Martial Peak

Listening to Ye Xi Yun’s words, Chang Qi and the others were all shocked.

Yang Kai hadn’t died… that must mean that his breakthrough was successful!

Chang Qi and the others could hardly believe their ears, but Ye Xi Yun declaring so was extremely authoritative, so none of them thought to question her. Everyone simply wore looks of pleasant surprise as they turned their gazes back to First Heavenly Palace.

Just after Ye Xi Yun finished speaking, the World Energy above First Heavenly Palace suddenly underwent a change again, all of it gathering and forming into a giant palm.

This palm contained a mysteriousness that made it seem like it could cover the Heavens themselves.

As soon as it finished condensing, this palm grasped towards the wisps of five coloured aura still floating above First Heavenly Palace before it quickly retracted and disappeared inside the building.

Seeing this scene, Ye Xi Yun could not help gawking, but soon the smile on her lips rose even higher as she muttered to herself, “This little brat…”

Clearly, Yang Kai did not even want to let off these last few remnants of Five Elements World Energy. These wisps of aura were leftovers from his baptism and had not poured into Yang Kai’s body on their own, so he had simply taken the initiative to grab and refine them himself. If he had the leisure to do this kind of thing, it meant his breakthrough had gone incredibly smoothly, causing Ye Xi Yun to be unable to stifle her laughter.

“Ah! Great! Alright, everyone should disperse, there’s no need for you to worry about Yang Kai anymore,” Yang Yan was finally able to let out a sigh of relief before shouting to everyone.

“Yes!” Chang Qi and the others responded respectfully before quickly departing.

“Great Elder, since he just broke through, he will need some time to consolidate his cultivation. I’ll have to trouble you to stand guard for him,” Yang Yan spoke to Ye Xi Yun.

“Yes, Madam!” Ye Xi Yun gently nodded, immediately obeying Yang Yan’s orders!

After glancing at First Heavenly Palace one last time, Yang Yan smiled lightly before flying off, her figure quickly disappearing. Now that the Emperor Garden’s opening was only days away and Yang Kai was indisposed, all the matters related to High Heaven Sect fell to her. Fortunately, Wu Yi and Qian Yue were there to help her, so Yang Yan did not have too many difficulties.

Inside First Heavenly Palace, Yang Kai was ragged, his clothes ripped apart, covered in traces of pale golden blood and his hair completely dishevelled, giving him an incredibly embarrassed appearance, as if he had just experienced an incredible life or death battle.

However, his expression was filled with joy and comfort.

He had not expected that his breakthrough would go so smoothly.

After obtaining the Divine Nullification Sand five months ago, completing his collection of the five supreme treasures, Yang Kai began to cultivate the Five Elements Indestructible Sword Tempering Art, but he had not had too many expectations, originally just intending to become slightly familiar with it.

To his surprise though, this became the very turning point he had been seeking.

Over the past five months, Yang Kai had cultivated the Five Elements Indestructible Sword Tempering Art to its first stage, not only greatly increasing his physical strength but also tempering his Saint Qi and Spiritual Energy to a certain degree. Compared to before he began cultivating this Body Tempering Art, Yang Kai’s overall strength had increased by about twenty percent!

And it was this twenty percent improvement that had allowed him to reach a critical point, where he broke through the shackles of the peak Saint King Realm and touched upon the barrier to the Origin Returning Realm.

Ending his cultivation of the Five Elements Indestructible Sword Tempering Art at that point, Yang Kai began refining the remnant Souls he had stored in his Knowledge Sea.

During the battle of Dragon Cave Mountain, many Origin Returning Realm masters had died, and most of their remnant Souls had been drawn into Yang Kai’s Knowledge Sea and purified, but until now he had not tried to absorb them.

After swallowing the remnant Souls of these fallen masters, Yang Kai received their insights into the Heavenly Way and Martial Dao, making a subsequent breakthrough only a matter of time.

However, this time’s breakthrough was different from any Yang Kai had experienced before, namely the appearance of the Five Elements World Energy. Yang Kai did not know why this had occurred, but he vaguely speculated that it had some relationship with the Five Elements Indestructible Sword Tempering Art.

In the end, this breakthrough had come about thanks to a mixture of opportunities and coincidences, but was also achieved quite naturally, differing greatly from Yang Kai’s original plans. This time, Yang Kai had entered retreat specifically to break through, even going so far as to prepare an Origin Condensing Pill that had formed Pill Veins.

But the plans of man were inferior to the plans of Heaven, and Yang Kai ended up not using any of his prior preparations.

This, however, was a good thing that made Yang Kai extremely happy.

Although he had cultivated the Five Elements Indestructible Sword Tempering Art to its first stage, Yang Kai was still a long way off from obtaining an immortal and indestructible body. This Secret Art had a total of nine stages, each one more difficult to achieve than the previous, so if one wanted to reach the pinnacle of this Body Tempering Art, it would clearly take a massive amount of time and five elements supreme treasures!

After cultivating to the first stage, Yang Kai carefully checked the five supreme treasures he had been using and discovered that the highest-end Sun’s True Essence hadn’t experienced much change, but the others had all experienced some obvious consumption.

The pure elemental energy in the Profound Gold and Thunder Wood had been noticeably reduced while three drops of Profound Yin Sunflower Water had been consumed. As for the Divine Nullification Sand, their number had been reduced by more than twenty grains…

This kind of consumption was not small, but it didn’t matter too much as Yang Kai figured the remaining energy in these treasures was enough to support his cultivation of the Five Elements Indestructible Sword Tempering Art to the second or even third stage. As for the Sun’s True Essence, he estimated he could continue using it much longer than that.

With such a time buffer, Yang Kai figured that he could collect other five elements’ supreme treasures to replace the ones he depleted.

He also was not in a hurry to do this.

Thinking so, Yang Kai stretched out his hand and condensed a ball of five-coloured light on his palm with a thought.

This ball of light was about the size of an egg and was a swirling mixture of gold, blue, white, red, and yellow.

Five Elements Indestructible Sword Qi! After five months of cultivating the Five Elements Indestructible Sword Tempering Art, Yang Kai had completed the first step of this Heaven defying Body Tempering Art, not only greatly enhancing his physical strength, but also allowing him to produce this incredible Five Elements Indestructible Sword Qi.

This Sword Qi could be formed by condensing all five of the elements together, or individually one by one, allowing it to take on an array of different characteristics.

However, the Five Elements Indestructible Sword Qi floating atop Yang Kai’s palm right now appeared quite weak, like a fledgeling bird that had just hatched and was not yet able to withstand great wind and rain, seemingly not usable in combat.

But this did not hinder Yang Kai’s enthusiasm to experiment.

With a thought, Yang Kai dismissed four of the five colours from the ball of light on his palm, leaving behind only the golden light that he then proceeded to transform into a golden sword.

Although this sword was quite small, the sharpness it radiated was not to be underestimated. This was the pure Gold Attribute Indestructible Sword Qi Yang Kai had condensed from the Profound Gold’s essence and had an extremely sharp, offensive nature.

“Go!” Yang Kai shouted as it flicked his wrist, causing the small golden sword to shoot out from his palm. In a flash, this small golden sword penetrated the remaining barriers around First Heavenly Palace and flew several kilometres away. Observing the golden sword with his Divine Sense, Yang Kai clearly saw the path it traced and could not help raising his brow and revealing a happy look.

Although he had yet to test this golden sword’s offensive strength, its speed alone would make it difficult for others to defend against.

Recalling it with his Divine Sense, Yang Kai had the small golden sword instantly fly back to him, manipulating it as easily as if it were an extension of his body.

Yang Kai’s mood was excellent and he quickly proceeded to test the other four Indestructible Sword Qis one by one, his satisfaction only growing as he did.

These five Indestructible Sword Qis each had their own strengths and weaknesses, none superior or inferior to the others, the Gold Sword Qi and Fire Sword Qi had the greatest offensive power, the former focusing on sharpness and speed while the latter emphasized destructive force.

The Earth Sword Qi and Water Sword Qi were mainly focused on defensive strength, the former being thick and solid while the latter was soft and flexible.

The Wood Sword Qi was the most versatile, capable of both offensive and defensive action, but it was also not to be underestimated.

Moreover, if these five types of Indestructible Sword Qi were cultivated to a certain height, one would be able to arrange a Five Elements Indestructible Sword Qi Array. This array would allow the five different elements to mutually reinforce one another, multiplying their might in an endless cycle. If an enemy were to be subjected to this array and fail to immediately break free, they would suffer greatly, even if they were in a higher realm than the one who activated it.

After happily experimenting for quite some time, Yang Kai took the Five Elements Indestructible Sword Qi back into his body. Although this Body Tempering Art was incredibly powerful, it was not something which could show results after just a day or two of effort. A long period of cultivation and accumulation would be required to bring out its true might.

Yang Kai was already psychologically prepared for this.

Now that he had broken through to the Origin Returning Realm, his strength was dramatically different from before; it was almost as if every part of his body was bursting with power.

This was the Origin Returning Realm, the highest Great Realm achievable on Shadowed Star!

It had been more than twenty years since Yang Kai first entered the Star Field. At first, he was just an insignificant Second-Order Saint, but since then he had surmounted two Great Realms. Although he did not dare say that this was an unprecedented achievement, or that there would be no one else in the future who could match it, the number of those who had or would was definitely not great.

While Wei Gu Chang, Dong Xuan’er, and the other young talents on Shadowed Star all looked similar in age to Yang Kai, in truth they were all much older than he was; however, because of their high cultivations, they retained their youthful appearances.

As for masters like Qian Tong and Fei Zhi Tu, which one of them had not lived for hundreds of years?

Tidying up his mood, Yang Kai remembered not to become complacent; after all, the Origin Returning Realm was just another step on his cultivation path, and there was still the Origin King Realm above it that he had to reach! Beyond that, there were other realms as well; at the very least, the Starry Sky Great Emperor had reached a far greater height than the Origin King Realm.

It was simply that Yang Kai had yet to reach a height where he was capable of peering into these deeper secrets.

There were also many abilities Yang Kai needed to cultivate now, all of which would take a non-negligible amount of time.

Fortunately, using his Golden Blood to cultivate Golden Blood Threads no longer took Yang Kai as much time or effort as it first had, and as long as he condensed one, all he needed to do was warm and nourish it within his body. The longer he did so, the greater the power that Golden Blood Thread would be able to display.

The Verdant Dragon Bone Sword also didn’t require much of Yang Kai’s attention anymore as he could have his Firebird Artifact Spirit help him refine it.

As for his Demon Eye of Annihilation, it had also gradually begun to merge with the Coloured Glass Bead, and as time passed, the Golden Light and Coloured Glass Divine Light were also slowly beginning to amalgamate.

What Yang Kai really needed to spend time cultivating was his Space Blade and the Five Elements Indestructible Sword Tempering Art!

Even with so many different methods requiring differing degrees of his attention, Yang Kai did not feel the slightest bit distressed. These Secret Techniques and Divine Abilities were all strongly related to his future development, and he was not planning on adding any additional methods to his repertoire. Yang Kai felt as long as he was able to cultivate each of these techniques to the grand accomplishment stage, in this world, there would be nowhere he couldn’t go, and no one who could challenge him!

Setting these thoughts aside, Yang Kai took out two Saint Crystal Sources, held them in his hands, closed his eyes, and began to consolidate his cultivation.

The period right after achieving a breakthrough was a precarious time, and if one did not properly stabilize their realm, there was a chance their cultivation might fall.

In the blink of an eye, several days had passed!

On this day, Yang Kai suddenly opened his eyes, frowned, and released his Divine Sense to check his surroundings before standing up and walking out of First Heavenly Palace, ending his six-month-long retreat.

At this moment, in the huge open square of High Heaven Sect’s Front Court, all the Sect’s cultivators had gathered along with Qian Tong and all the other foreign guests.

Everyone was looking up, their eyes clearly attracted by something in the sky, their expressions solemn and respectful.