Martial Peak

Translator: Silavin & PewPewLaserGun

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain

The Secret Cave was quiet for a while as the four Corpse Generals whose strength was comparable to peak Origin Returning Realm masters did not know what to say. They did not immediately pursue Yang Kai; after all, this thief was capable of tearing space. Even if they possessed great strength, they might not be able to catch him. Only if they possessed a similar method to instantly cross great distances would they have a chance.

“The Sun’s True Essence was the key to our promotion to Corpse Kings, but now that it has been taken away, what are we supposed to do?” A white-robed Corpse General frowned and asked in annoyance.

“En, without the Sun’s True Essence, how are we supposed to continue our Corpse Refinement Art and reach the Corpse King stage, achieving immortal and indestructible bodies?” The final black-robed Corpse General asked, a fierce light flashing across his eyes, seemingly unwilling to just let Yang Kai escape.

“Indeed, even if he is proficient in Space Force, we can’t just let him go. I’ll go now and capture him,” The azure-robed Corpse General clenched his teeth, stomped his feet, and turned around, as if he really intended to pursue Yang Kai.

“Senior Brother Mo, could it be you’ve forgotten about Star Emperor Mountain? Although two thousand years have passed, if we leave this place at this time, it will draw those monsters’ attention. Furthermore, since that person is proficient in Space Force, will we even be able to catch up to him now?” The white-robed Corpse General quickly stopped him.

Hearing the name Star Emperor Mountain, the other three Corpse Generals couldn’t help narrowing their eyes, a mixture of fear and hatred flashing across their faces. The azure-robed Corpse General also stopped in place.

The white-robed Corpse General suddenly chuckled at that moment, “Although the Sun’s True Essence has been lost, that might not necessarily be a bad thing.”

“What?” The azure-robed Corpse General looked at him in amazement.

“Do Senior Brothers know why our Ancient Yang Sect put this piece of Sun’s True Essence here?” The white-robed Corpse General smiled meaningfully and asked.

“Does Junior Brother Kang know?”

The white-robed Corpse General didn’t explain right away but instead glanced over at the location where the Ice Jade Pedestal had stood and said, “I was never quite certain about this matter, but now I am at least eighty percent sure. Senior Brothers should take a look over there to see if they can feel anything.”

Hearing this, the other three Corpse Generals exchanged a glance before releasing their Divine Senses to carefully investigate.

A moment later, the three Corpse Generals all wore shocked looks, the azure-robed Corpse General even exclaiming, “Such rich Yin Qi! It looks like it has been sealed off somehow and is now only slightly revealing itself, but even so, the Corpse Qi here is far denser than anywhere else in the Corpse Cave.”

The red-robed and black-robed Corpse Generals did not speak but showed equally surprised expressions on their faces. Obviously, this rich Yin Qi was extremely important to them.

The three Corpse Generals quickly turned their attention back to the white-robed Corpse General, the azure-robed one asking, “Junior Brother Kang, you are the only direct descendant of our Honoured Master, do you know something? If so, don’t keep your Senior Brothers in suspense.”

“Yes, yes. Junior Brother Kang, although the three of us are older than you, how could we compare with your understanding of the Sect’s secrets? When the Sect was destroyed, all of us were mere Saint Realm cultivators. If not for Junior Brother bringing us here to hide, I’m afraid we would have long ago perished.”

Even the red-robed Corpse General, who seemed to be the most recalcitrant, turned to the white-robed Corpse General with a softened look, showing an expectant expression.

The white-robed Corpse General just chuckled lightly, “The matters of the past should be left in the past, the several Senior Brothers don’t need to care about them so much. The reason why I brought all of you here was because it was the Sect Master’s orders, a last-ditch attempt to preserve some of the Ancient Yang Sect’s heritage.”

When these words came out, the expressions of the four Corpse Generals all dimmed.

Although they had indeed managed to preserve the last remnants of the Ancient Yang Sect, the four handsome and heroic Sect Brothers had degenerated into such a state, so they couldn’t help questioning if they had actually fulfilled the hopes of their Sect Master.

After a moment of silence, the white-robed Corpse General composed himself and continued, “At that time, my strength wasn’t very high, and although my father was the Sect Master, I was not qualified to know many of the Sect’s core secrets. However, I once heard my father and mother talking about this Secret Cave, and at that time, they said that there was an Underworld Well Spring sealed here. “

“An Underworld Well Spring!” The three Corpse General heard this and could not help calling out in alarm.

“Indeed!” The white-robed Corpse General nodded solemnly, “In the past, we obviously wouldn’t have known what an Underworld Well Spring was, but I assume Senior Brothers all understand now, right?”

“Naturally!” The azure-robed Corpse General nodded with a dignified expression, “Underworld Well Springs are rumoured to be entrances to the underworld and are the most coveted Holy Lands for existences like us.”

“No wonder, no wonder a Corpse Cave formed here, it turns out there was actually an Underworld Well Spring!” The black-robed Corpse General murmured thoughtfully.

“In order to seal this Underworld Well Spring, one of our Ancient Yang Sect’s former Sect Masters somehow obtained a piece of Sun’s True Essence and used its scorching Sun’s True Fire to suppress it. This method on its own could be considered quite good, but in order to store the Sun’s True Essence absolutely safely, some later generation’s Sect Master spent a huge price to refine that Ten Thousand Year Ice Jade Pedestal and placed it here! It could be said that this matter is one of the Sect’s biggest secrets that only the Sect Master and a few select Elders were eligible to know.” After the white-robed Corpse General finished, he smiled and said, “Although I heard a few words about this many years ago, I didn’t understand much about them. On top of that, with the Sun’s True Essence sealing this place, we were unable to even get close to it, so I never bothered telling Senior Brothers. I hope Senior Brothers won’t blame me!”

“Hahaha!” The azure-robed Corpse General laughed heartily before patting the white-robed Corpse General’s shoulder heavily, “How could Junior Brother ask such a thing? We four brothers are already family, how could we blame you? Not to mention, even if you had told us about this matter, there wouldn’t have been anything we could have done about it. En, but now it seems there really is an Underworld Well Spring here!”

“Indeed, just the Yin Qi which is leaking from the seal is already so strong, so if we were to completely open it, wouldn’t we be able to obtain endless benefits? With the help of this Underworld Well Spring, it should not be impossible for us to reach the Corpse King level, and this method is far safer than the Corpse Refinement Art we were originally planning to use.”

“Exactly. None of us have attempted to cultivate the last part of the Corpse Refinement Art, but having to rely on an item as dangerous as that Sun’s True Essence is really quite daunting. Originally, I didn’t approve of us continuing to try to advance our cultivation, but now, all our problems are solved. It seems we should be thanking that kid who took away the Sun’s True Essence.”

The red-robed Corpse General, who had been silent for a long, suddenly said thoughtfully, “I always wondered why the Sect practiced Corpse Refinement and why Elder Liu possessed several extremely powerful Corpse Puppets, but now it makes sense. It seems it was all because of this place.”

The several Corpse Generals pondered for a moment before nodding in agreement.

The azure-robed Corpse General soon waved his hand, “Good, now that we know there is an Underworld Well Spring here, our first priority should be to find a way to break its seal. Presumably, without the Sun’s True Essence suppression, with our current strength, it should not be difficult to break this thing. Before we begin though, we need to make we are not disturbed by outsiders again, otherwise, if someone becomes aware of our Sect’s survival, word may reach Star Emperor Mountain’s ears.”

“That’s easy enough to solve, just let them go clean up the area. In any case, the outside world’s powerhouses don’t know anything about the situation here, as long as we don’t act too overtly there shouldn’t be any big problems,” The red-robed Corpse General sneered before turning his head to look at the large number of Corpse Soldiers and Corpse Generals that had at some point arrived here and were standing around in a dense formation. Each of these Corpse Soldiers and Corpse Generals had a rich malevolent aura and their green eyes, though eerie, were still filled with a sharp light, clearly indicating that they possessed a substantial level of sentience.

Several top-ranking Corpse Generals immediately issued a series of orders, after which the Corpse Soldiers and Corpse Generals began flooding out of the Corpse Cave in groups of three to five, all of them headed to clean up various important locations inside Grand Burial Valley.

While the four Corpse Generals were talking, however, a thousand kilometres away, a black crack in space appeared. This rough and crooked crack was clearly quite unstable. A moment later, a figure emerged from it, quickly followed by another.

Almost at the same time the second figure emerged, the Void Tear suddenly disappeared.

Yang Kai turned his head back to the closed Void Tear with a look of lingering fear.

Although he was able to successfully bring Yang Yan and flee a thousand kilometres away by tearing space at the last moment, the attack of the Corpse General in red still affected the stability of the Void Tear, nearly causing him and Yang Yan to become forever lost in The Void. If it were not for his comprehension of the Dao of Space having improved dramatically in recent years, even if he had been able to escape, Yang Yan would certainly have died.

Yang Yan was unaware of the danger she had just been in, but Yang Kai had a cold sweat dripping down his back as he secretly decided that the next time he wanted to bring someone else along with him using this method, he had to first reach a position where the enemy wouldn’t be able to interfere, otherwise the risk would be far too great.

Additionally, Yang Kai was not sure if it was his imagination or not, but before leaving the Corpse Cave, he felt an unusual aura coming from the place where the Ten Thousand Year Ice Jade Pedestal had stood.

Shaking his head, Yang Kai did not think too deeply about it. Escaping from a peak level Origin Returning Realm master was fortunate enough, and this trip had also resulted in a huge harvest.

There was not enough time to take inventory of his gains here though, so Yang Kai just checked on the Stone Puppet’s situation inside the Black Book Space for now. After confirming that it would be fine in the short term, Yang Kai wrapped Yang Yan in his Saint Qi, confirmed his bearings, and began heading for the outskirts of the Grand Burial Valley.

Yang Yan seemed to still be quite frightened by what had happened in the Corpse Cave, so along the way she did not say anything, just shivering slightly as she clung tightly to Yang Kai.

It was expected as she was naturally timid.

There was no danger along the way, only a few Yin Souls who were disturbed by the movement of Yang Kai’s Saint Qi; however, because Yang Kai was quite eager to leave and was travelling at great speed, no Yin Soul was able to pursue them for long and before he knew it, the two of them had already crossed half the distance to the valley’s exit.