Martial Peak

Considering all this, Yang Kai apologized, “I’ve wronged you all these years. When I brought you out from that Mysterious Small World, I promised that I would find a place for you to settle down, but after so many years, I’ve constantly been running around and failed to find anywhere for you to roam about freely.”

The Divine Tree heard him say this and waved its giant hands slowly, “I know, don’t worry about it.”

“En.” Yang Kai nodded gently before suddenly grinning, “But things are different now. I finally have a place where you can put down roots. If you want, I can let you out now. If I ever leave this place in the future, I can take you with me again at that time, of course, if that’s what you want.”

The Divine Tree stopped in place and turned to Yang Kai with a look of expectation upon its withered face, “I can go out?”

It seems that it missed the sunshine of the outside world after being stuck in the Black Book Space for so long.

“En.” Yang Kai nodded repeatedly.

“Then I’d like to go out. If you ever leave this place, of course I’ll go with you.”

After discussing it properly, Yang Kai immediately walked out of his cave mansion and found it was fairly quiet outside. The several dozen former Hai Ke Family disciples seemed to be cultivating independently and even Chang Qi and Hao An were nowhere to be seen.

Seeing Yang Kai emerge from the cave, many people were surprised but they quickly offered polite greetings.

Although they separated from the Hai Ke Family in order to follow Wu Yi, they all knew who the true master of this place was.

“Where’s Yang Yan?” Yang Kai turned his head and looked around but was not able to find any trace of Yang Yan. Even using his Divine Sense, he couldn’t detect her, or Wu Yi’s presence.

“Lady Yang Yan and Young Lady went to Black Sea City together.” One of the sharper cultivators quickly replied.

“Black Sea City? Why did they go there? What force controls that city?” Yang Kai was surprised.

“Black Sea City is under the jurisdiction of Clear Sky Sect. The two Young Ladies went there to participate in Treasure Trove Pavilion’s auction.”

“Another auction?” Yang Kai raised a brow and showed a puzzled look. The cultivator quickly explained, and after listening to his explanation, Yang Kai realized what was going on. The last time there was an auction, Yang Kai had brought many good things to sell, drawing the attention of Treasure Trove Pavilion’s Yan Pei. As such, before this auction, he had sent Qian Tong a personal invitation to deliver to Yang Kai.

Dragon Cave Mountain also happened to be lacking Saint Crystals to purchase materials, so Yang Yan had taken several artifacts she had recently refined to auction in hopes of raising some funds.

After learning this, Yang Kai frowned. Yang Yan spent Saint Crystals far too quickly. He had brought back millions of Saint Crystal and a massive amount of materials less than a year ago, yet that all seemed to have been exhausted by her already. Yang Kai was not upset about this though as Yang Yan wasn’t wasting any of these Saint Crystals or materials, all of it went into enhancing Dragon Cave Mountain’s protection.

What Yang Kai cared about was that auctioning off artifacts like this was not a good long-term way to raise Saint Crystals.

Yang Yan could take the artifacts she refined to auction once or twice in order to raise some funds, but if this continued, it would only bring them problems. In the same sense, Yang Kai could not take out his refined pills to raise Saint Crystals too frequently. After all, Dragon Cave Mountain did not have a stronger background or protector. Although Shadow Moon Hall had a good relationship with them currently, that was almost exclusively because of Qian Tong’s prestige. This did not guarantee that other factions inside Shadow Moon Hall would not start having ideas about them.

If too many high-end artifacts and pills were to flow out from here, it would certainly attract unwanted attention.

Forget about any others, Yang Kai was certain that Xie Hong Wen’s father had Dragon Cave Mountain under surveillance. Xie Hong Wen had died in the Flowing Flame Sand Field, and although Xie Hong Wen’s father did not know who killed his son, he would certainly not give up investigating. Once he had an excuse, he might come to Dragon Cave Mountain to find trouble.

“When did they leave?” Yang Kai asked again.

“Three days ago. They should be returning any time now. Does Young Master Yang need us to find them? If so, we can set out immediately.”

“No.” Yang Kai waved his hand, “Go about your own business.”

“Yes.” The few people gathered around responded and began to disperse, only to have Yang Kai call out suddenly, “Right, after they come back, tell them not to take artifacts to auction again.”

After issuing this order, Yang Kai soared up into the sky and flew around Dragon Cave Mountain. He had the token given to him by Yang Yan, which not only controlled all the Spirit Arrays and barriers in his cave mansion, but also the ones arranged around Dragon Cave Mountain. With this token, there was nowhere on Dragon Cave Mountain Yang Kai could not go.

Yang Kai saw all sorts of amazing Spirit Arrays arranged by Yang Yan, even one that used the Illusion Stone he brought back as its core. If not for the token Yang Yan had given him, Yang Kai would probably still have stumbled into that Illusion Array and gotten trapped.

Also, the area where the Blood Sword Grass was located had also been concealed inside a profound Bewildering Array, hiding it from anyone outside. However, if anyone were to break into this array, they would surely encounter a vicious attack from the Blood Sword Grass.

There was also an area that seemed bland and unremarkable, but Yang Kai quickly discovered that the huge Fire Crystal Stone had been set up as an Array Core of a giant Spirit Array here.

Although he did not know what kind of Spirit Array had been arranged in this area, Yang Kai knew it was not a place one would want to fall into.

There were many other Spirit Arrays and barriers set up all over the place, causing even Yang Kai, the owner of Dragon Cave Mountain, to feel shocked by how many layers of protection and hidden dangers there were here.

Yang Yan had turned this place into a multi-layered impenetrable fortress! However, Yang Kai knew that she was arranging all these Spirit Arrays mainly to unlock the memories sealed in her mind, so even if this seemed a bit extravagant and wasteful, he didn’t have a problem with it.

As long as Yang Yan continued unlocking her memories, her future Spirit Arrays and barriers would only become stronger.

Yang Kai flew for a while around Dragon Cave Mountain before arriving at a relatively open space where there were no signs of any kind of Spirit Arrays being arranged.

After landing, Yang Kai contacted the Divine Tree inside his Black Book Space before releasing his Divine Sense like a tide.

In the next moment, Spiritual Energy rapidly flooded out from Yang Kai’s Knowledge Sea and in a flash of golden light, the twenty-metre-tall Divine Tree suddenly appeared in front of him.

Yang Kai was secretly startled as surprise filled his expression. He found that he had greatly underestimated the Spiritual Energy required to bring the Divine Tree out.

When he first took the Divine Tree into the Black Book Space, he had completely exhausted his Spiritual Energy, drying up his Knowledge Sea entirely. If it were not for the Five Coloured Soul Warming Lotus, his Soul would have suffered severe damage, but even with it, he had to cultivate for quite some time before his strength returned to normal.

Now that his strength far exceeded what it was back then though, Yang Kai thought it would be an easy task to bring out the Divine Tree, but contrary to his expectations, it took almost half of the Spiritual Energy in his Knowledge Sea to accomplish this feat, frightening him somewhat.

But after thinking about it, Yang Kai smiled lightly. His strength had grown greatly over the years, but hadn’t the Divine Tree grown as well? The Spiritual Energy required to bring it out would naturally be far greater than before.

As soon as the Divine Tree appeared, the face on the trunk showed a happy expression, its two eyes slowly sweeping over its new surroundings. After feeling the richness of the World Energy here, it showed a look of comfort on its wrinkled face and seemingly let out a happy sigh, “Wow, amazing. This place is simply amazing.”

Yang Kai knew that this was the Divine Tree’s first contact with the World Energy aura of the Star Field, so naturally it would be happy. Compared to the Mysterious Small World where it had lived before, the difference in aura was like a person on the ground gazing up at the Heavens.

“I’m glad you like it,” Yang Kai chuckled, “I don’t have a specific place for you to stay so you can just walk around by yourself, feel free to go wherever you like, but I have to tell you in advance, there are many places here that are covered in barriers and Spirit Arrays. If you rush into one of those areas, it will likely be dangerous, so be careful where you step.”

“Alright. Don’t worry, I can feel traces of those Spirit Arrays you mentioned and won’t intrude into any of them,” The Divine Tree promised, using its tentacle-like roots to burrow into the ground and, in the blink of an eye, actually took root. Letting out another comfortable sigh, the Divine Tree’s eyes lazily half-squinted.

Yang Kai did not disturb it, simply allowing it to enjoy the feeling of the outside world again.

After a while, Yang Kai suddenly remembered something and asked, “Right, the two drops of Golden Blood I gave you allowed you to evolve. What if you had more?”

The Divine Tree opened its eyes wide and revealed a look of longing, but it quickly said, “Your Golden Blood should be extremely valuable, and although it has helped my growth significantly, I had only just evolved, so swallowing any more of it would only serve to increase my strength somewhat, but I’m not in a hurry to do that. After you have an abundance of Golden Blood, you can spare me a few drops.”

Yang Kai grinned, “Although I don’t have much, it’s not problem to give you a drop right now.”

Saying so, Yang Kai extracted a drop of Golden Blood before flicking his wrist and sending it slowly over to the Divine Tree. The Divine Tree swallowed this drop of Golden Blood and its mouth made a wriggling motion, as if it was savouring the taste.

After a while, the Divine Tree opened its eyes and said, “Okay! I’ll need a few days to adapt to this new environment, you don’t need to wait here with me.”

“Alright.” Yang Kai nodded, told the Divine Tree a few things to watch out for, then departed.

Calling the cultivators of the Hai Ke Family, Yang Kai told them to take good care of the Divine Tree and to inform Yang Yan and Wu Yi about it when they came back so they could make any further arrangements necessary.

After completing all this, Yang Kai entered retreat again.

Whether it was luck or coincidence, a month after the Divine Tree awoke from its slumber, a sound came from the Profound Insect Stone in the stone room next to Yang Kai’s. This big piece of Profound Insect Stone had finally been used up and disappeared, causing the Soul Devouring Insects to awaken. After this long hibernation, the Soul Devouring Insects seemed to have experienced great growth as well. It was nothing less than two blessings descending upon the house.