Martial Peak

After entering the reception hall, the host and guests were seated while High Heaven Sect disciples immediately began serving tea and trays of spirit fruits with great diligence.

Ye Xi Yun and Yang Yan did not join them, so Qian Tong and the others no longer felt suppressed and began drinking tea while offering liberal amounts of praise, expressing their respect and expectations for High Heaven Sect’s future.

Only after chatting casually for some time did Yang Kai smile and raise a more serious topic, “Although this is a bit abrupt, Junior would like to ask how many Emperor Jades have appeared now and how many have several Seniors’ Sects managed to acquire.”

Qian Tong and Fei Zhi Tu’s eyes flashed as they pondered for a moment before the former replied, “You and I are not strangers, and Brother Mo and I have known each other for hundreds of years and can be considered old friends. If someone else were to have asked this, this old master would definitely not respond, but since it is you… En, my Shadow Moon Hall has worked hard but only managed to obtain two pieces so far.”

Saying so, he turned his head to look at Mo Yu, who grinned meaningfully and said, “While my Clear Sky Sect is situated quite far from where the Emperor Garden originally appeared, our luck was quite good with one piece of Emperor Jade landing near the Sect’s headquarters while this Mo, through some coincidences, managed to obtain another!”

They had two pieces, equaling the number Shadow Moon Hall had.

On the other side, Dai Yuan lightly opened her lips and replied, “I don’t know exactly how many Coloured Glass Sect managed to obtain, but from listening to my Honoured Master, it doesn’t appear to be many, at most one or two pieces.”

Yang Kai gently nodded, the numbers reported here were similar to what he had predicted. The day the Emperor Jades appeared; the first piece landed on Dragon Cave Mountain, causing Dragon Cave Mountain’s Mountain Defending Array to be destroyed. After obtaining this piece of Emperor Jade, Yang Kai, Yang Yan, and Ye Xi Yun managed to collect another on their way to the Flowing Flame Sand Field.

Afterwards, the three of them left to track down other Emperor Jades but had failed to obtain any, instead wasting quite a bit of time and effort.

In other words, Yang Kai only had two Emperor Jades as well!

Emperor Jades were entry passes to the Emperor Garden and could be used to resist the omnipresent Emperor Pressure. A piece of Emperor Jade could only guarantee a single person’s safe entrance into the Emperor Garden and the quantity that each of the great Sects was able to obtain was quite low, so when the Emperor Garden really opened, there would definitely be some disputes and even bloodshed.

The Emperor Garden was far too attractive for any Third-Order Origin Returning Realm Master. They, more than anyone else, would want to enter it to seek opportunities that may let them break through to the Origin King Realm.

The disciples from the younger generation also needed to be counted amongst the hopeful entrants; after all, each Sect had one or two young geniuses whom they considered to be the future hopes of their Sect. By allowing these disciples to enter the Emperor Garden for life experience and to seek opportunities, it would benefit their future growth.

However, the number of people who could enter was severely limited, and how to decide who would go would depend heavily on the individual Sects themselves. Yang Kai estimated that at least one member of the older generation would lead a member from the younger generation to enter together.

“Heh, although the Emperor Jades appearing is no doubt a good thing, they also set off a reign of terror on Shadowed Star. It seems that a lot of small forces and families were completely destroyed during the recent period, all because of the Emperor Jades!” Qian Tong sighed, shaking his head slowly.

An ordinary man is innocent, but treasures make one guilty! Some small Sects and small families had the good fortune of obtaining an Emperor Jade, but after word leaked out, they were naturally targeted by powerful masters, ultimately leading to their destruction.

In addition, Emperor Jades had become the most sought-after treasure now, so some cultivators without backers that obtained them tried to sell them since they knew they were too weak to keep the Jades.

This naturally attracted countless buyers and robbers.

Today, the price of an Emperor Jade could be calculated by the hundreds of millions, but they were still in short supply.

Which Sect did not want to have one more entry pass? This was different from the Flowing Flame Sand Field. After the Flowing Flame Sand Field opened, only cultivators below the Origin Returning Realm could enter, but the Emperor Garden had no such restrictions.

It could be said that the emergence of Emperor Jades had stirred up chaos and intrigue all across Shadowed Star.

Although Shadow Moon Hall only had two Emperor Jades today, that did not mean it would stay that way. Perhaps they would be lucky enough to purchase another Emperor Jade and increase the number of cultivators they could send in.

After these thoughts flashed across his mind, Yang Kai asked, “May I ask then, do all of you understand what the purpose of this Emperor Jade is?”

Qian Tong smiled slightly before touching his Space Ring and taking out a white jade token the size of a palm, an Emperor Jade. He naturally, and calmly responded, “Although no one has ever used this kind of thing before, according to the analysis of my Shadow Moon Hall’s Elders, this Emperor Jade is probably a pass which allows one to enter the Emperor Garden.”

Saying so, he began pouring his Saint Qi into the Emperor Jade, causing a white light to burst from it which soon spread out past Qian Tong’s palm.

This white halo was not very big, only about half a meter in diameter after fully forming.

“Oh? It’s slightly bigger than before,” Qian Tong raised his brow, showing a touch of joy, explaining to Yang Kai in the next moment, “When this old master poured his Saint Qi into this Emperor Jade a few days ago, this light halo wasn’t so big. It seems that as time passes, the light halo produced by this Emperor Jade gradually becomes larger, and when it can completely cover a person, that’s probably a sign they can enter the Emperor Garden safely.”

“Exactly!” Mo Yu nodded lightly to the side, “Brother Qian’s speculations match with this Mo’s.”

Saying so, Mo Yu took out his own Emperor Jade and poured his Saint Qi into it, causing another white halo equal in size to the one covering Qian Tong’s palm to appear before continuing, “No one is capable of resisting the Emperor Pressure emitted from the Emperor Garden; it can only be resisted by this Emperor Jade. If this weren’t the case, no matter how high one’s cultivation might be, there would only be one fate for approaching the Emperor Garden!”

Death!

After the Emperor Garden had appeared, nearly a hundred masters from Shadowed Star’s great forces banded to try to approach it, but during this attempt, half of these masters were killed by the ambient Emperor Pressure. Since then, the various great forces on Shadowed Star had been monitoring the Emperor Garden’s movements while trying to find a way to resolve the problem of the Emperor Pressure it constantly exuded, but none of them had come up with a good solution.

The emergence of the Emperor Jades had solved this issue though.

Mo Yu and Qian Tong thought that Yang Kai didn’t know anything about this matter so they kindly explained their hypotheses to him; what they didn’t know was that Yang Kai was clearer about this than any of them.

Yang Kai had invited them into High Heaven Sect with the intention to tell them about the purpose of these Emperor Jade, but now it seems he had done something unnecessary. These old fogies were not stupid, so they had naturally come up with some ideas on their own through observation and experimentation.

“Judging from the rate at which these light halos are increasing in size, I’d say it will be another half a year at least before we are able to enter the Emperor Garden safely!” Qian Tong looked over at Yang Kai.

Yang Kai gently nodded in agreement.

Half a year was quite a long buffer period, enough time for at least the various great forces to buy up more Emperor Jades and do some preparations before entering the Emperor Garden. Although trying to increase their cultivation level in such a period would be impossible for most, it was actually just right to Yang Kai.

Now that he had reached the peak of the Third-Order Saint King Realm, he was just one step away from the Origin Returning Realm. If his luck was good and he had enough opportunity, he could use this half a year to break through, and as long as he reached the Origin Realm, his strength would greatly increase.

If Yang Kai could achieve this, his safety would be much more assured when the time came to enter the Emperor Garden.

Secretly making up his mind, Yang Kai next thought about some issues which had been bothering him, pausing for a moment before asking, “Right, how and when did the Emperor Garden suddenly rush over to my High Heaven Sect?”

Qian Tong and the others looked at each other and smiled bitterly.

Fei Zhi Tu explained, “Only the Heavens would know why this happened. This old master even suspected it was some kind of trick you pulled, or that someone from your little group had some kind of connection to the Emperor Garden. Otherwise, how could it chase after you like this?”

Although he knew the other party was joking, Yang Kai’s brow could not help twitching. After all, what Fei Zhi Tu said was essentially right, the reason the Emperor Garden seemed to be chasing after Yang Kai was completely because of Yang Yan, but this was naturally not something which could be spoken aloud.

“As for when it happened, it was about a month ago. For a time after you left Dragon Cave Mountain, the Emperor Garden did not show any kind of change, but one day, it just disappeared, all of a sudden. At that time, all of us old masters had a scare, thinking that the Emperor Garden had vanished and we missed a giant opportunity as a result, but we soon learned that it had simply relocated to the Flowing Flame Sand Field. In the end, we all ran over and sure enough, the Emperor Garden really was here,” Fei Zhi Tu spoke helplessly while shaking his head, seemingly exhausted after being made to run after the Emperor Garden.

This was the former private residence of the Starry Sky Great Emperor; naturally, no one wanted it to just disappear from sight.

“So that’s how it is,” Yang Kai gently nodded before smiling, “It seems my High Heaven Sect and the Emperor Garden share some kind of fate, wherever we go it seems to follow.”

When these words were spoken, everyone present smiled, not taking Yang Kai seriously.

After chatting again for a while, Mo Yu’s expression became serious and he spoke, “Sect Master Yang, this old master has a request I hope you can agree to!”

Yang Kai grinned heartily and said, “Senior Mo is too polite, although I am a Sect Master, I am still just a Junior. If Senior Mo would like, feel free to just address me as Yang Kai, the title Sect Master does not really suit me.”

A slightly startled light flashed across Mo Yu’s eyes before he let out a burst of hearty laughter and spoke happily, “Good, good, Sect Master Yang is truly a free spirit, not bothered by meaningless trifles, very much in line with this old master’s own personality.”

“Senior is too kind,” Yang Kai replied modestly before asking, “What request does Senior wish to discuss with me?”

Although he was asking this, Yang Kai vaguely guessed what Mo Yu wanted to say.

Mo Yu lightly coughed, his expression turning serious again, “Now that the Emperor Garden is floating directly above your noble Sect, your noble Sect clearly has a distinct advantage over all others. I was wondering if it would be possible for my Clear Sky Sect to depart from here on the day the Emperor Garden opens to enter it.”

Sure enough, it was just as Yang Kai had guessed. Now that the Emperor Garden was floating above High Heaven Sect, if one could depart from here, it would save them at least half a day of time compared to setting out from outside the Flowing Flame Sand Field. Half a day would be enough to find and obtain many good things.

It was not easy for Mo Yu to make this request though; after all, his relationship with Yang Kai was quite thin, and it would not be surprising for him to be rejected outright.