Martial Peak

Yang Kai understood what it meant to cut weeds and pull out roots better than most. At first, he planned to kill Deng Ning as well, but hearing the latter say he didn’t care if he died as long as Ye Yang Rong did as well improved Yang Kai’s opinion of him slightly.

A man who was truly indifferent about whether he lived or died could be believed.

Asking Deng Ning for some kind of reward was really just an excuse. Yang Kai didn’t want to act for no reason and had only killed An Zhi just now because the other party had attacked him.

As for what Deng Ning could pay him, regardless of whether it was valuable or not, Yang Kai didn’t care.

Surprisingly though, after Yang Kai said this, Deng Ning wore a smile and after thinking about it for a moment, said solemnly, “The Demon Blood Thread technique, I don’t know if this friend is interested?”

“Deng Ning!” Yang Kai couldn’t even answer before Ye Yang Rong roared angrily, his face filled with shock and disbelief, “You dare allow an outsider to study our Sect’s Secret Technique? Do you know what kind of end you’ll have if the Elders ever learned of this?”

Deng Ning turned his head leisurely and smiled coldly at him, “It’s just my Soul being extracted and tormented while my body is refined into meat paste, what’s the big deal?”

His completely uncaring expression caused Ye Yang Rong to be speechless for a while.

Deng Ning shook his head again and sneered, “Besides, Senior Brother Ye, as long as you die here, who will know that I leaked this technique?”

Ye Yang Rong’s face suddenly turned pale, only now realizing the extent of Deng Ning’s hatred for him, even willing to violate Demon Blood Temple’s Sect Laws and use the Demon Blood Thread Secret technique to lure this man into helping him. If the other party really agreed to this deal, Ye Yang Rong knew he would die, so he hurriedly called out to Yang Kai, “This friend, don’t believe Deng Ning, the Demon Blood Thread technique is certainly a powerful Divine Ability, one that only Core Disciples of the temple have the right to cultivate, but you don’t cultivate my Demon Blood Temple’s Secret Arts, so the Demon Blood Thread technique is useless to you. Furthermore, if you obtain this top-level technique, it absolutely won’t be ignored by the Sect. Once news of you possessing it reaches the Elders, you will certainly have no way to escape their pursuit!”

Saying so, a thought crossed Ye Yang Rong’s mind and he suddenly seemed to understand something, his face turning much paler as he stared at Deng Ning and tremblingly said, “This was your plan all along!”

Deng Ning grinned meaningfully as he saw Ye Yang Rong finally understand, no longer trying to cover anything up and instead saying to Yang Kai, “Friend, I don’t know your name, nor your origin, but right now I don’t care, I just want this bastard here to die. Giving you the Demon Blood Thread technique has certain risks for you, but the same is true for me. Once this trade is exposed, I will be the one who endures endless torture, so I will never betray you. About this, you can rest assured.”

This Deng Ning’s mind was quite sharp, he seemed to have noticed from the start that Yang Kai wanted to kill both of them off, so he had used the Demon Blood Thread technique as a way to tie their two fates together.

As long as Yang Kai agreed to this trade, Deng Ning would never be able to betray him, because doing so would be the same as sentencing himself to death. This was a thinly veiled display of goodwill on his part. As for whether the Demon Blood Thread technique was useful to Yang Kai, how could Deng Ning care about that?

Seeing Yang Kai’s hesitant look, Deng Ning steeled his heart and prepared to increase his offer, “If friend is not satisfied, I can…”

“No, that Demon Blood Thread technique will do.” Yang Kai interrupted his words, he also saw through Deng Ning’s intentions, but he didn’t care about such trivial means. As for Deng Ning gambling everything on a single throw of the dice, Yang Kai was completely indifferent.

Seeing Yang Kai nod, Ye Yang Rong’s face went ashen while Deng Ning was overjoyed.

“You start.” Yang Kai suddenly urged Deng Ning.

Deng Ning looked stunned, but thinking Yang Kai would help him, he didn’t ask any questions, pushing his Blood Qi madly before biting his tongue and spitting out a blood mist. This blood mist was like a living creature that twisted and morphed, quickly transforming into a short spear. Deng Ning grabbed the short spear in one hand and rushed towards Ye Yang Rong, his expression stern and determined.

What happened next shocked him. He clearly saw Ye Yang Rong try to avoid his attack, but just as he did, a look of pain appeared on the face of this Senior Brother of his. At the same time, Ye Yang Rong’s Saint Qi seemed to seize up and his body froze in place.

Deng Ning’s short spear easily passed through Ye Yang Rong’s heart and came out his back.

Blood splashed out as a horrified look filled Ye Yang Rong’s face. Holding the bloody short spear in his hand, he seemed to want to pull it out, but his strength slipped away far too quickly. In the blink of an eye, his vitality completely dissipated.

Deng Ning was dumbfounded by this sequence of events and it wasn’t until Ye Yang Rong’s body hit the ground with a loud thud that he awoke from his daze.

Deng Ning was certain that the reason his Senior Brother had not had a chance to fight back against his blow just now was because of this mysterious Second-Order Saint King young man.

Did this youth possess such skill?

Deng Ning didn’t think of himself as weak, but he couldn’t even understand what had happened just now or how he had won this battle so easily. All he knew was that if this youth could allow him to easily defeat his Senior Brother, couldn’t he also kill him just as easily?

Thinking so, cold sweat leaked from Deng Ning’s body and, for some reason, he felt somewhat depressed.

When he saw Yang Kai kill An Zhi, he knew that this youth was probably an elite from some great force, but it wasn’t until now that he understood that this person was a true monster.

Various thoughts crossed his mind, and only after a short silence did Deng Ning turn around, a calm look on his face but fear still flashing across the depths of his eyes, flew down, wore as big a smile as he could, and cupped his fists to Yang Kai, “Friend, many thanks! When I saw you in Flowing Flame Sand Field, I thought there was something extraordinary about you, now it seems I was right!”

Yang Kai nodded lightly and said nothing.

Unable to read Yang Kai’s mood, Deng Ning’s heart clenched up; after all, he didn’t know what kind of temperament this person had. Fearing he would say something to upset Yang Kai, Deng Ning hurriedly remembered their previous agreement and quickly took out a scroll made from some kind of beast skin from his Space Ring and extremely politely handed it over, “This is the Demon Blood Thread technique’s cultivation manual. Because I did not have enough merits though, this is only the first half of the technique; moreover, it is just a copy of the original. I may have copied it, but I guarantee it is no different from the original…”

As he spoke, Deng Ning carefully observed Yang Kai’s expression.

After all, the remuneration he was giving now wasn’t quite the same as what they had previously agreed upon, so he was naturally a bit worried.

Yang Kai stared at him for a moment before silently accepting the scroll; then, without looking at it, tossed it into his Space Ring. To Yang Kai, half the Demon Blood Thread technique was the same as the complete thing; after all, he had no intention to cultivate it so he didn’t care about Deng Ning’s little concealment.

Seeing Yang Kai put away the scroll and not show any intention to question him, Deng Ning couldn’t help breathing a sigh of relief.

“Does your Demon Blood Temple allow disciples to make copies of their secret techniques?” Yang Kai asked, looking at Deng Ning with a smile.

Deng Ning chuckled, “Naturally not, but since I was a kid my memory has always been good, so… friend understands.”

Yang Kai nodded.

“May I know friend’s honoured name?” Deng Ning asked solemnly.

Yang Kai frowned, but still reported his name.

Deng Ning nodded and followed up, “This one is Demon Blood Temple disciple Deng Ning, presumably Brother Yang already knows this though. En, Brother Yang may rest assured, what happened here will never be known to a third person. If this Deng reveals it to anyone, may he suffer from heart demon backlash and never break through to the Origin Returning Realm!”

Hearing such a poisonous oath, Yang Kai gave a surprised look. Although this kind of oath may have just been casually spoken, if he really failed to uphold it, it would create a small, invisible flaw in his heart and very well may lead to him suffering from a heart demon when trying to break through in the future.

As such, it could be believed in.

“I’m not worried about that, but you… two of your Sect Brothers died here, won’t that cause you trouble?” Yang Kai glanced over at the nearby corpses.

When Deng Ning heard this, his expression became slightly strange as he stared at Yang Kai strangely before asking tentatively, “Is this the first time Brother Yang has heard of my Demon Blood Temple?”

“What do you mean?” Yang Kai frowned.

Deng Ning didn’t dare act mysterious and quickly said, “It seems this really is the first time Brother Yang has heard about Demon Blood Temple. No wonder. Brother Yang need not worry, it’s nothing important if these two died here. In Demon Blood Temple, brothers killing one another isn’t forbidden; in fact, it’s encouraged. On top of that, there are many disciples in the temple, so no one will notice if one or two die.”

Yang Kai’s eye bulged greatly after hearing this.

Sure enough, the world was wide. Even a Sect that encouraged its disciples to kill one another existed. What’s more, this Sect had actually endured the test of time, which Yang Kai felt was incredible.

Deng Ning seemed to be the chatty type, so even without prompting, he continued, “The Temple basically has a small internal war every five years, and a big one every ten. Each time such a war occurs, rivers of blood flow through the temple and many people die. Because of this, the Sect is quite famous on Shadowed Star.”

“Then why hasn’t your Sect been destroyed?” Yang Kai asked strangely.

“Brother Yang doesn’t mince words…” Deng Ning’s mouth twitched. “Because the Secret Arts of the temple encourage slaughter, these internal fights actually lead to many disciples’ strength increasing. After each war, countless disciples break through to the next realm, so a complete annihilation of the temple’s population has never occurred.”

Smiling reluctantly, Deng Ning patiently explained.

The more Yang Kai heard the harder he found it to believe so he didn’t continue inquiring about it and instead asked, “I assume your Demon Blood Temple is nearby then, yes?”

“Yes.”

“How far is Heavenly Fate City from here?”

“Heavenly Fate City?” Deng Ning heard this name and was quite startled, suddenly realizing something and saying, “It turns out that Brother Yang is a Shadow Moon Hall disciple! No wonder your means are so profound. En, this Ding is deeply impressed.”