Martial Peak

Space Rings weren’t able to store everything without limit. If an item was too big or too heavy and exceeded the capacity of a Space Ring, it could not be stored inside one. There were also some special treasures, such as the Sun’s True Essence Yang Kai and Yang Yan took from the Corpse Cave that could not be stored either.

The Sun’s True Essence couldn’t be placed into a Space Ring because the heat it gave off far exceeded what a Space Ring could withstand. Once one tried, the Space Ring would be destroyed.

That was why Yang Yan spent a great deal of time and effort to refine a special storage ring for it.

Strictly speaking, the puppet in front of Yang Kai wasn’t too great in size, but since it couldn’t be put into a Space Ring, the only explanation was that it weighed far more than Yang Kai estimated.

Realizing this, a trace of surprise flashed across Yang Kai’s eyes.

Just when he was thinking about what to do next, Cai He and Du Si Si came over from where they had been meditating. Now that the battle was over, it was time to divide up the spoils. Everyone had seen how extraordinary this puppet was, so the Array Masters naturally didn’t want Yang Kai to reap all the benefits by himself and hastily ended their meditation to meet up with him.

“Brother Yang, this puppet is probably a work from ancient times and is of incredibly great value,” Cai He chuckled, his words carrying thinly veiled hidden meaning.

“En, if we can figure out how to operate it, it would become a massive boon,” Du Si Si’s beautiful eyes flashed with excitement.

Yang Kai stroked his chin as he looked at these two, not exposing their inner thoughts as he smiled and said lightly, “Are the two of you interested in it?”

Cai He laughed awkwardly while Du Si Si just bluntly stated, “Of course. Who would want to miss such a good thing? Even if it’s impossible to figure out how to operate it directly, studying it should still yield some information on how puppetry in ancient times worked. Others might not care, but I think Lian Guang would be incredibly interested in it.”

What she said held some truth. Such a puppet, regardless of its own value, had incredible worth as research material. If the Lian Family, known for their puppet techniques, heard about this thing, they would definitely go all out to acquire it.

“En,” Yang Kai gently nodded. Although Du Si Si had the demeanor of an arrogant young lady, after the three of them joined forces in a life or death battle, Yang Kai’s opinion of her had improved somewhat. Pondering for a moment, he followed up, “All three of us made great efforts in this battle, but there is only one puppet, how should we allocate it?”

Cai He and Du Si Si looked at each other awkwardly, unable to immediately come up with any good ideas.

Seeing these two act like this, Yang Kai chuckled lightly and proposed, “Good, I’m not that interested in this puppet so I don’t mind giving it up. In exchange, I want that giant jet black stick. The two of you can discuss who this puppet will go to; of course there is also the Space Ring that dead Senior left behind to allocate.”

After the old woman was crushed to death, her Space Ring had fallen at the feet of the puppet. Yang Kai had never had a chance to pick it up but now that actually came in handy as, together with the puppet and giant stick, there were three treasures to divide among the three of them.

No one knew the complete content of her Space Ring, but what was certain was there was a bottle of the Life Revitalizing Jade Cream in it.

“You want that stick?” Du Si Si glanced at the giant jet black stick and a trace of reluctance flashed across her beautiful eyes. To tell the truth, she also saw that the value of this giant stick was not under the puppet itself, so simply handing it over to Yang Kai was something she hesitated over. However, when she thought about what was inside the old woman’s Space Ring, her reluctance dissipated somewhat.

Cai He saw all this and quickly cut in, “Good, Brother Yang was also the main contributor in this battle, risking his life several times, so this Cai has no objections.”

With him saying so, what else could Du Si Si do?

Yang Kai nodded in thanks before walking over to the giant jet black stick. After thinking about it for a moment, he reached out his hand, placed it on the stick, then poured his Divine Sense into it to carefully examine it.

A short time later, Yang Kai’s expression changed and he poured a large amount of his Saint Qi into the giant jet black stick.

An incredible scene happened next. As Yang Kai infused his Saint Qi into it, the giant stick with a length of a couple dozen metres and a thickness greater than a man’s height actually rapidly shrank and became only a metre or so long in the blink of an eye.

Cai He and Du Si Si, who were negotiating over the puppet’s and Space Ring’s distribution, saw this and couldn’t help gawking for a moment.

Yang Kai nodded in affirmation when he saw this. The first time he saw the puppet, there was no sign of this giant stick at all, but after it crushed the old woman, it had suddenly appeared in its hand. At that time, Yang Kai wondered if this giant stick could freely change its size, and after trying it just now, he was able to confirm his guess.

Reaching out to pick up this black stick, Yang Kai’s face suddenly froze before revealing a look of pleasant surprise.

He found that he was unable to lift this stick at all, making him more certain that his decision to take it as his spoils of war was right. Whatever materials this stick was refined from were certainly incredible.

The puppet had been destroyed, and with the techniques and knowledge of Shadowed Star, it was impossible to repair it, so it was essentially useless. At most it could be exchanged for some Saint Crystals or treasures with the Lian Family. As for the Life Revitalizing Jade Cream in the old woman’s Space Ring… there was a good chance it was just a diluted byproduct. Yang Kai was almost certain that there was purer Life Revitalizing Jade Cream somewhere in that rockery.

Rejoicing in his heart, Yang Kai’s face remained indifferent as he used his Saint Qi and Divine Sense to wrap up this stick and move it into the special ring Yang Yan had refined for him.

This ring was even capable of storing the Sun’s True Essence and Ten Thousand Year Ice Jade Pedestal, so it naturally had no trouble storing this strange stick.

While Yang Kai finished putting away the stick, Cai He’s and Du Si Si’s negotiations also concluded. Cai He walked over to the place where the puppet originally stood and picked up the old woman’s Space Ring while Du Si Si took out a bracelet-like artifact and tossed it up as her pretty face flashed a look of joy. Mid-air, the bracelet rapidly expanded until it completely encircled the fallen puppet. Silk like threads of energy then began shooting out from the giant bracelet.

These energy filaments swiftly wrapped around the puppet, soon making it look like a giant dumpling, at which point Du Si Si shouted, “Seal!”

The countless silk threads instantly began pulling the huge puppet into the bracelet and it had been completely secured in less than ten breaths. The strange storage bracelet then shrank back down and flew back over to Du Si Si’s wrist.

Everyone was happy with the gains they made.

Yang Kai also had no plans of eating everything up on his own. This time, Cai He and Du Si Si limiting the puppet’s ability to move really helped him a lot, so naturally Yang Kai wasn’t going to destroy the bridge after he crossed it.

As for which one of the three had gotten the best deal out of this, only the Heavens knew. In any case, after Cai He searched the old woman’s Space Ring, his face filled with joy, so obviously he was very satisfied with the result.

“Brother Yang, what should we do next?” It seemed that because of the previous battle, Cai He was now unconsciously treating Yang Kai as their group’s leader.

Hearing this, Du Si Si also turned her head and looked over.

Yang Kai pondered for a while before grinning, “Waiting here isn’t really an option, and since there’s only one exit, we have no choice but to go through it. What’s on the other side of this gateway, or what dangers we might face, are impossible to tell, but since this puppet was guarding it so tightly, there must be something good…”

Cai He’s and Du Si Si’s eyes both shined.

Yang Kai however quickly became solemn as he warned, “But where there are good things, there is definitely danger, so the two of you should prepare yourselves.”

“Naturally. So Brother Yang’s intentions are to continue exploring this place?”

“Yeah. No matter what, we need to find a way to leave these Ancient Ruins, at least.”

Regarding Yang Kai’s decision, the two Array Masters naturally had no objections so the three of them rested a while to completely restore themselves before Yang Kai took the lead and passed through the round gateway.

Through the gateway, Yang Kai suddenly found himself in front of a straight corridor.

After sweeping the area with his Divine Sense and confirming that there were no immediate dangers, Yang Kai began walking forward while maintaining a high level of vigilance.

The corridor wasn’t too long, only about a thousand metres in total, so it wasn’t long before the trio crossed it and arrived at another hall.

As soon as he entered this hall, Yang Kai’s eyes shrank as he looked towards the centre spot with clear surprise on his face and called out, “Elder Qian?”

Cai He and Du Si Si heard Yang Kai call out like this and couldn’t help smiling and quickly catching up with him. However, when they looked over in the direction Yang Kai was staring, bitter smiles filled their faces.

Over there, Qian Tong sat cross-legged, wearing an equally bitter smile as he stared back towards them.

Sitting beside Qian Tong was another middle-aged man who was a Second-Order Saint King. This man’s face was somewhat pale, clearly indicating that he had been injured. Yang Kai quickly judged that this person was the Artifact Refiner who followed Qian Tong to this place.

Fei Zhi Tu had said that Qian Tong hadn’t come here alone but had brought a Saint King Grade Artifact Refiner with him, hoping that through this exploration, this middle-aged man would be able to become an Origin Grade Artifact Refiner to replace Grand Master Ge Lin who recently died.

Next to Elder Qian and this middle-aged man was a Stone Tablet. This Stone Tablet was densely engraved with countless tiny characters. Even from a fair distance away, Yang Kai was able to identify these characters as the same unrecognizable ancient text they had come across multiple times since entering these Ancient Ruins. However, unlike all the other writing they had encountered, the characters on this Stone Tablet had a strange charm to them, almost as if one would gain some kind of enlightenment if they diligently studied them.

Most importantly though, around Qian Tong were a dozen or so puppets. Some of these puppets had humanoid appearances while others resembled Monster Beasts, but every one of them was radiating a thick malicious intent. Each of these puppets was clearly not affable and were currently eyeing Qian Tong and that Saint King Grade Artifact Refiner covetously; however, they currently showed no intention to attack and were simply surrounding them for now.

After probing these puppets lightly, Yang Kai felt the urge to curse.

Even if these dozen puppets weren’t as powerful as the giant one they had encountered before, the difference wasn’t great. It made sense that Qian Tong could only sit in place, not daring to act rashly; if he did, these dozen puppets would quickly tear him and the middle-aged Artifact Refiner to pieces.

“How did you get here?” Qian Tong’s voice was a little weak, but it didn’t seem he was in any kind of life threatening danger. Looking at Yang Kai and the other two young Array Masters though, clear surprise filled Qian Tong’s face.

“Elder Qian, these puppets…” Yang Kai didn’t answer immediately, instead concentrating solely on the dozen puppets.

“Don’t worry, they seem to only care about protecting this place. As long as you don’t come any closer, they won’t attack. As for this old master… en, with this Stone Tablet as a deterrent, they don’t dare to come close, so we won’t die any time soon.”

Hearing this, Yang Kai’s taut expression loosened. After taking a moment to gather his thoughts, he began explaining how Fei Zhi Tu had recruited them to launch this rescue operation.