Martial Peak

Translator: Silavin & PewPewLaserGun

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain

In the canyon, Yang Kai and the middle-aged man stared at each other, the former with cold eyes and the latter with despair.

“Haha…” The middle-aged man stopped by Yang Kai smiled softly, but the smile was full of bitterness and unwillingness. He knew that this time he likely wouldn’t be able to escape and regretted it quite deeply.

The Flowing Flame Sand Field was so big, why did he and his three fellow Sect Brothers just have to walk through this canyon? Moreover, they just had to go and provoke this walking calamity. If they had just avoided doing either of these things, the four of them would still be alive. If they could leave this place safely, with the harvest they had gained, they would definitely receive huge benefits from the Sect.

But now, it was too late to say anything. Of their group of four, three had died, the middle-aged man had lost both his arms, and it seemed he would soon follow the path his fellow brothers had walked. His heart was full of annoyance. Now thinking back on what had happened when they first encountered this young man, the middle-aged man realized just how ridiculous his and his Sect Brother’s performance was.

If the other party didn’t have something to rely on, how could he have just stood there indifferently in front of them? If he wasn’t trying to draw them in, how could he have been stupid enough to publicize his treasures one by one?

Looking back now, the expressions and actions of this young man at that time should have created all kinds of doubts, but in the face of great benefits, even a shrewd man like him had let down his vigilance.

“Friend…” The middle-aged man gulped and suddenly said, “Can you tell me, what kind of strength you used just now? If you can tell, I can die without regrets.”

Yang Kai looked at him indifferently and shook his head, “Dead men don’t need to know anything.”

“Fair enough!” The middle-aged man smiled mirthlessly before straightening his back and lifted his head, “Go ahead, I know I’m definitely not your opponent, and I don’t plan on putting up a futile struggle, I only ask Friend to make it quick and painless.”

With these words, Yang Kai’s flicked his wrist and an imposing black sword wave shot out.

The moment the black sword wave appeared though, the eyes of the middle-aged man, who appeared to be waiting for death, flashed brilliantly and he spat out a puff of blood mist. The blood mist was extremely thick and the smell of iron coming from it was quite potent. Clearly, it was his Blood Essence. Amidst this blood mist was a small awl-shaped artefact. This awl shone with a deep yellow glow and rotated rapidly, gathering the surrounding energy from the atmosphere as it pierced towards Yang Kai.

The awl-shaped artefact seemed to be drilling a hole in space, visibly distorting the air as it flew forward and even smashing Yang Kai’s black sword wave.

At the same time, the middle-aged man’s face went pale and he staggered back several steps, staring at Yang Kai through the blood mist with his sharp eyes.

How could he simply wait to die? His face clearly wore the expression of someone extreme desperate to live, but at this moment, he was even more uncertain, wondering if his carefully prepared sneak attack would work.

This sneak attack was what the middle-aged man was placing all his hopes on. In order to promote this attack’s chances of working, he had attempted lower Yang Kai’s guard by putting on an act of non-resistance just now, hoping the former would appreciate such a lofty display and reveal an opening. If his opponent showed some kind of flaw, the middle-aged man would be able to seize the initiative, but he hadn’t expected that this youth would be so decisive and ruthless, remaining completely indifferent and immediately attacking.

With his opponent not exposing any flaws, the middle-aged man could only hope his artefact wouldn’t let him down.

Under his nervous gaze, across the blood mist, the awl-shaped artefact broke apart the black sword wave and immediately flew towards Yang Kai. On top of that, Yang Kai didn’t seem to be able to react and was still standing in place.

The middle-aged man was overjoyed, but the smile that appeared on his face went stiff in the next instant.

Because he saw Yang Kai casually wave his hand and send out a jet black crack like the ones he had seen twice before. This jet black crack cut towards his awl-shaped artefact and soon swallowed the World Energy that was swirling around it, causing it to disappear as if it was being swallowed by a fierce beast. Not only that, after the crack passed through awl-shaped artefact, part of the artefact itself strangely disappeared as well, the remaining part losing all spirituality and falling directly to the ground.

The middle-aged man’s eyes bulged as he stared at Yang Kai with a horrified expression, his voice trembling as he called out in alarm, “It really was a Void Crack?”

When he saw it before, he had only been sceptical, but seeing it again, this middle-aged man immediately affirmed that the method of attack this youth was using really was to send out a thin Void Crack. How else could his awl artefact have silently disappeared?

Obviously, it had been sent to The Void by that crack!

“Was that seriously your last resort?” Yang Kai looked at him with ridicule.

This middle-aged man was a cautious person, Yang Kai had already learned this, so anything he had said just now was treated as hot air by Yang Kai. Since he had decided to kill him, naturally Yang Kai wouldn’t be deceived by such petty tricks. On top of that, Yang Kai didn’t have a habit of underestimating his enemies.

“No, your strength is so low, how could you be so proficient in the Dao of Space? Even Elder Mo can’t use a Void Crack like that!” The middle-aged man growled hysterically, as if he had just witnessed something completely impossible.

“Elder Mo? Does he understand the Dao of Space?” Yang Kai frowned.

So far, besides himself, Yang Kai had never encountered any other cultivators who had comprehended the Dao of Space. Even a shocking master like Gui Zu who had an Origin King cultivation wasn’t proficient in using Space Force, but from the words this middle-aged man just spoke, it seemed this Elder Mo knew something about the Dao of Space.

This surprised Yang Kai.

“Elder Mo is Chief Elder of the Elder Hall and a master who reached the Third-Order Origin Returning Realm a thousand years ago! His strength is among the highest on Shadowed Star. I am his…” The middle-aged person mistakenly thought that Yang Kai was intimidated and quickly began reporting his relationship with Elder Mo, hoping to make Yang Kai hesitate to kill him.

“When I find an opportunity, I’ll go to Heaven Battling Union to compare notes with him about the Dao of Space then, but you won’t be around for that,” Yang Kai didn’t wait for him to finish his words before sending out another Space Blade.

This Space Blade sliced through the air and under the horrified gaze of a middle-aged man sliced him apart like he was a piece of tofu. The defensive Artefact Armour and Saint Qi he used to protect himself didn’t play any role at all and his cut through cleanly.

The middle-aged man only felt that his body became slightly shorter as his upper body dropped a finger width or so. When he lowered his head to look, all he could see was blood gushing out from a straight line across his chest. Just as he let out a pitiful scream, a shroud of Demonic Flame engulfed him and drowned out his voice. Three breaths later, all that remained was a pile of black ash.

Staring at the spot where this middle-aged man disappeared, Yang Kai frowned slightly, his expression a mix of happiness and concern.

On the upside, after more than a month of tempering, his Space Blade had finally reached a point where it could be used against enemies in combat and its effect was quite good, its lethality extremely high and its use very difficult to detect as there were no Saint Qi’s fluctuations associated with it.

On the downside, it was too easy to avoid and was difficult to aim. Even with Yang Kai focusing all his attention, he couldn’t precisely control the path his Space Blade traced.

The moment the middle-aged man took out his communication artefact, Yang Kai knew he wanted to send out a call for help, so he planned to kill him with a single blow, but instead, he had only managed to chop off one of his arms. Fortunately, the arm Yang Kai hit was the one holding the communication artefact, otherwise, this middle-aged man might have successfully sent out a message.

It was the same for his second attempt, it was only an accident that Yang Kai had cut off the middle-aged man’s other arm.

None of this was intentionally done by Yang Kai, it was all just a coincidence. Killing was the objective, so a single attack was best, Yang Kai didn’t want to waste time and energy.

The third time was better, but the Space Blade still didn’t land exactly where Yang Kai wanted it to.

However, despite all this, the incredibly lethality of his Space Blade more than made up for its flaws. It was capable of sending everything it encountered along its path into The Void, and as long as it was stable enough, theoretically, even an Origin King Realm master’s body wouldn’t be able to withstand an attack from it.

Verifying the power of his Space Blade through a real battle made Yang Kai quite satisfied. As for its accuracy and stability, Yang Kai believed that with the growth of his strength, he could slowly improve these factors. This move would become one of his greatest trump cards.

Bending over, Yang Kai picked up the middle-aged man’s Space Ring before returning to his original position and cleaning the battlefield. He burned the corpses of the others before staring at the strange solidified space for a moment. After letting out a sigh, Yang Kai walked through this strange space and headed straight towards the other side of the canyon.

There was no need to remain here any longer. In Yang Kai’s original plan, he would leave here in two or three days, but after being disturbed by these four from Heaven Battling Union he decided to depart early.

….

Half a day later, Yang Kai stopped under a huge rock.

This rock had been baked in the heat of the Flowing Flame Sand Field for countless years and was now a fiery red colour with all of its internal impurities completely removed. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that it was a good Artefact Refining material. If one could take it to an Artefact Refiner, at the very least, they could use it to refine some Saint Grade artefacts.

Yang Kai wasn’t interested in this thing though and simply wanted to borrow it to shelter himself from the surrounding heat for a while.

There was a recessed pit under the rock that only one person could fit inside. Yang Kai sat down in this pit and began checking through the Space Rings of the four Heaven Battling Union cultivators. After all, this was his spoils of victory.

After inspecting these rings, Yang Kai was secretly shocked.

It wasn’t that these four had some kind of amazing treasure on them, but rather that they had so many spirit grasses, spirit medicines, Fire Crystal Stones, and various ores from the Flowing Flame Sand Field.

It was a huge amount! Almost every one of these rings had the equivalent of seven or eight people’s worth of harvest.

These four couldn’t possibly have had such good luck, they must have killed a great many people to obtain all of this, but now all of it had landed in Yang Kai’s hands.

Each of these things was just a common treasure from the Flowing Flame Sand Field, nothing near as valuable as the huge Fire Crystal Stone or Brilliant Fire Crystal Essence that Yang Kai obtained, but with such a large quantity, it still made Yang Kai quite pleased.