Martial Peak

Translator: Silavin & PewPewLaserGun

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain

Space Blade was a visual manifestation of Space Force. It was an attack method that could only be used by Yang Kai and was virtually impossible to defend against. Once he perfected this method, it would add a life-saving card to his arsenal.

Yang Kai obviously hadn’t been to the Flowing Flame Sand Field and as a result, didn’t know much about it, but from the brief introduction Qian Tong gave him, he knew it was an extremely dangerous place. Yang Kai didn’t dare to act carelessly and was intent on making comprehensive preparations.

Sitting down cross-legged, Yang Kai first took out the Profound Insect Stone he obtained at the auction.

Yang Yan had said that this stone contained very strange energy that wasn’t usable for cultivation or Artefact Refining but could be used to raise Exotic Insects. Soul Devouring Insects were one such Exotic Insect.

At the auction, it was only because of the abnormal response of the Soul Devouring Insects that Yang Kai had bought this Profound Insect Stone, otherwise, he would surely have ignored it.

As soon as he took out the Profound Insect Stone, Yang Kai felt the swarm of Soul Devouring Insects resting on the six coloured island in his Knowledge Sea begin to stir, as if they were anxious to fly out and migrate to this Profound Insect Stone.

However, without Yang Kai’s consent, they were unable to separate themselves from the six coloured island, so they simply became more and more anxious.

Yang Kai didn’t restrain them for long, lowering his Knowledge Sea’s defences and allowing the countless Soul Devouring Insects to fly out towards the Profound Insect Stone.

As soon as the Soul Devouring Insects entered the Profound Insect Stone, they immediately became irritable, their blood seemingly boiling as they gave off a dangerous aura.

Yang Kai listened carefully and soon heard rustling, crunching sounds.

Under his Divine Sense’s probing, Yang Kai found that the Soul Devouring Insects had actually started to devour one another as a great struggle for supremacy seemed to have broken out on the Profound Insect Stone.

The weak Soul Devouring Insects were unable to survive long as they were swiftly devoured by their more powerful peers. After cleaning up their weak companions, the more powerful Soul Devouring Insects began brutally fighting amongst themselves, rapidly reducing their total population.

Yang Kai was overjoyed!

It had been a long time since his Soul Devouring Insects devoured one another, but after that incident, their power had noticeably increased. Seeing this process repeat itself, Yang Kai was confident that once they settled down, their power would soar once again!

He was greatly looking forward to this!

If his Soul Devouring Insects could evolve to the point where they could threaten Origin Returning Realm masters, Yang Kai could be invincible on Shadowed Star. At that time, there would be no need for Yang Yan to continue arranging a powerful Spirit Array as no one would dare to offend them anymore out of fear of his Soul Devouring Insects.

After observing for a while, Yang Kai noticed that the Soul Devouring Insects would take quite a long time to finish their little civil war, so he no longer paid any attention to them. Placing the Profound Insect Stone in a corner of his room, Yang Kai simply allowed them to evolve independently.

Taking out some spirit grasses and spirit medicines, as well as his pill furnace, Yang Kai began refining Snow And Ice Pills.

Yang Kai didn’t have much difficulty refining Origin Grade Low-Rank pills, so in just over a day, he had two bottles with ten Snow And Ice Pills each, eight of which had formed Pill Veins.

After completing this, Yang Kai began nourishing his artefacts while cultivating his own Space Force.

In a flash, three months passed.

Inside the stone room, Yang Kai closed his eyes while holding a Space Spirit Crystal in his left hand, constantly using his own Space Force to absorb the energy inside it. Simultaneously, he was waving his right hand in an almost unconscious manner. Each time he waved his hand, a thin tear in space would form and fly out.

The entire stone room was a mess, with his Space Blades cutting through and destroying almost everything inside.

After three months of retreat, Yang Kai’s Space Blade had undoubtedly become much more powerful than when he first conceptualized it. Whether it was in terms of speed or stability, it was simply incomparable to his early attempts.

Speed and stability were the key factors in the lethality of Yang Kai’s Space Blade, especially the latter. This was not like other attack methods where the more Saint Qi used to condense it, the greater its power. In fact, the amount of Saint Qi Yang Kai used was nearly irrelevant as what mattered the most was the blades ability to swallow objects it came into contact with!

As such, as long as the blade was stable enough, it would be capable of devouring everything it passed through, sending it into The Void. Even other people’s attacks could be swallowed up. If others’ attacks or artefacts could be swallowed up by his Space Blade, Yang Kai would no longer need to come up with defensive measures as offense would be his best defence.

However, the stability of Yang Kai’s Space Blade could be affected by the attacks of other cultivators, and once this interference reached a certain critical point, the Space Blade would collapse and become useless.

So during this retreat, Yang Kai had primarily been focusing on maintaining his Space Blade’s stability, resulting in its speed not having improved much.

By consuming a lot of Space Spirit Crystals, a truly money-burning cultivation method, Yang Kai gradually gained some competency in the use of his Space Blade.

When in cultivation, one could not feel the passage of time, so it was not until Yang Kai felt a Divine Sense fluctuation coming from the communication artefact he had set aside nearby that he finally awoke.

Qian Tong had sent him a message.

After quickly picking up the communication artefact and pouring his Divine Sense into it, Yang Kai stood up and walked out of his stone room.

This three-month retreat was still too short to allow him to thoroughly complete his Space Blade, and at this stage, it could not be used in combat, but the Flowing Flame Sand Field had already begun to open, so Yang Kai had to set it aside for the time being.

Fortunately, after three months of being nourished by his Saint Qi, both the purple shield and the Hundred Mountains Picture had become usable.

The two bottles of Snow and Ice Pills Yang Kai had refined should be sufficient for his use.

As soon as he left the cave, Yang Kai froze for a moment as he discovered that Dragon Cave Mountain had undergone many changes. Not only was the World Energy Aura here now extremely rich, with a lingering mist shrouding each and every peak, there were now also many exquisite houses and other unidentifiable objects that had been built in the surroundings.

The several dozen cultivators who had followed Wu Yi were bustling about while Wu Yi and Yang Yan were both intently studying something, both of them looking very excited.

Seeing Yang Kai go out, the two women gawked for a moment but soon understood, putting down what they were working on and greeting him.

“Leaving?” Wu Yi asked.

“En,” Yang Kai nodded before warning them, “After I leave, don’t let anyone enter my stone room, and especially do not go near the Profound Insect Stone inside. There are some very dangerous creatures inhabiting it right now.”

“Understood,” Wu Yi responded quickly.

“Have the two Origin Grade artefacts Elder Qian asked for already been delivered?” Yang Kai turned to Yang Yan next.

“They were delivered long ago, about ten days after you entered retreat. Elder Qian personally delivered a lot of the materials we purchased when I handed him the two artefacts.”

“That’s good.”

“You can go, but Xiao Xiao has to stay. Without him, it’s far too much exhausting to refine things,” Yang Yan added.

Xiao Xiao was the Stone Puppet; Yang Yan had given him this name without asking for permission, but Yang Kai didn’t mind. In any case, for the expedition into the Flowing Flame Sand Field, he probably wouldn’t have any need for the Stone Puppet, so Yang Kai readily agreed to Yang Yan’s request. After leaving behind a few instructions, Yang Kai hurried off to Heavenly Fate City.

Only halfway there, Yang Kai spotted a blue light flying in his direction from the horizon. As it came closer, Yang Kai discovered that it was actually Luo Qing.

“Young Master Yang!” Luo Qing halted his Star Shuttle, stood up, and cupped his fists to Yang Kai, “Elder Qian instructed me to bring you to the city’s Space Array as quickly as possible. Everyone else is waiting there, only you are left.”

“Then I’ll trouble you to do so,” Yang Kai returned the greeting before following Luo Qing towards Heavenly Fate City.

On the way, Yang Kai asked Luo Qing about the Flowing Flame Sand Field. Unfortunately, Luo Qing didn’t know much, only that this Forbidden Zone was about to open and that all the great forces on Shadowed Star were rushing to the different entrances so that the moment it opened fully they could immediately enter.

Passing over Heavenly Fate City, the pair flew directly to the large palace which they subsequently entered. Upon arrival, Yang Kai realized that there were almost two hundred people gathered, and among them over ninety percent were Saint Kings with the majority of them in the Second or Third Order. There were some First Order Saint Kings, but not many. The Flowing Flame Sand Field was extremely dangerous so First Order Saint Kings wouldn’t be of much use inside.

Yang Kai frowned. Hadn’t Qian Tong said that Shadow Moon Hall only had fifty entry spots? Why were there so many people here then?

Moreover, from the looks of the people here, it was obvious they were all going to the Flowing Flame Sand Field through the Space Array.

As soon as Yang Kai walked inside, countless eyes landed on him, with Qian Tong even letting out a great laugh and extremely enthusiastically welcoming him, “Nephew Yang has arrived just in time. We’ve just finished gathering everyone and the Space Array is just about ready to open. All of you follow this Old Master.”

Last time they met, Yang Kai had promised to help Qian Tong refine two Origin Grade artefacts, and only ten days later he had delivered. Although the two artefacts were just Origin Grade Low-Rank, both were infinitely close to reaching Origin Grade Mid-Rank standard. Today, those two defensive artefacts were in Wei Gu Chang and Dong Xuan’er’s hands.

If these two items had been put up for auction, they would be worth at least four million Saint Crystals, and with both of them being Ice Attribute, perfect for resisting the heat of the Flowing Flame Sand Field, their prices might have been even higher.

All of Qian Tong’s investments in showing Yang Kai goodwill early on had already been repaid many times over with just this.

As such, Qian Tong was natural very polite to Yang Kai. Even this time, he had ordered everyone else to gather first before sending a message to Yang Kai so the latter would not have to stand around waiting.

Seeing Qian Tong personally greet this newcomer, many cultivators in the hall turned their eyes to examine Yang Kai and were secretly surprised, wondering what was so special about this First-Order Saint King to warrant such polite treatment from their Elder.

“Senior Brother Wei, who is that guy? We’ve been waiting here for so long, could it be it was actually for him?” A pretty-looking young woman took the opportunity to come up to Wei Gu Chang and ask softly.

“En, he doesn’t look like someone with a great background, and his strength is so low, just a First-Order Saint King,” Someone immediately agreed.

Wei Gu Chang shot them a flat look before distancing himself from the woman and saying bluntly, “You don’t need to worry about who he is, just make sure you don’t annoy him.”

After receiving a cold shoulder from Wei Gu Chang, the young woman smiled awkwardly and also stepped back, her heart full of bitterness.

Wei Gu Chang was the most talented disciple of Shadow Moon Hall. On top of that, he was handsome and straightforward, so naturally, there were many female disciples in Shadow Moon Hall who secretly admired him. Unfortunately for them, he seemed to only have eyes for Dong Xuan’er.