Martial Peak

In front of a collapsed building, Xu Hui stood there staring at Yang Kai dumbly, hardly able to believe his eyes.

Shi Kun, Cheng Yue Tong, and the other Elders also wore similar expressions.

“Don’t look so surprised. Or what, did you think I already died inside that tomb?” Yang Kai quipped.

Xu Hui finally came back to his senses, a trail of tears soon streaming down his face as he wore a joyful expression, trembling greatly as he cupped his fists and bowed deeply, “Greetings, Holy Master!”

“Congratulations on returning, Holy Master!” The other Elders also respectfully called out.

It seemed like Yang Kai appearing here now was equivalent to seeing hope, the haze and depression on their faces were instantly swept away.

Even the Holy Land disciples who were gathered nearby all turned fervent looks towards Yang Kai, regarding him as some kind of saviour.

In response, Yang Kai frowned and raised his hand, “Don’t be in such a rush to address me so…. Let’s put such matters aside for now; I’ve heard about the general situation from Elder Yu Ying and An Ling’er. Is there anything I can do to help? Speak freely, if I it’s within my ability, I’ll try my best to assist you.”

Xu Hui was startled, immediately understanding the meaning of Yang Kai’s words, quickly adjusting his tone as he cautiously said, “Of course, of course. The things we’re dealing with here are just minor matters such as comforting the disciples and treating the injured, there’s no need for you to intervene.”

As he spoke, Xu Hui’s eyes unconsciously glanced towards Yang Kai’s hand, a look of disappointment soon appearing on his face.

“Are you looking for this?” Yang Kai flipped his hand and summoned out the Holy Master Spirit Ring.

Everyone gathered around trembled when they saw this small ring appear. Xu Hui nodded repeatedly as his mood recovered, excitedly shouting, “Little Brother, you really brought the Holy Master Spirit Ring out!”

Yang Kai nodded lightly, putting the ring on his finger in front of everyone and casually saying, “I had wanted to deliver this ring to you when I came out, but… something unexpected came up so before I reach the Saint Realm I’ll have to keep it with me. I’ll return it to you when the time comes.”

Yang Kai estimated that when he broke through to the Saint Realm he would be able to take back his Soul brand from this ring.

“No, no, this Spirit Ring is yours now, it doesn’t matter how long you want to wear it,” Xu Hui smiled, the other Elders also nodding in agreement.

“However… now that we have the Holy Master Spirit Ring, things will really be much easier,” Xu Hui said in a relieved tone, “Little brother, this old master needs to ask you to do a few things.”

“Go ahead, Great Elder,” Yang Kai nodded.

“There are a large number of injured disciples and there aren’t enough healing pills and herbs available, you I’d like to ask little brother to go to the Sect’s main Treasury to take some things out.”

“Good, lead the way.”

Xu Hui quickly nodded, issuing some instructions to the other Elders before leading Yang Kai off in a certain direction.

After they left, the shocked expressions returned to the other Elders’ faces.

“He really came out of the Holy Tomb? It’s already been nine months. How did he do it?” Shi Kun kept shaking his head, unable to understand.

“This has broken all records for the longest time spent in the Holy Tomb by far, right? I remember that the previous record was only two months.”

“Taking so long to pass the Holy Tomb’s test, could it be this new Holy Master’s ability is that poor? Did we perhaps look too highly upon him?”

“None of that matters, the most important thing is that he brought out the Holy Master Spirit Ring, so the Spirit Arrays that form the barrier around the nine peaks can be reactivated and we can prevent those bastards’ invasion.”

Everyone nodded in agreement. Only Yu Ying’s eyes flashed an extremely complex light.

She had yet to figure out how Yang Kai had just fooled her senses and silently appeared beside her. Even if he had mastered the Nine Heavens Divine Skills, he still shouldn’t have been able to accomplish such a feat.

Had they looked too highly upon him, or were they actually still underestimating him?

“Yu Ying, what’s wrong?” Cheng Yue Tong saw her friend acting somewhat unsettled and quickly came over to ask.

“Nothing, I was just thinking that this future Holy Master is very different.”

“Different how?” Cheng Yue Tong asked curiously.

“I’m not sure,” Yu Ying slowly shook her head before turning around and shouting, “What are you staring at? Don’t you have things to do?”

The disciples who had gathered around were suddenly awoken from their daze and quickly scattered like frightened birds, returning to their own individual tasks.

However, word of the new Holy Master successfully passing the Holy Tomb’s test still spread rapidly, causing all the Holy Land disciples who heard the news to rejoice, feeling the Holy Land now had hope.

At the same time, Yang Kai and Xu Hui arrived in front of the Holy Land’s main Treasury.

After a quick inspection, Yang Kai was quite surprised; he didn’t know what material this Treasury was made from but even with his unusually powerful Divine Sense he couldn’t even penetrate its outer layer much less see what was stored inside. On top of that, this Treasury was obviously incredibly sturdy, essentially impregnable to outside attacks.

On the way over, Xu Hui had also given Yang Kai a quick explanation of the situation.

The materials collected by Nine Heavens Holy Land that weren’t immediately needed were usually sent to this Treasury for preservation. Over the years, the amount of rare and precious material stockpiled in this vault was considerable.

However, since the fall of the old Holy Master, this place had become inaccessibly.

Over the past two years, the remaining materials in the Holy Land had slowly been used up, and after experiencing this most recent disaster, the last remnants had been consumed clean, leaving many of the injured disciples without any healing pills, let alone pills used to cultivate.

So right now the highest priority was to open the Treasury so the supplies inside could be used.

But the only key to open the Treasury was the Holy Master Spirit Ring brought out by Yang Kai.

Following Xu Hui’s instructions, Yang Kai poured his True Qi into the Holy Master Spirit Ring and then pushed the ring on his finger into a slot in the center of the Treasury’s door.

A flash of light appeared and the heavy door slowly slid open.

A huge underground warehouse appeared in front of Yang Kai’s eyes that were lined with all kinds of commodities such as herbs for Alchemy, metals for Artifact Refining, jade bottles filled with finished pills, and countless artifacts.

Yang Kai was dazzled and even somewhat shocked by this sight.

After all, this was the storage space for the accumulated wealth of an apex level force; the amount of wealth in this place was simply beyond Yang Kai’s imagination.

“Little brother, have a look around for yourself, if there is anything you need, feel free to take it, I will go call some disciples right now to help bring out the materials we need!” Xu Hui said to Yang Kai before turning around to leave.

Yang Kai was immediately overjoyed.

The materials here were diverse and abundant, enough to supply the needs of ten thousand disciples for quite some time. It was no wonder that the three nearby forces had taken the risk of attacking Nine Heavens Holy Land. Without even mentioning how good the surrounding nine spirit peaks were for cultivating, just the wealth stored in this vault was enough to make them salivate.

Whether in good times or in bad times, what ultimately moved people were benefits, this was an unchanging truth.

Yang Kai didn’t have the slightest reservations and immediately began wantonly stuffing herbs used for Alchemy into the Black Book space in preparation for whatever the future held.

Yang Kai still needed to increase his Alchemy skill. Although he could currently refine Saint Grade Low-Rank pills, he was not very adept at it yet. Only when he became capable of refining Saint Grade Mid-Rank pills could he return to the endless Snow Mountain Range to find Coffin Slave Senior, enter the Mysterious Small World, and free the Ancient Demon Clan from their captivity.

Compared with Nine Heavens Holy Land, Yang Kai valued ​​Li Rong and Han Fei more.

It was also because of his complicated relationship with the Ancient Demon Clan that Yang Kai didn’t want to have much to do with Nine Heavens Holy Land.

Humans and Demons were irreconcilable enemies, if he were to become both the Holy Master and leader of the Ancient Demon Clan, if a conflict were to erupt between the two, Yang Kai would find himself caught in the middle.

In no time at all, Yang Kai had swept away a lot of precious spirit herbs, even acquiring materials necessary for the Saint Pill the Ancient Demon Clan needed.

Finally, Yang Kai had collected all the materials needed for that Saint Pill!

Yang Kai’s was in utter joy. Even after collecting numerous materials already, it seemed that none of the supply has diminished in the slightest. It was only when he started collecting some Crystal Stones for cultivating, that he stopped.

Xu Hui bustled about inside, stuffing a large number of Universe Bags with herbs before handing them to the disciples waiting outside and instructing them to deliver them to the Holy Land’s Alchemists.

Half a day later, this work slowly came to an end.

“Little brother, did you not find anything you needed?” Xu Hui saw Yang Kai empty-handed, without even a single Universe Bag, and misunderstood that he had returned empty handed.

However, Xu Hui was also keenly aware that besides the things he had taken, a large amount of supplies, especially high grade Alchemy’s material, were now missing, puzzling him greatly.

“I’m fine,” Yang Kai slowly shook his head.

“Let’s go then, if you want, you can come back here anytime,” Xu Hui laughed, no longer raising the issue.

After leaving the Treasury, Xu Hui then said, “I’ll have to trouble little brother to follow this old master again so that the Nine Peak barrier can be opened again.”

Yang Kai nodded, indicating to him to lead the way.

The Nine Peaks Spirit Array and barrier were profound, the culmination of all the previous Holy Masters’ countless years of effort. Once opened, this barrier could withstand the indiscriminate attacks of a Saint Realm master undamaged for some time.

Although every Holy Master was a peak Third Order Saint, but there were always times when the Holy Master had to leave the Holy Land. When he left, it was this barrier that kept the Holy Land safe.

Yang Kai wasn’t proficient in barrier type Spirit Arrays as he had almost never been involved in arranging them before; however, it is not necessary for him to spend a lot of time learning about the Nine Peaks Spirit Array, all he had to do was use the Holy Master Spirit Ring in accordance with Xu Hui’s instructions to re-activate it.

Traveling back and forth among the nine spirit peaks, stopping from time to time, Yang Kai consumed a massive amount of True Qi until half a day later the Spirit Array was successfully re-started.

World Energy once again began to rapidly flow towards the Holy Land while at the same time a thin energy membrane barely visible to the naked eye enveloped Nine Heavens Holy Land, protecting it from the outside world.

Xu Hui was completely shocked!

He was well aware of just how much True Qi it took to activate this Spirit Array; even the previous generation’s Holy Master couldn’t re-start after it shut down it within half a day.

It was a Spirit Array that covered the entire Holy Land.

However, Yang Kai did just that, and even after activating the Spirit Array, his face wasn’t the slightest bit flushed, as if he hadn’t exerted any effort at all.

Xu Hui couldn’t even begin to speculate how massive the amount of True Qi hidden inside Yang Kai’s body was, causing him to be deeply astonished.

Realizing this, Xu Hui’s attitude became even more respectful.

He knew that although his current cultivation was higher than Yang Kai’s, in a short time, this young man would definitely ascend to a height that he would forever be unable to reach. At that time, the entire Holy Land would have to rely on Yang Kai.