Martial Peak

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After the artifact protecting her body was destroyed, the old woman’s aged physique was directly exposed to the puppet’s might, and as the giant hand tightened, the sound of cracking bones burst out.

After a brief struggle, the old woman realized she was unable to escape her current crisis with only her strength and a trace of panic and fear flashed across the depths of her eyes. Turning to Yang Kai and the others, she shouted, “Save me!”

But as soon as her voice rang out, a muffled bang occurred.

The old woman suddenly exploded, her blood splashing out through the air as her head fell from the sky, a look of great unwillingness still filling her face.

Although she had been on guard against this humanoid statue, the old woman never imagined that it wasn’t either a kind of mechanism or a part of the Spirit Array and instead a real puppet!

On top of that, this puppet seemed to be able to move independently without an operator, a completely unreasonable existence.

If Lian Guang had been here, perhaps he may have been able to see some clues, but the four who were here knew next to nothing about puppets, nor did they expect to see puppets operating inside these Ancient Ruins.

Moreover, this was no ordinary puppet. Being able to easily crush a First-Order Origin Returning Realm to death fully illustrated the enormous strength of this puppet.

The instant the old woman died; Yang Kai’s eyes flashed a resolute light as he stared at the round gateway between its legs. Sprinting forth at full speed, Yang Kai ignored the puppet’s reaction, not wanting to become entangled with it, only hoping he could leave from this place.

Yang Kai’s speed was extremely fast, but the response of the puppet was also extremely fast. After crushing the old woman, the statue’s red eyes fixed onto the approaching Yang Kai and a dangerous aura soon erupted from it. Sensing this dangerous aura, Yang Kai’s face changed, and he swiftly summoned his Purple Shield and activated its sandstorm ability to protect his body.

Faintly, Yang Kai saw a flash of light appear from the giant puppet’s hand and immediately after a thick shadow swept towards him.

Even before this shadow hit him, Yang Kai felt his breathing become laboured, as if the entire world was collapsing on him, giving him the illusion that he could not escape this blow.

Clenching his teeth, Yang Kai pushed the power of his Purple Shield to its greatest extent while at the same time condensing his Saint Qi to form a strong second protective barrier outside his body.

*Hong…*

With a great bang, the sandstorm was scattered, the Purple Shield’s proud defensive ability shattered under a single blow. The shield itself was impacted next and was knocked away by an immense force. Yang Kai next felt his Saint Qi protection break just before his body was struck, sending him flying uncontrollably.

His vitality tumbling, a mouthful of golden blood spewed from Yang Kai’s mouth, transforming into a cloud of blood mist.

*Hong long long…*

Yang Kai flew a thousand metres through the air before he crashed into a flower bed, bouncing a few times before he finally came to a stop.

Up until now, Yang Kai still had not seen exactly what the statue had hit him with, only knowing that in front of that thick shadow any kind of resistance or protection had been rendered useless.

Among the ruins of the flower bed, Yang Kai coughed up a few more mouthfuls of blood as he gasped for breath and forced himself to his feet through sheer willpower, a look of fear still lingering on his face.

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He had never eaten such a big loss before, so the discomfort in his heart could easily be imagined.

If not for his Purple Shield taking the brunt of this blow though, his injuries might have been far more serious, but even so, Yang Kai found that his five viscera and six organs had all been shifted and his entire body felt like it was on the verge of breaking apart.

This both shocked and angered him!

Looking up, Yang Kai took in the situation and could not help gawking for a moment.

Right now, the puppet was still standing in the same spot, as if it had never moved, while Cai He and Du Si Si were standing just over a hundred metres from it, their faces deathly pale. It was as if the two of them had been struck by lightning as they stared in terror at the statue in front of them; however, the puppet itself showed no intention of attacking them at all.

Grasped in the puppet’s hand now tough, was a giant stick,

Calling it a stick was a bit inappropriate though as it was clearly some kind of powerful artifact; however, from appearance alone, stick was the most accurate description. This giant stick was jet black in colour, made from some unknown material, and was several dozen metres long and a couple metres wide. It was incredibly imposing.

Yang Kai immediately understood that it was this giant black stick that had struck him just now.

[Where did that thing come from?] A trace of suspicion flashed across Yang Kai’s eyes. There was no such thing anywhere near the puppet a moment ago; however, the moment Yang Kai tried to escape through the round gateway, he vaguely remembered seeing a flash of light from the puppet’s hand. Could the two things be related?

Even a thousand metres away, Yang Kai could feel the threatening aura from this giant stick. On this stick’s surface, there were some strange indecipherable characters engraved, identical to the ones they had seen upon entering these Ancient Ruins.

After coughing a few more times, Yang Kai spat out a last mouthful of blood before staring fixedly at the puppet, but soon discovered that it showed no intention to pursue him.

Only now did Cai He and Du Si Si seem to have recovered their wits, with Cai He turning his head to Du Si Si tremblingly and whispering, “Si Si, retreat!”

Du Si Si’s pretty face was completely white, apparently still in shock over the old woman’s death, turning her head to Cai He as tears leaked uncontrollably from the corners of her eyes.

She was terrified!

Although she had encountered some dangers before today, this event was simply too shocking for her. The moment the old woman burst into a blood fog was witnessed by Du Si Si clearly and even now, the severed head of the old woman was lying on the ground. The old woman’s eyes were still spread wide and staring directly at Du Si Si, seemingly blaming her for not helping.

Such a tremendous mental shock caused Du Si Si to completely lose her ability to react, so she simply froze in place.

Even though she heard Cai He, she was unable to take a single step, fearing that if she moved, she would be the next to die.

Cai He saw this and new anxiety filled his face. Although the puppet seemed to only be concerned about guarding the gateway, there was no way to know whether it would suddenly strike out at them. Cai He certainly did not want to see the woman he was interested in die the same way as the old woman just had.

Gritting his teeth, Cai He’s body flickered as he rushed over to Du Si Si’s side, grabbed her, then fled without looking back.

Cai He didn’t stop until he arrived at the spot Yang Kai had landed, after which he collapsed to the ground a few metres away. This brief action seemed to have exhausted all his strength, and his teeth kept chattering in fear as he kneeled on the ground.

Du Si Si was not any better, the shock of recent events reducing her to a miserable state, her eyes still filled with fear and panic.

Although the old woman was just a First-Order Origin Returning Realm cultivator, while she was alive, she still gave these two young Array Masters some sense of security, but now that she was dead, leaving just three Saint King juniors behind, Du Si Si suddenly felt like there was no one here she could rely on.

Yang Kai’s expression was also extremely gloomy. He had been struck by that giant stick just now and had yet to completely regain his faculties. Fortunately, Yang Kai’s Golden Blood had extremely powerful restorative abilities; if it had been someone else who had taken that strike, they would likely need at least a few months to recover.

Swallowing a few healing pills, Yang Kai sat cross-legged and adjusted his breathing.

Regardless of what came next, his first priority was to stabilize his injuries, only after doing so could he begin thinking about how to leave this place.

Half a day later, Yang Kai opened his eyes and silently examined his condition.

Although his wounds had not been completely healed, they wouldn’t hinder his movements or his ability to fight anymore. Cai He and Du Si Si also seemed to have recovered slightly and their conditions were much better than before. However, Du Si Si’s eyes were still red and puffy while a gloomy expression filled her face.

Cai He’s state wasn’t as bad, but despair and helplessness were still apparent in his eyes.

This was not surprising though. Since that puppet was able to kill the Origin Realm old woman with a single blow and it was tightly guarding the door, Cai He didn’t think there was any way he or anyone else here could safely escape.

After glancing at the two of them, Yang Kai frowned slightly, but said nothing before standing up. Waving his hand, he summoned back his Purple Shield which had been blown away earlier. Catching this shield, Yang Kai checked it for a moment and found that it had a noticeable dent in it and a crack along its surface at least a finger-width wide. From the dim glow it was emitting, it had obviously lost a great deal of spirituality as well.

Seeing this, Yang Kai could not help shivering slightly. This Purple Shield was a defensive artifact Yang Yan had enhanced twice to reach the Origin Grade High-Rank. As the artifact that specialized in defense, its toughness was extremely high.

But even so, after a single hit from that giant jet-black stick, it had actually been reduced to such a state, highlighting just how terrifying the force behind that blow was.

Sighing slightly, Yang Kai put away the Purple Shield, preparing to have Yang Yan fix it once again after he went back. Glancing over at the huge puppet a thousand metres away next, Yang Kai paused for a moment before wearing a dignified expression and walking over towards it.

“Brother Yang…” Cai He saw this and his expression shrank slightly as he hurriedly called out, “What are you planning on doing?”

“Testing its strength!” Yang Kai replied.

“Testing…” Cai He looked dumbfounded and said in amazement, “Isn’t that a bit too hasty?”

He had witnessed the old woman’s tragic death at the hands of this giant puppet so naturally he wasn’t optimistic about Yang Kai’s chances; after all, according to common sense, Yang Kai’s strength should be much lower than that old woman’s.

“Are you trying to make trouble!?” Du Si Si, who had been staring out soullessly for some time now suddenly screamed, “It finally stopped moving, yet now you’re going to provoke it on your own? Do you want to kill all of us?!”

Yang Kai shot her a cold glare.

Du Si Si shifted her eyes, seemingly a little afraid to look at him, but still anxiously argued, “That Senior died, if you die too, what are Cai He and I supposed to do?”

Although she was arrogant and thought highly of herself, never placing other cultivators in the same generation in her eyes, the more people there were here right now the more at ease she felt. She did not really care about Yang Kai’s life, but she didn’t want to see him die here either because that would only make her feel less secure.

Yang Kai snapped back coldly, “Then what do you suggest we do?”

Du Si Si immediately lowered her head as she had no good answer to this question.