Martial Peak

Glancing behind him, amidst the blue water, the giant sword that exudes a shocking aura and unparalleled murderous intent caused even Yang Kai’s soul to shiver.

Behind the giant sword, Yang Kai also vaguely saw traces of the previous generation Saintess.

She was actually chasing after them, apparently intent on putting Yang Kai and An Ling’er to death.

As they continued to dive, Yang Kai hurriedly shouted to An Ling’er, “If you want to live, focus, this is no time to wallow in sadness!”

Hearing this, An Ling’er nodded quickly and immediately began pouring her True Qi into Yang Kai’s body.

In an instant, Yang Kai felt the flow of his True Qi become both faster and stronger.

The Secret Art the Nine Heavens Holy Land Saintess cultivated could allow Yang Kai to improve his combat power for a short time, which was why he brought An Ling’er along when he fled.

True Qi bursting out, the same Nine Heavens Divine Skills, the Profound Heavenly Sword, appeared in Yang Kai’s hand.

However, even with the support of An Ling’er, Yang Kai could only create a Profound Heavenly Sword with a length of several tens of meters, a far cry from the one Saintess Nan sent towards them.

The two Nine Heavens Divine Skills shot towards each other from opposite directions and soon collided.

A huge muffled sound rang out as Yang Kai’s Profound Heavenly Sword was instantly ground into dust, the surrounding seawater exploding outwards from the force of the collision, the shockwave propelling Yang Kai and An Ling’er downwards at an even faster pace.

The figure of Saintess Nan was also momentarily pushed back, but she soon overcame this resistance and began chasing them again.

“What weaknesses do the Saintesses of your Nine Heavens have?” Yang Kai asked urgently.

“There’s no such thing, she can only be stopped by someone with strength exceeding her’s; however, I can try stalling her for a while!” An Ling’er clenched her teeth and entrusted herself completely to Yang Kai, focusing all her attention on her mind and releasing a Spiritual Energy wave towards Saintess Nan.

Yang Kai vaguely felt as if he heard a song resonating with his Soul, seemingly touching the very depths of the human heart. Anyone who heard this song couldn’t help relaxing and becoming tranquil.

His eyes narrowing, Yang Kai quickly concentrating as he realized that this Soul Skill should be similar to the one An Ling’er previously used back in the Soul Battle Hall which had a calming effect.

Saintess Nan was already dead, and only her instincts and strong obsession were supporting her actions, so using this kind of Soul Skill on her was an ideal solution.

From what Yang Kai could perceive, the movements of Saintess Nan indeed became slower and the True Qi fluctuations coming from her body also grew somewhat unstable, as if she was suffering a kind of mental torment.

“Good!” Yang Kai’s spirit lifted, as long as An Ling’er could delay this Saint Realm woman, he was fully confident they could escape.

“I can’t keep this up for very long,” An Ling’er pretty face paled as she hoarsely said.

Yang Kai turned his gaze towards her and saw she was also suffering greatly. This was obvious though, given the massive difference in their cultivations, An Ling’er using a Soul Skill to deal with Saintess Nan was bound to cause no small amount of backlash.

Yang Kai’s expression became dignified once again as he continuing cutting through the water, wracking his brain to find other ways to delay their pursuer.

Many ideas came to mind, but he rejected all of them immediately as the gap in their strength was simply too great, any conventional method he tried to use would at best be a waste of time and at worse, distract him causing them to fall into even greater danger.

The Soul Battle Hall would probably be useful; after all, it was a genuine Saint Grade artifact. Once he activated it, Yang Kai’s own Soul would be dragged into that white space, but even if it was a contest of Souls with Saintess Nan, he had no confidence in defeating her.

His Demon Eye of Annihilation was also incredibly powerful, but if Saintess Nan’s Soul didn’t rush into his Knowledge Sea, the Demon Eye of Annihilation couldn’t play any role.

Besides purifying any Soul Avatar that broke into Yang Kai Knowledge Sea, it could only absorb the Soul remnants of recently deceased cultivators nearby Yang Kai.

Currently, Saintess Nan couldn’t strictly be described as dead, otherwise the Demon Eye of Annihilation would already have activated.

Thinking it over, Yang Kai concluded he had no options here and inevitably grew somewhat anxious.

At that moment, the song that had been ringing in his ears suddenly stopped and An Ling’er coughed out a bloody mist, her tender body going completely limp in Yang Kai’s arms, panting heavily as extreme weakness overcame her.

Without the restraint of An Ling’er’s Soul Skill, Saintess Nan once again restored her previous speed and began closing the distance between her and Yang Kai.

Fortunately, the huge Profound Heavenly Sword had apparently exhausted its True Qi and dissipated and Yang Kai had put some distance between them.

Diving further and further, numerous sea beasts and giant fish which had been attracted by all the noise began gathering around, all of which Yang Kai simply ignored as he raced ever downwards.

On the other hand, Saintess Nan, as An Ling’er had said, actually bothered killing everything around her, reaping the lives of a great many of these sea beasts.

Although slaughtering these beasts was as simple as waving her hands, the sheer number of them slightly hindered Saintess Nan’s speed, buying Yang Kai and An Ling’er a precious few moments.

Yang Kai never felt time pass so slowly. Being relentlessly chased by a Saint Realm master, certain death approaching ever closer, each breath seemed like an eternity.

Noticing a faint luminescence up ahead, Yang Kai couldn’t help crying out happily, “We’re almost there!”

Hearing this, An Ling’er managed to open her eyes and asked weakly, “At the end, can you tell me your name? Your real name. If we fall here, can’t I at least know whose arms I died in?”

Yang Kai’s expression ramped, totally unable to understand how this young woman’s head worked or why she would bother asking such a dumb question now.

But this time, he didn’t bother concealing it anymore and told her what she wanted to know.

An Ling’er grinned back at him, “If we survive this, will you follow me back to the Holy Land?”

“Never!” Yang Kai refused unceremoniously, “If you keep spouting nonsense I’ll throw you away right here, right now!”

“Ruthless bastard!”

As the two bantered back and forth, they arrived outside the barrier of the Ancient Ruins. Yang Kai didn’t even pause and rushed straight inside, the barrier not hindering him in any way.

Upon entering the barrier, without the seawater to hinder him, Yang Kai’s speed rose to its maximum again, his Wind and Thunder Wings appearing behind him as he and An Ling’er shot forward like an arrow from a bow. Racing towards the location of the Void Corridor, Yang Kai and An Ling’er moved so quickly they left behind a trail of afterimages.

Moments after the two of them rushed inside the barrier, Saintess Nan also rushed in, her figure flickering as she chased after Yang Kai, her speed in no way inferior.

Feeling the terrifying pressure approaching him from behind, Yang Kai’s only thought was to escape, having not the slightest intention of fighting this Saint Realm master.

As he flew forward, the Yang Attribute energy from the Void Corridor grew stronger and stronger, letting the two of them know they were getting closer to where the Void Corridor existed.

Yang Kai clenched his teeth and continued pushing his speed to its limit.

Suddenly, from behind, Yang Kai felt a burst of True Qi. Yang Kai’s expression changed dramatically as he realized Saintess Nan had begun attacking again, raising his degree of wariness to its maximum as he monitored his surroundings.

In front of him, a giant net strangely appeared and rapidly moved towards him.

“Capturing Heaven Net!” An Ling’er exclaimed, “Quickly avoid it! Once one is caught in it, even their Soul won’t be able to escape!”

There was no need to remind Yang Kai of this. Although he didn’t understand the specifics of this Divine Skill, as someone with a wealth of experience, he naturally wouldn’t allow this Capturing Heaven Net to ensnare him.

The instant he dodged the Capturing Heaven Net though, another burst of True Qi erupted behind him.

A jade-like hand that seemed to fill the entire sky appeared and reached out towards them. Seeing this, Yang Kai couldn’t help feeling like the Heavens themselves were trying to grab hold of him.

There was no way to outrun this hand, or to evade it, their capture seemed inevitable.

“Covering Heaven Hand!” An Ling’er murmured, her face completely ashen, a bleak smile slowly forming on her lips as she closed her beautiful eyes, as if she thought that all hope was lost and death would soon take her.

“Devil Transformation!” Yang Kai called out and the next moment, the world seemed to tremble as an extremely potent Demonic Qi suddenly spread out of from his body, Demon Crests appearing all over his physique before sinking into his skin and disappearing in the next instant.

Immediately, Yang Kai’s Blood Force and the momentum surrounding his body soared to an incredible level.

An Ling’er’s eyes shot open, her tender body shuddering as she stared dumbfounded at the man holding her, her beautiful face filled with astonishment.

At this moment, she felt like Yang Kai had transformed into a completely different person, his body emitting a bloody and cruel aura yet somehow simultaneously feeling more reliable than before.

His body was like a great mountain which would remain unmoved even in the face of torrential wind and rain.

The incredible surge in moment broke free of the Covering Heaven Hand’s imposing pressure and when the devastating attack arrived, all it managed to grasp was airs.

*Hong…*

Throughout the Ancient Ruins, countless houses collapsed as waves of pressure visible to the naked eye pulsed from Yang Kai’s body and spread to the surrounding area, travelling as far as the outer barrier and even disturbing the outside sea.

All of a sudden, Yang Kai lurched forward, his face completely pale.

An Ling’er simultaneously felt a hot liquid splash onto her face. Rubbing her cheek, she quickly discovered that this liquid was actually blood that was overflowing from Yang Kai’s mouth.

Obviously, he had not completely been able to avoid the impact of the Covering Heaven Hand just now and had his stance disrupted.

“Shit!” Yang Kai cursed under his breath as he quickly steadied himself and continued to escape, directing his eyes towards his abdomen as he did so.

Suspicious, An Ling’er followed his gaze and immediately covered her mouth in shock as she screamed, “Punishing Heaven Spear!”

At some unknown point, a thick, shimmering spear had inserted itself into Yang Kai’s stomach. This spear was also one of the Nine Heavens Divine Skills. Amidst all the shock and chaos, not only had An Ling’er failed to notice, even Yang Kai hadn’t realized until now that he had been pierced by this spear.

As fresh blood stained Yang Kai’s clothes, if one were to look carefully, they would notice some faint traces of golden.

An Ling’er suddenly burst into tears as she truly thought all hope was lost now.

The power of the Nine Heavens Divine Skills was something she knew better than almost anyone, not to mention that this Punishing Heaven Spear had stemmed from her Saintess Nan’s hand without the slightest trace of mercy. Even if Yang Kai was an extraordinary genius, his five viscera and six organs had likely already become pulp and were not far from death.

The only reason he had yet to fall and was still struggling forward was probably due to sheer willpower. Considering all this, An Ling’er was filled with sorrow and guilt.