Martial Peak

Translator: Silavin & PewPewLaserGun

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain

“If you disapprove, I can lead them away!” Wu Yi saw Yang Kai go silent and thought he might be upset, so she quickly apologized while biting her lip.

“And take them where?” Yang Kai smiled, “Since they’ve come already, let them stay. Moreover, this was your land in the first place.”

“But I already gave it to you,” Wu Yi said with embarrassment, “Since I gave it to you, it’s yours now.”

“Don’t think about it too much, so many people willing to follow you is all thanks to your own skill,” Yang Kai smiled slightly. “In any case, there are so many stone rooms in the cave now so it doesn’t matter if there are a few extra people around.”

“Thank you!” Wu Yi said gratefully.

Yang Kai shook his head and said sincerely, “It is I who should thank you.”

If Wu Yi hadn’t given him Dragon Cave Mountain, Yang Kai would never have discovered the giant Space Spirit Crystal lode here. Although it wasn’t convenient for him to explain to Wu Yi right now, this great favour was something Yang Kai fully intended to repay, so allowing a few dozen people who chose to follow Wu Yi settle here wasn’t even an issue for him. Even if Wu Yi encountered real trouble, Yang Kai would happily face it for her.

“Stop thanking each other in circles,” Yang Yan called out. Yang Kai turned around to see her and although she seemed quite tired, her beautiful eyes were filled with excitement. Yang Yan casually tossed something over to Yang Kai upon making eye contact and said, “This artefact isn’t bad. See if you want to refine it, if not, we should sell it quickly. We’re quite poor now.”

Yang Kai caught this artefact and upon sweeping it with his Divine Sense, he discovered it was Xu Zhi Shen’s Hundred Mountains Picture. Immediately tossing it into his Space Ring, Yang Kai declared, “This thing isn’t for sale.”

During the battle with Xu Zhi Shen, Yang Kai had snatched two artefacts, one was the Nether Shadow Soul Silk and the other was the Hundred Mountains Picture. Yang Kai didn’t have time to investigate these two artefacts carefully, but he knew that the Hundred Mountains Picture was a good treasure. Xu Zhi Shen summoning six phantom mountains had boosted his strength significantly, if he could have summoned more, the strength he would have displayed would only have been stronger.

By the time all one hundred illusionary mountains were summoned, it was likely even Origin Returning Realm masters would have to give way. Yang Kai had never been too interested in offensive artefacts, but he really liked this Hundred Mountains Picture.

“Then give me some more Saint Crystals!” Yang Yan simply held out her small hand and demanded.

“Didn’t I give you fifty thousand Saint Crystal last time to buy materials? And they were all High-Rank Saint Crystals at that. Don’t tell me you’ve run out already, have you?” Yang Kai looked at Yang Yan in surprise. This woman was an expert at making money, but it seemed her ability to spend it wasn’t any worse.

“Do you think it’s easy to arrange a large-scale Spirit Array? Those materials were only enough to arrange the defensive Spirit Array. Now that there are so many people here, all of their stone room needs to have a small Aura Gathering Spirit Array arranged. On top of that, daily cultivating consumes many Saint Crystals.”

Wu Yi quickly interjected, “There’s no need for all this. Everyone here has never enjoyed such rich treatment in the family before. Also, Dragon Cave Mountain’s innate World Energy aura isn’t bad.”

During his recent breakthrough, Yang Kai had absorbed every scrap of World Energy within a thirty-kilometre radius of the cave, but after more than half a month, the ambient aura had basically been restored and faint traces of World Energy mist could now be seen lingering about the peaks.

“There’s no need to be polite with him, you can’t even imagine how much wealth he has,” Yang Yan whispered into Wu Yi’s ear.

Yang Yan knew about the countless Space Spirit Crystals Yang Kai possessed so she was well aware that he wouldn’t care about a few trivial Saint Crystals.

Yang Kai shook his head helplessly before stuffing tens of thousands of High-Rank, Mid-Rank, and Low-Rank Saint Crystals into a Space Ring, leaving only a few thousand pieces for his personal use.

“From now on, Wu Yi should be Dragon Cave Mountain’s treasurer, she can handle anything related to resource distribution. I need to focus on arranging Spirit Arrays so I don’t have time for it. I’ll make a list of things that need to be purchased. If you don’t have enough Saint Crystals, just tell Yang Kai, he’ll get more for you,” Yang Yan tossed the Space Ring stuffed full of Saint Crystals over to Wu Yi.

“Ah?” Wu Yi hesitated for a moment, not having expected Yang Yan to so easily transfer all the Saint Crystals Yang Kai had brought out to her. But soon, Wu Yi understood that Yang Yan was trying to give her something to occupy her attention, lest she suddenly become idle and has her thoughts drift to more unpleasant matters. Realizing this, Wu Yi was quite moved and did not shirk this responsibility, quickly declaring, “You can rest assured, I will see to it that every single Saint Crystal in my hand is used appropriately!”

Wu Yi’s dream had been to lead the Hai Ke Family and she had gained much experience managing matters in the family over the past many years, so handling a trivial forty people would not be an issue.

Yang Kai’s eyes glanced back and forth, understanding Yang Yan’s intentions and quietly giving her a thumbs up.

Yang Yan smiled happily, “My defensive Spirit Array is about to be completed, but Yang Kai, you really need to find a way to earn more Saint Crystals if we want to stay here long term. The current Spirit Array is only enough to secure the surrounding ten-kilometre radius.”

Yang Kai naturally understood the deeper meaning behind Yang Yan’s words. The Space Spirit Crystal lode was extremely important. The Stone Puppet had been mining it for so many days, but it showed no signs of slowing down. No one knew just how large this crystal lode was, but Yang Kai was determined to remain here at least until it was completely cleaned out.

What’s more, Yang Kai intended to remain in this place and use it as a springboard to project his name across the Star Field.

Nodding his head, Yang Kai said, “Don’t worry about Saint Crystals, I’ll find a way to collect more.”

Yang Yan sent him a worried look and reminded him, “Act carefully.”

She thought that Yang Kai might be compelled to sell some of the Space Spirit Crystals, but in truth, he had no such plans.

“By the way, Yang Kai, Elder Ba has come to visit here every day for a few days now, saying he wants to discuss something with you, but you’ve been in retreat, so I’ve always sent him back. You’re out now though and he happens to be outside at this moment,” Wu Yi said with a slight frown.

“Ba Qing Yan? What are your thoughts?” Yang Kai asked Wu Yi, “If you want me to meet him, I’ll meet him, if you don’t, I’ll send him away.”

“I don’t know,” Wu Yi shook her head as her fists clenched and a look of struggle appeared on her face.

“Then I’ll ask you something different, do you want to return to the Hai Ke Family?”

“I don’t!” This time, Wu Yi didn’t hesitate, shaking her head decisively and laughing somewhat self-deprecatingly, “I used to think that although the family was weak, we all shared a common goal and it didn’t matter if we had to gives our lives for that goal, but now… I really don’t want to go back. My parents died long ago, and although the family has been nurturing and raising me, I believe I’ve paid them back for all I’ve received.”

“Understood, I’ll see him then and make sure he won’t bother you in the future.”

“Thank you.” Wu Yi gently nodded.

Ba Qing Yan has come four days in a row now. He knew that Yang Kai was in retreat to consolidate his cultivation, so he had been patiently waiting, but he hadn’t thought that each time he came to Dragon Cave Mountain he wouldn’t even be able to see Yang Kai. With the task assigned to him, Ba Qing Yan couldn’t act arrogantly so his only choice was to quietly wait but seeing his family’s disciples walk in and out each day while staring at him curiously, he truly felt he was losing face.

However, today was different, as after a short wait, a familiar figure suddenly appeared from the cave. Ba Qing Yan smiled happily as he immediately recognized this young man as the one who had killed Xu Zhi Shen. With a great laugh, he cupped his fists and shouted, “Congratulations little friend Yang! Little friend Yang’s aura is deep and steady, it seems you have obtained a great harvest during your recent retreat. En, little friend Yang’s talent is truly astonishing, being able to stabilize your foundation so thoroughly in such a short time. This old man is impressed!”

Yang Kai glanced at him lightly, knowing that this old fox was implying this was all thanks to the Saint King Pill he had provided.

Consolidating one’s cultivation after breaking through to a new Great Realm was not a fast process for an average person, but taking certain pills could drastically shorten the necessary time. Ba Qing Yan had not specifically mentioned the Saint King Pill, but he was flagrantly hinting at it to Yang Kai.

Yang Kai, however, wasn’t even willing to give him a nod regarding this. Forget about the fact that he hadn’t eaten that Saint King Pill, even if he had, it was just a trivial Saint King Grade Mid-Rank pill, how would Yang Kai care about such a paltry commodity?

“If you have something to say, say it, out of consideration for your status as Wu Yi’s former Elder, I will give you thirty breaths of time. Don’t squander them!”

Ba Qing Yan nearly choked when he heard Yang Kai’s words!

He hadn’t expected Yang Kai to not even bother inviting him in to sit down and discuss matters in private. After all the warm regards and flattery Ba Qing Yan had sent out, receiving such a cold response was quite discomforting, causing his face to flush. If it weren’t for the fact that he knew he couldn’t beat him, Ba Qing Yan would have already attacked Yang Kai.

As an old fox though, Ba Qing Yan quickly adjusted his mood and suppressed the anger in his heart, replacing the awkward look on his face with a smile and continuing, “The shocking battle half a month ago really opened this old man’s eyes. This old man had never imagined that a genius like little friend Yang existed in this world. Such awe-inspiring might and talent surely places little friend Yang at least on par with Wei Gu Chang of Shadow Moon Hall, Qu Chang Feng of Heaven Battling Union, and Fang Tianzhong of Thunder Typhoon Sect…”

Yang Kai stared at him coldly, without interrupting his words, only stating bluntly after Ba Qing Yan finished, “You have twenty breaths.”

Ba Qing Yan’s face twitched a few times. This Yang Kai was simply incorrigible. Ba Qing Yan had disregarded his own face to praise him, so couldn’t this brat show a hint of modesty? Even if he refused to act humble, Yang Kai should have at least displayed the arrogance of a young man; after all, flattering a Junior was not something easy for an old man like Ba Qing Yan, it had been many years since he needed to utter such false platitudes.

People often say that those who are young are all wild at heart, but that didn’t seem to apply in this case; it was as if Yang Kai simply didn’t have a rampant side.

As if he suddenly understood a bit about Yang Kai’s temperament, Ba Qing Yan’s expression immediately became serious and he didn’t bother with any more nonsense, directly stated, “My Hai Ke Family intends to betroth a few young girls from our clan to little friend Yang, has little friend Yang ever once gotten married?”

“Not interested!” Yang Kai stated flatly.

“Ah… little friend, it’s like this, you killed Xu Zhi Shen of the Xu Family and robbed him of his Hundred Mountains Picture. Considering all this, it is impossible for the Xu Family to relent. My Hai Ke Family is willing to shelter little friend Yang from this disaster as long as little friend Yang is willing to join our family. My family is willing to hire little friend Yang as the Foreign Elder and provide him with the corresponding treatment!”

“Not interested!”

“Little friend Yang, please listen to this old man’s whole story before making a decision,” Ba Qing Yan secretly grieved in his heart, thinking he should not have accepted this kind of task. He had never met a person as difficult to deal with as Yang Kai, no matter what he said, the only responses he got were indifference or flat out silence.

“Little friend Yang, you have offended the Xu Family and killed Xu Zhi Shen. The next time Xu Family comes, they won’t send just one or two people; for the Hundred Mountains Picture, they may turn out in full force. Without my Hai Ke Family’s shelter, how does your tiny mountain top plan on resisting them? Even if you are not afraid of the Xu Family, what about the young lady beside you? If the city gates are on fire, the innocents inside are the ones who suffer, I believe little friend Yang should understand this concept, right? Now is not the time to act defiantly, if you want to protect yourself and that young lady, allying with my Hai Ke Family is your only hope!”