Martial Peak

After giving everyone ample time to prepare, Old Man Cheng swung his hand down again.

A thunderous sound rang out as the violent energy of countless attacks bombarded the mysterious barrier. In order to break this barrier and enter the palace behind it, everyone had done their utmost this time, not concealing their strength. Even Yang Kai used some of his true ability.

If this barrier was in good condition, it would have been impossible for this ragtag group to break open.

But these Ancient Ruins had been around for too long and all the barriers here had weakened significantly, such was the case with the barrier in front of them as well.

As this second wave of attacks landed, the invisible barrier distorted greatly and this time seemed to have reached its limits.

*Kacha…*

Many ting cracks appeared mid-air and soon began to spread out at a speed visible to the naked eye. Soon, the entire barrier was covered in fissures.

Everyone held their breath, their entire attention focused on the barrier, their eyes filled with expectation.

A crackling sound, like a piece of glass being shattered, rang out, and the invisible barrier suddenly broke open.

The moment the barrier was broken, all the cultivators on the scene seemed to come alive and before the Transcendent Realm masters could even issue any orders, everyone had used their movement skills and rushed forward.

At the same time, the foreign Transcendents and the masters from the Seven Family Alliance all stared towards the light sphere greedily, each of them instantly sticking their hands out towards it, wanting to snatch it up before anyone else could.

In an instant, the group of people who had just been working together, suddenly turned on one another and began a violent struggle.

True Qi surged up as everyone pushed and shoved everyone else, afraid of falling behind.

Yang Kai didn’t move, simply standing in place while coldly observing the situation. The Saintess from Nine Heavens Holy Land also stood in place. In addition, a number of more cautious cultivators stood back and watched.

Perhaps they were aware that their strength wasn’t sufficient and they had no chance to obtain the mysterious light sphere artifact, or perhaps they instinctively thought that there would be other dangers lurking about this place. Either way, none of them dared to act rashly and instead allowed the more eager members here to explore the situation first.

Sure enough, before anyone could actually even reach the light sphere, a burst of white light containing a mysterious energy wave spread out from it as fast as lightning.

The expressions of the cultivators rushing forward all changed dramatically as they were completely caught off guard by this light pulse.

Before anyone could react, they were struck head-on by the light pulse and instantly wrapped up in a stark white glow.

In the blink of an eye, those who had been struck went stiff, their eyes bulging before they fell to the ground, unable to mount even the slightest bit of resistance.

Seeing this, Yang Kai also paled and retreated without the slightest hesitation.

The moment the light halo pulse swept past the now unconscious cultivators, Yang Kai had felt like something had been drawn out of them and was absorbed by the nearby light sphere.

However, even with Yang Kai’s current speed, he still couldn’t escape from the ever-expanding light pulse and before he could go far he had already been shrouded by it.

His Soul shook and the inside of his Knowledge Sea stirred. In that instant, Yang Kai felt as if he had been struck by a mountain and that his Soul was being pulled from his body.

Not daring to neglect, Yang Kai quickly steadied himself and tried to stabilize his trembling Soul.

As he did so, he swept his eyes over the surrounding and, to his surprise, noticed that none of the cultivators who had not participated in the earlier struggle had managed to escape; all of them had fallen to the ground, including Hai Wang Gu.

Even the Nine Heavens Holy Land Saintess had fallen to her knees.

However, she was still putting up some stubborn resistance and before she completely collapsed, she shot a glance over towards Yang Kai, her lips trembling slightly, trying to say something yet failing to vocalize the words.

[Help!] Yang Kai’s mind filled in those missing words. But how could Yang Kai pay her any mind? Right now, he was having difficulty just trying to keep himself upright. After being covered by that strange light pulse, Yang Kai felt as if his Soul had been caught by a big, invisible hand that was trying to extract his consciousness.

Facing this kind of crisis, Yang Kai didn’t have time to contemplate what kind of mysterious heritage this artifact represented, instead quickly immersing his consciousness into his Knowledge Sea.

There, Yang Kai opened his Demon Eye of Annihilation, but even then, he wasn’t able to avoid his fate.

After less than ten breaths of time, Yang Kai collapsed, his Soul leaving his Knowledge Sea and entering into a world fill with white.

Staring around, Yang Kai saw many figures in front of him, each of them wearing fearful and uneasy expressions, shocked by what had just happened to them and desperately looking around, trying to understand their current situation.

All of these figures were the Soul Avatars of the cultivators who had been gathered outside, more than a hundred of them in total.

“Hey!” Hearing a shout from the side, Yang Kai vigilantly turned around and found the Nine Heavens Holy Land Saintess beckoning to him from a somewhat remote corner of the space.

Yang Kai wrinkled his brow and only after several urgings did he walk over to her.

She too was now just a Soul Avatar and seemed somewhat illusory. Without access to her physical body and True Qi, she had also reverted to her original appearance.

“Do you know where this is?” The Nine Heavens Holy Land Saintess looked around while quietly inquiring.

“How would I know that?” Yang Kai frowned, and although he had some guesses in his heart, he truly wasn’t sure.

“I saw how you resisted… whatever this is. You manage to resist longer than anyone else, is your real cultivation actually much higher than Immortal Ascension Boundary Seventh Stage?” The Saintess frowned, looking Yang Kai over, her eyes suddenly flashing with fright, “Ah, how come your Soul Avatar…”

As she got closer to Yang Kai, she felt a scorching hot aura radiating from his Avatar.

Yang Kai shot her a cold glance.

The Saintess smiled back at him, “Don’t worry, I don’t have a habit of leaking other’s secrets. Do you cultivate some kind of special Soul Skill?”

“En,” Yang Kai nodded lightly, not bothering to explain any further. Ordinarily, he could easily hide the secret of his Conflagrated Knowledge Sea, even if he used his Divine Sense to attack someone, he could still conceal it so long as he didn’t add any Fire Attribute Spiritual Energy; however, in his Soul Avatar form, separated from his Knowledge Sea, some trace signs would inevitably appear.

As the two spoke, Yang Kai took the opportunity to scrutinize the Saintess in front of him, feeling slightly shocked at what he discovered.

This Saintess’ had a mysterious power that allowed her to conceal everything about her from Yang Kai’s Divine Sense in the physical world, so before now Yang Kai had no idea about her true strength, but now that two were only Soul Avatars, Yang Kai could see through her cultivation at a glance.

First Order Transcendent!

Her age was similar to his own, yet she had already reached such a realm. Nine Heavens Holy Land was truly a force to be reckoned with!

“I think we’ll be safer if we both take care of each other here, what do you say?” The Saintess suddenly suggested. When she first started this little escapade of hers, she had been together with a large group of people so she thought, even if she dove to the bottom of the sea, she wouldn’t be in any great danger. However, along the way, after witnessing various unexpected events, she realized that this Ancient Ruin was not someplace she could casually stroll about.

Now that even her Soul had been pulled out of her body and trapped in this strange space, she naturally wanted to find someone she could depend on for some security.

“I don’t want to drag along an unnecessary burden,” Yang Kai glanced at her and slowly shook his head.

The Saintess curled her lips defiantly and retorted, “You’re quite the arrogant one. You haven’t even seen me take action yet so how can you say for certain I’ll be a burden to you? When the time comes, perhaps you’ll be the one who needs to depend on me?”

“Then why don’t you let me experience your methods,” Yang Kai smiled lightly, his expression still indifferent, “After I see them, I’ll consider whether I want to cooperate with you!”

The Saintess’ pretty face darkened noticeably, snorting coldly as she turned away, apparently not willing to talk to Yang Kai any more.

From childhood until now, although she had not had much contact with males of her generation, she had never thought that there were actually people as hateful and arrogant as Yang Kai.

It was as if he thought he was the world’s fiercest person and everyone else wasn’t even worth looking at.

He was really a repugnant fellow.

As the two of them argued, the Seven Family Alliance and foreign cultivators all gathered together and began discussing the current situation.

“Look at that!” Suddenly, an exclamation came out, and everyone who heard it looked towards the direction the man who had called out was pointing.

High up in the sky, a few golden characters emerged from the white void, giving off a dazzling radiance.

Soul Battle Hall!

Each of the words was written in a vigorous and powerful style, revealing an indescribable charm. These words were not portrayed through ordinary means and were instead written by a profound master’s Spiritual Energy.

Even after countless years, the deep majesty that was revealed from these three words had not faded, startling all who saw them. Everyone quickly looked away, as if they were afraid if they stared too long their Souls would be destroyed.

“Soul Battle Hall? Should we interpret these words to mean this is a place where one fights with their Divine Sense?”

“So, that light sphere was a Soul type artifact?”

“Were all of our Soul Avatars pulled into this place so we could fight one another?”

Everyone began chattering, quickly discovering some clues about their current situation, coming to conclusions similar to the ones Yang Kai had thought of.

Hai Wang Gu waved his hand and gestured to everyone, calling out loudly, “If this is really the interior of that artifact, and our Souls were forcefully pulled into this space, if we want to leave, we must first find an exit. None of us can just sit back and wait, everyone should start exploring this place to uncover its mysteries!”

Hearing his words, everyone quickly took the initiative to split up.

This white space was truly a void, and seemed to go on forever in all directions; however, everyone quickly discovered that something was odd.

No matter how far someone walked, they couldn’t go more than a few kilometres before they found themselves back where they started.

After exploring around for some time yet not discovering anything suspicious or even remotely worth their attention, everyone began to feel somewhat disheartened.

The Seven Family Alliance’s Transcendent Realm masters were also participating in this search, extending their powerful Divine Senses in all direction, but no matter how they probed this white space, they could not discover anything, it was like this space was a completely sealed prison with no way out.

“Did you find anything?” The Nine Heavens Holy Land Saintess suddenly came over to Yang Kai and asked, as if she had already completely forgotten the unpleasantness of their previous conversation.