Martial Peak

After listening to Yang Kai’s rampant words, the old man simply laughed aloud, “Little brat who doesn’t know the immensity of Heaven and Earth, this old master’s name shook the world before you were even born, yet you dare boast so shamelessly!? Enough nonsense, let this old master teach you how you should speak to your elders!”

As soon as the old man made this declaration, he shot out another scarlet ray of light. Yang Kai’s eyes narrowed as he instinctively felt danger approaching, but he had not seen the old man take any obvious actions and was unable to figure out how he made this attack.

While Yang Kai felt suspicious, he had no time to analyse the situation, so he swiftly summoned his Purple Shield and protected himself.

*Hong…*

A loud bang echoed as the violent attack struck, forcing Yang Kai to retreat several steps as he felt the blood in his chest roil. Although he had not been injured, this strange attack still caused Yang Kai’s wariness to rise because the force behind it was too great. If it had been someone with a weaker physique, even with the Purple Shield’s protection, they would have suffered greatly from this blow.

When the old man saw Yang Kai’s Purple Shield, his eyes flashed with greedy light as he exclaimed, “An Origin Grade High-Rank defensive artifact?”

His vision was sharp, so he quickly saw how extraordinary this Purple Shield was. When it was first refined, the Purple Shield was just an Origin Grade Low-Rank artifact, but after several improvements and modifications, Yang Yan had raised its quality to Origin Grade High-Rank.

Artifacts of this grade were extraordinarily rare on Shadowed Star. This old man’s status in Myriad Beast Mountain was not low and his cultivation reached the Second-Order Origin Returning Realm, but the best artifact he currently owned was just Origin Grade Mid-Rank, something he had found in an Ancient Ruin by chance.

A trivial Saint King Realm Junior like Yang Kai taking out an Origin Grade High-Rank artifact, a defensive one at that, made this old man seethe with jealousy and aroused greedy thoughts in his heart!

As long as he could kill this boy, this artifact would belong to him! Elder Jin Shi only wanted that Profound Gold and had not said anything about this brat’s property; moreover, the fight had just begun yet the other party had already taken out such a precious artifact, so who knows what other treasures he had on him?

Considering all this, the old man’s eyes filled with desire and murderous intent as he once again released his Divine Sense and sent out another burst of scarlet light towards Yang Kai.

Yang Kai did not try to dodge this time either, but it wasn’t because he was trying to act tough. He wanted to know what this old man’s strange attack was, so he pushed his Divine Sense to its limits and stared towards the approaching scarlet light unblinkingly.

A moment later, Yang Kai could not help showing a look of surprise.

Because he discovered that the true form of this scarlet light was not some method the old man from Myriad Beast Mountain used, but was actually the tongue of the Blue Eyes Blood Toad!

With the Blue Eyes Blood Toad being a Ninth-Order Monster Beast, it was no surprise this attack carried such great force. This Monster Beast’s tongue was probably one of the strongest and most elastic muscles it possessed, so a blow from it being able to force Yang Kai back was understandable.

Just as Yang Kai realized the nature of this attack, the scarlet tongue hit his Purple Shield again, but this time, Yang Kai had already braced himself, so despite feeling a strong impact which shook his body, he wasn’t forced to retreat again. When he was about to fight back though, he saw a smug grin appear on the old man’s face as he stretched out his hand and patted the Blue Eyes Blood Toad beneath him. Pouring his Saint Qi into his Monster Beast, the old man shouted, “Come!”

At the same time, Yang Kai felt a huge force pull on the shield in his hand, dragging him forward.

Looking down, Yang Kai’s brow jumped as he discovered that the long scarlet tongue of the Blue Eyes Blood Toad now actually had countless tiny suction cups on its end and these suction cups had attached themselves to his Purple Shield.

[Does this old dog want to take away my artifact?] Yang Kai instantly understood the other party’s intentions and sneered, condensing a burning hot Demonic Flame in his hand, and directly grabbing the scarlet long tongue.

“Boy, you court death!” Seeing this scene, the old man not only was not angry but instead felt overjoyed. This Blue Eyes Blood Toad was a Monster Beast he had raised from its birth and he was well aware of how hard and thick its skin was. Not only was it resistant to physical harm though, its entire body had strong toxins flowing through it.

A trivial Saint King Realm Junior wanting to grab the poisonous tongue of his Blue Eyes Blood Toad was nothing less than suicide in the old man’s opinion.

*Ci la…*

A sizzling sound rang and the smell of something burnt filled the air as Yang Kai tightly grasped the Blue Eyes Blood Toad’s poisonous tongue with his Demonic Flames.

The eyes of the Blue Eyes Blood Toad bulged as it felt great pain, its cheeks swelling up as it croaked pitifully.

“How is that possible?” The old man was horrified. Never had he imagined that this brief confrontation would cause harm to his Monster Beast. Staring at the opposing youth simply standing there and sending black flames running down his Monster Beast’s tongue, like a fire consuming a dry grassland, the old man finally realized the situation was different from what he had anticipated. These black flames were clearly unordinary and could not only resist his Monster Beast’s poison but were also extremely difficult to extinguish.

Immediately, the old man sent a command to his Monster Beast and the Blue Eyes Blood Toad swiftly released the Purple Shield and recovered its long tongue.

In a blink of an eye, the long poisonous tongue disappeared but the Blue Eyes Blood Toad’s cheeks continued to bulge several times before it opened its mouth wide and spat out a stream of black blood.

“How dare you hurt my Monster Beast!” The old man roared. He intended to kill this boy and take his treasures, but not only had he failed to steal a chicken, he had lost his rice in the process. The old man could tell that his Companion Monster Beast had been seriously injured.

Furious, the old man pointed his finger towards Yang Kai while at the same time countless warts on the Blue Eyes Blood Toad burst, releasing spurts of multicoloured toxic venom. These masses of venom condensed into hundreds of tiny arrows in the next instant and shot towards Yang Kai.

Yang Kai showed a dignified expression upon seeing this. Even without personally experiencing it, he could tell that this venom was not to be taken lightly. With a cold glare, Yang Kai summoned out a small furnace.

The Origin King Grade Artifact Refining Furnace!

As soon as this Artifact Refining Furnace appeared, it exuded a monstrous heat and with a great gust of wind, this furnace expanded to over a dozen metres in size and released a piercing bird cry. The Firebird Artifact Spirit flew out from the furnace in the next instant and spat out a fiery red glow from its beak to intercept the countless poison arrows.

The jet of flame and the venomous liquid collided and for a moment seemed evenly matched.

The old man’s expression changed once again as he stared at the Firebird Artifact Spirit with greed and fear, not certain how he should proceed.

On the other hand, Yang Kai remained calm and relaxed, even wearing a faint grin on his lips. The strength of the Artifact Spirit was far greater than when he first acquired it and should have no trouble dealing with a Ninth-Order Monster Beast.

A shocking, malevolent aura suddenly rushed towards Yang Kai at that moment. The old man saw his Monster Beast become entangled with the Firebird and would be unable to withdraw any time soon so he took the initiative to attack Yang Kai himself, using his one handed hatchet to send out an ominous black wave.

Realizing the power of his opponent’s artifact, Yang Kai naturally did not dare underestimate this attack. Although this old man’s Saint Qi flow would be somewhat suppressed when fighting in this place, he was still a Second-Order Origin Realm master, in the end. This would be Yang Kai’s first time confronting an enemy of this level.

Waving his hand, Yang Kai condensed numerous balls of Demonic Flame and under the control of his Divine Sense, he transformed them into bird-like shapes before sending them out to intercept the old man’s attack.

“Yuan Control Mastery?” The old man’s brow jumped, never having imagined he would see such a skillful display of Yuan Control Mastery from a Third-Order Saint King Realm cultivator. Even he did not possess such fine control over his Saint Qi, so he felt that a mere Saint King achieving such a feat was impossible.

However, with reality in front of him, he had no choice but to believe it.

The Demonic Flame birds collided with the black wave in the next instant and after a great rumbling sound, both completely dissipated.

“So what if you’ve achieved Yuan Control Mastery? In front of this old master, you can still only be slaughtered, little brat!” The old man shouted sullenly before releasing an invisible force centred on him that instantly spread out and directly engulfed Yang Kai.

An incredible sense of suppression suddenly befell Yang Kai, making it hard for him to even move his fingers.

Shi! This was the Shi of a Second-Order Origin Returning Realm cultivator, and it was far stronger than that of a First-Order master.

However, just suppressing Yang Kai wasn’t enough for this old man, so he quickly poured his Saint Qi into his one handed hatchet before tossing it out and shouting, “Go!”

After absorbing the old man’s Saint Qi, the malevolent aura of this one-handed hatchet was exuded increased explosively and the axe itself transformed into a black python dozens of metres in length.

This python shook its head and flicked its tail, appearing extremely fierce as it opened its mouth and shot towards the place where Yang Kai stood, as if it intended to swallow him whole.

The old man grinned viciously as he saw this. As a Second-Order Origin Returning Realm dealing with a Third-Order Saint King, he had actually been forced to go all out, something which greatly annoyed him. Nevertheless, compared to obtaining this little brat’s wealth, the old man felt this shame was worth it.

With a look of utter confidence filling his face, the old man watched in anticipation of Yang Kai’s body being broken to pieces.

At that moment though, several golden lights suddenly flickered and in an instant, golden radiance filled the air. As these golden lights rapidly swung back and forth, the old man actually felt like his Shi, which had just now been like the calm surface of a lake, had innumerable stones thrown into it, turning it chaotic and no longer able to suppress the other party.

[This brat can even destroy the Shi of an Origin Realm master?]

Oddly enough, these golden lights looked vaguely familiar, but the old man simply could not remember where he had seen them before.

It was not that this old man was ignorant and uninformed, it was just that the difference between Yang Kai’s Golden Blood Threads and Demon Blood Temple’s Demon Blood Threads was too great. Although they both originated from the same source, Demon Blood Temple’s own Secret Technique did not have the advantages that Yang Kai’s did. In order to condense Demon Blood Threads, Demon Blood Temple cultivators needed to use some tricks to increase their own vital essence or absorb and refine the vital essence of their enemies.

Although doing so allowed them to enhance the power of their Demon Blood Threads, this process added impurities to the Secret Technique that resulted in their Demon Blood Threads giving off a gloomy and somewhat disordered aura.

But Yang Kai’s Golden Blood Threads were condensed entirely from the Golden Blood in his body, making them far purer than even the original Demon Blood Thread! If it was Wu Xun from Demon Blood Temple here, he might have been able to see through the true nature of Yang Kai’s attack, but this old man did not possess such insight.