Martial Peak

“Master, is everything alright?” Li Rong asked quietly on the way back.

“En, Great Senior was easy to speak to and agreed to honour our previous agreement,” Yang Kai nodded.

“That’s good!” Li Rong also looked relieved. Following behind Yang Kai, she opened her mouth once in a while, seemingly wanting to say something but always hesitating at the last moment.

Perceiving this, Yang Kai smiled and said, “Whatever you want to say, even if it’s just something trivial, feel free to say it.”

Since leaving the Mysterious Small World, Yang Kai had noticed that all of the Ancient Demon Clan’s members had changed their attitude towards him and become extremely respectful and obedient.

Their attitude revealed just how high Yang Kai’s position in the Ancient Demon Clan was.

However, Yang Kai was somewhat unable to adapt to this kind of treatment.

“I just wondered if my clan had brought too much trouble to Master!” Li Rong apologized with a smile, “The hatred between Humans and Demons is very deep. Us following Master will certainly create some unnecessary incidents in the future. That crowd of Human masters following us all the way here is a perfect example. If it had really turned into a fight with them today, whether we won or lost, it would definitely affect Master negatively…”

“Such is the price I must pay in order to obtain your strength. You don’t need to concern yourself about it,” Yang Kai shook his head, “Also, I don’t care about how others view me, those who support me are my friends, those who dare oppose me, are my enemies. Plain and simple. The hatred between Humans and Demons means nothing to me.”

Li Rong’s beautiful eyes flashed as she was secretly taken aback by Yang Kai’s open-mindedness.

Even if they had been sealed inside that Mysterious Small World for thousands of years, the Ancient Demon Clan still had a deep-rooted mentality of ​​rejecting outsiders, unable to accept or approve of those who did not belong to their race.

Yang Kai on the other hand seemed to have no concept of racial discrimination.

Yang Kai openly accepted the Ancient Demon Clan and had friendly dealings with a Monster Race Great Senior, he even address one Monster Race master as brother… It seemed as though he really didn’t care about the differences between them, something Li Rong honestly found amazing.

“Please rest assured Master, after everything is settled, I and the other Great Commanders will ensure our clansmen behave and will make sure they do not have any conflicts with the original inhabitants of Nine Heavens Holy Land. We will definitely not cause any difficulties for Master,” Li Rong solemnly promised.

“You don’t need to feel so restrained, to me, you are my people and Ning Heavens Holy Land’s people are also my people, there are no distinctions between you.”

“Many thanks, Master,” Li Rong said, obviously feeling grateful.

Yang Kai not having any prejudice against them despite being Human made Li Rong secretly feel that the Ancient Demon Clan had chosen to follow a good master.

Returning to the location of the Ancient Demon Clan once more, Yang Kai informed the other Great Commanders that after half a month he would bring them to Nine Heavens Holy Land, then let them make arrangements for the clansmen to live here until the time arrived. Receiving this order, the Great Commanders got to work.

They had no problem living here for half a month. The Ancient Demon Clan had just re-entered this world, so any place was fresh and new to them; they could take this opportunity to explore their surroundings and familiarize themselves with it

After all, from now on they would be living in the nearby nine peaks.

The Ancient Demon clansmen were dispatched in groups of three or four to scout out the local region.

Those who stayed behind began to build some simple accommodations and search for some food, all of them keeping busy.

It was a bustling sight.

A slight sound of footsteps suddenly came from nearby as Yang Kai was relaxing in the shade. Gazing towards the source of the sound, Yang Kai saw Wu Jie wrapped in his familiar black robe walking over towards him.

Arriving, Wu Jie nodded lightly, “Sir Holy Master!”

“Your Netherworld Sect’s disciples?” Yang Kai asked, not seeing anyone else from Netherworld Sect around.

“I had my Vice Sect Master take them back first. En, I also ordered them prepare some living supplies and have them brought here.”

“Many thanks for that.”

“Sir Holy Master is too polite,” Wu Jie smiled, “Everyone here will be neighbours in the future, such minor things are no trouble at all.”

After a pause, Wu Jie asked, “How does Sir Holy Master plan to handle Shattering Mystical Palace and War Spirit Temple?”

“What are your thoughts?” Yang Kai asked.

Wu Jie hesitated a moment before seriously saying, “Zhang Ao, Cao Guan, and the other leaders of their Sects perished back in the Snow Mountain Range, so there are very few Transcendent Realm masters left; however, there are still many disciples around. Each of the two sects should have somewhere between three to four thousand disciples. There aren’t many powerful masters among these three to four thousand but they are still the foundations of their respective Sects.”

“Slaughtering them…” Yang Kai began.

Wu Jie shivered, his face going pale.

Yang Kai smiled and continued, “Isn’t very realistic, but simply driving them away is also not possible. It will be too difficult to ensure they don’t linger around and stir up chaos.”

“It is exactly as Sir Holy Master says,” Wu Jie nodded in agreement, “Moreover, they definitely don’t know that Zhang Ao, Cao Guan, and their other leaders have already lost their lives. Once they learn of this though, there will definitely be turmoil inside the two sects. If we let things progress to that point without interfering, it will be impossible to clean the situation up.”

“Tell me about your idea,” Yang Kai looked deeply at him.

“The best solution is to absorb them! The two Sects have so many disciples between them, so there’s bound to be some with excellent aptitude who with enough cultivation can become masters in the future.”

“Absorb them… good, you can handle that yourself,” Yang Kai waved his hand and nodded

Wu Jie was somewhat stunned, “Does Sir Holy Master not want to participate?”

“I have no interest in those people, and it is well known that I now have a large number of Demon Race subordinates. Making such an aggressive move is not a good idea,” Yang Kai chuckled, continuing meaningfully, “Sect Master Wu can take this opportunity to expand the strength of Netherworld Sect. Absorb what can be absorbed, expel that which cannot! Shattering Mystical Palace and War Spirit Temple are both strong forces, so they’re bound to have many good things stored away.”

Wu Jie expression changed. Thinking about it for a moment before excitedly cupping his fists, “Many thanks, Sir Holy Master!”

The three forces near Nine Heavens Holy Land had always lived in its shadow. Shattering Mystical Palace was the most powerful thanks to the Second Order Saint Zhang Ao while War Spirit Temple came second. Netherworld Sect was actually the weakest existence.

Now that Wu Jie had been presented with such an incredible opportunity, how could he not feel excited?

There were no masters left in either of these two Sects capable of fighting him. If Wu Jie still could not handle this, he had simply cultivated to the Saint Realm in vain.

Wu Jie seemed to already be able to see his Netherworld Sect rapidly expanding after absorbing all the wealth and talent from these two Sects.

Although excited, Wu Jie also felt a slight sense of guilt.

If not for Zhang Ao and Cao Guan acting so unscrupulously, how could Wu Jie have obtained such great fortune? Wu Jie had only secretly made a deal with Yang Kai because he felt the latter had incredible potential, and he had been proven right in short order. A golden opportunity had landed in front of him without the need for him to even do anything, all thanks to his foresight.

Excited, Wu Jie bowed and said that he would return to his Sect immediately, extending an invitation to Yang Kai to visit Netherworld Sect for a few days.

In any case, it would still be another half a month before the Monster Race Great Senior withdrew, so Wu Jie naturally wanted to take this opportunity to improve his relationship with Yang Kai.

Regretfully, Yang Kai declined his invitation.

“Your Netherworld Sect is only a few hundred kilometers from here. When I have time, I’ll send a message to you about patronizing your Sect,” Yang Kai glanced around at the bustling Ancient Demon clansmen and felt that leaving them right now was not a good choice.

Wu Jie did not insist, simply excusing himself and flying off.

One day later, a number of disciples from Netherworld Sect arrived, bringing with them a batch of living materials, enough for a thousand people to use for half a month.

Li Rong and the others were quite pleased with Wu Jie’s gesture.

Finished building enough temporary huts amidst the jungle, the Ancient Demon clansmen began exploring their surroundings curiously, keeping themselves busy.

Inside the largest hut, Yang Kai sits cross-legged on top of thick piles of furs, his consciousness immersed in his Knowledge Sea as he concentrated on probing the Soul remnant which belonged to Zhang Ao.

Two months ago, after Zhang Ao’s death, Yang Kai had used the Demon Eye of Annihilation to extract this Soul remnant and store it in a corner of his Knowledge Sea.

Yang Kai mainly wanted to spy on his memory to see if he could uncover the secret related to the Starry Sky Zhang Ao was speaking about just before his death.

Yang Kai had intentionally not used the Demon Eye of Annihilation to purify this remnant and was instead carefully combing through its content, trying to extract as much information from it as possible.

After a person’s physical body died, their Soul would retain all of their feelings and experiences for a time. If left alone though, all of this would dissipate in short order.

Of course, the Souls of powerful masters could remain behind longer, some of them even powerful enough to retain their sense of self and if they could find an appropriate body, even possible seize control of it in order to revive themselves.

Examining another Soul remnant like this was a complex and dangerous task, even those with incredibly powerful Souls and Spiritual Energy didn’t dare read others’ residual thoughts lightly, because one moment of carelessness could lead to one’s own nature, memories, and even identity becoming distorted, sometimes leading directly to them lose all sense of self and going insane.

It was only thanks to his Conflagrated Knowledge Sea which had some innate resistance to such occurrences that Yang Kai dared act so recklessly.

Still, Yang Kai acted very cautiously while scanning these memories, not letting Zhang Ao’s residual thoughts affect his own. Once he felt any sign of contamination, Yang Kai would immediately stop and purge it.

Slowly, various scenes appeared before Yang Kai’s eyes, all of which were from Zhang Ao’s pre-death memories.

These scenes were intermittent and very inconsistent, most of which Yang Kai only briefly examined before ignoring and moving on.

His Spiritual Energy was being rapidly consumed, forcing Yang Kai to stop and rest every two hours or so.

Only after completely restoring his strength would he continue his examination.

It wasn’t until five days later that Yang Kai finally caught a glimpse of the Starry Sky secret Zhang Ao had mentioned amongst his chaotic memories.

Vaguely, Yang Kai could see a stone forest that had various stone pillars jutting out from a grass filled field. It was here that Zhang Ao had discovered a number of exotic stones.

The Blood Essence Stone was also found here.

From this brief memory, Yang Kai saw Zhang Ao fumble about for a while, taking some indistinct actions before suddenly opening a Void Corridor. Only after hesitating for a long time did Zhang Ao step through it.

The next moment, what appeared before Zhang Ao’s eyes was the vast Starry Sky, with millions of points of light from distant twinkling stars in the background and a terrifying destructive energy brushing against his flesh. All of this was a familiar experience to Yang Kai.

Just as Yang Kai wanted to take a closer look, the scene was suddenly interrupted.

Yang Kai sighed as he took back his consciousness. Although he couldn’t see where the stone forest was, he knew it should be somewhere in Shattering Mystical Palace’s territory, so it wouldn’t take too long for him to find it.

Having found what he was looking for, with a single thought, Yang Kai opened the Demon Eye of Annihilation and used it to completely purify Zhang Ao’s remnant Soul.