Martial Peak

Inside the Ancient Ruins, in front of the round gateway, Yang Kai continuously released his Space Blades towards a certain point on the puppet chest while it was still being tied down by the Mirror Lake Clay Dragon Array and Painting Earth Prison Array. Suppressed like this, the puppet had no other recourse than to wildly wave its giant stick around.

As a result, even if Yang Kai often failed to hit the exact same point, after repeated strikes, a crack about palm length deep had been cut into the puppet’s chest. Unfortunately, this cut did not seem to affect the puppet in any way.

On the other hand, achieving just this had cost Yang Kai and the two young Array Masters a great deal of strength.

Cai He and Du Si Si had almost exhausted their Saint Qi to maintain the large formation, needless to say.

Yang Kai, too, was suffering from a heavy load releasing so many Space Blades in succession. Once or twice was not an issue, but as the number of Space Blades he sent out approached the thousand mark, his Knowledge Sea began drying up. If not for the Seven Coloured Soul Warming Lotus constantly nourishing his Soul, this kind of overdraft would have already caused Yang Kai to pass out.

Even after stuffing another round of pills for restoring Spiritual Energy into his mouth, Yang Kai’s face remained as pale as paper. However, his eyes stayed fixed on the crack on the puppet’s chest as he continued sending out Space Blades.

Suddenly, a cracking noise resounded from all around him.

In the next instant, Cai He called out, “Brother Yang, we can’t hold it any longer!”

His voice was filled with an indescribable anxiety because the Spirit Arrays restraining the puppet were on the verge collapsing. Once these Spirit Arrays failed and the puppet regained its full speed, the trio’s actions this time would very likely end in failure.

Although they would still have a chance to escape even if that happened, given the puppet’s monstrous speed, whether he or Du Si Si would be able to escape its deadly wrath was highly uncertain.

Moreover, after investing so much effort and time into this plan, Cai He was naturally unwilling to fall short now.

Just as his words ended though, a louder crack rang out and in an instant, the countless glowing wisps of light which had filled the air around the puppet vanished, as if they had never even existed.

Beside Cai He, Du Si Si’s pretty face sank as she stared at the array control device in her hand. This Spirit Array had been given to her by the Elders of her family. Yet now, it had broken completely and could no longer be used.

The Painting Earth Prison Array she had arranged had failed before Cai He’s Spirit Array! This caused Du Si Si to feel both distressed and frustrated.

Without the assistance of the Painting Earth Prison Array, the vortexes and mud dragons generated on the mirror lake couldn’t restrict the puppet’s movements anymore and the puppet’s strength erupted in the blink of an eye, allowing it to rid itself of the several mud dragons’ entanglement. Finally freeing itself from the swirling vortexes, the puppet’s red glowing eyes fixed on the dazed Du Si Si. Seeing this, Yang Kai swiftly touched his Space Ring, summoning out a scroll-like artifact.

Pouring his Saint Qi madly into this scroll, illusionary mountain peaks flew out of it one after another.

Hundred Mountains Picture! Yang Kai’s only offensive artifact. Because in combat, Yang Kai was more inclined to believe in his own personal strength than the external power of artifacts, he rarely used offensive artifacts. It was only because of its unusual abilities that he had even bothered refining this Hundred Mountains Picture.

The entire time he had fought with the puppet, Yang Kai had not summoned the Hundred Mountains Picture, but now he had taken it out.

Suddenly, the air was filled with large and small peaks, with Yang Kai ignoring the stability of the artifact to forcibly summon almost forty of them all at once.

This was the absolute limit he could achieve currently.

As soon as these phantom peaks appeared, they flew towards the puppet, but by waving its giant stick around, the puppet managed to knock back all the mountains, not allowing a single one to get close.

Yang Kai’s eyes flashed sternly as he sent out a command with his Divine Sense, moving all of the phantom peaks that had been blown away back again, but this time, instead of pounding towards the puppet, they formed a ring around it, sealing off all its escape routes.

“Explode!” Yang Kai grit his teeth and shouted.

As soon as he shouted this, all the large and small phantom peaks gave off a shocking energy fluctuation and released a dazzling flash of light brighter than the noon sun, causing Cai He and Du Si Si to be unable to look at it directly.

*Hong Hong Hong…*

A terrifying energy wave blasted out, as if the entire world was shaking apart. Fierce winds erupted and violently swept up Cai He and Du Si Si, hurling them off into the distance while at the same time blasting away all the Spirit Array equipment which had been hidden in the surroundings.

After this pulse of energy subsided, a tattered scroll-like artifact fell from the sky. Obviously, it was the Hundred Mountains Picture Yang Kai had just summoned.

But at this moment, the Hundred Mountains Picture had lost all spirituality and the pictures of mountains drawn on it had all disappeared. Before this scroll even hit the ground, it was reduced to dust.

The artifact had self-destructed!

Not every artifact had this kind of ability, but the Hundred Mountains Picture that Yang Kai obtained happened to be one of the ones who did by chance. The Hundred Mountains Picture had helped Yang Kai a lot since he acquired it and its grade was also quite good, at the upper end of the Low-Rank Origin Grade; however, in order to restrict the puppet’s movements, Yang Kai had no choice but to sacrifice this artifact. If he had not exploded the Hundred Mountains Picture just now, Du Si Si, who had been shocked stiff, would definitely have died.

When Yang Kai looked back at the puppet, he was stunned for a moment but quickly became overjoyed.

The puppet had been knocked to the ground by the Hundred Mountains Picture’s self-destruction and currently seemed to be disabled as it was no longer moving. At the same time, from the location of the crack on its chest, a strange red light was flickering.

The power of an Origin Grade artifact’s self-destruction was obviously extraordinary.

Steeling himself, Yang Kai immediately rushed forward and, in the blink of an eye, arrived beside the puppet. Leaping up, Yang Kai landed directly above the puppet’s chest and took aim at the crack he had opened, sending out one Space Blade after another.

At such a close distance, the puppet was unable to resist or dodge at all, allowing Yang Kai’s Space Blades to precisely hit their target, causing the crack to deepen at a speed visible to the naked eye.

A look of joy flashed across Yang Kai’s face as he felt that as long as he was given a bit more time, he could definitely pierce the puppet’s chest.

Yang Kai did not relax his vigilance though while wielding his Space Blades and continuously monitored the puppet’s movements. After twenty breaths, the puppet’s eyes suddenly flickered and a crimson light like that of an enraged beast burst flashed across them.

Yang Kai instinctually felt this danger, causing his hair to stand on end as he noticed a fierce wind approaching his head. Unwilling to give up now though, Yang Kai condensed a Space Blade onto his fist and punched down with all his might towards the crack.

Yang Kai’s fist and Space Blade hit the crack at almost the same time.

*Kacha…*

Hearing a cracking sound, Yang Kai’s eyes lit up as he sent a Divine Sense command to the Firebird Artifact Spirit.

The Firebird cried out sharply as it swooped down and rushed straight towards the open crack. At the same time though, the puppet’s giant hand, which seemed to cover the entire sky, swatted at Yang Kai.

Looking at this terrifying horrible palm, Yang Kai’s expression remained indifferent as he did not even try to dodge. It was not that he didn’t want to evade, but that he no longer possessed the strength to even move. Currently, Yang Kai felt as if his head was splitting apart. Using his Space Blade so many times had put an incredible strain on his Divine Sense, so even his vision had gone blurry at this point.

However, there was no need for Yang Kai to avoid this blow.

In that instant, the Firebird Artifact Spirit rushed into the puppet’s body through the crack Yang Kai had desperately opened and immediately began incinerating its insides.

Red lights appeared all over the body of the puppet, like tiny snakes wandering about its surface, but soon these red lights disappeared and the giant palm came to a stop mid-air.

A crisp bird cry came out as the Artifact Spirit rushed out of the puppet and circled Yang Kai’s head before landing on his shoulder.

The corners of Yang Kai’s mouth twitched as a heavy look of fatigue appeared on his face before he fell to the ground and landed flat on his back.

On the other side, Cai He and Du Si Si, who had been caught up in the explosion of the Hundred Mountains Picture were a bit disheveled but had not suffered much damage. Struggling to their feet, the two of them saw that the puppet had frozen in place and exchanged a confused gaze, not knowing what was going on.

After releasing their Divine Senses to probe the situation, both of them breathed a sigh of relief. Although they did not know what Yang Kai had done, his life aura was still there which meant he was alive, and since that was the case, the puppet had definitely been defeated.

Apart from their excitement, both also felt some lingering fear.

Although they knew they were not a match for this puppet which was capable of instantly killing an Origin Returning Realm master, they had apparently still underestimated its toughness. Fortunately, Yang Kai’s strange attack had worked on it and, with their cooperation, they slowly but surely managed to grind away the puppet’s defenses and ultimately defeat it.

After experiencing this great battle, neither Cai He nor Du Si Si had any energy to talk any more. Cai He only yelled out to Yang Kai once to confirm he was alright, and after receiving a positive reply, the three of them fell silent and adjusted their breathing.

Half a day later, Yang Kai was the first to get up. He had consumed much of his strength, but as a high-grade Alchemist, he had countless restorative pills in his Space Ring. Coupled with his Golden Blood’s powerful restorative abilities, Yang Kai naturally recovered faster than the two Array Masters.

After glancing over and seeing the two Array Masters were still meditating, Yang Kai did not disturb them and instead jumped back onto the giant puppet’s body while stroking his chin.

This puppet was clearly not ordinary. Even the Lian Family could not possibly create such a monstrosity. In a direct confrontation, even a master like Fei Zhi Tu probably would not be this thing’s opponent.

Three Saint King Realm Juniors being able to bring this puppet down this time was mainly thanks to the two Spirit Arrays they arranged beforehand. Without the assistance of these two Spirit Arrays, Yang Kai would have had a difficult time just protecting himself, while destroying this puppet would have been impossible.

Aside from the crack on his chest, this puppet’s body was still completely unscathed.

After pondering for a while, Yang Kai released his Divine Sense, wrapped up this puppet, and attempted to store it into his Space Ring; however, when he attempted this, the puppet did not even budge. This surprised Yang Kai greatly.

It was not that his Divine Sense wasn’t strong enough, but rather that the puppet itself was too heavy to fit into his Space Ring.