Martial Peak

Translator: Silavin & PewPewLaserGun

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain

After walking far away, the man who invited Yang Kai to accompany him looked back, a strange expression upon his face as he muttered to himself, “A First-Order Saint King can stand the heat here without using his Saint Qi? How strange…”

Even he, a Third-Order Saint King, was having some difficulty coping with this environment, his clothes quickly become soaked in sweat. When he saw Yang Kai looking perfectly fine, on the other hand, he had sent out an invitation.

Because he subconsciously felt that Yang Kai wasn’t as simple as he seemed.

However, the other party seemed a bit impersonal, simply declaring he wasn’t interested before refusing to say anymore. In this kind of place, a casual slip of the tongue could lead to one’s death, so acting cautiously was for the best. Who knew what kind of character that First Order Saint King had? If he were to say something to annoy the other party, it might have even turned into a fight. The Flowing Flame Sand Field had last opened over four hundred years ago, so it could be said that treasures were everywhere, what was most important right now was to search for benefits.

After this man left, Yang Kai stood in place for a while, thinking that the voice of the cultivator who had just invited him sounded familiar, as if he had heard it somewhere before, but Yang Kai was sure he hadn’t met this person until now.

How could he know the voice of someone he had never met?

Thinking about it for a while but unable to come up with anything, Yang Kai put this issue aside and took out the Yuan Magnetic Compass from his Space Ring.

There seemed to also be some Divine Sense fluctuations coming from the communication artefact. It should be Wei Gu Chang’s message. Yang Kai examined this message and confirmed his suspicions. In fact, not only had Wei Gu Chang sent out a message, Dong Xuan’er and several other Shadow Moon Hall disciples were also exchanging messages, seemingly trying to determine each other’s whereabouts and where to meet up.

Yang Kai directly ignored these messages and threw the communication artefact into his Space Ring. Then he confirmed which way led deeper into the Flowing Flame Sand Field with the Yuan Magnetic Compass before departing.

About three hundred kilometres away from Yang Kai, Wei Gu Chang stood below a large mountain. This mountain was very conspicuous, and even if one was far away, they would be able to see a trace of its outline. He and several Core Disciples from Shadow Moon Hall had agreed to rendezvous here, believing that as long they weren’t idiots they would be able to quickly find this place.

Dong Xuan’er actually appeared the closest to him so after a half cup of tea’s time, she arrived first.

“Senior Brother!” Dong Xuan’er shouted happily as she landed, a pale blue halo surrounding her body. This halo was emitting a faint cold aura completely isolating her from the surrounding heat. It was obviously created by the Origin Grade Low-Rank defensive artefact Yang Yan had refined for her.

Wei Gu Chang, like Yang Kai, did not immediately use any artefacts or Saint Qi to protect himself, standing tall in the hot air, even seemingly enjoying the temperature. After seeing Dong Xuan’er arrive, he immediately smiled mildly.

“Senior Brother, the few Junior Brothers and Junior Sisters who were supposed to accompany us to the Treasure Area all responded quickly, but Senior Brother Yang hasn’t sent any reply. Could he have appeared too far away, outside the range of our communication artefacts?” Dong Xuan’er asked with some worry.

“Probably not,” Wei Gu Chang shook his head, “Our communication artefacts were refined by Grandmaster Ge Lin himself, the distance they can relay messages across is over five hundred kilometres. There wasn’t much time between when we and he entered, so even if we were all scattered, he should still be nearby. Brother Yang not responding… is probably intentional.”

“Senior Brother, do you mean Senior Brother Yang wants to act alone? He’s not willing to join us?” Dong Xuan’er was also a beautiful and intelligent woman. Listening to Wei Gu Chang’s words, she immediately understood Yang Kai’s plan.

“Those who are skilled like to adventure alone!” Wei Gu Chang grinned.

“Does Senior Brother want to act on his own as well? To wander about freely?” Dong Xuan’er asked faintly.

Wei Gu Chang laughed, “Senior Brother naturally wants to travel together with you! The two of us love and understand one another, so spending time with each other even in this Forbidden Zone naturally makes me happy!”

Hearing what he said, Dong Xuan’er couldn’t help spitting out her tongue cutely, but even that couldn’t hide the happiness on her face.

However, Wei Gu Chang soon snorted coldly, “Of course, if it were possible, I’d rather it just be the two of us, but there’s no way we can do that. Martial Uncle Wang and Martial Uncle Yan specifically ordered me to take good care of those Junior Brothers and Junior Sisters so I can’t just leave them behind. It’s truly ridiculous, when I invited Brother Yang before, all of them were obviously dissatisfied. How could they understand Brother Yang’s true strength? I would rather go travel together with Brother Yang than have to look after those burdens.”

“When you belong to a Sect, there are always some unsatisfactory responsibilities one needs to deal with, Senior Brother shouldn’t let it bother him!” Dong Xuan’er comforted softly.

This was Dong Xuan’er’s greatest strength, and what Wei Gu Chang liked most about her. She could always find the right words and the right timing to soothe his heart. Every time he fell into a foul mood, she only needed to say a few words to calm him down immediately.

“Of course I understand. Forget it, let’s not discuss it any further, they should be arriving soon, it’ll be bad if they heard,” Wei Gu Chang smiled and shook his head, instead discussing what course and direction they should take next with Dong Xuan’er.

At this moment, Yang Kai was encountering his first Fire Spirit Beast.

He had thought that Fire Spirit Beasts would be the same as Monster Beasts, easy to discover, so he had been searching around ever since he entered, eager to see what kind of strange being this creature unique to Flowing Flame Sand Field was like. On top of that, he was interested to learn what was so special about that Fire Crystal Stones these creatures carried.

With no clue where to find Fire Spirit Beasts, Yang Kai had simply been searching randomly when suddenly a burst of fire came from the ground beneath his feet and a fiery tiger-like Fire Spirit Beast appeared in front of him.

Yang Kai didn’t rush to attack and observed it carefully.

Just as Wei Gu Chang had said before, this Fire Spirit Beast’s body seemed illusionary and ethereal, its aura perfectly matched with the atmosphere inside the Flowing Flame Sand Field, so even though Yang Kai had been incredibly vigilant, he hadn’t detected it until it leapt from the crack beneath him.

This tiger-like Fire Spirit Beast looked weak and fragile though, probably as strong as a Fifth-Order Monster Beast at best. Fifth-Order Monster Beasts were equivalent to human race Immortal Ascension Boundary cultivators. In fact, this creature didn’t even have a complete body, only a majestic tiger head and half a body while the rest was only a ball of fire.

Yang Kai was immediately disappointed. Seeing this tiger-like Fire Spirit Beast take the initiative to attack, Yang Kai simply threw out a casual punch, Saint Qi spewing from his fist.

In a burst of flame, the tiger-like Fire Spirit Beast disappeared and a dark red grain of sand replaced it.

Yang Kai reached out and grabbed it.

Was this the Fire Crystal Stone he had heard about? Even if Yang Kai was seeing it for the first time, he was able to recognize it at a glance as Wei Gu Chang had enthusiastically described it to him.

However, this thing was too small, and while the aura contained in it was pure enough, the amount it had stored was quite pitiful. Yang Kai casually circulated his Saint Qi and absorbed the energy inside it clean.

Shaking his head with dissatisfaction. Yang Kai estimated that the size of the Fire Crystal Stone should be directly related to the level of the Fire Spirit Beast.

The higher the level of Fire Spirit Beast, the larger the Fire Crystal Stone would be. This sand sized Fire Crystal Stone was just the crystal of a Fifth-Order Fire Spirit Beast. Sixth-Order Seventh-Order and Eighth-Order First Crystal Stones may be different.

The outermost region of the Flame Area posed no challenge to him, so Yang Kai quickly lost interest in carefully investigating it. Concentrating for a moment, a burst of wind and thunder manifested and a pair of beautiful wings suddenly opened behind Yang Kai. These wings were somewhat transparent and faint arcs of lightning rippled across them. It was the Wind and Thunder Wings that Yang Kai had not used for a long time.

Back on Tong Xuan Realm, the Wind and Thunder Wings had helped him many times, but after obtaining the Star Shuttle flight type artefact, the usefulness of the Wind and Thunder Wings had gradually decreased.

After arriving in the Star Field, he had never used his Wind and Thunder Wings again.

Yang Kai hadn’t expected they would come in handy in such a place.

Injecting Saint Qi into his Wind and Thunder Wings, the intensity of the wind and thunder increased, allowing Yang Kai’s speed to soar as he transformed into a streak of light, disappearing from where he once stood.

Yang Kai looked pleased. He found that his conjecture was actually correct. Although Star Shuttles couldn’t be used and cultivators couldn’t fly inside the Flowing Flame Sand Field, his Wind and Thunder Wings were usable. As long as he didn’t leave the ground, he wouldn’t receive any kind of suppression.

However, once Yang Kai tried to fly, an incredible pressure would force him back down.

After a few fruitless attempts, Yang Kai gave up and simply relied on the Wind and Thunder Wings to improve his running speed.

This Forbidden Zone was quite strange. Yang Kai couldn’t tell what kind of profound laws of Heaven and Earth were at work here, but the number of restrictions they applied wasn’t small.

Along the way, Yang Kai didn’t meet anyone, as if he was the only one exploring this huge Flowing Flame Sand Field. Of course, he knew that this was just an illusion. The Flowing Flame Sand Field was simply too large. As a giant circular boundary, the outermost layer was obviously broader, meaning there was less of a chance of running into people, but as he dove further inside, the chances of him encountering other cultivators would naturally increase. After all the elites gradually migrated towards the centre regions, meetings with others would become commonplace and conflicts would also start occurring.

Fire Spirit Beasts were indeed a common existence in this Flame Area. As Yang Kai hurried along, from time to time, one or two Fire Spirit Beasts of varying strength would pop up from the cracks in the ground. Some of these beasts tried to hinder his progress while others were simply wandering about.

Yang Kai didn’t have any interest in killing these Fifth or Sixth-Order Fire Spirit Beasts so for the most part he ignored them.

The further he went, the higher the ambient temperature became. Not only was did the temperature rise though, causing the stinging sensation on Yang Kai’s skin to become stronger, but even the fire poison contained in the air also became more potent. Through Yang Kai’s pores, this poison slowly began seeping into his body, hindering his physical functions and the circulation of his Saint Qi.

This fire poison was incredibly resilient and even if Yang Kai circulated his Secret Art, he couldn’t refine it. If he continued allowing it to accumulate, it would pose a significant danger, so Yang Kai could only force it out of his body.

As the temperature and heat increased, Yang Kai was forced to use his Saint Qi to protect his body while simultaneously resisting the intrusion of the fire poison.