Martial Peak

“Of course!” The old man surnamed Chang’s face was a dark shade of blue but he still managed to smile and nod; even though he knew he was being conned by Du Wan, in front of a promising young Junior, he would lose too much face if he were to say no, “This Chang has always been the epitome of generosity.”

As he somehow managed to form these words, his mouth twitched violently and his fiery gaze made it abundantly clear he couldn’t wait to beat Du Wan to a pulp.

“Then I’ll take these two things,” Yang Kai calmly took out two herbs from the Universe Bag.

The old man surnamed Chang’s face suddenly loosened, quickly snatching back his Universe Bag from Yang Kai and nodding, “Take it, take it!”

Seeing him like this, it was obvious that the things taken by Yang Kai weren’t particularly precious to him, thus he was able to relax.

Yang Kai naturally wouldn’t reach out for a mile after taking an inch; this time, he had really picked up a huge bargain, being able to obtain two Saint Grade materials from this Universe Bag already made him more than satisfied.

With these two Saint Grade herbs as the primary materials, Yang Kai could later refine two Saint Pills.

After processing the first Universe Bag, Yang Kai moved on to the second one and after he swept the contents with his Divine Sense, his eyes couldn’t help lighting up.

He found an ingredient he urgently needed inside this Universe Bag, a stalk of Congealed Dew Grass!

From the items on the recipe Li Rong gave him, the Congealed Dew Grass was a must have. The environment this herb grew in was extremely demanding and although it may exist somewhere in Tong Xuan Realm, it was still incredibly rare.

What’s more, the Congealed Dew Grass in this Universe Bag had reached absolute perfection in terms of shape and age.

Yang Kai unceremoniously accepted this stalk of Congealed Dew Grass as well as another Saint Grade from the Universe Bag.

The third and fourth Universe Bags didn’t have anything of particular interest to Yang Kai so he simply picked two Saint Grade herbs from both at random.

Finally arriving at the last Universe Bag, Yang Kai carefully began looking through it.

A moment later, he couldn’t help revealing a somewhat disappointed look because he did not find any of the ingredients he was looking for and was preparing to casually pick something when his expression suddenly changed and his focus was drawn to a particular item inside the Universe Bag.

After examining this item for a while, a faint smile appeared on his face as he muttered, “It really is the same.”

As he muttered, he took out two items.

Everyone who saw what Yang Kai pulled out though couldn’t help revealing a strange look, because although one of the items was a Saint Grade herb of similar value to the ones he had taken before, the other was actually a small round dark stone.

“What is this?” Du Wan’s swept his eyes over the stone and asked curiously.

The other members of the older generation gathered around also examined this tone and shook their heads.

Apparently, none of them recognized what this round black stone was.

The owner of the Universe Bag also shook his head slowly and said, “Don’t look at me, I don’t know either. When I first found it, I just thought it was quite strange and placed it in my Universe Bag. After so many years though I haven’t been able to identify it or understand what it is for. Does little friend Yang happen to know what it is?”

Asking so, he turned his eyes to Yang Kai.

“I also don’t know, I just thought it was unusual so I chose it.”

“Good, then you can take it away, in any case, I have no idea what kind of material it is so it’s pointless to hold on to it,” The owner of the Universe Bag said generously.

“Many thanks, Senior,” Yang Kai smiled and stored the dark round stone into his Black Book space.

With the gambling debts having been settled, Yang Kai asked to be excused and then jumped off the high platform.

The old fogies still wanted to try persuading him some more, but before they could open their mouths Yang Kai had already made his escape, so they could do nothing but sigh.

“Du Wan, you must not let him go astray. It is rare such a good seedling appeared; he will definitely achieve great things in the Alchemic Way. None of us wants to see him ruin his own promising future.”

“En, Du Wan, you have to persuade him after going back. If you can’t, I’ll come to snatch him and bring him back to my Three River City.”

“This old man will do his best,” Du Wan smiled bitterly, somewhat unable to understand in his heart why Yang Kai was so obsessed with the Martial Dao. In this world, eighty percent of the people studied Martial Dao and could be called cultivators.

But among them, Alchemists were rare. There might not necessarily be one qualified Alchemist among 10,000 cultivators, and those who had good aptitude in Alchemy were even scarcer.

Alchemists with both excellent aptitude and high skill were admired existences wherever they went goes. It was simply impossible for this little brat to not understand the gap between ordinary cultivators and Alchemists yet he still insisted on pursuing the Martial Dao instead.

…..

After meeting up with Fei Yu, Yang Kai and his Martial Aunt immediately returned to the inn to share with Cang Yan and the others the results of their discussion with Di Yao.

Having listened to what they had to say, Cang Yan nodded slightly, “If that is the case, our chances would undoubtedly be much higher. That kid is a VIP guest of Ao Gu’s, so the City Lord will definitely not be stingy with him. At that time, the bodyguards he will have accompanying him will include at least one or two Third Order Transcendents, and that is only a conservative estimate.”

“Martial Uncle, how long will it be until the Thousand Year Demon Flower blooms?”

“Specifically how long, I don’t know, but according to the ancient records I’ve seen, there will be a Heavenly Manifestation before the Thousand Year Demon Flower blossoms, so we’ll know when it is time.”

“Now there are many people gathered around the mountain waiting for the Thousand Year Demon Flower to blossom, some of them are even camped out on Ascending Heaven Cliff, but the closer one stays to the target, the more dangerous it is, so there’s no need for us to worry,” Li Wan smiled confidently, “Little Martial Nephew, you have a good rest, for now, when the time comes, we’ll be sure to escort you there.”

“En,” Yang Kai nodded.

Returning to his room, Yang Kai sat cross-legged and took out the two dark round stones from inside his Black Book space.

“Hey, isn’t that the stone you obtained last time from that ancient cave mansion?” Fei Yu asked curiously, “How come there’s an extra one now?”

“I just obtained the second one from an Alchemist Senior’s Universe Bag,” Yang Kai explained, he had specifically chosen the dark round stone for this reason, “Martial Aunt, do you have any idea what these things could be used for?”

“I honestly don’t know, it’s the first time I’ve ever seen this kind of thing,” Fei Yu shook her head.

“How odd,” Yang Kai was also quite puzzled. Even a powerful Alchemist Senior couldn’t even recognize what material this stone was and had not been able to inquire about its use or identity for several decades.

Yang Kai instinctively felt that these two dark round stones were not simple.

Circulating his True Qi to probe them, releasing his Divine Sense to examine them, Yang Kai tried multiple methods but discovered nothing in the end.

After half a day, Yang Kai reluctantly gave up and stored them away again.

Over the following days, Yang Kai entered a kind of secluded retreat inside the inn, always maintaining his peak condition in order to cope with the upcoming battle.

His Martial Uncles and Martial Aunt were also making their own preparations.

One morning, while Yang Kai was meditating, he suddenly opened his eyes as he felt a strange change in the World Energy around him.

It felt like some invisible force was drawing it in, gathering it in one specific direction.

Before he could even figure out what was happening, the situation became heated.

Even though he was indoors, Yang Kai felt a sudden gust of wind blowing and all the doors and windows began to creak.

Fei Yu also opened her beautiful eyes hastily and muttered, “This is…”

As she spoke, a light flickered across her eyes as she leapt towards the window and stared off into the distance, excitedly calling out, “The Thousand Year Demon Flower is about to bloom!”

Yang Kai’s spirit shook.

From the next room over, the sound of rustling clothes sounded. Apparently, Cang Yan and the others had already set out. Yang Kai and Fei Yu exchanged a single glance before the two of them also jumped out the window and flew off.

At the same time, all of Floating Clouds City began boiling up as countless cultivators rushed into the streets from all directions and stared towards the tall mountain in the distance.

“There’s movement from the Thousand Year Demon Flower!” Someone shouted.

This sentence set off everyone’s excitement.

Yang Kai narrowed his eyes and stared at the tall mountain peak, only to see, high up in the sky, a five coloured burst of light shining atop the clouds. World Energy continuously gathered towards the five coloured light while all of Floating Clouds City erupted into activity.

“Let’s go!” Cang Yan called out before transforming into a streak of light and speeding towards the mountain.

The crowd quickly followed behind.

*Shua Shua Shua…*

Countless people all began rushing out.

Yang Kai realized just how high the difficulty of this competition would be in an instant, there were Transcendent Realm masters everywhere he looked. Although only a few of them were Third Order, the total number of competitors was still far greater than what Cang Yan had previously estimated.

The Transcendents who just rushed out of Floating Clouds City already totalled more than four hundred, and that wasn’t even counting the ones who had camped out on the mountain in advance.

Even a conservative estimate right now would place the number of Transcendents involved in this event at over five hundred.

Such a terrifying number made Yang Kai’s scalp feel somewhat numb.

Above the City Lord’s Mansion, Ao Gu, Zhou Liang, and Jin Jiao stood tall, staring at the movement atop the distant mountain peak, each of them wore dignified expressions.

“Grandmaster seems to have gone as well,” Jin Jiao caught sight of a certain figure leaving the City Lord’s Mansion and commented.

(Silavin: They are referring to Di Yao’s Master)

“Hm? Isn’t Grandmaster a Saint Realm master? In the past, the Thousand Year Demon Flower failed to bloom because of the presence of a Saint,” Zhou Liang was shocked.

“You don’t have to worry about it. Grandmaster seems to have taken some kind of pill to temporarily suppress his cultivation,” Ao Gu said faintly, “After all, the last time the Thousand Year Demon Flower bloomed, he was the one who condensed its medicinal liquid. Obviously, he knows more about it than anyone else.”

Hearing this, Zhou Liang and Jin Jiao both breathed a sigh of relief.

Although they had only recently met Grandmaster and done him some small favours, they had already gained unimaginable benefits from him.

The Saint Pill the Grandmaster had refined for them had allowed both their physiques and Souls to grow substantially. Although the cultivation of the three Saints had not improved, all of them realized they had grown noticeably stronger.

Grandmaster arriving in Floating Clouds City was really an unexpected blessing for them.

In order to repay Grandmaster’s kindness, Ao Gu and the two Vice City Lords had spared no effort to ensure the safety of his disciple, dispatching the strongest guards from the City Lord’s Mansion to serve as his escorts.

From the Three Clans, a total of six Transcendents were deployed, two of which were Third Order while the others were all Second Order, it was a considerably luxurious lineup.

Ao Gu and the two Vice City Lords were originally preparing to snatch the medicinal liquid of the Thousand Year Demon Flower. Although the three of them no longer needed it, each of them had friends and relatives who could make sure of it.

But since Grandmaster arrived, the three of them felt somewhat embarrassed to ask for even more benefits.

Floating Clouds City’s Transcendent Realm masters all flew forward as swift as the wind, rushing to be the first to reach the peak of the mountain.

A grand battle had also already erupted at the foot of the mountain.

No one wanted to let someone else go first and everyone around was an enemy, so it was only natural that some hot-blooded individuals would think of eliminating their competition first. A little friction between individuals triggered small-scale battles which then expand and affected others, causing more and more masters to quickly join in.