Martial Peak

Yang Kai cleaned up the cave a bit before picking out the best spot to set up his bedroom.

Soon after, Yang Kai left the cave and walked around the perimeter of Dragon Cave Mountain while thinking about the various arrays used to gather World Energy.

He had come into contact with this type of Spirit Array many times before. Tong Xuan Realm’s Soaring Heaven Sect, Nine Heavens Holy Land, the floating continent’s residence, Zong Ao’s palace on Rainfall Star, all these places had such Spirit Arrays.

Since Yang Kai had decided to stay here, naturally he wanted to create the best cultivation environment possible.

Yang Kai’s understanding of Spirit Arrays was fairly simplistic, with most of the knowledge concentrated around Alchemic Spirit Arrays, but all Spirit Arrays had some similarities between them, using different methods to achieve the same result, and with Yang Kai’s vast experience, designing and setting up a basic World Energy gathering Spirit Array was at least possible.

Creating a decent Spirit Array would require a piece of land with appropriate topology, supplemented by some materials that were connected together by various.

Although the area of ​​Dragon Cave Mountain wasn’t too large, Yang Kai discovered that the natural conditions here were actually quite good. There were several peaks nearby the cave Wu Yi had shown him, and if took them as a foundation, he shouldn’t have any trouble arranging a good Spirit Array.

As Yang Kai walked through the mountains, he kept thinking about some of the things that Great Elder Xu Hui had told him when he was Holy Master of Nine Heavens Holy Land, especially about the mysteries of the Nine Peaks Spirit Array.

Soon, Yang Kai had some initial plans.

With these plans in mind, Yang Kai set out directly for Heavenly Fate City which was just fifty kilometres away.

Heavenly Fate City was considered to be an independent force under Shadow Moon Hall’s control. Even if Hai Ke Family was closer to Heavenly Fate City, because the city itself was extremely wealthy, it was not something a small family like theirs could manage.

Hai Ke Family only owned a few shops inside the city which provided jobs for their cultivators to earn some small profits.

Upon entering Heavenly Fate City, Yang Kai found that there were streams of people flowing through the streets and into the shops; the prosperity of this place was no worse than cities on Rainfall Star or Water Moon Star.

Most of the shop owners here belonged to Shadow Moon Hall or forces attached to Shadow Moon Hall. With so many people gathered around, money was also abundant, so every shop was a great money tree.

There were no guards at the gate to collect Saint Crystals. Shadow Moon Hall allowed anyone to enter and exit the city freely.

Yang Kai entered the city in high spirits and began walking around leisurely, browsing the various shops.

Soon, to his surprise, Yang Kai discovered that the value of Saint Crystals here on Shadowed Star was far greater than on other Cultivation Stars.

For example, a bottle of cultivation pills that would cost three hundred Low-Rank Saint Crystals on other Cultivation Stars only cost two hundred here.

Five hundred pieces of Low-Rank Saint Crystal were only worth about four hundred pieces here.

The isolation from the outside world allowed Shadowed Star to develop its own valuation for Saint Crystals, their scarcity making them more valuable, allowing one to purchase things for fewer Saint Crystal.

Yang Kai was quite excited.

Because he had more than 47,000 High-Rank Saint Crystals in his Black Book Space. The conversion between different quality Saint Crystals was roughly one to five, meaning one High-Rank Saint Crystal could be exchanged for five Mid-Rank Saint Crystals, and one Mid-Rank Saint Crystal could be exchanged for five Low-Rank Saint Crystals.

Carrying out the full conversation, Yang Kai had more than one million Low-Rank Saint Crystals and could buy many things he wanted.

He immediately set about buying the ore and materials he needed.

Afterwards, Yang Kai happily strode over to a shop called the Artifact Refining Pavilion.

In any city, there was always a place dedicated to Artifact Refining; whether it was on Tong Xuan Realm or the various Cultivation Stars of the Star Field, as long as there was a city filled with cultivators, such a facility would certainly exist.

Not many cultivators understood Artifact Refining, so they would often need to find skilled Artifact Refiners to help them. By setting up shops like this one, Artifact Refiners not only had an opportunity to practice their craft but also to gain a large sum of money.

Artefact Refining Pavilion in Heavenly Fate City could also be regarded as a subsidiary of Shadow Moon Hall, and of the dozens of Artifact Refiners working here, most of them belonged to Shadow Moon Hall or were hired by them. Those who were hired to work here by Shadow Moon Hall would have to give a portion of their profits to Shadow Moon Hall but had the freedom to come and go as they pleased, not having to answer to Shadow Moon Hall.

When Yang Kai arrived, he was surprised by the lively scene inside.

There were at least two hundred cultivators of varying strength waiting in line, waiting for those Artifact Refiners in Artifact Refining Pavilion to help them refine or adjust their artefacts.

As soon as Yang Kai appeared, many pairs of eyes landed on him, some of them containing a deep sense of vigilance, seemingly worried he would try to cut in line.

This scene couldn’t help reminding him of the crowds that gathered outside the Nine Peaks when Nine Heavens Holy Land had started offering Alchemy services. At that time, many people were willing to wait outside the Nine Peaks for several months to request Alchemy from the Holy Land.

At this moment, remember those scenes, Yang Kai couldn’t help understanding the anxiousness of those people.

Did he have to wait that long? Yang Kai couldn’t help frowning.

A man who was dressed up as a shop-hand walked over to Yang Kai at that moment. This man wasn’t too young and his strength wasn’t too great. Apparently, he had given up on advancing his cultivation and decided to work here in order to earn a livelihood.

Taking out a kind of pamphlet of sorts, he enthusiastically handed it to Yang Kai and smiled, “Take a look and choose for yourself, if there’s anything you don’t understand, feel free to ask me.”

Yang Kai accepted this pamphlet and after skimming it, he found that it listed the names of several dozen Artifact Refiners in Artifact Refining Pavilion along with their capabilities, fees, as well as a number.

Yang Kai asked and was informed that the number indicated how many cultivators were waiting in line for that Artifact Refiners’ services.

Yang Kai glanced at this pamphlet and discovered that the most skilled person already had more than thirty cultivators waiting for his services and that he was able to refine Saint King Grade High-Rank artefacts!

It was no wonder so many people were waiting for him. Artefact Refiners, like Alchemists, had their own hierarchies. The higher one’s grade, the higher end artefacts or pills they could refine.

It wasn’t easy for cultivators to find and collect the necessary materials for an artefact than for pills, so when choosing an Artifact Refiner, they would be extremely cautious, preferring to pay more for someone with higher skills than saving money by asking someone less proficient.

The fee of the Artifact Refiner who was capable of refining Saint King Grade High-Rank artefacts wasn’t low, but with such level of skill, there were naturally many cultivators who would be willing to pay.

Yang Kai’s gaze swept the names of the various Artifact Refiners and soon fixed on a certain one named Yang Yan, his brow furrowing as he carefully read their details.

“Which Artifact Refiner does honoured customer want to request refining services from?” The shop-hand asked with a smile.

“Is this information all accurate?” Yang Kai asked.

The shop-hand smiled, “Honoured customer need not be concerned. Our Artifact Refining Pavilion is an industry of Shadow Moon Hall and most of the Artifact Refiners here are Shadow Moon Hall’s disciples. Their means and capabilities have passed through Shadow Moon Hall’s strict evaluation and fair prices have been set. This is an upright business that will never engage in fraud.”

Yang Kai stared at this man deeply before lifting the pamphlet up and pointing to a certain name, “This person named Yang Yan charges so much and claims to be capable of refining Origin Grade artefacts, so why is nobody patronizing him?”

The number behind Yang Yan was clearly zero, which meant that no one was waiting in line for his Artifact Refining services. In contrast to him, the other Artifact Refiners were all crowded and busy.

The shop hand’s smile cramped slightly as he said, “Honoured customer, it’s like this, the quality guarantee of Artifact Refining Pavilion only applies to Artifact Refiners from Shadow Moon Hall, those Artifact Refiners on contract from the outside are not. Their skills and fees are all decided by themselves and we simply don’t have enough time to properly verify their claims. When Grandmaster Yang Yan came to the Artifact Refining Pavilion, we tried to stop her, but Grandmaster insisted that she was capable of refining Origin Grade artefacts. I don’t suggest you choose her, if there are any losses, we won’t pay compensation, and we have many other Artifact Refiners to choose from.”

Listening to this shop-hand, besides his surprise that Yang Yan was a woman, Yang Kai immediately understood that this was a method Shadow Moon Hall used to suppress foreign Artifact Refiners.

The guarantees of Artifact Refining Pavilion did not cover those Artifact Refiners hired on contract, so many cultivators who needed services would have an extra layer of concerns and avoid choose them if possible.

“Other Artifact Refiners…” Yang Kai frowned and slowly shook his head. The schedules of the other Artifact Refiners were quite full and it would take at least ten days for one to be free.

“Is honoured customer in a hurry? If that’s the case, you can leave the materials here and then pick up the finished product later,” The man made a suggestion.

Instead of answering, Yang Kai asked, “Did anyone ask Yang Yan for her services?”

“Yes.”

“What happened?”

The shop hand’s smile twitched as an awkward look spread across his face, seemingly unwilling to discuss the issue but eventually saying, “Honoured customer, I highly suggest you ask another Grandmaster to refine your artefact. The fee is smaller and also fairer.”

Even the shop-hand himself didn’t seem to have a favourable opinion about this Artifact Refiner called Yang Yan, which made Yang Kai very puzzled, wondering what was so bad about her skills.

As he was just thinking about it, a burly man stormed out of an inner room while cursing viciously, a thick murderous intent pulsing from his body as he held a big war-hammer in his hands. The hammer itself looked quite good but as he stared at it, the burly man couldn’t hide his annoyance.

[Someone actually dares to curse out an Artifact Refiner?] Yang Kai observed this and asked himself.

Artefact Refiners and Alchemists all possessed extremely distinguished status as there were simply not many of them. In general, no cultivator would dare to offend one, because no matter who they were, at some point they would need them to help refining artefacts or pills. Offending an Artifact Refiner or Alchemist was equivalent to cutting off a possible source of help.

However, it seemed that the cultivators waiting in the lobby were already used to such scenes though, as if this was not the first or second time it had happened, none of them speaking up to persuade this burly man to lower his voice and instead just watching with interest.