seen great gains, his Spiritual Energy growing stronger by an amount equal to a few days of dedicated cultivation in only a few breathes, something that made him very happy.

As Yang Kai observed this process, some of the golden threads which had not fused with his Knowledge Sea were led by some inexplicable attractive force towards the six-coloured island at the centre of the sea, entering it and disappearing.

This phenomenon did not surprise Yang Kai.

The Soul Warming Lotus originally had such characteristics. Whenever Yang Kai swallowed some kind of pill that enhanced Spiritual Energy, the Soul Warming Lotus would absorb most of these efficacies for its own use and grow. Although in the short term, it looks like Yang Kai was losing benefits to the Soul Warming Lotus, since his Soul and the Soul Warming Lotus shared a symbiotic relationship, over the years, the benefits the Soul Warming Lotus gave him far outweighed the nutrients he provided it.

Soul Cleansing Divine Water could be used to wash and purify one’s Soul, but it also had great nourishing effects for the Soul Warming Lotus.

However, what surprised Yang Kai was that after the Soul Warming Lotus absorbed a tiny part of these golden threads, it actually took the initiative to radiate a powerful attractive force that drew the golden energy from the Soul Cleaning Divine Water pool into Yang Kai’s body and to his Knowledge Sea at dozens of times the previous rate.