Martial Peak

Translator: Silavin & PewPewLaserGun

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys

Yang Kai’s brow was furrowed deeply as he stood at a certain spot on Dragon Cave Mountain, covered in blood and looking quite embarrassed, staring blankly at the strange scene not far in front of him.

There was a massive pit in the ground as well as countless pieces of hashed meat scattered about.

This was the result of Xie Li self-destructing.

But even though he saw it with his own eyes, Yang Kai was still unable to believe what had just happened!

How could Xie Li have chosen to self destruct? Even if the grudge between them was deep, Xie Li did not strike Yang Kai as the type who would sacrifice his own life in order to avenge his son. What’s more, their battle had just begun. Could Xie Li not have had any confidence in triumphing?

Only those who were driven into hopeless situations would make the extreme choice to perish together with their enemy; after all, if they were to self destruct and their enemy survived, wouldn’t they have died in vain?

Yang Kai suspected that all of this was some part of some kind of plot, and that the scene of Xie Li exploding just now was all part of some illusion.

However, the huge crater in front of Yang Kai and the fierce impact he had just experienced were clear evidence that a powerful master had self-destructed. On top of that, within the perception range of his Divine Sense, Yang Kai couldn’t find any trace of Xie Li’s aura, as if he had really disappeared.

[Was he insane?] While Yang Kai cursed to himself, a trace of fear flashed across his eyes.

A Second-Order Origin Returning Realm cultivator self-destructing less than ten metres away from him had resulted in a terrifying explosion, and if Yang Kai had not realized something was wrong and taken action in advance, he would very likely have fallen here together with Xie Li.

The double layer of protection from his Firebird Artifact Spirit and Purple Shield reduced the impact Yang Kai suffered from Xie Li’s self destruction by about sixty percent; but even so, when the remaining forty percent of this explosive force struck Yang Kai, it felt as if he was a small boat caught in a great storm upon the sea, in danger of dying at any moment.

Fortunately, his physical body was incredibly strong and his Golden Blood had astonishing restorative powers. On top of that, Yang Kai had opened a Void Crack to swallow most of the remaining impact at the last moment.

As a result, although he was quite dishevelled at the moment, Yang Kai hadn’t suffered much harm.

In other words, Xie Li really had died in vain!

But still, Yang Kai frowned, not excited in the slightest as he vaguely felt something was still wrong.

Unless Xie Li had lost his mind, he wouldn’t have made such a stupid choice. Xie Li had been a Deacon in Shadow Moon Hall for many years and his cultivation was quite high; such a person was undoubtedly quite smart and would never use this kind of reckless suicide attack.

Yang Kai simply couldn’t understand.

Reviewing everything that had happened in their fight up until Xie Li exploded, Yang Kai only became more confused.

Before Yang Kai could unravel this mystery though, a sudden change occurred. Inside the huge pit, a piece of Xie Li’s broken body suddenly wriggled strangely and a blood-red ray of light burst out from it.

At the same time, four other identical blood-red rays of light appeared from the positions where Yang Kai had killed the Xie Family Saint King Realm cultivators.

As soon as these blood-red rays appeared, they silently shot towards Yang Kai at incredible speed.

By the time Yang Kai noticed these blood-red rays, they had already reached him!

Yang Kai’s face changed dramatically, and although he didn’t know what these blood-red rays were, he could tell they were dangerous. Waving his hand, Yang Kai condensed several Grand Heavenly Shields around him while simultaneously releasing his Golden Blood Threads to cut towards these blood-red rays.

A slicing sound rang out as Yang Kai’s incredibly sharp Golden Blood Threads cut apart one of these blood-red rays hundreds of times in the blink of an eye.

However, all this managed to accomplish was dimming the blood-red ray of light enough to reveal its original appearance as a strange worm-like insect. In the next second, it restored itself though and continued its approach.

The remaining insects also rushed towards Yang Kai even faster than before.

Yang Kai was stunned and quickly retreated, but the speed of these insects was even greater than his own and they pierced through his Grand Heavenly Shield in the next instant, as if it wasn’t even there and charged towards him.

A number of these blood-red insects crashed into Yang Kai’s Knowledge Sea immediately after, his defences unable to even hinder them.

[Shit!]

Yang Kai’s face sank and he immediately closed his eyes and sent his consciousness into his Knowledge Sea. The next moment, Yang Kai’s Soul Avatar appeared inside his Knowledge Sea and quickly scanning his surroundings, he found the intruders.

It was exactly the same as what Yang Kai had just seen, four strange-looking blood-red insects were quietly hovering somewhere above his Knowledge Sea.

Just as Yang Kai spotted them, these four strange insects merged towards one another and in the blink of an eye combined into one.

At the same time, a somewhat familiar aura emerged from this insect.

“Lu Ye!” Yang Kai’s eyes narrowed. Although he had only fought against Lu Ye once, Yang Kai made a point to remember this mysterious enemy’s aura.

Yang Kai hadn’t anticipated that these strange blood-red lights were actually Lu Ye’s doing.

[Could it be that Xie Li self-destructing was also because Lu Ye had somehow controlled him? Why else would a Second-Order Origin Returning Realm master choose such an extreme method at the beginning of a battle?]

Indeed, one of these blood-red rays had clearly flown out of a remnant piece of Xie Li’s body.

Thinking back to the expression on Xie Li’s face just before he self-destructed, Yang Kai vaguely felt that his guess was correct. If this was the case, then Lu Ye’s methods were simply astonishing, to even be able to control the life or death of a Second-Order Origin Realm master!

[Who the hell is he?] At that moment, Yang Kai raised his evaluation of Lu Ye to a completely new level, not daring to underestimate him again.

Staring at the blood-red, worm-like insect in front of him, Yang Kai’s eyes narrowed. This thing should be condensed out of Spiritual Energy and wasn’t an actual physical entity, but Lu Ye was just a Saint King Realm cultivator, so how was his Spiritual Energy so powerful?

Yang Kai simply couldn’t understand it.

Yang Kai’s guess was not wrong. Xie Li had indeed been controlled by Lu Ye. As a peak level figure tens of thousands of years ago, even though Lu Ye was forced to swim in shallow waters and his current cultivation wasn’t great today, the Secret Techniques he had at his disposal were far from what an ordinary Origin Returning Realm master could contend with. Even if Xie Li’s sense and instincts were sharp, he still could not have imagined that Lu Ye had planted a Ten Thousand Poison Evil Insect in him.

By using this method, Lu Ye had secretly controlled the fate of the Xie Family, Sea Heart Sect, and Flowing Cloud Valley, subduing many cultivators to use for his own ends.

Lu Ye had not planned on letting Xie Li get his revenge on Yang Kai or even kill Yang Kai at all; his plan was to control Yang Kai through this Ten Thousand Poison Evil Insect in order to retrieve his most precious treasure.

In the Flowing Flame Sand Field, Yang Kai had obtained his greatest treasure, something Lu Ye had always wanted to take back, and now he had finally found an opportunity.

Lu Ye’s original intention was not to kill Yang Kai by having Xie Li self-destruct, but just to cause heavy losses to him so Yang Kai would lose all ability to resist.

However, even after all his careful scheming, Lu Ye had failed to anticipate that Xie Li would choose to engage Yang Kai in melee combat. If not for Yang Kai’s strength being far greater than average cultivators in his realm, Lu Ye’s plans might all have been for nought. If Yang Kai died, he would never be able to retrieve his treasure.

The Ten Thousand Poison Evil Insect was not an actual poisonous insect, but rather the product of a Divine Sense Secret Technique. It was incredibly strange and unpredictable. Now, several of Lu Ye’s Ten Thousand Poison Evil Insects had combined into one, allowing it to display far greater strength, so controlling a mere Third-Order Saint King should be a simple matter.

Above his Knowledge Sea, Yang Kai stared at this worm-like insect suspiciously.

Although he did not recognize this Ten Thousand Poison Evil Insect, Yang Kai knew it wasn’t anything good. With a single thought, the rolling flames down below swelled up and shot towards the invading insect.

This insect didn’t even try to resist, allowing the sea of flames to wash over and engulf it.

Yang Kai’s powerful Conflagrated Spiritual Energy kept burning this insect, but it remained completely unresponsive, its red glow still as strong as ever, as if it wasn’t affected in the slightest.

Yang Kai’s face sank when he saw this, secretly feeling he had underestimated this strange thing. After realizing his Conflagrated Knowledge Sea wasn’t able to cause any significant harm to this insect, he waved his hand and had the flames retreat.

Just as he was about to try a different method, this blood-red insect flickered, transformed into a ray of light, and shot towards Yang Kai’s Soul Avatar.

Naturally, Yang Kai wasn’t about to just let it succeed. Inside his Knowledge Sea, he was the master, everything here was under his control!

Coldly snorting, a fiery red spear condensed from pure Spiritual Energy materialized and shot towards the approaching threat; however, this blood-red insect was extremely nimble and with a light swaying it actually managed to avoid Yang Kai’s attacks.

[So difficult?] As a stern countenance flashed across Yang Kai’s face, the Demon Eye of Annihilation suspended above his Knowledge Sea suddenly opened and sent out a beam of radiant golden light.

The red insect managed to evade this light several times but was eventually enveloped.

The rapidly moving Ten Thousand Poison Evil Insect immediately came to a halt, as if it had been locked in place, its fat body writhing about as strange squeaking noises rang out from it as if it was extremely uncomfortable.

Lu Ye’s method was exceptional. Using these Ten Thousand Poison Evil Insects, he had been able to control many Origin Returning Realm masters, but it seems he had underestimated Yang Kai, believing he could do the same to him.

Inside Yang Kai’s Knowledge Sea was this incredible Demon Eye of Annihilation, its greatest ability being the Golden Light that could purify any kind of foreign Spiritual Energy, and since the Ten Thousand Poison Evil Insect was essentially a condensed mass of Spiritual Energy, it was no exception.

A sizzling sound emerged as the blood-red aura surrounding the strange insect began evaporating, and no matter how it struggled, it was unable to free itself from the golden light.

Yang Kai stared at this scene with cold eyes, neither happy nor sad; however, he felt quite surprised in his heart. He didn’t know why Lu Ye’s Spiritual Energy was so strange, to the point where even his Demon Eye of Annihilation’s Golden Light was unable to instantly purify it, but if he wanted to solve this problem once and for all, it seemed he’d have to put in some more effort.

Delaying leads to problems, so after hesitating for just a moment, Yang Kai sent out a command with his mind and in the next moment, from the seven-coloured island floating in his Knowledge Sea, a buzzing sound rang out, as if countless tiny mosquitoes had woken up and were flying over. At the same time, a black cloud quickly approached.

Soul Devouring Insects!