Martial Peak

Chapter 1187, Map Fragment’s User

Translator: Silavin & PewPewLaserGun

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain

Flying needle artefacts were rare, but it was undeniable that they were the best choice for breaking through defensive artefacts and cultivators’ Saint Qi protections.

Yang Kai realized why this golden light had almost broken through his Grand Heavenly Shield upon seeing its true form.

This brief moment of shock was enough to allow the only Imperial City Sect disciple that had not been killed to react. Four of them had attacked Yang Kai, but three of them had been instantly killed, and if it wasn’t for Senior Brother Meng’s sneak attack, the one survivor knew he too would be dead.

How could this man dare to remain? Immediately, he withdrew a hundred meters bit before he was able to breathe a sigh of relief, a black rope suddenly descended upon him, sealing off all avenues of retreat, rendering him unable to flee.

In the blink of any eye, the black rope had entangled him and he could finally clearly tell that rather than some kind of physical material, this rope was actually condensed from pure black flame. Suddenly remembering the fate of his Junior Brother Qi, this man’s face went pale.

Opening his mouth to scream, the man was unable to make a sound before the Demonic Flame burned his body into slag along with his Soul.

The Imprisoning Heaven Chain from the Nine Heavens Divine Skills already had the ability to restrain one’s Soul, it was a skill specially used to capture fleeing enemies. When it was displayed with Yang Kai’s unique Saint Qi though, the Imprisoning Heaven Chain’s power rose to a whole new level.

In a flash, without exception, the four who had besieged Yang Kai had been wiped out.

Meng Hong Liang’s eyes shrank violently as an expression of disbelief and panic filled his face.

The middle-aged man who had been meditating to restore his injuries had rushed over to Yang Kai at this time.

The moment the four Imperial City Sect disciples launched their attack, this man had also taken action in hopes of saving Yang Kai, but how could he have known there was simply no place for him in this battle? By the time he ran over, all four attackers were dead and even Meng Hong Liang’s sneak attack had been dealt with.

The expression of the middle-aged man wasn’t not much better than Meng Hong Liang’s, the only difference being he wasn’t afraid of Yang Kai; however, that didn’t stop him from staring at this young man as if he was some kind of monster.

Only now did he understand that Yang Kai wasn’t acting thoughtlessly, nor did he need to rely on Shadow Moon Hall’s name to protect himself, from the beginning, he had the ability to kill everyone present.

“You… could you be…” Meng Hong Liang suddenly went completely white, half forming a sentence before failing to complete it. Yang Kai didn’t know what he wanted to say, but after saying these few words, Meng Hong Liang hurriedly cupped his fists and bowed deeply, “This Meng has offended this friend greatly but begs Friend to not take offence. What happened today, no one else will ever come to know, this Meng swears to not disclose it to another person! I only ask that friend be willing to spare this Meng’s pour life!”

Saying so, he didn’t even wait for Yang Kai to reply before immediately turning around and running off, avoiding Yang Kai like a viper, his face still filled with terror.

“You think you can just leave?” Yang Kai sneered as he thrust out his palm. With things having gotten to this point, how could he simply allow Meng Hong Liang to walk away? Whether it was because of his previous attitude and murderous intent towards him, or because he wanted to silence the witness to the crime afterwards, Yang Kai had already marked Meng Hong Liang for death.

Meng Hong Liang was the one who provoked him, he had only himself to blame.

A huge palm print fell from the sky, seemingly covering the Heavens themselves as it threatened to engulf Meng Hong Liang.

This palm contained Heaven Destroying and Earth Shattering power, causing Meng Hong Liang to go absent-minded for a moment, but as the aura of death approached, he let out a desperate cry and shot the golden light from his hand once more.

Countless thin flying needles as thin as an ox’s hair were summon, each releasing a grating sound.

Immediately after the golden light was released, the numerous flying needles converged and condensed into a long sword, its tip vibrating violently as it stabbed towards Yang Kai’s Heaven Covering Hand.

*Hong…*

An eruption of golden light occurred and the Heaven Covering Hand was seemingly punctured by the radiance, the irresistible pressure it was exerting suddenly dispersing, allowing Meng Hong Liang to free himself from its restraint and quickly escape.

He had only gone ten steps however, before scalding hot yet simultaneously frigid cold aura suddenly appeared behind him. Turning his head, Meng Hong Liang was shocked to discover that before he knew it, the enemy had closed the distance between them and had already stabbed a sword condensed of black flame through his chest.

His body felt like it was invaded by a scalding heat and a icy cold all at once, and Meng Hong Liang finally realized why his Junior Brother Qi had panicked so much before dying.

Looking down, he could only see the tip of the black flame sword emerge from his chest, but centring on that position, the black flames were rapidly spreading out across his body…

Before Meng Hong Liang’s body was completely incinerated, Yang Kai snatched his Space Ring and impatiently searched it with his Divine Sense, immediately letting out a great laugh, seemingly very happy.

Similar to the ones Yang Kai had taken from the Xie Family trio before, there weren’t many good things in Meng Hong Liang’s ring, only some pills and Saint Crystals as well as a dozen or so Fire Crystal Stones of varying size.

However, Meng Hong Liang’s ring also contained a different kind of crystal that was emitting scorching hot flames.

This wasn’t a Fire Crystal Stone from a Fire Spirit Beast, but rather a piece of Brilliant Fire Crystal Essence, an Origin King Grade material. Brilliant Fire Crystal was only an Origin Grade material, and depending on its innate quality, it could be High, Mid, or Low-Rank.

Beneath the hill Yang Kai visited before, there should be a Brilliant Fire Crystal lode.

That Brilliant Fire Crystal lode should have had a very small chance to produce Brilliant Fire Crystal Essence, a material an entire grade higher.

From the aura this Brilliant Fire Crystal Essence gave off, it should only be Origin King Grade Low-Rank, but even so, such a treasure was rarely seen on Shadowed Star. No wonder Meng Hong Liang had decided to snatch it from this middle-aged man and even silence the witness to the crime.

Yang Kai threw this piece of Brilliant Fire Crystal Essence into his own Space Ring before next taking out an old map fragment.

This was what really made Yang Kai happy as it was the same ancient map fragment that had appeared in the Treasure Trove Pavilion auction!

At that time, this map fragment had been won by a random Second-Order Saint King who before the auction ended had tried to quietly slip away. Unfortunately for him, he was followed by a large number of people and was eventually robbed of this fragment by a young man. That young man was none other than Meng Hong Liang.

When Yang Kai saw Meng Hong Liang a short time ago, he hadn’t remembered where he had seen him before, only feeling that he was familiar, but Yang Kai soon remembered what had happened outside Heavenly Fate City that day.

At that time, after the map fragment was taken away by Meng Hong Liang, Yang Kai did not make any attempts to search for it; after all, could whatever this ancient map led to be found with just a fragment or two? It was impossible to know if this map even led to anything good at all. With so many unknowns, Yang Kai felt there wasn’t any need to waste energy and effort to retrieve it.

He hadn’t expected though that this map fragment would eventually land in his hands.

Yang Yan had another fragment of this map, so if Yang Kai put the two pieces together, he might be able to find some clues about where it led. If he found some free time in the future, he could follow those clues and perhaps obtain some kind of opportunity.

While Yang Kai was searching through the Space Ring, on the side, the middle-aged man couldn’t hide his surprise, as the young man in front of him was completely behaving like an experienced bandit.

However, this middle-aged man also didn’t see anything wrong with this. It was all too normal for people to kill others and take their treasures in this world. After Yang Kai finished his pillaging, the middle-aged man walked up to him weakly and cupped his fists, “Extreme Path Sect Huang Xi Ran thanks this friend for rescuing him. If it weren’t for this friend, this Huang would not have been able to escape death today, please accept my deepest gratitude.”

Saying so, he bowed deeply to Yang Kai.

“Brother Huang is too polite,” Yang Kai waved his hand with a smile.

Although Huang Xi Ran’s face showed some hints of joyfulness, the large majority of his expression was bleak as he said in a dull tone, “It is only how I should be, if this friend had not taken action, my Junior Brother would never have obtain revenge and perhaps no one in this world would have known Meng Hong Liang killed my brother and I.”

Yang Kai gently nodded, “How could you be so careless to reveal the existence of that piece of Brilliant Fire Crystal Essence?”

Speaking of this matter, Huang Xi Ran’s face grew darker as he smiled bitterly, “It is not that we weren’t careful enough. My Junior Brother and I had good luck as the place we started digging happened to have a lot of Brilliant Fire Crystals, and shortly after Friend left, we even managed to obtain a piece of Brilliant Fire Crystal Essence. Naturally we hid is carefully and my Junior Brother and I immediately left, but how could we have expected to encounter Meng Hong Liang along the way? He had seen many people digging through the hill and decided to stop and rob people who tried to leave. He demanded we hand over our Space Rings, but with the Brilliant Fire Crystal Essence in his ring, my Junior Brother naturally refused. Once he refused though, Meng Hong Liang immediately killed my Junior Brother and the Brilliant Fire Crystal Essence fell into his hands. This Huang knew he was not their opponent and could only shamefully escape.”

“I see!”

This is the kind of thing was beyond anyone’s ability to predict, it was just a matter of bad luck for Huang Xi Ran and his Junior Brother really.

“I haven’t asked for this friend’s honoured name!” Huang Xi Ran cupped his fists once more and said. Yang Kai had rescued him and allowed him to exact his revenge, so Huang Xi Ran was naturally grateful. On top of that, it was obvious Yang Kai was no ordinary cultivator so Huang Xi Ran wanted to make friends with him.

“Yang Kai.”

“So it is Brother Yang! En, is Brother Yang…” Huang Xi Ran suddenly paused before letting out a laugh, “Haha, no, this Huang was too disrespectful, Brother Yang doesn’t need to pay it any mind.”

Yang Kai looked at him strangely, completely confused.

Meng Hong Liang had also started to say something a moment ago, and now Huang Xi Ran was also hesitating over something. Did the two of them have the same misunderstanding? What kind of misunderstanding was it?

Whatever misunderstanding it was, Yang Kai wasn’t interested, so he simply said, “Does Brother Huang have any plans now?”

Huang Xi Ran thought about it seriously before replying, “I need to find a place to heal my wounds first, in my current state, I cannot proceed deeper into the Flame Area, going forward recklessly will only worsen my injuries. I’ll decide what to do next after recovering, Brother Yang doesn’t need to mind about me. I can also contact some of my other Sect members, perhaps some of them are nearby.”

“Good,” Yang Kai nodded before cupping his fists and saying, “If that’s the case, I’ll be going on ahead.”

“Please do so, Brother Yang! If there is a chance in the future, Brother Yang should visit Extreme Path Sect, this Huang will surely welcome you!”

With a slight smile, Yang Kai turned around and walked towards the Treasure Area.

Looking at the back of Yang Kai, Huang Xi Ran was inexplicably excited. Like Meng Hong Liang, he had determined that Yang Kai was a person from that place. Besides that place, who could cultivate a First Order Saint King capable of easily killing five cultivators who had higher cultivations than his own?